These guided notes teaches one how to be proactive and in charge of their life. Morning meeting builds classroom community and classroom camaraderie. Thats where positive behavior strategies come in. The stronger the relationship and the better we understand our students, the more knowledge and goodwill we have to draw on when the going gets tough, writes Marieke van Woerkom, a restorative practices coach at the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility in New York. While it can be easy to remain stuck in the first step of identification, to be proactive we must move to the second step of reflection. You can order a paperback copy of the complete book on Amazon or contact me directly for discount pricing on multiple copies. Dont single out certain studentsits the behavior you should be focused on, not the student. You are being proactive when you: You're in Charge: I am a responsible person. But most important, use the survey data! I choose my actions, attitudes, and moods. If you dont use it, the Bb footer will slide up. Habit 1 teaches one "I am the force. In a study published last year, greeting students at the door helped teachers set a positive tone for the rest of the day, boosting academic engagement by 20 percentage points while reducing disruptive behavior by 9 percentage pointsadding roughly an hour of engagement over the course of the school day. Various cultures are woven together to make up part of each individual student. It is a great opportunity to give them a little help becoming older while also emphasizing hard work, time management, and balancing fun activities to further enrich learning. You can use this area for legal statements, copyright information, a mission statement, etc. Ryan & Deci, 2000. They can manifest emotionally: apathy, negativity. Make sure the classroom is a safe space where students can express their ideas, concerns, and questions about their cultures freely together. These questions haunt every teacher. Start sentences with I choose to I get to I want to I can. In addition to seeking out a mentor, you can also try job shadowing a professional in a field that interests you. 7 Habits Character Education Social Skills School Counselor Elementary Counseling Using our hearts to be proactive. Maybe its a tip for Valentines Day, or a tip for the 4th of July, etc. Have students use YouTube videos, TED talks, a blog post, and other online resources to get more in-depth on a topic they are studying. It is important to make sure that books used in class represent a variety of cultures. All throughout the day you are teaching your students. Its not about policing your students, but about interacting with them. Strategies forestablishing, maintaining, and restoring relationshipssuch as regular check-ins, and focusing on solutions instead of problemscan reduce disruptions by up to 75 percent. 2. Use of this website is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Set clear expectations: Instead of just displaying rules for behavior, have a discussion with your students about why those rules matter. (17) $3.50. 7. For example, if you are a teacher, have your students make posters and charts about your lesson or their projects to display in the classroom. Student autonomy and course value: The unique and cumulative roles of various teacher practices. Service projects develop awareness and understanding. Athletes have known for a long time the positive value of visualization (Kremer, Moran, & Kearney, 2019). Required fields are marked *. A series of mini posters that spell out the word FRIENDS. We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Your email address will not be published. For example, telling your students that youll be asking them to write journal entries based on certain projects or activities will make it easier for those who havent been able to grasp how to do something in class. Frame these conversations always as proactive and solution-forwardnot gripe sessions. 13. Collaborate with specialists to use data to create supports forindividual students. Commit to the long haul and trust the process. And more often than not, they can manifest repeatedly. This activity will help students learn the difference between reactive and proactive language! Again, behaviors are both adaptive and communicative. Create this inclusive learning environment for your middle schoolers by checking out some of my favorite ideas for engaging cultural activities below! Sometimes kids just need reminders that things aren't as hard as they seem, and that they can work through any challenge. In addition to self-portraits, a student cultural art fair would also be an engaging and interactive idea for cultural awareness. Giving students a sense of ownership in the room, paired with clear expectations for behavior, can have surprisingly positive effects. The Importance of Being Proactive (Plus Tips) | Indeed.com Support students: While sometimes the root cause of challenging behaviors lies beyond an educators purview, often it is related to some personal struggle with the content. (in this role play, you should be your child's sibling.) It outlines a few key terms as well as gives simple life examples to demonstrate proactive vs. reactive. Built with love in the Netherlands. Strategies for Managing Challenging Student Behaviors - Edutopia How is my innate response to this student serving me? Elevate students: Often, students act out in order to earn attention. The BEST Rock, Paper, Scissors Battle The Best Rock Paper Scissors Game If everyone in their classroom is engaged, theyll be more likely to participate in whatever activity you layout for them in the days ahead. Basic Student Skills: 5 Ways to Learn to Be a Proactive Student You can also have them write out their own ideas about things that you have been covering so far or things that will be coming up in the near future and use those as a review source for a few minutes before moving on to something else. This classic game needs only a piece of paper and a pencil. This is a great supplemental resource for your Leader in Me activities.This bundle includes the first 4 habits of happy healthy tweens and teens.A . Copyright 2002-2023 Blackboard, Inc. All rights reserved. However, while children are innately driven to learn and develop, schools can fail to capitalize on students intrinsic motivation and instead emphasize extrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2017). On top of it all, you manage student behavior. Either way is effective. Autonomy-supportive teachers believe we develop education from within, whereas controlling teachers act under the belief in education as formation from without (Ryan & Deci, 2017). w w + `- LP 7 . Its also necessary to maintain them over the course of the school year, and to repair them when conflicts arise. Lessons should be taught over two consecutive grade levels in order to cover all concepts outlined below. Art Room Poster & Artist ToolkitsHang this up in your art room after you teach your students ways to fix their mistakes!This is being Proactive before the students have a blow-out!Show them things likeLight Bulb moments, glue overs, cutting out, erasing, flip papers over, color/paint over, etc. This activity is one of my absolute favorites to use at the beginning of the year. Play Team Games. These strategies are also known as positive behavior supports, or PBS. A 2012 study introduced gardening into the school curriculum and found that it led to a significant decrease in disruptive behavior at school and reduced absenteeism (Skinner, Chi, & The Learning-Gardens Educational Assessment Group, 2012). Finding effective ways and great ideas for engaging classroom activities for middle schoolers can play a big role in these things. It reminds students of some of the qualities it takes to be a successful student such as:-Time Management-Prioritizing School Work-How to work well with others-Empathy-Celebrating Other's Strengths-Being Proactive-Having a healthy diet-Doing the right thing*Can be used for distance Learning*. as long as parents are comfortable with students taking responsibility for these important items when it is their turn to share. This reflection is twofold: examining the student and ourselves. This resource includes concepts and activities on how to be proactive, understand how negative language affect their actions, learn to recognize and understand the things they can control and not control as well as recognize their bad habits and challenge Subjects: Character Education, Classroom Management, For All Subjects Grades: 4th - 12th One idea that I have used is creating a tip sheet of different times of year that you can put up on the board for all to see. Be Proactive - Utah Education Network This way, it will be easier for you to find a way to connect with your students on the subject matter that youre teaching them. Survey students with academic and nonacademic questions: Use the surveys for one-on-one conversations, fun class trivia games, grouping and seating arrangements, sport and club attendance, etc. And now, this is compounded by our current reality: a traumatic timeduring which many of us are just trying to hang on and stay in the professionthat has reduced our patience, taxed our energy, and increased our reactivity. 3. Having them write their own questions and answers to tie into the curriculum or real-life situations that they can learn from will help them learn better than having it done for them every day by you. If you are interested in registering (its totally free), visit the Finding Your Student Engagement Formula Challenge registration page and you will be notified the next time the series is available. Maybe all three! As an expert and writer, she helped build Understood from its earliest days. Item is a PDF file, 8.5"x11" paper size - 1 Page. In an environment where interaction is easy and there is mutual respect, students remain engaged and teachers are more responsive to their needs. Kremer, J., Moran, A. P., & Kearney, C. J. First, students must plan how to progress toward meeting goals. Edutopia and Lucas Education Research are trademarks or registered trademarks of the George Lucas Educational Foundation in the U.S. and other countries. This includes creating detailed plans, monitoring, adjusting, and reflecting. More often than not, I realize: Behaviors that challenge me mirror me. We used the poster printer at our school and had all our students sign it as a gift to our admins! Volunteers could be older children within the school or members of local supportive sports teams. With your students, co-create classroom expectations that are observable, measurable, positive, and understandable. The last thing I do is plan certain activities for certain days of the week or month. Included in this product: You can also develop a more collaborative relationship with students by working together to understand when and under what circumstances a behavior occurs. Instruc, These printables make a great gift for teachers, secretaries, nurses, booster club, and principals, counselors, and more! Edutopia and Lucas Education Research are trademarks or registered trademarks of the George Lucas Educational Foundation in the U.S. and other countries. Children paired with one-on-one volunteers showed increased positive attitudes and enthusiasm, as rated by themselves and their teachers. 4. If a student looks neat and clean and is looking at the teacher, then the teacher will see that and give the student positive attention. How to be proactive in high school - Alberta Give behavior-specific praise: It may seem counterintuitive, but acknowledging positive behavior and ignoring low-level disruptions can be more effective than punishing or disciplining students. . $16.96. Initiating student engagement as the classroom teacher is the best thing when you know you have your students attention and theyre surprised when the end of a class period comes. Learn more: Multicultural Music Education. Positive behavior strategies are evidence-based, proactive approaches to changing challenging student behavior. Students who are surveyed without ever having that data shared with them and acted upon are just guinea pigs. We must treat each behavior as both adaptive and communicative. The secret sauce to developing engaging classroom activities for middle schoolers is finding a classroom activity that appeals to their interest and provides enough challenge for them to learn, but not so much that it becomes too difficult. You plan and deliver lessons to cover the curriculum. Your goal in these role plays is to encourage your child to stop and think before reacting. A novel environment may offer additional benefits, including feelings of self-confidence and self-worth, to those performing less well in traditional subjects. Invite older family members of middle school students or other community stakeholders to communicate and share the aspects of their culture with students. While not a direct score of intrinsic motivation, there are strong links between wellbeing and an individuals satisfaction of psychological needs (Gonzlez Olivares et al., 2020). It is called Finding Your Student Engagement Formula and it walks you through those four keys and how to implement them in the classroom. What you say next is going to be critically important. A welcoming space can reduce anxiety and boost academic performance. Plan, teach, and practice routines and procedures. Recent research confirms what Kounin and Gump discovered decades ago. This also goes well with Bucket Filling. Its also a good way to get them excited about learning something. Making progress with students who are displaying challenging behaviors is never one and done. Include students' home culture as a valuable part of the classroom by making morning meetings a time of exploring different culturally relevant questions. Explore specific examples of what behavioral communication can look like in the classroom. Have them read the book(s) and then create flashcards for each chapter to review the information from each book. make it a competition, a time limit contest, etc.). Given that kids are more likely to follow directions when they understand why you have given them those directions, it is important that they know what it is that they are doing and how it is that you expect them to do it while also having a great time. Ensure the goals are clear, realistic, and achievable; this SMART goal template can help. Be Proactive. If you can have a collaborative relationship with a business professional, I suggest having the students create small posters to hang around the office that define vocabulary words used in meetings or that share strategies that are being discussed in class that could help. This allows students to understand they are in an environment that is considerate and aware. Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. Imagine the emotion you are feeling: anger, fear, embarrassment, or fatigue, and the words starting to form in your mind. Those who deal with these students on the daily know that this is a good time to work on concepts like team building or social-emotional learning because they need it at this juncture more than ever. 1. Tell your child that you are "soooo bored" and there is nothing fun to do. Try doing something today that youve always been scared to do. May 16, 2015 - Explore Sandy Fields's board "Be Proactive Activities", followed by 194 people on Pinterest. Teaching the Whole Child Store. They found a way to connect, encourage, and motivate us to be our very best. Blank notebook paper. Provide rewards (when appropriate) for demonstrating positive behavior. Many students may not know about the depth of their family culture. Proactive Teaching Resources | Teachers Pay Teachers Help kids learn skills they can use throughout their lives to be more successful. Learn more: Resilient Educator and Learning for Justice. MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY What happens when you give a homeless man $100? Handle every situation of "no control" like a dog: move on! 50 Mental Health Activities for Primary School These behaviors are labeled "happy" and "sad" because of how these behaviors make the children and others feel. Developing engaging classroom activities for middle schoolers can be a challenge, but finding a fun way to excite your middle school students be it in small groups, whole class, a scavenger hunt, class discussions, or even a memory game can help challenge students to engage within the learning process in some of the best ways they dont even realize theyre doing. Being intrinsically motivated rather than driven by fear of punishment or external reward and doing something because it is fascinating, enjoyable, and piques our curiosity boosts our performance (Ryan & Deci, 2017). As Jerome Schultz, PhD, puts it, If you can read the need, you can meet the need.. Proactive people choose their own way and take responsibility for the results. These activities will help me test my students on how well theyve been learning what they were supposed to do and will help me figure out if I need to go over things again. For this reason, many activities should have a variety of ways in which you can present them (and they can present them back to you) so that everyone in the class has an opportunity to get everything that you are hoping they get. Several questionnaires are available for testing intrinsic motivation and related concepts. The opposite of being proactive is to be reactive, in which you respond to events after they occur. Be Proactive Grade 7 - Holly middle school (e.g., reading other sample questions, reviewing the textbook, joining a study group), What steps will I take? Student misbehavior has been particularly agonizing for teachers this year, but there are proactive steps educators can take to remedy it. Any factor or social context leading to more support for relatedness, autonomy, or competence is likely to result in better learning and associated behaviors in the class. # # # # # 7 7 7 7 4 k \ 7 _. t . (2018) used the IMI and the SFSS to understand the impact of outdoor activity on students intrinsic motivation. I use restorative practices as a frame, reminding myself that my ultimate goal is relationship. Or the behavior could be a way to avoid a difficult situation or task. Because differences are our greatest strength. This is a good reflection sheet to use at the end of each grading period or could be used weekly even as a way to monitor accountability in students choices of being proactive or reactive. It doesnt even have to be something that you are covering within the lesson plan. I would a, No one understands what a teacher does unless they, Raise your hand if you've sat back this year and w, Im so honored to have been a part of the #edtec, student engagement as the classroom teacher, Click Here for More Student-Centered Ideas, Student Engagement Formula Challenge registration page, Poster Board, Chalkboard or whiteboard to project, Construction paper, markers, and glue to make construction letters. Lesson 8: Proactive and Reactive Language. Create a costume parade to give students a chance to dress in traditional cultural dress. This plan should be used as a template to write your pla, Students will learn how to become proactive and intentional. You can use the cultural lesson found here to open students' thinking about what we often do and do not see about people's cultures. This field guide will offer suggestions you can use right now to prepare your class for a future guest teacher, specifics for any class guest (planned or emergency) and ways to handle possible misbehavior. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Having these kinds of activities planned as often as possible will make sure your students have a better grasp of their subjects. Also included is a "quick and dirty" exit ticket/worksheet to give students after your mini lesson/discussion on good character. Intrinsic motivation and engagement as active ingredients in garden-based education: Examining models and measures derived from self-determination theory. Even work set for completion in a specific way (and with a particular deadline) allows for some degree of autonomy. This nursery rhyme pack includes 7 elements: 1. Lotus Diagrams are a great visual to remind students of school-wide expectations. Thank you for sharing this article! Let your students lead the way with the content and watch how they gain new confidence in their abilities to learn and then teach others what they know. This lesson uses visuals and metaphors to help students have a more concrete idea of what being proactive looks like. Encourage middle school students to reach out to the community through service projects. These small little tips can help the students to be better prepared and give them a sense of independence. It is important to plan for a number of engaging activities throughout the unit because chances are your students are going to be more engaged with a problem related to what theyre studying. This is the disclaimer text. Once students needs are identified, the teacher can provide each student with opportunities to gain a degree of control over their learning, encouraging them to take the initiative and seek relevant information. Motivation in nonbiological systems (artificial intelligence) is not a given; it must be built in. Properly handling students' behavior in the classroom is one of the earliest things that every teacher learns. Here are some engaging classroom activities for middle schoolers that will get the students involved in education and participation while learning their ABCs: This classic game can be utilized with any subject matter.