Teaching Techniques for Early Elementary Teachers

Myron Brubacher proposes nine techniques for bolstering an engaging early elementary classroom. He shares personal stories of building relationships with students and highlights the importance of innovative approaches.

Now, some general teaching techniques and tips.

Inspire and Save with Thrift Stores

How many of you love thrift stores? [many in the audience raise their hands] I’m not surprised. How many of you despise thrift stores? [one hand is raised] Okay. Sorry.

I’ve got two main collections that I’m really proud of. More than that, but two big ones I want to talk about right now. The first one is my Beanie Baby collection. So, every grade one and two teacher should take advantage of the hyper on Beanie Babies fifteen or twenty years ago and everybody bought those little stuffed animals and they’re going to be like the next major profit maker. Like you could buy all these collectibles and you’ll be and then the market tanked, and everybody sent them to thrift stores. And now you can go along and buy them for like fifty cents.

So, what I have here in my hockey bag is my collection of Beanie Babies, and I’ll start showing you here.  [Brubacher transfers hundreds of Beanie Babies to the floor] It’s been over a couple years I collected them. There’s the last count, I think there were 241 of them, and they all are different. I mean, there’s some of the same animals, but there’s some different ones still, like, if there’s different penguins, like, all penguins, but they look different. Almost done. (Even an American one, even though I’m Canadian. Here you go. And almost done. Few little ones left. There we go. So afterwards, you’re welcome to take a look at these. I would love to share them, but they’re special to me.

In general terms, the things I do with those is they’re fun for the kids’ indoor recess, if you can’t get out for recess for some reason. They build pet stores with them. They would fight over them. It was great. But more than fun, … A story about a young girl who was in my class.

She was in grade two. She came from a very troubled home, and she was in my class. She had a really hard time trusting. It was obvious. As you can tell that this is walls were up until the day I brought in my collection of Beanie Babies. I was teaching at a different school at the time, so my collection wasn’t permanent there, but I got my collection of Beanie Babies, took her to the class, and that day, that girl changed. Suddenly, she had [a Beanie Baby] to trust, and after that our relationship was so much stronger.

There’s something about this thing for young children.  They’re amazing. They are therapeutic just holding them.  There are little beads inside. They’re amazing. So, for just a simple fact of creating an exciting environment… I have so many pets in my classroom, like real pets. I’ve got birds and the fish and the lizard and the chinchilla, and I’m hoping to get another critter this year. So, I have real pets too, which do the same thing, but children are going to love these wonderful things.

I also use them for some more educational purposes. We’ll get into that later on. I use them for rewards too. I had a whole bunch of them, so I put up, maybe a hundred of them out to start with at the beginning of the year. And then if they earn a certain reward, we get a new beanie baby in the collection. “Oh, it’s so exciting!” They each get a turn holding it, and then it goes in the collection, and then it motivates them for various things, which I’ll talk about shortly.

The other thing I collected is children’s books. I have about 2,000 children’s books, and then I stopped teaching grade one and two. So, some other teachers got some books. Again, thrift stores. There are literally thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of books there for a fraction of the price. And because they’re cheap, because they paid fifty cents or a dollar for a book or got them free for that matter, I would encourage the kids to borrow them, take them home. Not wreck them on purpose, but if they get wrecked because your little sister scribbles in the book, well, too bad, but it wasn’t a loss to me. Promoting a love for learning by just getting books out at their homes.

I did a number system where I had all my books and the titles and a number on my computer, and then I wrote the number inside each book because watching grade one and two students try to sign their books and on a piece of paper, like, they’d write the title and they got the author and the summary of the book and everything when it’s supposed to be just signing out the title. It’s a disaster. So instead, I had them numbered each book so they could write their name and the number of the book they’re borrowing, and that way I could keep track of who borrowed what book.

I also like with these books, I like to have what’s called literary class once a week. I still do it in grade five and six, which is kind of comical because they love it. It’s a highlight of the week. What I do is I take a picture of whatever book I have whatever the picture book is, I take pictures of it and then I put it up on the projector and I read the story to the class. It can be little kids’ books, and these grade five and six students are sitting there just drinking it in, and they love it. So, grade one and two, same thing. Once a week. We talk about the book, do an activity with it or just enjoy the pleasure of reading a book together for no good reason other than reading is a great thing to do. And developing a passion and a love for reading.

Passion for books is amazing. The literary class period for me each week was kind of that turn things off and just relax. No pressure. You will not be tested on this. There’s nothing, and children love that. Even adults do that matter, if you’re honest.

Use Rewards Wisely in Your Teaching

he last number of years, I’ve changed my methods to try to encourage success for each child, whatever that looks like. I look back in the grade book and whenever I marked their test, and if they got a score equal or better than the previous test or quiz in that particular subject, then they get a sticker. So maybe one student got 70% and another got 100%, and they both get a sticker, and they love it. Small thing.

Stickers are really boring when you go to the dollar store and buy something like “Great Work!” Or like that kind of thing. It’s like, “You’re the Best!” “You’re Amazing!”  And like, you can’t all be the best. So, what I do instead is I go to like dollar stores and thrift stores again and buy these activity books. Sometimes if you’re lucky, you have stickers in the book, and then you rip out the stickers and throw the book in the garbage, or else let the kids scribble on if they want or whatever they want to do. And then I got this pack of very unique stickers. You never know what you’re going to get sometimes, and the kids love it. It brings so much more life. It’s little sparkles of joy in the day.

Entertain and Teach with Costumes

So when I taught the C H sound, the sound, I always try to bring something in for each sound like a little Beanie Baby or whatever it might be I try to bring in. So, the kids love it when the teacher does things random creations and things. So of course, you’re going to love it if their teacher walks out of the room and comes back dressed as a chicken. (So, I haven’t worn this thing in ages.)

So what I would do is get this white blanket and I would, wear this white blanket. I had these yellow rubber gloves on my feet like blum blum blum like little chicken feet, and I go walking in looking like a chicken, and it’s not very comfortable. They loved it. And then, of course, they want to wear the chicken hat and all that good stuff. Just anything to try to get a bit of life and a bit of memorable experiences happening.

I’ve collected a number of costumes. [Brubacher digs through a mound of costumes.] I have (Oh, what’s this?) A hot dog, a bottle of ketchup, mustard, hot sauce. (What’s this?) I don’t know what that is. Is that a hot pepper maybe? I haven’t looked at these things in ages. A banana? (What’s this?) Oh, the ketchup bottle. Bacon?! Everyone loves bacon. Hamburger. Taco. [You must] use your imagination sometimes. The soda cracker. That’s random. Anyhow, the possibilities are endless for all ages, but grade one and two, whatever. What you can do with costumes, I will demonstrate later on. Hopefully we’ll have some time for that. Something I like to do with one of my costumes. If you watch after Halloween, you miss some really good deals on costumes. I think some of these, like, 90% or 95% off because, like, the store was desperate to get rid of them. I don’t blame them. But, anyhow, they’re probably trying to get rid of them, so it’s like a couple bucks versus like $30 or $40 dollars like they usually are. So, you can grab a bunch of cheap costumes. It’s great fun.

Next point, I don’t have much to say about.

Draw Attention with Visuals

I love the power of video in my class and that every school is going to be different. There are different standards for that. But a little educational two-minute video can bring that class to life so much. Show them pictures or videos of this, but anything will draw the student’s attention in.

Tell Stories

I’ll I’m not much of a storyteller, but my students forgive me and listen anyhow. And I’m like, “So have I told you the story about…” and their eyes light up, and then I tell them the story I told them three times before probably. They’re like, “Oh yeah. We’ve heard that one already.” But anyhow, they love stories, especially personal stories about your life.

Now I’m not a very private person as you may have guessed. Some people are, and that’s fine. But if you’re willing to share stories from your life, kids of all ages will love that, and it just draws them in amazingly well. And when you’re telling a story, again, be alive. Be expressive. Make it come to life.

Catch and Keep Attention with Lesson Hooks

Now, if you’re like me in teaching a multi grade classroom, it was not realistic to try to have an amazing lesson plan prepared every day with a perfect lesson hook every day for every class. No. I won’t try to fool anyone because you’re all experienced. You know I’m lying if I say you can. But it’s fun to try to bring in whenever possible. Try to bring something in to wake the students up from their slumber.

And, like, if you say, [whining monotone] “Alright, class. Open your book to page eighty-seven. We’re going to be learning about the moon today.” They’re going to be like, [disingenuous tone] “Alright. Excited.”

No. They probably won’t be. But if you start off with a simple question like, “Have you ever gone on a big road trip with your family? And then, of course, they’re going to tell you half a million stories about their road trips, and you shut them down in a dignified way.

And then you’re like, “Well, those are some really long trips. But did you realize that if you were able to drive your car up in the air to the moon, it would take 160 days of driving?  No stops. No restroom breaks. No food breaks. No get out and stretch your leg breaks. Nothing. Just straight driving you and your family for a hundred and sixty days. That’s like all of school. Never stopping for weekends or anything. That’s crazy. Now open your books to page [whatever it is] and we’re going to learn some more exciting stuff about the moon because that’s how far it is to get to the moon. That’s how long it would take for you to get there.”

And suddenly your students are like, “Woah!” rather than falling asleep.

Learn from your Mistakes and Help Your Students Learn from Their Mistakes

I have a procedure, when I talk about grades one and two, for marking corrections. So, I’m going to try to lay it out here. It’s very basic, but I’m afraid that I may make it confusing. So, let’s say that we have, a student in their workbook, a basic math question. So, the students are perfect at math, and they put [Brubacher writes on the chalk board] “5,” “5,” and “5.” And then that’s the work for the day. [Brubacher writes on the chalk board] “

In the evening, I come along, and I mark it. So I go like no,” and “no,” and “no.” So, three x’s of course because they were all wrong, I think. Good. Yes, they are. So, there’s three x’s and then I give their work back the next day. Ideally, whenever possible I tried to mark the spot with them. Immediate feedback was the most effective way. If not able to do that, this is the technique that worked next best for me.

So, I would go through, and I’d hand their work back the next day they come in the morning before school. Often, they’d come and start on their corrections before the opening bell rang. Then they would come, and they would take a couple… “Oh, yeah. This one’s 4 and this one is 7, and then they went off and played and forgot to do this one, of course.

So that evening when I finally get a chance to look at their corrections again, I come through and I say, “OK. This is good.” So, I circle, saying it’s correct. This one I can clearly see they tried. It’s still not right, so I’m not going to do anything with that one. This one, they completely skipped.

Now, when I taught grade one two, what I cared about is not that they had the right answer, but that they at least tried it. So, what I do is if I set even one question in that subject that they did not even try to correct it, they totally skipped it or missed it, I would write their name on a piece of paper along with the subject that that mistake was in.

The next day when they came to school, they had this paper on their desk, and that meant that they had to do all their corrections in that subject and have me check them before they could do anything else that day  (like, if they’ve done their work, before they could like, whatever free time activities they usually did)q. Before they could do any of that, they had to do all their corrections on that subject. It was not a punishment. It was a procedure. It was amazing to see with time how that made a difference, that they worked harder the first time and that they tried to make, like, get all the mistakes. Again, not a punishment. It wasn’t like, “Oh, you awful person!  I never make mistakes. And you…” No. We all miss things. Which is to help raise that awareness for doing care for the first time.

And then, if there were few enough students each day (had set the standard). Few enough subjects in the whole day, of all the students combined, that they at least tried the corrections, there would be rewarded the next day. For example, a new beanie baby or something. And they thought that was great. And I had way too many books to put in my library, so if they’re lucky they get a [new] book and a Beanie Baby on the same day. And they thought that was amazing. So just a simple way to hold them accountable. I can explain that more. I’m kind of rushed for time, so if you want to learn more about that, I can explain that later.

Then once a week, what I do is I put on my ketchup costume wherever she it is. [Brubacher rummages for a ketchup costume]. I would put this thing on, and we had ketchup period. We would ketchup on our corrections. So, I would put on my ketchup costume, which I’ll do for you now, and I would sit at my desk, and they would all do their corrections. And it kind of turned into a race. They had to try to get the corrections done as fast as possible. They had printed it on my desk. I would mark them, and I’d write down a paper every time they were finished. I’d cross off on a paper every subject they were done, and they’d turn to a race to see who could get their corrections caught up first.

To be honest, it sounds glamorous. I usually get frustrated and upset during the process because it was high energy, high maintenance, high… Like, we had half an hour to get this done, and the ketchup costume helped a little bit to calm everybody down. But when it’s all set up done, I’d be like, “Ah. We’re done. ” And that feeling of all our corrections are caught up for the week. We have a clean slate going forward, and it was wonderful. You don’t have to wear a ketchup bottle for that, but it does help.

Review Regularly

Obviously, this is not new to you, but I was curious, what are some favorite methods that you have for reviewing? Let’s just talk together here a bit.

Audience member: For sight words, we have this little game where I would write each sight word on popsicle stick and have them in a little back bucket. And they would pull it out, read it, put it back. But there were two or three in there that said, “Oh, snap!” And if it said, “Oh, snap!” then you had to put all of yours back in. And so, you didn’t want to pull that one, but the first person to get five popsicle sticks in their hand would win the game. And depending on if you pulled “Oh, snap!” too many times, the game could go on for a long time, and we would just, like, die laughing. Like, we had so much fun with that game.

That’s a case of controlled educational fun. It’s yeah… Great example! Anyone else?

Something I always like doing “Around the World.” The classic game “Around the World.” So those good old-fashioned ones, they might be as old as the hills for you, but these children are just little. They’ve never heard of these wonderful things before. So, some of these old classic games. One is called “Kick Out the King.” (I forget what it’s actually called. I think I had to renovate the name a little bit.) Like, they stand in the line with these flashcards and then if they get it right, they get to move up the line, and if they get wrong, they get bumped to the bottom and it’s great fun. Just any of those things.

Take Control

Take control of the curriculum that is, not maybe other areas, but take control.

One thing always bothers me, and I’m speaking to a group of experienced teachers here, so I can say it without too much fear because I don’t like teachers at my school, I don’t like telling them this as much when it’s their first or second year because but… The curriculum is your guide. The teacher’s guide is your guide. It’s not a master. So, when a teacher is just like by the book following everything like, “It said we got to do this. Now we have to do this.”

For the sake of your students and your own sanity, if you’re able to, be creative. Skip work. Add work. Skip or add quizzes, tests, and other activities, because if a student is learning, they have been successful. Even if you [tone of despair] “didn’t quite get the whole lesson done,” really, if they learned, they were successful.

But as a principal, I do encourage you to speak before you do anything too radical, with your leaders in your school and make sure that they’re on board with that. But my pastor at my church, he said one time, a number of years ago, he told me, “The seven dying words of any organization is, ‘we’ve never done it that way before.’” “The seven dying words of any organization is, ‘we’ve never done it that way before.’”

And the same for students. How many times has the being not successful? How many times has the foundation being built poorly and weekly because “we’ve never done that way before. We can’t try that in front of students. No. I’m not sure how that would work.”

Maybe it’s worth trying something new sometimes.

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