It is scary that bullying has become so much more difficult to find and control.
When I was a child and you heard the term bully you tended to think about the boy on the playground who pushed other kids or pulled the ponytails of the girls. Today, bullying is ever present in technology and the implications of cyber bullying are vast. A mean word or an embarrassing picture can be spread faster and broader than we ever imagined. We read of terrible stories of girls posting locker pictures of another girl to humiliate her, or boys dominating another boy and posting the pictures and videos for the world to see. This level and depth of humiliation and mental torture is beyond what most of us ever had to deal with growing up. This means we have to be even more vigilant in protecting our kids and also making sure our kids are not the ones doing these things. Talk to your kids / students about cyber bullying.
For students
Do not respond/engage to the abuse. No back and forth. You can never win in a back and forth online argument!
Talk to someone about it. Don’t keep it to yourself. Ignoring bullying only leads to its escalation.
Keep records/print off messages if possible, to help identify the bully.
If necessary get a new number, account, give it out one person at a time and keep a diary daily to record any abuse, your tormenter may be closer than you think.
Take a break – unplug.
For schoolsÂ
Amend anti-bullying policies to include text messaging, cell phone use, and online bullying.
Make a commitment to educate teachers, students, and parents about cyber bullying.
Make sure parents know whom to contact at the school if there is a problem.
Never allow a known incident of bullying to pass unchallenged and not dealt with.
For parentsÂ
Make this topic easy to discuss. Proactively ask your kids if they are having problems. Look at their accounts. Forget worrying about intruding, parent them!
Place and keep the computer in an open, common space. Look at their phones and tablets for warning signs.
Inform Internet Service Provider (ISP) or cell phone service provider of abuse.
Do not erase messages; keep for evidence.
Software help – McAfee Parental Controls filter both IM and Chat Rooms. Tracker programs. Be vigilant if you suspect cyber bullying and fight technology with technology.
General Guidelines for talking with your child about Cyber Bullies
Parenting a child who is being bullied is very difficult. Every fiber within you wants to step in and be the protector, confront the bully, yell at the teacher, and even scream at the parents of the bully. You want to protect your child. But as a parent you have to know and understand that this is part of growing up, and your child needs to learn. They need your protection but not as an avenger. They need your protection as a nurturer. Parents, if your child is being bullied please do the following:
Listen to your child. When their self-confidence is being diminished at school you have to build it back up at home. Tell your child that he or she has done the right thing by coming to you. Advise them to report ALL bullying.
Parents and teachers must help them see, believe, and understand that they are worth hearing. Tell your child that he/she has done the right thing by talking about what has happened. Ask your child’s teacher to help your child talk about what is happening. Don’t leave it to chance. Collaborate with school personnel to address the problem. Talk to the principal, teacher, counselor, or anyone else you need to in order to make sure the problem stops.
Sadly, it is also important for parents and the student to keep written records. Preserve any evidence of aggression. It can help protect your child in case a bully is denying their behavior to protect themselves. In some cases, it can help to role-play assertive behavior with your child. Help your child stand up to a bully in a safe yet assertive manner.
Across the board, it is important to speak very clearly and plainly with your child about what is going on. Give them simple, straightforward advice about where to go and who to reach out to at school or anywhere that they feel threatened or are in danger. Assure your child that there is nothing wrong with reaching out for help.
Finally, MAKE YOUR CHILD FEEL SPECIAL! When a child is bullied it isn’t the physical results that last, it is the mental. When a child feels like he has been humiliated or made to feel less than others then the mental and emotional impact is much more damaging and long-lasting. Your kids have to have your help. You have to rebuild their self esteem and this doesn’t happen by accident. Do these things to rebuild your child’s emotional security:
Tell them you love them.
Hug them.
Sit and talk to them. Show real interest in them.
Set them up to succeed. Find something they can do and praise them for it!
Step in and help. Let them see you as being there for them.
Make sure they know that home is safe. Home is shelter. Home is absolute.
MAKE YOUR CHILD FEEL SPECIAL!
It is a brave new world. Our conveniences and comforts that are afforded through technology are one of our great achievements. However, these technologies can also harbor a dark side. Cyber bullying, online gambling, pornography, sexting, and the list goes on. These are real issues your children and your students face today that many of us did not even dream about when we were kids. You have to get involved with your kid’s and your student’s online lives and when you see the tell-tale signs of cyber bullying or any other cyber issue step in.
Bullying, even online bullying, can completely change the way a child views him or herself. Don’t let your favorite piece of technology become your student’s nightmare.
Do you remember your first day of school? It
has been nearly 40 years for me, but I still remember my mom walking me
to school on my first day of kindergarten in Hobbs, New Mexico. I
remember her holding my hand tightly as we crossed the street. I
remember her telling me that it was going to be great and that I was
going to learn so much. I remember walking across the schoolyard
playground where I had spent many afternoons, but somehow it was
different today. I remember opening the school door and smelling the
remnants of the school breakfast coupled with the smell of cleaners. The
hallway floors were brighter that morning than they would be for the
next 9 months. I remember mom walking me to my classroom and helping me
find my desk. I remember finding my cubby and putting my Peter Pan lunch box in it and finding out another boy in our class had the same Peter Pan lunch box. I just knew he and I would be great friends. I remember my colors. I had a whole box of unbroken, unused crayons.
They were beautiful and they were mine. I remember my teacher talking
to me for the first time. She spoke softly but firmly, and then she put
her hand on my shoulder to let me know everything was going to be ok. I
remember looking out the window at the playground when the bell rang. I
remember seeing my mom walking away from the school and I remember she was crying… just like me. I remember my first day of school.
I
couldn’t tell you what happened on the majority of days after that
first day, but that first day is seared into my memory. The smells, the
sights, the noises, and the anticipations are all still easily retrieved
in my mind. To this day when I walk into an elementary school, there is
always something that takes me back to that day. There is something so special about the first day of school for a new learner. It is scary and exhilarating and fun and hard and crowded and lonely
all at once. It is the start of the single greatest intellectual growth
journey anyone will ever take. These little ones walk into that
building unaware of the world around them and they leave 12 years later
ready to contribute to society. Amazing!
Teachers: do you remember your first day when you walked into your classroom and you were in charge?
Do you remember the anticipation as you parked your car, wondering if you were really ready to be in charge? Do you remember the second guesses as you walked to the school building? Do you remember bouncing emotionally between feeling prepared and wondering if you are really up for the challenge? Do you remember
seeing your students come into your room for the first time and the
empty feeling in the bottom of your stomach as you watch their faces and
listened to the talk and saw their interactions… and you began to
realize that you must be in control of all of these? Do you remember
your first day as a teacher? Do you ever stop and think that those
students who walked into your classroom on that first day will leave
your classroom in 9 months one step closer to independence and being a
contributor? Amazing!
There is something truly special about this time of the year.
Whether
the student is a brand new to kindergarten or is a returning middle or
high schooler, there is something special about the start of school.
Summer break is a great time for rest and fun and work and lots of
things other than a primary focus on school. But the best thing that
summer break offers is an opportunity to start over this school year. The students who didn’t do as well as they should have last year have a new clean slate
this year. Last year’s trouble makers may be known to the faculty, but
when they walk in on that first day they are walking in with a clean
slate. That shy little girl who couldn’t work up the nerve to speak in
class last year is starting over
this year. The knot in her stomach will be churning when she walks down
the crowded hall for the first time, but she is walking the hall with a
clean slate. None of the kids have a mess up or a social disaster or an academic failure sitting on their shoulders for this school year. The first day of school is one of life’s rare times when people get to start over.
Teachers,
the first day of school may seem routine to you if you are a seasoned
teacher, but it never gets routine to your students. Use the magical excitement
of the first day to challenge your students to be better than before.
Spend time on the first day helping your students truly understand that
they get a start over today, something not offered very often in life.
On the first day they can truly reframe the perception the teachers,
their friends, and the other people in the school have of them. The shy
girl should be encouraged to make her voice heard. The troublemaker
should be explicitly told that he is starting over and that he controls
what people think of him. The students who struggled last year should be reminded that this year is new and last year’s struggles stayed with last year.
The first day of school is almost like a mental “Etch-a-Sketchâ€: Summer break was the big shake… and the first day, students are starting with a clean screen
to paint their personal picture upon. Teachers can be the influence of
what that picture ends up being. The first day of school affords a true
conversation with all of your students where you can honestly say that they will control your opinion of them, because you are just now getting the opportunity to truly know them. Tell them that you are rooting for them
to make a great impression. Tell them that you are rooting for them to
make friends. Tell them that you are rooting for them to show the other
students how they have grown during their time apart.
Many
teachers want to lay down the law the first day of school and set a
tone of unrelenting discipline. While I firmly believe in classroom
rules and discipline, this hard-edged approach takes that clean slate
and shades it with tempered expectations. The hard-edged approach tells your students that you don’t trust that they will act the way they should act. It tells them that you are there as their disciplinarian as much as their teacher. Is that really the message you want them to hear?
The
first day of school is special. A clean slate is an opportunity that
can be fostered and nurtured. Tell your students your rules, but couple
those rules with an excited anticipation of the days to come. Think about going to a movie:
The best part of the movie is usually the previews before the actual
movie begins. Nearly every preview elicits reactions that surpass those
of the actual movie. That is because the previews offer a glimpse of things to come and that is exciting. It builds anticipation.
What if…you make the first day of school your preview?
What if…you couple the rules of the classroom with a synopsis of the wonders of learning that your students will come to know?
Some of you may be shaking your head thinking that what you are teaching is not exciting enough, but that can’t be
true. If you are teaching it then it is necessary– and if it is
necessary then it should be taught. Since it should be taught that means
you were trained to teach it– which means somewhere along the way you had a passion for what you are teaching. Make the first day of school the day when you revive your passion for teaching and give your students a preview of the days and weeks and months to come. Let them see you loving the knowledge you are going to impart and let them see your passion.
The first day of school is the day of starting over for your students. Make it your “Etch-a-Sketch†day as well.
Recapture that knot in your stomach of excited anticipation. Remind
yourself why you became a teacher and then look at your students as your
blank slates upon which you have the privilege of painting life’s
lessons. Is there anything more exciting than the first day of school??
There
aren’t many jobs that can match that of an educator for sheer workload.
Whether an administrator, teacher, clinician, or support staff – being
an educator means you are going to have an extremely hectic day, and
tomorrow it will always start all over again. Educators do not have the
luxury of completing a task and then stopping, resting and basking in
the glory of a job well done. For an educator, when a task is complete
you move directly on to the next one, because there is about to be a
room full of students sitting and staring at you– waiting to hear and
see what is next.
For
most the start of school is right around the corner. For some, school
has already started. Given that time is both precious and in short
supply for an educator, let’s talk about 5 simple things that can make a
classroom a better learning environment.
1. Time Invested Pays Off
| Some educators like to lay down the law as soon as students walk in
the door. Some are jumping and running immediately with a lesson or with
rules or with a lecture. Think about the message this sends. It tells
the students that the educator is not interested in them individually,
and instead, they are just part of a “herd†mentality and it is their
turn through the cattle-car.
Instead
of jumping straight into teaching on the first day, allot time to get
to know your students. Ask them to introduce themselves and purposefully
ask each one a question about himself or his summer. Don’t just go
around the room and have everyone stand and say their names; personalize
the process with a question directed to each student. This is a quick
and easy way to make eye contact, start a dialogue, and set the tenor
for direct communication. Spending 15 minutes getting to know your
students and talking with, not to, them is an investment for the near
future when you will be lecturing and teaching and disciplining. People,
students included, put in more effort when they feel they are a part of
the process and that they are individually valued.
2.Put it in Writing | After
meeting your students, take a little time to set the boundaries of
classroom acceptability and behavior. Now is the time to give the rules
and explain your demands for the class and the individual students. Most
teachers do this, but take it a step further and have two different
posters on the wall. The first should be your rules for the class and
the second should be your expectations and demands. Here’s the key to
both:
Rules: Determine
your 5 most important rules and then put them in order of importance on
your poster and remind your students of them each day when class
begins. This is a subtle way of continuously placing emphasis on the
rules of the classroom. Make sure your rules include specific rules
about respect to you as the teacher and to each other as fellow
students.
Expectations: As
important as rules, expectations set the tone and tenor of the class.
Again, determine your top 5 expectations and begin each class reading
them aloud to the students. This sets a framework for everything else
you will do in your class that day. You are the educator. You are the
instructor. You are the teacher. Your expertise should be the guiding
force for the students learning, so boldly place your expectations for
the whole class to see and then remind them daily of those expectations.
3.Let them See Your Passion
| Education is a passion. Teaching is a calling not just a job.
Sometimes educators have taught for so long that the fire is almost
diminished by the repetition of daily class life. This is something only
you can fix, and the best way to stoke a fire is to place embers close
to each other and continually fan them. This means, from the very first
class, explain to your students why you care about the subject(s), why
it is a life skill that matters– and, most importantly, why you chose a
life dedicated to teaching these academic, life, social and emotional
skills. Remind yourself why you became an educator, and let your
students see your passion for your calling.
Some
educators are hesitant to show their passion for fear of being
perceived as “cheesy†or silly. Think of it like this: who would you
rather work for? Would you rather work for an ambivalent, non-caring
boss who is just going through the motions, or for a supervisor who
loves what he does and cares about the outcome? Exciting people create
excitement. Passionate people imbue passion. And caring people cause
other people to care. Give your students a tremendous gift by showing
them you have excitement, passion and caring for what you are teaching
them. I promise you they will care much more if they know you care.
4. Own Your Classroom
| It never ceases to amaze me that some teachers allow students to sit
anywhere they want, and then proceed to get frustrated because Johnny
keep talking to Joey and they just won’t stop. Your classroom
is your domain – control it. Do not hesitate to place students in a
certain order or seating arrangement, and if you find problems with that
arrangement– change it. A huge part of the job of an educator is
creating an environment where learning can occur. It is next to
impossible to learn when you have students talking and playing and
goofing off with each other. Own your classroom and never hesitate to
use your classroom real estate to enforce your rules. Moving and
separating students is not mean, and it is not picking on them. You have
to use the tools you have to give all of your students the best
opportunity possible to learn. Your seating arrangement is a huge tool;
proximity is a huge issue for some students’ ability to maintain self
control and attention.
5. End as You Began
| At the end of your first class and every class thereafter, remind
your students that they are there to learn. Remind them that you have
expectations-– read those expectations to them again. Remind them of
your seriousness, and tie it back to the passion you have for what they
are learning. In other words, make them understand that their learning
of your material does not end when they walk out of your classroom.
Whether through homework or life applications, help them understand that
what you are teaching matters for who they are and who they can become.
End your class with the same excitement you teach with, and send your
students out with a demand of excellence and a demand of applying your
lessons within their academic and even personal lives.
A
great movie is only as good as its ending. Same with a book or a song
or a story. Why should your class be any different? If you have a
tremendous lesson planned for 45 of your 55 minutes, and the last 10 are
just spent in self-directed learning– you have lost the momentum of
your lesson if the bell rings and everyone simply gets up and leaves.
Before that bell rings, call your class’ attention back to your purpose,
passion and expectations. End each class with the same enthusiasm and
purpose with which you started and taught. Send your students into the
hallways of the school with a very clear understanding of how important
what you said, and what you demanded of them, truly is. Send them into
the hallways of the school building knowing that you take what they have
just learned very seriously… and therefore so should they.
It is time for school.
Soon the classrooms will be full and kids will be learning and
educators will be educating. The difference between a good educator and a
great one is the attention to the small things and an ability to have a
true purpose in everything you are imparting to your students. Leave
nothing to chance and your students may just surprise you by giving you a
great school year. People appreciate the prepared. People follow the
committed. People obey when they understand. Mold your students into the
people we all need them to be.
Between
the 24/7 availability of news and the headline hunters that constantly
chase, and sometimes even create, new stories it is hard to get to amped
up when you see a “Breaking News†banner scroll across the screen.
Yesterday was different. When news of Robin Williams death scrolled
across the television I was not only shocked, I was numbed.
I
am not a celebrity follower. I don’t care who is dating who or where
they eat or what they are wearing or whether or not they actually know
how to spell “tweet†much less how often they do it. But there aren’t
many celebrities like Robin Williams. There aren’t many people who have
reached across generations and genres and mediums like he did. I saw him
in concert once and I have never been more mentally exhausted than
leaving his show. He was truly an inspired artist. But that isn’t what
made him special to me.
As
a kid, I remember “Happy Days†and “Laverne and Shirley†and then “Mork
and Mindyâ€. This truly was “Must See TVâ€. When Jonathan Winters joined
the cast of “Mork and Mindy†it was like the whole world held their
breath to see what these two could come up with next. The quickness of
wit and the willingness to be the butt of every joke and the fodder for
every laugh coupled with the lightning fast stream of conscious delivery
was something to behold. But again, this wasn’t what made him special
to me.
Watching
movies like “Mrs. Doubtfire†and†Good Morning Vietnam†and “Aladdinâ€
and “Good Will Hunting†proved a depth of ability that few of us could
have imagined. Whether playing the role of a disturbed and lost man in
“The Fisher King†or President Eisenhower in “The Butler†he could make
us laugh, cry, cheer for, and even emote with his characters. He was as
gifted on the screen as he was on the stage. But this isn’t what made
him special to me.
My
brother died two years ago after losing his fight with AIDS related
illnesses. My brother had spent many years battling addictions and
demons that seemed very foreign to me. I watched my brother
self-destruct and, despite all of my training and education, there was
little I could do. The lure of a lifestyle that seemed hopeless to me
was unavoidable and unrelenting to him.
Several
years ago I saw an interview with Robin Williams where he candidly
spoke of his addictions and his demons. He candidly spoke of the dark
desires within him and the never-ending fight for peace and solace that
never came. This man that made me laugh to tears brought me to
tears as he poured out his soul and took a huge chance by telling the
world that he lived daily with an internal fight and that he wasn’t
winning as often as he should. He told of the darkness of
desire and the twisting of perspective that occurs when your brain and
your soul are in conflict. He told of how substances were a crutch that
allowed him to mask his demons, yet all the while he knew these
substances were causing them to grow.
I
remember watching this interview and getting a glimpse into the
tormented mind of a comedic genius who thrived on laughter yet was
exhausted by his own mind and abilities. Listening to him and seeing how
raw his words were convicted me to reach out to my brother. His words helped me make a little more sense of darkness and temptation, failure and tempered success.
His emotions and pain helped to personalize struggle and make it seem
more real. His willingness to share his sorrows and own his demons made
it easier for me to understand what a crippling force emotions and
affective instability can be.
Robin Williams was special to me because his words, those words heard by a sophomore in college in 1989, pricked my heart. His
words caused me to rethink my black and white views of the world and
question whether or not I understood the subtlety of life and the
frailty of the human psyche. His words helped me reframe the
way I thought about my brother and my willingness to try and understand
what he was going through. He wasn’t my mentor nor someone I aspired to
follow. He was someone who had a very bright light on a very big stage
with a lot of success and untold recognitions, and he was willing to let
the world see that he also hurt and that he often lost his fight with
his inner demons. If it could happen to him, it was real for everyone
else as well.
It
truly saddened me yesterday when I saw that Robin Williams took his own
life. I can honestly say that I was shocked and taken aback. It was a
very harsh reminder of our temporal and frail nature. It was a reminder
of how our battles here are never over until the finality of life comes.
It was also a reminder of the need to be alert and cognizant of those
around us who hurt more and those who seem to struggle more with the
grind of life.
I
have been blessed to have a tempered affect and a sense of emotional
perspective that has kept me from living too high or too low. But many
cannot say the same, and we have to be aware of them: where they are,
whether or not they are winning their battles and how we can help. We need to be able to honestly and earnestly say, “Are you ok?â€
About
half of our nation’s schools are back in session and the rest will be
joining in the next week or so. It is time for that fresh start when
every student has a clean slate and every teacher has hope for his or
her class. It is the time of year when expectations are motivating
actions and the reality of the coming year is still being forged. In
other words, it is the perfect time of the year to jump on classroom behaviors.
Classroom
behaviors are like a snowball. In the beginning they will likely start
off as something small. There will be a student who talks when he
shouldn’t. There will be a student who acts mad and defiant when told to
do something. Soon there will be a student who argues with his teacher.
Next, there will be students arguing with each other. Before you know
it, the classroom has descended into a downhill roll and the snowball is
gaining steam– getting larger each passing week.
Do you know when the best time to stop a snowball rolling downhill is? It is at the top of the hill. Now is the time to set the tone, expectation, and process for classroom behaviors. Let’s tackle these one at a time:
The tone of
the class is set from the opening of your door the first day of school.
Is the room organized? Is the teacher prepared? Is there a plan for the
dead-space in between entry and the opening bell? Are there rules that
are easily identifiable and quickly discerned? Does the teacher gain
quick control of the class from the opening bell, or has a student
already marked his territory as the class clown? Is the teacher
confident? These are all questions that swirl through the mind of the
students even if they do not realize it. The classroom by definition is a
socialized environment because there are multiple students present.
Almost all classrooms have at least 20 kids in them. When you get this
many students in one room, whether 1st graders or 11th graders, they are
going to have a group mentality in the beginning. They are going to
observe to see who is in control, and then there will be leaders from
the group that emerge and will respectfully lead– and then there will
be leaders that emerge that will test the boundaries.
The socialized environment of the classroom will be quickly defined as
either a controlled and regulated environment, a loosely controlled but
pliable environment, or an environment that is easily manipulated.
These types of discernments and decisions are typically made within the
first week or so of classes. The tone of the classroom is completely
dependent on the teacher, as the teacher’s confidence, presentation,
organization, and system will all be scrutinized by the students; they
will determine how much respect they are going to give this teacher and
this classroom.
Set the tone early, teachers. This is your classroom.
You are in charge. You are organized. You are prepared, and what you
have to say is more important right now than what your students have to
say – that is why you are the teacher. Set the tone early.
Similar to tone, expectations will become obvious
very early on in the classroom process. A teacher that expects trouble
or expects to struggle will have trouble and will struggle. The
“self-fulfilling prophecy†is on steroids when you have 20 students
there to witness the fall. Do yourself a huge favor: expect your classroom to be a learning environment.
Expect your students to comply with your rules. Expect your students to
complete their assignments. Expect your students to respect you. Expect
your students to respect each other. Expect greatness from yourself as
an educator and from your students as learners. If you expect these
things and then set the tone early to accomplish these things,
expectations can become reality. Along those same lines, do not have
preconceived expectations that certain students will struggle or give
you problems just because they did so last year. Give your students the benefit of starting over this year.
Set the tone and expectations early with these students, but let them
know that you expect great things from them. Let them know that this is
your class and a new year, and you are going to guarantee them that they
will be smarter and therefore better people for having been in your
class. Expect all of your students to succeed. Remember that the
“self-fulfilling prophecy†can be projected onto a student; when neither you nor the student expects them to succeed, it is pretty much guaranteed they won’t.
So how do you set the tone for the year, have and voice expectations, and create a learning environment that assures success? You do it purposefully.
No teacher has ever backed into or lucked their way through a good
school year. Success rewards the prepared. This means that you are not
leaving anything to chance…
The process of the classroom is where a lot of our younger teachers struggle.
It is also where we lose a lot of our younger teachers – as well as
those teachers who burn out. If teaching were just about the academics
and teaching the mastery of education, we would not have the turnover
nationally that we do in the teaching profession. The dirty little
secret of education is that teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic is
the easy part of the job, but it is not the entire job. Getting 20 kids
on the same page, getting them to sit down and be quiet, getting them
to pay attention and listen and talk respectfully to you and each other
is the bigger part of the job. Getting your students to be in class on
time and turn their assignments in, line up when you tell them to line
up and sit down when you tell them to sit down is a bigger part of the
job. Having an environment that lets you teach is a bigger part of the job than actually teaching. Teaching
cannot occur when the learning environment is not established. And the
only way to establish a true learning environment is to do so
purposefully through the planning and implementation of processes that
allow you to define the learning environment of your classroom: the
process for making those parameters clear to your students, the process of teaching compliance with those parameters, and then the consequence of non-compliance. In other words, it is everything that needs to be in place so that you can do what you do best – teach.
As an educator, do yourself a true favor and come to the quick conclusion that you are an adequate, if not outstanding, educator of academic skills.
Now do yourself an even bigger favor and acknowledge that teaching just
academic skills is not truly educating a child, much less a classroom
full of students. The ability to teach students is completely predicated
on your being able to create a learning environment where good teaching
and true learning can occur. Therefore, this environment must be
defined through tone, guarded by expectations, and operationalized
through processes give that you the best opportunity to teach– and your
students the best opportunity to learn. Finally, as an educator, do
yourself one more favor. Come to the quick conclusion that it is
necessary for you to proactively invest time in creating the learning environment.
It is necessary to teach your students how to act so that you can teach them how to learn. Teach
your students your expectations and teach your students the social and
emotional skills necessary to successfully learn in your classroom.
You set the tone. You set the expectations. You enact the processes.
When you do these things, both you and your students will be the
winners! As you begin the new year, do yourself a favor and check out
some of the classroom management webinars, lesson plans, assessing tools, and other resources
that can truly assist you in setting the tone, creating and managing
real expectations, and most importantly putting into action your steps
to achieving a learning environment. These resources and many others can be found at www.selforschools.com.
