1. Always have handfuls of activity ideas that can be applied to practically any subject. Because standing there on a day when the assembly is canceled, with 15-30 minutes to spare and no actual activity planned for this slot of time is really awkward. (Bonus tidbit: "Quiz, Quiz, Trade" is an almost entirely fool proof back-up trick)
2. No plan is fool proof.
3. Put homework instructions at the beginning of class. Fire alarms go off frequently
4. You can't hear the fire alarm. They're working on that. It makes you look really bad, though.
5. Junior high students are generally incapable of thinking of cause and effect if it extends beyond the next 30 seconds. You have to put a pair of consequences in place for them, one that happens in the next 30 seconds, and the real one.
6. Junior high students do not believe there are consequences for anything. And if there are, they are for other people. Especially other junior high students.
7. If a junior high student was told that he must stop talking, or his dominant hand would be cut off, there would be a lot of new lefties in the world, and a few new righties. (Please refer to lessons 5 and 6)
8. You don't have to read every piece of homework.
9. You cannot be a private tutor to every student in the class, during class. You have to make it worth their while to take instruction as a group, partly by stepping up the entertainment value, and partly by letting them learn the hard lessons a few times.
10. Junior high students have extremely short memories. It means that when things didn't go right in a lesson, the next day is nearly entirely a clean slate.
11. There are 2 kinds of trouble-makers: The attention-seekers and the power seekers.
12. Catch the attention seekers doing right, give them special jobs so that you can praise them.
Give the power seekers duties. If that doesn't work, get them out of the room long enough for you to get the rest of the class in the right rhythm so power isn't as easy to seize.
13. Don't underestimate the power of choices. "You have the option to work cooperatively with your teammates, or be sent out and work on the same project alone. Please make the best decision." works WAAAAAY better than "Work with your team now."
14. Don't sit on chocolate chips. They melt.
15. Get a student aide. It's great.
16. Call parents. Early and often.
17. Never forget yard duty week.
18. Very few lessons will actually be able to be completed during Red Ribbon Week.
19. Ask a lot of questions, in class and out.
20. Don't tell the kids there are dead bodies in the filing room that connects your room to 2 other classrooms. It really bothers them when the lights go on in there and silhouettes start moving around silently behind the frosted window.
