“Hey, Me Too!”
Teacher asks questions and student will be given a paddle to raise if it relates to them. Students will be able to see what they have in common with their peers. This strategy can be used as an ice breaker to build connections.
Eastern Washington University
Teacher asks questions and student will be given a paddle to raise if it relates to them. Students will be able to see what they have in common with their peers. This strategy can be used as an ice breaker to build connections.
Get to Know Dice are used for an icebreaker at the beginning of the school year. Students create their own dice with questions on each side related to what they want to learn about their classmates. It is a helpful way to begin creating a community of students that know and care about one another.
The contingency contract is an agreement between the student and teacher which states academic goals as well as behavioral goals for the student. Students are reinforced with rewards or praise when they have followed proper behaviors or are asked to revisit and review their contract when they are not representing appropriate behavior. Each person(s) involved in the contract will also sign their contract to show student involvement and understanding of their procedures.
This tool is a sheet of paper with multiple questions on it about the misbehavior that occurred. Often students get disciplined and don’t know what they did wrong; this sheet allows them to reflect on what they did wrong and what they learned from their misbehavior.
Popsicle Sticks are in a cup and each one has the student’s name on it in the class, which help to easily form groups. This supports students because forming groups is one less thing a student has to worry about. All students end up with a partner or will end up in groups smoothly and easily.
Kovalik’s lifelong guidelines and life skills include anything and everything that one can use over the course of their lives to help form the foundation for positive, valued relationships. The particular skills your class focuses on can be exactly what’s listed, or can be created collaboratively by your classroom according to the skills that they find most important. These life skills also help shape the culture of the classroom along with a creating a pathway to good classroom leadership and encourage reflective thinking.
Tribes community is a preventative tool to create a sense of belonging in the classroom for the students. Through the development of respect responsibility etc., you can build a positive environment in your classroom.
Positive phrasing is praising students who are demonstrating pro social skills. It is helpful when some students are having a hard time staying on task so they can see what they should be doing.
Although it is often easy to get frustrated when attempting to redirect students that have gotten off task, it is important to remember that raising one’s voice or losing one’s composure is unlikely to help make the corrective process a positive experience. By staying calm and using a quiet tone of voice, redirection can be accomplished in a more constructive manner.
Using positive teacher language is when the teacher focuses on the good outcome of when a student does something right instead of focusing on what happens when the student does something wrong. The tool is useful to encourage students and the teacher gets to model treating others well through this tool.