Building a Classroom Discussion Community

With this tool it’s something that you would be using at the start of the year. Taking time through out the first week to get to know your students and getting your students to get used to talking and sharing their ideas with each other. Getting them used to how it is you are hoping to be running a discussion based classroom. This will be helpful on trying to get the students to be used to sharing their ideas and listening to those ideas from all of their classmates.

Music for Volume

Music for volume is helpful for classes of all ages and I think can help productivity. When using this tool it is best to use instrumental music at a quieter volume but audible to the class. When the class gets too loud, you can refer to the music and if they can’t hear it that means it’s too loud in the classroom.

Rock-Paper-Scissors

When students have a minor disagreement on the playground or in class, instead of getting the teacher involved they are able to play rock-paper-scissors to solve the dilemma. This is good for things like who gets the ball in tetherball, who gets the spot in line, and minor disagreements they might come upon

Fork and Spoon

This tool is a great activity that can be used in the classroom to encourage students to work as a team. For this activity, students will attempt to pass a fork in one direction, and a spoon in the other, keeping the chain going in each direction. This activity helps build positive relationships in the classroom, which benefits their overall learning.

Cool Down Stroll

This tool is used when a student has a breakdown in class or is not following classroom rules. The student is asked and has the choice to take a stroll in the hallway with an adult. The adults that are available to assist this student are paraprofessionals or counselors. It’s helpful because the student can express feelings to the adult and escape the environment, they were just in. It really helps the students calm down.

You Rock

This tool is helpful because it celebrates the student’s success no matter how well they do. It is also super helpful because it is a common language and procedure within the class so when you say give Johnny 3, all the children know exactly what to do. The ever-changing cheers are very fun but, it is sometimes hard for them to remember all the details of every cheer which leads to only part of the class participating. This cheer is also very simple and quick.