Welcome to the end of March!  Spring break is fast approaching for many meaning the end of school is not far away.  Once again, thanks for being a part of our mailing list and we will do our best to keep the strategies and ideas coming.  Be sure to check out our website:  www.disciplineassociates.com
Here are two cool ideas to try in your class room!  Enjoy!

Kids design the classroom
 I love this idea.  However, it comes with a warning.  Be careful to set this up by telling your kids if they abuse this you will immediately revoke the privilege.  A teacher I met in New Hampshire allows her students to design the room.  Now, I personally like my room designed in a horseshoe shape so students can hear and see each other.  That being said, this can be a fun way to get them to take some ownership of their behavior.  They can arrange the student and teacher desks wherever they want and in whatever design they choose.  I did this in my room and usually found my desk right in the middle of the room.  Most teacher desks are off in a corner, or out of the way.  It will feel uncomfortable at first, but the kids love it.  Be sure to tell them that if they abuse the privilege you will revert back to your boring old style.  The only requirement Beth uses is that the design changes every three weeks.  Students are not allowed to sit directly next to the person two designs in a row.   
 
Quotes or inspirational sayings on the wall
 If you have attended one of my seminars you know what I am about to say.  I believe in the power of positive people and I try to surround myself with such.  Yes, positive people. And yes, I teach unmotivated, disrespectful, and disruptive kids.  So how do I manage this?  I engulf my room and students in positive sayings, inspirational quotes, and “can-do” messages.  This idea came in my second year teaching.  I was working in a middle class district, teaching a smattering of inclusion and self-contained.  The building I was in, Rush-Henrietta Senior High School, had positive quotes at the top of every wall.  Each quote and its author was stenciled into the wall in a very creative, artsy, type way.  At the beginning of the semester I took my class on a field trip around the school.  Their job was to wander the halls and write down their top ten quotes, and the author of each.  When we came back to the room, each student wrote their favorites on the board.  We then decided on the class’s favorite ten.  We then stenciled the top ten on the walls of my room.   My class did a writing project where they explained why they liked the quote, what it meant to them personally, and how they could apply it to their life.  This assignment almost always generated a 100% completion rate.  It also got my students interested in learning things about people they never would have considered.
 If you were a seminar participant you know some of my all time favorites.  Remember, this is not a time for the teacher to judge the author of the quote, but a time for me to teach about the author of the quote.
“Never look down on anyone, unless you’re helping them up”
- Jessie Jackson
“I have taken more than 9000 shots in my career.  I have lost almost 300 games.  On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the games winning shot… and missed.  And I have failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why… I succeed.”
-Michael Jordan
“No matter how good you get you can always get better and that's the exciting part!”
-Tiger Woods
“I will promise you one thing, if you always promise to do what’s best for kids there will always be a place for you in education… and you will always piss some people off!”
  -Barbara Mendler (yes, my wonderful mom!)

See you at the end of April!

Discipline Associates... Classroom Management Specialists