A Classroom Management Strategy Using In-Class Holidays To Keep You and Your Students Fresh All Year

Students in an elementary school classroom

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For many of us we are back in the classroom after what I hope was a very relaxing holiday. If not relaxing at least a different kind of busy. Spending time with family and friends is an important way to take a break from the rigors of teaching. It’s a strategy that we should take advantage of more often during the year as well. ? Classroom management probably (hopefully) wasn’t on the top of your mind for the past few weeks. But now that we are back in the class it’s time to work on this area once more.

Stop and reflect on the first morning back after the holidays. What were your feelings as you returned to school? Were you looking forward to seeing your students again? How about getting back into the staffroom to share a coffee with your colleagues? Were you also excited about a new unit that you were going to begin with your students? Did you notice any of these reactions in your students as they filed back into class?

If there is one thing we can learn about holidays is that it provides everyone with a break that tends to refresh and create a renewed enthusiasm for school. How can we recreate that enthusiasm during the school year? One of my favorite classroom management strategies was to schedule a “holiday” every four to six weeks. We would take a couple of days (two, sometimes three) and take a break from the usual routine. The regular schedule would be suspended and we would engage in activities that usually involved more learning than occurred in the regular class time. In depth, special interest, group projects. Projects related to the time of year and the student’s interests. We might for example attack the problem of homelessness in our community in the winter, or design a new playground for our school yard. Current events provide another opportunity for in depth research and some form of social action.

Students love these breaks and opportunities to do something that involves the “real world”. Little do they realize how many of their academic lessons are being put to use with these projects. It is also a fun break for you, a chance to use your creativity to add some spice to the academic year. ? One of your most effective classroom management strategies will to be to make school fun and part of the real world. And that holiday will rejuvenate everyone.

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