This post is all about classroom management. I try to run my classroom with as much autonomy as possible. The ownership for learning is on the shoulders of the student(s). I try to emphasis how to build this environment but the students have to take action to create the environment. I do this by stating the expectations for being a student in the art room and setting goals as a class to foster teamwork and ownership over their experience. (Most of the information here is geared toward 3rd-5th grade. I start introducing 2nd grade to this system as well. I will discuss Kindergarten and 1st grade in a later post.)
I use the ARTIST acronym to spell out the expectations of being an artist in the art room. I do not word these as "rules" but instead expectations.
A: Act Responsible R: Respect (our classroom, our supplies and each other) T: Try your best I: be Imaginative and Creative S: Share materials and ideas T: Talk quietly
This is what we're trying to focus on, it doesn't always work but reinforcing these expectations does bring awareness to what we're striving for.
My school is a Leader in Me school. LIM is a program designed for schools based on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. It is a wonderful program that is about creating a school culture that fosters leadership. On a day to day it looks like students owning their own learning and taking responsibility for their actions. As a part of the program everyone in the school works on goals. The acronym WIG stands for Wildly Important Goal. Students and staff design their own WIGs. Students have personal and academic WIGs. Teachers help their students design class WIGs. Staff also creates and posts personal WIGs so students can see goal monitoring. WIGs have to be something that can be measured and progress should be tracked.
I've seen other teachers use crayon boxes to track class behavior so I adapted this visual display for goal tracking. I had TONS of extra crayon boxes laying around so it was an easy way to reuse these (in fact I have a lot more crayons boxes to find uses for?!). I laminated small scraps of paper and hot glued them to each crayon box. I wrote each teachers name with a sharpie (which you can erase with whiteboard cleaner or a dry erase marker). I printed blank crayons on colorful paper, cut them out and laminated them. Each time a class meets a goal I have a student pick out a crayon and write their teachers name on the crayon (for those who may try to sneak an extra crayon in their box from another classes box).
Goals are posted next to the crayon board. For older grades I tried to let them chose their own class goal but I didn't find as much success with that in terms of making progress on the goal. So I started targeting the goals for them (making it seem like their idea).Mostly we started with a clean-up goal. My ultimate expectation was to be cleaned up in under 2 minutes. However starting with 2 minutes wasn't working, classes weren't making any progress. So, I stepped the goal back a little and started with 4 minutes, once they reach 4 minutes we went down to 3 minutes, after reaching 3 we stepped back to 2. This has really helped with meeting clean-up expectations as well as meeting goals. I found that some classes needed to see some momentum with goals before they were willing to really try for the tougher goals.
Goals are printed, mounted on construction paper (based on my color coded system) and laminated. I leave blank where I would write the amount of minutes so I can alter minutes day to day with a whiteboard marker (depending on goal progress of the class I see that day). I have also printed blank cards and laminated them, they say We will and then I can write a custom goal. For example: 5th grade was working on a painting project recently and one class did a terrible job cleaning. I realized I needed to spell out my clean-up expectations, create a checklist and make that a goal. At the end of every class I checked their clean-up using the checklist. If they did a great job cleaning for the duration of the project then they met their goal. I have to say that no class met the goal BUT the class that did a really terrible job that first day improved GREATLY, so I'll take it as a win!
Goals are also displayed on my computer (which is hooked up to a large screen TV, we don't have projectors in my school but everyone has a TV they can connect their computer to). I have a Google Slides presentation of the various WIGs. For every WIG with a timed component (most of them), I have a timer on the Google Slide. My favorite timer is the one pictured above (search rainbow timer and the amount of minutes you need on YouTube). If the goal is for the beginning of class then the slide is posted when they walk in. As soon as the last person walks in I follow and start the timer. If it is an end of class goal then I have that ready just before clean-up time so I can start the timer. I use the alarms on my computer to indicate when clean-up time starts, they know to start cleaning and I go straight for the timer. In a future post I'll talk more about other resources I use while students work, but sometimes I have a Google Slides presentation related to their project up with examples, resources or steps. Often I add timers to these Google Slides presentations as well so I can easily start a timer instead of getting to the WIG presentation.
Goal related materials are available for download on my TPT: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Organized-Art-Teacher
Since we are expected to have a personal WIG displayed I wanted to include mine here for any LIM teacher who may need/want an example. My personal WIG is to complete 4 Spanish lessons on Duolingo everyday. Some co-workers have chosen increasing their water intake, exercising, reading etc. I typed the goal, added a blank calendar and a couple Duo images and laminated the goal. I fill in the days of the week and month and check off whether I complete the goal each day. Each month I take a picture, clean it and add the dates for the next month.
If you are in a Leader in Me school or use goals in your classroom, please share in the comments how you use goals or Leader in Me skills.
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