• Provide bell work to keep students busy when they enter the classroom.little girl writing image by Maksim Tselishchev from Fotolia.com
  
  Excellent second grade teachers must be strong classroom managers. Effective classroom managers are always prepared and are always thinking of ways to keep their students and classrooms productive and task-oriented. Harry Wong, author of "The First Days of School," says that effective classroom managers have a minimum of discipline problems.
  
  

Bell Work

• Wong says that students should walk into the classroom and immediately get to work. If students have bell work, they're less likely to get into trouble while they're waiting for class to start in the morning, or after lunch, recess or a special activity. Have the bell work posted in the same place every day. An interactive white board, chalkboard or overhead projector are all appropriate places for bell work. The bell work should be a basic question or activity that pertains to previous learning or asks students questions about content that's to come. Second grade students usually need quite a bit of positive reinforcement, so collect the bell work every few days to make sure that students are completing the assignment and provide positive feedback. Also, unobtrusively take attendance while students are working on bell work.
  
  

Sponge Activities

• Students complete work at different paces, so have activities ready for those who complete assignments quickly. Always have homework assignments posted so that students can work on them if they finish another assignment. In addition, on an empty bulletin board, staple file folders that have been cut in half. In these, place extra worksheets with easy activities for students to work on. They could be basic games or activities that reinforce past learning. Although it's not necessarily fair to assign these worksheets with some form of extra credit, consider collecting them and writing comments instead.
  
  

Predictable Activities

• Wong also says that one of the keys to having a well-managed classroom is predictability. Students should always know what's coming. Accomplish this by having the same routine every day. For instance, if you start with bell work, always follow it with the same activity. This way, transitions are easier and students know what to expect. In addition, provide second grade students with some kind of cue as to when an activity is about to end. Either do some kind of countdown, or use a timer that tells students that it's time for a new activity. Although you might follow the same daily routine, always have an agenda posted. Second grade students can usually read basic sentences, so limit your agenda to three or four word phrases.