Regarding respectful behavior, well, I model it like WOAH! I never yell and I always use "the magic word." I keep calm but coach and encourage students often. It's already paying off. I see many of my kiddos rephrasing their statements to each other. ("Shut up!" --> "Could you please stop talking so loudly?") But it's certainly a process. In my room, whining = more work for you. We've lost a lot of opportunities in the first few weeks too--but they're quick to learn how to keep their mouths closed if they have something negative to say! :D I was a little scared the first few days of school, but I'm learning that 3rd graders really can be "molded." It does take a LOT of patience and smiles and correcting and encouragement, but my goal is to produce 20 respectful youngins!
Now...what other great tidbits can you fabulous educators out there give me on how to instill respect in today's children?
We are working to be bucket fillers in my classroom. It is one way to accentuate the positive, as we focus on the nice things that we say and do to/for one another, which in turn will build respect. Have you thought about bucket filling?
ReplyDeleteI love it! I love that you used "closed". In my room, I ground them from things. Two years ago, my class was grounded from tape, markers, and the pencil sharpener. They were one warning away from being grounded from the carpet. At one point, they were grounded from cards until after Christmas.
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ReplyDeleteI struggled BIG time last year with my class concerning respect for library books(both our classroom library and the school library!). I also closed my library as well as limited students book choices to selected ones I had in a basket (usually on topic for our content area *grin*) They missed the choice and that really seemed to help them get back on track.
ReplyDeleteI am also your newest follower :)