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How to Develop Standards for Getting Along With Your Students

Author: Kathleen Nelson-Simley Posted: Friday - October 11, 2019

My blog this past month has focused on how to increase positive behavior with your students while decreasing the negative. We discussed a number of proven strategies to help you achieve this, including:

  • Modeling the behavior you want from your students
  • Focusing more on positive behaviors than the negative
  • Establishing "standards" vs. setting rules
  • Having the students create their own standards for getting along
  • Encouraging students to have standards for getting along that are the best, the worst and just ok
  • Empowering them to hold each other accountable to their own standards

This week I want to introduce you to an easy activity you can facilitate with your students that encompasses all of these strategies. The activity is developmentally appropriate for middle and high school students and has over 20 years of proven success when done effectively.

Telling you in writing how to effectively facilitate this activity is almost impossible. Instead, I created a “how to” video to introduce you to this activity. The "Setting Standards for Getting Along" video walks you through the steps of how to facilitate a classroom or group of middle and high school students through a process that results in them establishing their own standards for getting along. The video also gives you tips on how to reinforce the standards and empower the students to hold each other accountable to them.

You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking a moment to watch the video. Having standards the students take ownership of and live up to allows you to teach what you need to teach and for students to learn what they need to learn.

If you are someone who doesn't work directly with middle or high school students, forward the video on to someone who does and who could benefit from it. You may be someone I have already trained in this activity. Watching the video will be a great refresher and reminder of how to do the activity with your students.

If you are someone who works with late elementary age students, be patient. In next week's blog, I will introduce you to an activity you can do with 4th and/or 5th graders that accomplishes the same outcome.

Don't wait. Go ahead and watch the training video now! And, be sure you download the slide deck that comes with it!


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