00:00

In my first year teaching STEM, I was the most nervous about behavior management. As a former classroom teacher of about 25 kids, I was now going to be teaching six different classes a day, which averaged to about 150 kids. That was a huge change. However, through my years in elementary STEM, I have found what works best with behavior management. Yes, you are a specialist teacher, but this is still extremely important, especially when you see that many kids in one day. In today's episode, I will share my top STEM teacher behavior management strategies. 

01:10

Before stepping into the STEM space, I was a classroom teacher for six years. Behavior management was a huge asset of mine and something really important to me. I knew that if I had a strong climate and culture in my classroom, including a strong system, routines, and behavior management strategies, the kids and I could do anything all year long. It came down to setting up those structures at the beginning of the year and being consistent throughout. 

01:41

That is the same for your role as a STEM teacher. However, just because you are in this special space doesn't mean you can put behavior management aside. In fact, if you are coming from the classroom, you know how important this is. You don't want to be sitting in your classroom as a teacher and get a phone call from specials that someone in your class isn't doing what they're supposed to do. 

02:05

As a specialist teacher, you shouldn't be doing that. Instead, you should be communicating with the classroom teachers. It's your role to have control of the classroom while still creating a meaningful and engaging experience for your students. Here are my three top tips for getting started in your classroom. You will find what works best with your management style and the kids you teach. If you are consistent and have these routines, you will have a more successful time with all of the future lessons you teach. 

 

02:41

First, you need to build those relationships with the kids. It doesn't matter where you teach; relationships are the biggest thing that you need to focus on. This is reiterated in the book, The Innovators Mindset by George C.  This is an excellent book. I highly recommend you read it or listen to the audio version like I did. In the book, he emphasizes building those relationships. I completely agree. That's probably the main reason why you got into teaching anyway. When it comes down to it, build those relationships with the kids. Now it is a bit different since you're not a homeroom teacher per se. There are a lot of creative ways that you can do this. Now, it is pretty cool when you are a specialist teacher, and you see the kids yearly because you see growth in the kids. You have that special bond that a classroom teacher might not have unless they live with their kids. So the first thing is to engage with the kids. When you have those other outside duties, whether it's door duty, bus duty, or crosswalk, engage with those kids and get to know them. You probably will see the same kids at the same time of the day. So really build those relationships outside of your STEM space. That is a great way to interact with many kids at once. 

04:04

Another big thing when you're ready to work up to that is after school clubs. I've always been obsessed with school clubs also as a classroom teacher. This was another great way to build relationships with kids and work on passions that they enjoy and passions I like. So we had a common interest. Having after school clubs is an awesome way to engage with kids, try new things and do things that are engaging but not always academic. Now we will be talking about after school clubs and future episodes, but just keep in mind that after school clubs are a great way to engage with kids. 

04:42

Another fun way that I like to build relationships with my students in my classroom is the STEM style. In Episode Four, STEM survival camp, I mentioned STEM style. It is a quick thing I do when kids have a shirt representing science, technology, engineering, or Math. I'll take a quick picture and put it on my digital picture frame. It feeds through all the pictures that I have ever taken. It's fun when kids see their past selves from a few years ago or their friends in another class. Then, they must guess how their shirt connects with science, technology, engineering, and math. It's so cute because when the kids have STEM, they also start wearing the shirts. I have some of these shirts too. It's a great talking point and gets them to think about STEM differently. 

05:31

Reaching out to parents can look a lot different in the specials role, but it still is important that my teammates and I, the other specialists and teachers, reach out to parents. We have a collaborative team newsletter. We do a simple set of Google Slides and share the link in our school newsletter and on a different platform.  Each slide is a different month of the year. We explain what we did throughout the month and have our contact information. This is a great way for us to work together as a team and be reflective on our work. Also, parents will know we do some things in STEM that are fun, but we have challenging and exciting things that we're working on. 

06:16

Another way that I like to communicate with parents and also the students in my class is Seesaw. I could do a whole episode about Seesaw. I am literally obsessed. If you haven't checked it out, go check out Seesaw connect 2022, where I talk about STEM survival camp and the engineering design process completely free. You can also watch it whenever you want in my monthly membership. I love using Seesaw because students can take pictures, and videos, record audio of their work, and comment on one another's work. Of course, I can comment, but parents connected to their child's account can also see these amazing things happening in our classroom and communicate. I've had a lot of parents chat with me on there and write comments about how excited their kid was to talk about their work. Seeing a picture of it, they understand what their kid is trying to explain. 

07:09

As I said, STEM has some cool materials. Sometimes it's hard for kids to explain what they did in STEM. Having those visuals is awesome. I do use Seesaw K through five. It is free for teachers, and your school could buy Seesaw for schools. I highly recommend this tool because it is so interactive. You can accomplish a lot within this platform, and that two-way communication allows you to build those relationships. 

08:18

As you continue to build those relationships, you want to have a standard set of class rules for your STEM space. This is something that you're going to want to keep the same for K through Five and keep them very simple. In episode seven, I shared with you some back to school STEM activities, and one of those is having a game review puzzle where kids are putting the pieces together of your classroom rules. So make sure to check out that episode if you haven't listened. Have those main classroom rules that all the kids are used to when they come into your space and keep them simple. I have my main four rules that students in the class have to follow as a whole class. 

09:40

At my school, we do something called Tiger paws, where classes can earn a paw for great behavior from teachers, including specialist teachers. I have my four main rules as things that, as a whole class, they do have to accomplish to earn their tiger paws. You can check all of these out in the show notes for this episode, but the four main things that I ensure the class has accomplished are: Did we finish today's work? Did we work together and try our best? Did we stay on task? Were we very respectful of everyone's work? We go over these at the end of each day, and if it's a yes, for all of those, they get their class Tiger paw. If it's a no, we will discuss why. 

10:23

The kids will explain, or I will explain why it's a no and what we can do better next time. I remind them that tomorrow is a new day. You can keep track of these tiger paws or class incentives if you want to. Maybe they can earn a certain amount to do a class party. I've considered this idea, but I honestly don't have enough time with the limited time I have with kids. If this is interesting to you, then definitely try it. I know other teachers have done this, and it's been successful in their rooms. 

10:51

When you teach all the kids in the whole school, you will have to modify some things for specific classes. As a former classroom teacher, you know that some classes vibe together, and some don't. So you might need to have specific rules for specific classes. You might even need to adjust things that go along with the classroom and your management style. Some teachers are strict and don't allow collaboration in their classroom, and some are open-ended. Adjust to what the kids might be used to and communicate with those classroom teachers. If you can chat with them quickly before or at the end of class, you can see if there are any specific needs that you need to focus on for the day and academic goals that you can help support. 

11:44

Some classes might even have a class incentive they're trying to work on. When I was a classroom teacher, I sent my kids a grading sheet, so however they did in specials, the specials teacher could write that down on our sheets. If they got an excellent, we got a class marble. This is where they could write down students who did an excellent job and students who needed additional support. If the classroom teachers don't have this, you could start this in your classroom to help bridge the communication gap. Also, if things aren't working, ask that classroom teacher what you can do to help support the class. They might have a certain call to action that you can use with the kids.  

12:27

Finally, for your last behavior management tip, you want to have specific rules for specific materials. You have the class rules we discussed, which don't change. These rules are the same no matter what you teach, but then you have specific materials you will use throughout the year. This is what you want to change up. This can also mean specific areas in your classroom, what grade levels can use them, and specific materials and which grade levels can use them. 

12:57

One example of different rules for materials in my classroom is the tables and chairs that students can sit at and how they know where they're going to be sitting. When all classes enter my room, they come to that shared meeting area we talked about in episode one after that little mini lesson. So if I want them sitting at the tables, I have different rules for my K-One and my second through fifth-grade students. For K-One, I have six different colored cubes that match the colors I have on my six different tables. There are about the same amount of cubes of each color. So there are four yellows, orange, green, and so on. 

13:37

When I'm ready for the kids to go to their tables, I'll randomly (randomly to them. In my head, I know exactly who I'm giving the cubes to), provide them with a cube, and they have to find the matching color on their table. Now, if you're wondering how I put the colors on the table, it isn't anything fancy. It is a page protector with a sheet of construction paper on the inside. On the flip side of that paper, I have about four sticky notes with numbers written on them mixed up. Now the numbers are one through 27. I think I had one through 32 last year. A third-grade class had 32 kids in each class, but I have one through 32 written on sticky notes, one number per sticky note. Those are mixed up on the tables within that page protector. 

14:25

For my second through fifth-grade students, when I'm ready for them to go to their tables, they find their classroom number and sit at that spot. Then I can move kids based on who needs to be moved or whatever assistance they might need. This has worked well in my classroom. There's less fighting, and they know where to sit. Of course, they might work on the floor or do other things for different projects, but sometimes I might need them at a specific spot for a specific reason. 

14:50

I also have specific rules for specific materials in my classroom. For example, when we're using robots, we will go over the rules and procedures for how to use them. We review a certain type of robot and how to handle it properly. We have those classroom rules we want to review when using those specific materials. So when I'm using Dash, we will go over how to hold Dash the robot, turn it on, connect to the app, and work within our roles. All of those things are super important when we're working with specific materials. For my hot glue guns, I will only use hot glue guns with second through fifth grade, depending on how they're doing with projects. Again, we will review those specific rules when using that tool in our classroom. 

15:33

So as a recap, here are the three major points when building your behavior management strategies in your STEM space. Again, this is so important, and you want to take the time to get this set up properly in your classroom so you can do awesome projects all year. First, of course, is to build those relationships. Next is to set up those class rules and goals. Third is to have rules for specific materials. You can check out the links to show notes, the transcript for this video, and the video version of this podcast. You can find that using this link: Naomi meredith.com/episode8. Thank you so much for joining me today, and I can't wait to talk to you in the next episode.