Classroom Management Through The Lens of Our Visions

We had a great session last night discussing the ways our management can be influenced by our visions.

Here are some of the concrete ideas we came up with:

1) Narrate towards your vision. Instead of narrating, "I see Leontarious working silently," you could say, "I see Leontarious focused on his writing because he knows it's important to express his ideas" or "I see Leontarious self-advocating for his education right now by writing his homework in his planner."

2) Start a Chain of Kindness or a Shout-Out Chain in your classroom. Cut strips of construction paper that students can write shout outs on and loop them, staple, and connect them into a chain. You can choose the theme of the shout outs- leadership, global citizenship, etc.

3) When you call parents, share with them the particular part of your vision that their student either helped or hurt to reach by his or her actions in class.

4) Have a "Leader of the week" or "Global humanitarian of the week" with specific attributes that you're looking for listed on the board where you feature the person.

5) Make a goal for positive praise- either a certain # of authentic praise comments you will make during one period or per student in your class.

Please comment with your own ideas about how to connect your management and your vision!