Classroom Management Epiphanies!

This is my second full-time year teaching exclusively art, and I have been learning even more than I ever imagined before I started my "art-venture." I came into teaching art after four years in kindergarten and one year as a T.A. and long term sub for third grade. I thought I knew the ropes, but art teaching is a completely different animal in many ways. 

This year I have already learned:

The importance of assigned seating in the art classroom. I have seen such a vast difference in the students' ability to focus on their artwork and be thoughtful, careful artists since this has been the new procedure. I LOVE it! Yes, it is difficult to keep track of everyone's location, but really, after I developed a seating chart I just used it again and again for each class. All I had to do was quietly circulate the room and jot down the students' names from their artwork. Super easy and well worth the effort! 

A great layout for tables in an art space. I have seperated all six of my tables and put them in a big disconnected horseshoe shape around the whiteboard and easel. Everyone can see and hear and there are no more than four students at each table. I can see and circulate among the tables much, much better than before. 

Having a pre-designated job chart makes clean-up a breeze. One of my colleagues numbers his seats in his classroom and assigns jobs by seat number. How smart is that?! I have created a Classroom Helper section on my whiteboard with magnetic numbers. I think of the main clean-up jobs and then list them next to each number. About ten minutes before the end of class, I stop the class and we go over each person's assigned job. I have found that if everyone has a job, behavior issues dramatically drop.

A sample job chart for a collage project may look like this:

1's: Pick up artwork and bring to Mrs. Taylor
2's: Check the floor and pick up scraps for recycling.
3's: Empty table recycling at the recycling box. Check lids on markers and glue sticks.
4's: Wipe down tables.

Everyone: When finished with your job, you may sit at your table.

Requiring all students to "stop, look, and listen" FOR REAL when they hear my chime ("Art Wand") is absolutely necessary in the art room. It is not easy to enforce all the time, but I am teaching them early on that this sound means stop and listen. They are catching on to it very well and I am being extra diligent about enforcing the "lips and hands still, eyes looking, ears listening" part before I start to make my announcement.

Peaceful, meditative environments are needed by everyone. Students have a lot of loud chaos around them most of the day. My goal is to have a very quiet, peaceful space for them to work in that is fun, but also productive. This year I have found the students really respond to this peaceful space. Even the most talkative students somehow seem to want to just be quiet while they work. I expect to have a VERY noisy room at times, but this week, for whatever reasons, I have been able to hear a pin drop in my art room! It is kind of too quiet for me in fact. But, it means they are relaxed and at ease, which is what I am trying to create. After taking an art workshop myself this summer at Glassell, I realized the value of a quiet workspace and have made every effort to circulate as quietly as possible so I do not disturb their processes, but can still be close enough to help them with their concerns or questions. 

I have had the great pleasure to start off what is going to be a great school year with a wonderful group of students! More "tricks of the trade" forthcoming...