Teacher Tip Tuesday: Reset
Whether your district observes a Spring Break or not, this time of the year usually feels like the right time to do a “reset” with your students. Our Teacher Tip today is: Reset Expectations. Even though this is a busy time, it’s okay to give yourself permission to prioritize resetting expectations for the last few months of the school year. I’ve often found that the years I don’t take time to revisit our class norms and values (and perhaps set new ones), the last two months feel extra long. My students and I are simply trying to make it through each day until the last day of school. But that’s never how I want to spend the end of my year with students.
Your ideas and vision for resetting expectations will be unique to your class and your teaching style. To hopefully inspire an idea of your own, I’ll share one approach I usually introduce around February or March. By this time of the year, students understand my baseline expectations for them very well. (Whether they always follow those expectations is another story completely!) So I introduce something called: Leadership Points. Every student I notice showing leadership by taking initiative and going above and beyond my normal expectations gets a Leadership Point. These are discrete. They are one-by-one inch slips of paper that say things like: “Thanks for being a leader!” “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” “You are making a difference!” I have these in my pocket all day so I can quietly hand students a Leadership Point when I see them making these decisions. Then we have a store or a drawing so they can turn their Leadership Points in for a prize.
For me, this approach has been a win-win because it uplifts the students who always seem to be contributing extra to the classroom without receiving recognition. Also, other students start to become aware of the actions that are earning the other leaders points, so they begin to adopt these behaviors as well. What approaches work well for your class when you reset expectations in the spring? What new ideas are you excited to try? I’m excited to hear your Teacher Tips as well! Email me at: christina.meline@teammeline.com to share your wisdom!
