Building Joyful Community

ERUUF Religious Education Teacher Development

2014-2015

The Essentials

Be efficient but aim for effective.

It begins and ends with classroom management. Any veteran teacher can tell you that while it’s very important to know and be passionate about your lesson material your classroom management will determine your success. Classroom Management basically refers to the things you do to organize students, space, time and materials. So the better your organization and procedures the better of a year you and your class will have. I like to compare this to a department store – think about what keeps you going back – it’s not the actual product – it’s the layout, organization, cleanliness, how things are displayed, accessibility, efficiency, customer service, friendliness. Having a successful classroom is very similar to running any successful business. We’ll be talking about all of this in more detail later today.

Efficient is doing things correctly and smoothly. Doing them efficiently over and over again is being effective.

Expectations of RE Teachers

Be punctual.Please be on time. If you are teaching at the 9:15

service we recommend you arrive by 9:00 to check your room setup and do any last minute setup.

Be enthusiastic. Your enthusiasm about the lesson will be infectious. If you are having a good time with it so will the kids.

Be responsible.Take pride in your work and being part of

the RE program.

Be supportive. Your positive and helpful attitude will help your team have a smooth year of lessons.

Everything is Awesome

Everything is cool when you’re part of a team

Special Circumstances:

Fire – When the fire alarm sounds each class will need to exit the building in an orderly manner. Please make sure that you have all children and your sign in sheet. Classrooms on the first floor should exit and line up on the sidewalk by the parallel parking area. Classrooms on the lower floor should exit and line up on the concrete at the back handicap parking. Please do not reenter the building until you have been accounted for by the RE office staff.

Photography Policy - Pictures may be taken of children unless you have been informed of a opt-out notice by the RE office. Please remember these pictures should only be shared in communications with parents or with the RE office. Pictures should not be posted by teachers to any social media sites.

Medical Emergency – For any 911 type emergency, please call while sending an adult for staff assistance. In case of serious but non-life threatening situations please have an adult contact RE staff and parents. Please make sure to confirm cell phone numbers with parents within the first few weeks.

Please use (919) 489-2572 ext. 118 to alert the front desk in the main office if you are having any 911 level emergency, suspect a fire, or see someone suspicious around the building.

Please note that an incident report should be filled out for any unusual circumstance involving a child and returned to the RE office within 24

hours.

Setting Up a Classroom

Work with the space limitations of your room

Make the space inviting.

Because the rooms are rented there is a limited amount you can do to the rooms in the long term, but it is important to decide on plans that work and can be put in place easily on a Sunday morning. Some rooms are effected more than other because of furniture choices. If you teach at 9:15 service you need to be here early enough every Sunday to set up the room and if you teach at the 11:15 service you need to plan to stay long enough after class to reset the room to the standard.

Posting is limited to the bulletin board in your rooms. However if you get prior permission from RE staff special projects may be posted elsewhere in the room. If you are working with 2,3,4, or 5 year olds you will be using shared space with the preschool so your posting will be limited to removable items. Both trifold boards and chart post-its are available from the RE office.

Making space appropriate for an age group.

Make space for storage and display.

Take into consideration the age group you are working with and their needs. Younger kids are going to need floor space and older kids are going to need more social type seating. Also consider if your curriculum regularly calls for anything special. Such as 3rd and 4th grade curriculum requires a dedicated area to be used as an altar.

Having supplies neatly organized will save time and headaches down the road. As a full class team you will want to agree to ahead of time on mutual storage solutions and work together to keep things tidy. Also please let RE staff know well ahead if you feel that you are running low on standard supplies. If there is something you feel your classroom needs regularly but is not already there please let staff know. If you are teaching 2,3,4,or 5 year olds your supplies will be stored in rolling carts, any other classes your materials are stored in the cubbies or cabinets in your rooms. As a group it may be helpful to unobtrusively label bins and storage containers.

Technology

Each classroom will have a instruction sheet in it for showing a YouTube video.

Some lessons may include a video to enhance or illustrate key points of a lesson.

Some rooms have TV’s or DVD players that can play

YouTube videos without a computer while other rooms

will will need to request a laptop from Kathy.

Please preview all videos. Please queue each video up avoiding ads.

Please allot yourself extra prep time on mornings that you are showing videos to make sure the equipment is functional and the videos are queued up and prepared.

RoutineTravelling Time

Opening Circle

Due to the size that the RE program is growing to we can no longer be haphazard in how we transition. We ask that whichever adult is leading the children is already out front when they exit the sanctuary. Each team will have an assigned square of the courtyard. As a team you’ll need to choose a method to get the kids attention, quiet them and organized into a group before you move towards the classroom. I recommend the give me five method. Hold up your hand with your fingers outstretched. Say give me five. When the kids are still learning it you can count it up. 1 eyes. 2 line up 3 quiet 4 be still 5 listen. For younger kids a simple one to use is ‘if you can hear my voice’.

Each day when you arrive in your classroom you should begin with an opening circle. Gather children together in a group. Ask them to center themselves. spend a few moments reaffirming the covenants. Light the chalice. Sing an opening song (choose and stick to one for the year – suggestions: this little light of mine, enter rejoice and come in, come sing a song with me)

Joys and ConcernsAt some age levels the joys and concerns portion of the lesson is very important but can also absorb a lot of time so be aware of your time management.

Lesson

Closing CircleWhen you have five to ten minutes left you should bring the group back together and have a closing circle, sing a round or two of go now in peace and do chalice extinguishing.

First Three Lessons

Week One

Practice Routine

and

Team Building

Week Two

Practice Routine

and

Building Covenants

Week Three

Practice RoutineReview CovenantAnd Team Building

Learning, Skill and Faith Development

Learning Styles

Types Needs Presentation Style

Visual Must see the information Write it or Draw it

Auditory Must hear the information Say it or Read Aloud

Kinesthetic Must physically experience the information Hands-on Demo

As most people are a combination of types it is best to present material in a way that will reach all types of learners.

Verbal-Linguistic (Word Smart) – People who possess this learning style learn best through reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Verbal students absorb information by engaging with reading materials and by discussing and debating ideas.

Logical-Mathematical (Logic Smart) – Those who exhibit this type of intelligence learn by classifying, categorizing, and thinking abstractly about patterns, relationships, and numbers.

Visual-Spatial (Picture Smart) – These people learn best by drawing or visualizing things using the mind’s eye. Visual people learn the most from pictures, diagrams, and other visual aids.

Auditory-Musical (Music Smart) – Students who are music smart learn using rhythm or melody, especially by singing or listening to music.

Bodily-Kinesthetic (Body Smart) – Body-smart individuals learn best through touch and movement. These people are best at processing information through the body. Sometimes kinesthetic learners work best standing up and moving rather than sitting still.

Interpersonal (People Smart) – Those who are people smart learn through relating to others by sharing, comparing, and cooperating. Interpersonal learners can make excellent group leaders and team players.

Intrapersonal (Self Smart) – Intrapersonal-intelligent people learn best by working alone and setting individual goals. Intrapersonal learners are not necessarily shy; they are independent and organized.

Naturalistic (Nature Smart) – Naturalistics learn by working with nature. Naturalistic students enjoy learning about living things and natural events. They may excel in the sciences and be very passionate about environmental issues.

Reaching All Students

Use first/then language – first tell the kids what is going to happen and then tell them the next stage of the plan

Use warning language – give the kids advanced notice about changes to the day

Plan ahead on escape routes – give kids that get over stimulated a way to calm done before it becomes a problem

Observe and modify - keep your eyes open, be flexible, what are your sense telling you about what the kids need

Use visual or auditory cues

Be positive.

I’m not going to speak directly to one specific type of special need. If you have a student in your class that requires specific care you will receive information with your class roster. I would also encourage you to sit and have a discussion with the parents within the first week or two to let them share their specific concerns and methods for helping their child. I will say that the main point of keeping things organized and routine will be the biggest thing you can do any child. In addition to this some other good methods to use with children with special needs and honestly all your students are:

- Relaxed body posture as opposed to defensive positioning- Loose comfortable posture not crossed arms and legs- Weight evenly distributed not shifting balance- Shoulders are back not hunched over

- Maintaining eye contact with you or the materials

- Welcoming facial expression not standoffish

- Positioning body towards speaker not away

Signs of a good listener:

Behavior Modification

How to set it up – put kids names on cards and hang within reach of all your students (as a team you may want to put 9:15 names on one side and 11:15 on the reverse side

How it works – if a child is off task or acting inappropriately (acting in opposite to their covenants) they need to change their card to the next color. It is perfectly ok to let them know if they do something above and beyond the expected that they can move back to green.

How to explain it to class - use the idea of a stoplight and a car green means continue on with your behavior it is fine, yellow means slow down and think about what you are doing, red means stop and take a minute to collect yourself something is wrong

I recommend keeping a logbook somewhere in the classroom where you can track the children's behavior each day, parents should be informed at check out of any problems their child has and if a child has repeated problems you need to speak to RE staff

Stoplight System

Communicating with parents

We suggest having a regular time and layout for your communication.

Teams are required to communicate regularly with parents.

We suggest choosing one person as a time group’s communications officer.

Photography Policy - Pictures may be taken of children unless you have been informed of a opt-out notice by the RE office. Please remember these pictures should only be shared in communications with parents or with the RE office. Pictures should not be posted by teachers to any social media sites.

Making Connections and Building Community