Classroom Management: Sticky Notes

There are probably hundreds, no...THOUSANDS...of ways sticky notes can be used in the classroom. These handy little pieces of paper with a small strip of sticky adhesive made their debut in American stores in 1980, and are so loved by the general public that you can even download sticky note apps onto your computer or smart phone.

I'll be the first to admit that my classroom is a little louder than most. When you are trying to teach skills-based health education, there's a lot of moving around. When teaching certain topics, there can be a lot of emotion boiling; personal opinions and experiences are defended vehemently. I don't view it as a bad thing when students get into the lesson I'm teaching, although there is a point where lines are crossed. When this happens, it's important to try to minimize the time lost to dealing with discipline issues. There are many ways in which a teacher could do this. Enter sticky notes.

I began using sticky notes to assist with classroom management this year, after it was suggested by my former (now retired) curriculum director and evaluator towards the end of last school year. I was looking for an easy way to keep track of student behavior that would minimize disruption to the learning of other students, and asked him if he had any ideas. Using sticky notes requires no verbal action and I can warn a student about their behavior literally without breaking stride or taking time away from what I am trying to accomplish in the classroom that day.

So, what exactly do I do? My protocol is as follows. If a student is disrupting the class, has made an inappropriate remark, is off task, whatever the reason: I simply walk over to them and place a sticky note on their desk. This serves as a visual reminder to myself and to them that I've noticed their behavior, and that it needs to change. It's also a warning that I've noticed their behavior, and that I would like it to change. I usually don't even need to say anything; students are made aware of my policy at the start of the school year and quickly become familiar with it.

If the student continues to be disruptive to the class, they do one of three things. To be honest, what they do depends on a variety of factors: the student, the specific behavior going on, any IEP/504 accommodations or modifications associated with discipline, etc. Students will either: 1. Write down the phone number of their parent/guardian, 2. Write down an e-mail address of their parent/guardian, or 3. Write down the day they will stay after school with me. (Note: I have all the home contact information of parents/guardians, so if students try to mess with me by leaving fake numbers I have myself covered)

After writing that information down, students will place their sticky note on the handset of the classroom phone on my desk. That is a visual reminder to me to contact home about the student's behavior.

Student responses to this method have been varied. Some students take the opportunity to draw artwork on their sticky notes: smiley faces (trying to change my mind!), frowny faces (no doubt how they are feeling), or small bits of nature scenes. Others collect them in their folders, showcasing them as souvenirs. I've had a few ripped up and thrown on the floor, which really doesn't help me change my mind as to why I handed out a sticky note in the first place. Some students, upon seeing me just reach for their sticky notes, immediately stop their behavior and ask for a second chance. Typically I've already given them a chance to adjust their behavior, so their attempt is often in vain.

It's a simple technique, and has been pretty effective for me this year. My student teacher picked right up on my technique and now carries her own pad of sticky notes, ready to pounce on classroom disruptions. Is this perfect? No. Does it always work? I wish I could say that it does. Every day with middle school students is an adventure, and students have good days and bad days. This technique is quick, does not take away from instructional/learning time, and is easy to fit into any classroom. At the end of the day, a teacher needs to find a way of dealing with discipline that fits into their own style.

So, in conclusion:

• If a student is disrupting the learning environment (what this entails is up to you), a sticky note is placed on their desk
• If a student changes their behavior, no further action is taken
• If the student does not change their behavior, students will be asked to:
• Write down a phone number of their parents/guardians
• Write down an e-mail address of their parent/guardian
• Write down a date in which they will stay after school
• The sticky note is placed on the handset of my classroom phone, as a reminder to contact home.

If after the above steps the behavior is still causing an issue, then the student will be asked to leave the room. In the past, anytime a student has written contact information on a sticky note they were assigned a detention; I have tweaked that due to crazy after school schedules on the parts of both students and myself (IEP meetings, committee meetings, high school track meets, etc).

Feel free to give using sticky notes a try. What classroom management techniques do you use in your classroom? As always, feel free to e-mail me with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Formative Assessment in My Health Classroom

Last year, my district spent a lot of time on formative assessment. Unlike its counterpart, summative assessment, formative assessment is a great way to provide the teacher with immediate feedback on what their students are taking out of a lesson, including what the students are learning or not learning. Many formative assessment techniques also double as excellent activators or closures to begin or end class. Ultimately, formative assessment provides the teacher with valuable feedback as to how to adapt a current or future lesson in order to meet the needs of their students. Because we as teachers are constantly adapting how we teach content, formatively assessing students is a great way to achieve instant feedback without waiting until the end of a unit.

There are hundreds of ways to use formative assessment in any classroom. Below are some examples that I have tried (some successfully, others still need work) or want to try in my middle school health classroom. Through collaboration with my colleagues across all departments, I'm always able to find new things to try.

1. Boogie Boards. Regular dry erase boards are very expensive, but Home Depot has a cheaper alternative! Go to your local Home Depot or Lowes and find a big sheet of showerboard. I don't remember exactly what I used, but the workers may know what you're talking about. Have a worker cut it into 12 inch x 12 inch squares, and for about 15-20 bucks (I wasn't charged for the cutting when I told them what I was using it for) I walked out with 25-30 cheap dry erase boards! These do not erase as easily as regular dry erase boards, but that's not really a problem. I've used these in many ways:

• as a pre-assessment, using data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey to see students' perceived attitudes about drug use in the school.
• as a review: putting questions on the Smartboard (multiple choice, true/false, etc) and having students write down the answers. They then hold up the boards and I have instant feedback on if they get the answers right or not.
• as part of the "Back Art" activity created by Tom Jackson. This isn't a formative assessment, but it's a great activity I use to introduce communication.

They've been a great tool! The students always love being able to use dry erase markers, too. I have a bunch of old ones they use...no one is touching my new markers!

2. Stoplight Cards. Stoplight cards are on my to-do list for February break. These are easy to make and last a pretty long time if you laminate them. As you may have gathered from the name, each student will need a set of three small index cards or pieces of construction paper: one green, one yellow, and one red, preferably. Youcould also just make index cards with "A" "B" "C" "D" on each one. Some colleagues of mine will use a hole puncher to punch one hole on the corner of them and hold them together with an individual binder ring. These cards can be used to check for understanding in the middle of a lesson. I can pose a question to the class and receive immediate feedback based on their answers. If needed, I can spend more time on a section or move on. The color scheme helps me understand how students feel about overall concepts we're discussing in class as well.

3. Sheet Protector Anatomy Review. This idea came from a geography teacher from across the hall, who uses this as a study technique for reviewing locations on maps. Each student has a typical sheet protector and a dry erase or wet-erase marker. It saves money if you have one classroom set, but it's not unreasonable for students to provide their own, either. For this, I conduct a review after we go over the parts and functions of the male/female reproductive systems. I'll hand out a diagram of the male and female reproductive systems, with numbers next to each. Students will then take their marker and try to fill in as many of the blanks as possible. Next time, I'll probably use a word bank for this. This allows me to see which parts/functions the students are aware of (some of them are obvious...) and the parts I need to clarify.

4. GO-GO-MO: Give One, Get One, Move On. I initially learned about this during day one of The Skillful Teacher course. During that class, we used this to share different classroom management strategies. This activity is a great activator and gets the students out of their seats and moving around. Each student has a handout with a 3x3 table on it. At their desks, they fill in the top three boxes based on a prompt you give them. I might tell them, "Think of three positive strategies you can use to help stop bullying in our school." They jot three ideas that they can think of down, and then go around the room getting other ideas from their classmates. They can only write down ideas not already on their lists. After this activity is completed, we have a pretty comprehensive list of strategies we can use to help stop bullying! It's a great way to see how other students in the class think if you're looking for opinion type data. Another example I could use is to list examples of tobacco's effect on the cardiovascular system. A science colleague of mine uses this when he talks about different types of cells. Here's a link to a PDF of a GO-GO-MO sheet.

5. Popsicle Sticks. A simple, cheap tool with multiple uses. At the start of each trimester, I'll have my students each take a popsicle stick (I buy the large ones at a craft store) and write their name and period on them. I'll use them to randomly call on students during a lesson, asking them to summarize points I've made or to explain a concept to a friend. This is helpful to me when we talk about subjects such as the effects of alcohol on the human body because not all students have a grasp of the human body systems. It also helps keep the students paying attention, although I have found that many hate the "dreaded popsicle sticks" and will willingly participate instead of being called on randomly. But, I like it because it helps with universal participation. I use them to split students up into random groups, too. Take out the absent students and thrown down sticks like we used to do for pond hockey. I also have a separate set that are colored for the same purpose.

6. Crumpled Paper. Fun for the kids, but not very green. Have students take some scrap paper and write down a question they still have towards the end of a lesson. Once it's written down, they can crumple it up and toss it to the front of the room. Then, pick the

m up and open the question. You could also have the students throw them randomly around the room and have each student pick one up to see if they can answer it. As always, you should set some ground rules before you do this. I don't use this too often (maybe twice a year), but the kids love it. I've used this as a mini-activator for the first day of school with my sixth graders, who responded to the prompt, "What about middle school makes you nervous?" The anonymity helped kids be honest.

These are only a few examples of the countless ways you could use formative assessment in your classroom. This post is only a guide with a few ideas. Please try these out in your own classroom, and let me know how it goes! Last year, all the science teachers read a specific book about applying formative assessment to their curriculum, and I have been able to use some of their ideas in my own classroom. Experimentation is part of what makes teaching fun!

Interactive Activities: ATOD Unit (Part Two)

Today I'm going to post a link to the lesson plan that may be my favorite classroom activity. This activity was partly developed by one of my outstanding professors at Springfield, Dr. Shannon Whalen. The activity, "Alcohol Simulation Stations" is located in a book she co-wrote with Dominick Splendorio and Sal Chiarello entitled, Tools for Teaching Health. I used this book during undergrad and I've used different lessons from it in my job, too. It's located at Amazon.com for purchase; if you would like a preview of the book Google Books has a few pages scanned in. I really hope that she writes another book in the future. She has so many great ideas!!

When talking about alcohol, it's easy to list, lecture, or show videos demonstrating the short-term effects alcohol has on the body. With such a captivating topic, who wants to sit and lecture to students?! (Lectures do have their place, sometimes) Wouldn't it be better if they could actually experience those effects in a safe, controlled manner? The simulation stations combine activities from many sources in order for students to see how alcohol can effect them in the short term. Some of these activities I have seen in Tom Jackson's books, one of which I mentioned in my last post. Others, I'm sure the Dr. Whalen and her colleagues came up with themselves.

This activity requires extensive preparation, and I highly recommend that you try out the activities yourself beforehand. This lesson definitely deserves a test run before you teach it. If you're short on classroom time, simply select a number of activities that will fit your schedule. You may need to adapt it in other ways, too: I would never bring in sewing needle into my classroom, so for the station needing a needle I just have students thread a button with string sans-needle.

I've taught this lesson to colleagues at the MAHPERD Conference and to college freshmen as a senior during undergrad, as well as an adapted lesson to eighth grade students in middle school. I find this activity ideal for high school age students. Each time, it was well received.

As a side note, the formatting on the PDF might be off. As always, personalize the document! Revamp the accompanying worksheet to make it yours. I always reformat documents with my own unique style. Lastly, I feel okay posting this for many reasons. One, Dr. Whalen always said the best teachers were the best stealers. Two, we passed out lesson plans for this lesson at MAHPERD in 2007.

Also, for me the post-activity discussion was when the light bulbs went off. It's so important to debrief the activity and emphasize the dangers of what could happen if students consume alcohol (or, for a college crowd of of-age drinkers, if they consume it irresponsibly). Connecting the effects with their resulting dangers is a main point of this lesson.

So, here it is! Click here for a PDF of "Alcohol Simulation Stations." If you use this in your classroom of want any pointers, let me know!

Interactive Activities: ATOD Unit (Part One)

The ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs) Unit is my favorite to teach. I could easily spend an entire course just on this, but unfortunately I am not able to do so! Today's post deals with tobacco education in my classroom.

Tobacco education may be the first thing (besides sex ed) that comes to mind when someone hears the term, "health class." There are many substance-abuse programs out there. Perhaps the most famous, D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), is surrounded by controversy. A meta-analysis by Ennett et al. generally found that the short term effectiveness of DARE was less than other, interactive prevention programs. However, I only skimmed the well-known article and they do find some positives for the program as well.

Our school district uses a curriculum component from The Michigan Model for Health entitled, "The Power is Your to Be Tobacco Free" in seventh grade. The curriculum focuses on teaching students the skills they need to stay away from tobacco, make decisions to protect themselves and others from tobacco, and how tobacco can harm their bodies. It doesn't come with a lot of the "facts," so we supplement.

Below I've outlined two sample activities that I've used in my classroom during parts of our tobacco unit. I'll have another post later this week with a second set. I adapted a lot of these from other sources. After all, the best teachers are sometimes the best stealers! As an aside, I make sure that I never say smoking is "stupid" or anything along those lines in order to remain sensitive to students who have family members who smoke. One main objective of my job is to give the students the tools they need to make healthy, positive decisions. Ideally, it helps promote behavior change too. If adults want to smoke, then that is their educated choice (presumably).

During my lesson on smoking's effect on the body, each student has a worksheet with fill ins, charts, and blank sections. They write in information I have on a PowerPoint as I go through each effect.

Is Your Money Up in Smoke? (Homework Activity) Click here for a PDF of the assignment.

The cost of a smoking habit is expensive. As a homework assignment, I have the students research the local price of one pack of cigarettes. Students may ask an adult, use the internet, or look for prices at local stores/gas stations. After they find the price, they do some math to determine how much a person who smokes one pack a day spends on cigarettes for a year and ten years.

Students then "go shopping." They find out what they could spend all that money on. Some students make the argument that all of the money spent on cigarettes could be spend on issues such as education or world hunger. A post-homework reflection could be added, but I choose to use a discussion instead. Some students will mention that for people who smoke more than one pack a day, the cost would be far more expensive.

Extension: Compare the cost of a pack of cigarettes in different regions of the country, such as in New York City where tobacco taxes are very high. We could then discuss that in NYC's situation, smoking has decreased dramatically (a blog entry on this last link will be forthcoming if I can find more up-to-date data, especially after their controversial ad from last year; I used that in class last year). You could also have students graph differences based on location, which ties in cross-curricula activities with geography and math. However, in my opinion this is spending too much time on a very small aspect of the tobacco curriculum. The Michigan Model has this as an in-class, teacher-led activity. I choose to do it differently.

Cilia "Volleyball!"

Adapted from "Cilia Volleyball" in Activities That Teach by Tom Jackson

Cigarette smoke greatly affects the cilia in a smoker's lungs. Cilia are tiny, hair-like structures who have the job of sweeping foreign material such as mucus, dirt, and other harmful material out of the lungs. Cigarette smoke damages the cilia, and as a result there's often a buildup of mucus in the lungs. This results in the body's next method of removing gunk from the lungs of a smoker: smoker's hack.

This activity involves blowing up balloons before class. Because of my classroom setup, I blow up about eight. I label each one "Mucus" with Sharpie beforehand. After I talk about what I just mentioned and smoker's hack, I take out my balloons. I divide my class into thirds (I have three sections of two columns, with a space between sections), and have them demonstrate being cilia. I usually do this first by waving my arms and hands like in the "wave" seen at numerous sporting events. I get into it; it's more fun that way!

After the students get the hang of this, I have one third of the room do the wave. The front of the room acts as deep in the lungs, and I have a student stand behind the last row to represent the mouth (complete with hacking sound effect). Then, I drop the balloons, and as a result of the wave motion, the balloons find their way through the rows and out the mouth. I explain that this is a normal, healthy lung; when there is mucus and other gunk the cilia are able to expel it.

Next, I go to the middle of the room. I do the same thing this time around, but now I select a small number (maybe three out of nine or ten in the section) to sit on their hands. They're not allowed to touch the balloons in any way. This group tries to expel all the "mucus" and is usually pretty successful, but not fully. Then, I go to the last group. This time, I make sure that all the students except one in the front and one in the back sit on their hands. Usually, none of the "mucus" goes anywhere.

After this demonstration I explain that the last group represents the lungs of a habitual smoker. After they were able to experience being cilia in the lungs, having a discussion about the activity is very important. Some students don't make the connection right away, so I use images of cilia in the lungs to further explain their role in the body.

NOTE: Tom Jackson, who created this activity, has the balloons represent particles of smoke/tar that pass into the lungs. His activity is slightly different; mine was adapted to fit the space of my small classroom.

I was planning on documenting some more activities in this post, but I feel that I have rambled on long enough! As always, please feel free to comment or e-mail with questions, comments, or concerns.

Jay Mathews Says PE Is a Bad Idea

I enjoy reading a blog entitled, "Class Struggle" by Jay Mathews of the Washington Post. It mainly deals with issues in the DC area, but his posts often have implications beyond DC. I like a lot of his writing and his conversations with blog readers via his comments section. He is not afraid to push buttons and talk about equality (or the lack of) in education, and the fact that he actually responds to readers gives him big points in my book. When I saw Mathews critique the recently introduced Healthy Schools Act in Washington, DC schools, alarm bells went off. Maybe it's the Springfield undergrad in me resurfacing, but anytime anyone tries to say physical education or health education are not important, I get fired up.

Before I begin, I would encourage you to read the article and the comments written from readers and Mathews himself. There is a lot of great insight going on, and Mathews does respond, keeping a relatively open mind and providing clarifying points when needed. He even admits when he makes a bad statement or compliments someone who proves him wrong.

The Healthy Schools Act would require, as Mathews writes, the following: "The new bill would require every public school student in kindergarten through fifth grade to have 150 minutes of P.E. (30 minutes a day). Sixth- through eighth-graders would be required to take 225 minutes (45 a day)."

These new physical education guidelines fit in with the guidelines set by the American Heart Association for most healthy people of at least 30 minutes of physical activity most days of the week. The 150 minutes per week also fits the guidelines set by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. AAHPERD consists of professionals involved in the fields of health education, physical education, fitness, recreation, sports and coaching, etc. The organization is a huge advocate for anything promoting health and fitness, and a great organization to be involved in.

Mathews argues that DC school children need to spend more time in the classroom due to underachieving test scores. However, physical education is important in learning. As pointed out on Ed Burke's The Slow Cook, many studies have been done showing that physical education classes can improve academic performance. This was drilled into our heads at Springfield as a way to advocate for our profession as physical or health educators. I won't repeat the stats from the other blog, but the information provided by Ed Burke is spot on.

The schools also provide a location for students to work out in gym class. Students living in urban areas may have difficulty finding space to play/exercise in or may not have the resources needed for programs that their suburban counterparts enjoy. The food section of the bill would serve local fruits and vegetables to elementary school students one to three times a week, depending on the season. Why is this a bad thing? This saves in fuel costs, contributes to the local economy, and will taste better too.

I'm not sure if Mathews understands the role of the coordinated school health program (CSHP) in education today. For basic information on the CSHP, see an earlier post I wrote last year. Ideally, a CSHP contains multiple parts working in conjunction with each other in order to help maintain healthy young people. Two critical portions of this model, physical education and food services, are positively affected by the proposed Healthy Schools Act. Hopefully, the other components are active in the DC schools as well.

Has Mathews spent time in a classroom with middle school students who simply need time to run around and burn off some energy? It can be very hard to control kids who have no outlet for their energy. I would prefer an odiferous, post-phys. ed class any day of the week over a class that has too much energy to handle. They're not focused if they have built up energy. I strive to set an example by my own physical activity, and I know in my district, the kids would be very upset if their physical education classes were cut.

Much of education has nothing to do with what students learn in classes they may not use in their entire life. This is the importance of physical education and health education: providing tools for a lifetime of healthy living. The long term, positive effects of this is for another post, but they are numerous.

My next post will have something to do with the classroom. Check back within the week!

As always, please leave comments telling me what you think. I, like Mathews, want to hear the whole side of the story.