For those of us who are under sail with the new school year, the first day(s) and week(s) of school are often a time when we’re setting expectations and limits, mostly in a way that’s natural and normal. Students want to know what you expect and what you mean by “attentive, positive and working hard” and/or…
Check out this instantly useful video of North Star 6th grade math teacher Michael Rubino demonstrating some new aspects of the 100% technique we’re working on this summer: Radar–the art of seeing what’s happening in your classroom. Be Seen Looking–the art of tacitly reminding students that you notice and care whether they do as expected. What…
Earlier this month I blogged about the Art of the Consequence, sharing ideas for how to give consequences so they actually improved your classroom culture—as opposed to, say, setting a student off and making him or her even more difficult—and just maybe helped students to learn and reflect and grow. As part of the post I…
We’ve been doing a lot of work at Taxonomy Towers on a new topic: The Art of the Consequence. Roughly, it’s how to give a consequence in a way that successfully changes student behavior and avoids a downward spiral where behavior actually gets worse in response to a consequence. A few rules of thumb. In general…