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Most people perform at their best when they are in safe, organized, and clean environments. Being in an environment that allows a student to concentrate on tasks at hand, rather than worrying about the classroom bully, means a lot to students. Likewise, stu- dents tend to be more active learners when they believe their presence, efforts, and opinions are valued. Effective teachers go that extra mile to make sure their classrooms are pleasant, friendly places to learn. Even when the physical condition of the room is less than desirable, teachers make up for it in the way they interact and teach their students. Teachers are different in many ways and so are their methods of creating warm, wonderful learning environments for students. The tactics that follow may help to put a spark in your classroom environments.
greet students when the enter and leave the classroom
Greeting and welcoming your students to class each day makes a difference. Notice students for who they are. Use positive phrases like, “Way cool shirt, George,” or “You’ve got those supersonic sneakers on again, Ina. Could you turn off those colors? Ouch, my eyes!” Let students know you care, notice them, and want them in your class. For some students, these are the only times they are recognized by any adult in their life, in a positive way. Send the message, “You don’t need to get in trouble to get my attention.” It is a valuable lesson your students can learn from you every day.
use positive/negative sandwiches
How positive is your classroom? How do you know? How do your students know? Have you asked them? It has been shown that very often the rate at which positive statements are delivered is less than the rate for negative statements. Typically, there is one positive comment delivered every 20 minutes, and one negative statement every 2-5 minutes. Most of the time when students do exactly what is asked of them, their behavior goes unrecognized. Check your ratio of positive to negative statements. How often do you give positive statements to your students? Negative? Students will probably always make mistakes and therefore need feedback on them. Use the sandwich technique to soften the delivery of negatives: sandwich a negative feedback between two slices of praise. For example: “Carlos, you are a wonderful human, however, I need you to sit in your seat now. I know you will stay there until you are told otherwise, because you are such a bright guy.” Or, “You know, Hyeonsook, you always do such wonderful work. Let’s look at these algebra problems and see if we can pick up on a few of your rare errors.” By setting the stage with a positive, the negative can be more gently delivered and have less of a negative impact on students. Think about it as an adult.
What would you rather hear: “Gee, Stu, you know I love your cooking, and you amaze me with the recipes you try, but I think you may have missed on this one, or the magazine that published this recipe must have left a few steps out!” or, “You know, Stu, cooking obviously isn’t your thing.”
Use positives frequently
During every class period deliver at least four general positives to your class. That does not mean four per student, but at a minimum, at least four to the whole class. In addition to these, give positive praise to individual students. Chart your positives—you’ll be amazed at what you do and do not deliver to students. Some teachers post a big number “4” in the back of the room in bright florescent colors to remind them of the four or more goal. It’s as easy as: “This class is making amazing progress in this unit. I am honored to be your teacher!”; “Excellent work today! Turn to your neighbors and congratulate them for their efforts.”; or “Hang in there, I know you can do it, because you are the best!” Get students into the act by having them (or one or two) count the number of times you deliver positive praise to the class. Both you and your students will become more aware of their use and the good feeling that results from the use of positive praise statements.
use musical backgrounds
Music “soothes the savage beast,” or so the saying goes. Likewise, some students focus and learn equally or better when music is played in the background. Research has shown that students perform better when classical music is played during their work time. However, not all students would tolerate the playing of classical music, given the range in the music scene today. Talk to your students, find out what they think would work, and negotiate a schedule of music use. Some teachers only offer musical background options on Fridays during the last ten minutes of class, or on Mondays during the independent work time. Students negotiate the types of music they can bring in for the class. Explore what works for you and your students.
use honest i’s
Students, especially older ones, are easily able to discern honest, genuine positive praise from “puffery.” That is, when a teacher gushes praise, hype, and excitement over answers that students give. Often students are led to think things like, “Gee, the teacher must think I am really stupid. Who wouldn’t know the square root of 4 is 2.” In addition, students pick up on positive praise statements that are used in a manipulative sense. For example, “Look how wonderful Row One looks.” Be careful, overuse of this tactic can send the message that it’s okay to manipulate people like things. Examples of insincere praise or use of this tactic are: “Wow, Sarita, you did a superb job.” (Message: Teacher is making a judgment of Sarita’s performance—“YOU did a ….”); “Give yourself three extra bonus points, Roberta.” (Message: Teacher has recognized the work—not the excellence of the work.)
Using Honest I’s delivers a distinct message to students. Use specific and direct Honest I’s as follows:
- Thanks for doing what I asked.
- Thanks, I appreciate that.
- I like the way you phrased that.
- I know you are uncomfortable with that decision. I sure respect your ability to make that decision given your dilemma.
- That one was a toughie, but you did a great job attempting to figure it out!
- Nice try. Let’s look at the answer you just gave. Although it isn’t correct, I like the problem-solving steps you used.
Notice these statements are specific and recognize students’ effort through the use of “I” statements.
Adapted from M. Harmin. (1995). Strategies to inspire active learning.
smile before november!
It is dangerous to smile before November, under any circumstances. True or False?
It’s hard to believe some folks still believe this myth to be true. Effective teachers communicate the importance of teaching and learning through many vehicles. For example, rules and routines for the classroom are taught, posted, and reviewed from Day One of class. But the simple presence or lack of a smile does not maintain classroom discipline. So, if you have established classroom rules, expectations, procedures, and consequences—go ahead and show those pearly whites! Let students know you are about the business of learning and that you appreciate their cooperation and presence in your classroom.
use frequent reviews to foster confidence
Work toward making every student feel an important part of class. Reduce students’ levels of concern around learning and tough topics by bolstering their confidence first. Provide reviews of previously learned material. When introducing a new fact, concept, or strategy skill, review material students have previously mastered to allow them a successful “show what you know.” Encourage students to think back to how hard they thought the topic was when they were at the initial stage of learning or acquisition—and now look where they have come. Reinforce the notion that new material is new because they have had little or no exposure to it. So, it would be unreasonable to expect them to be automatically brilliant or accurate 100% of the time (although this does happen). Allow students to relax and embrace the new learning experiences.
Make spaces and places inviting
Bulletin boards can be time consuming. Lots of thinking and work goes into each one you create for a topic of study. However, the time spent up front pays off in the end. Things posted in your classroom have a purpose. They help make your classroom an inviting, pleasant place to learn. Even something as simple as a poster or two can perk up bare walls (and they provide a great cover for peeling paint!). One teacher allows students to bring in their personal favorite posters. Rules, procedures, and criteria are developed for the students’ poster wall. It’s hard to believe, but some of the posters that are sold in stores today are just not appropriate for a classroom wall (or any wall, for that matter!). One of the poster wall rules is that a poster must be approved and initialed by the teacher or an administrator, on the back, in order to get posting privileges. Posters are only posted on the back wall of the room and are rotated on a monthly basis. Not surprisingly, the rules and procedures reduced the potential distraction factor one might think would occur with such a classroom activity.