Creating Positive Classroom Environments
Middle School Tips for Good Behavior and Encouraging Classrooms
Dec 5, 2008
Teachers need to work to create positive environments in the middle school classroom because hormones are raging, and some students have not developed good social skills. Middle school students are not always nice to each other. Here are some simple yet effective strategies to help create a positive atmosphere.
Make the Room Inviting
Make the classroom pleasant by bringing in color through bulletin boards and by displaying student work. This sounds quite obvious, but some middle school teachers do not take the time to put up bulletin boards. Elementary school teachers are fabulous at this positive environment strategy. Walk into any elementary school, and one will find student work hanging on most walls.
One way to display student work is to take a bulldog clip and tie a piece of string to it. Then, use a push pin to hang the string. See the photo for an example. Just about any student work can be hung from this clip without being damaged, such as poetry projects, research papers, tests with multiple pages and even art work. Students can take the work down and look at it and then put it back up on the bulletin board.
Using this method of displaying student work also helps to raise the bar on student work in general. If the "good stuff" is displayed, students will better understand what they need to do to be successful.
Students and Being Nice
To get students to say nice things to each other, make a "Cool Wall" or "Positively Wonderful" bulletin board. Each week students can write positive comments to a select group of students. Display the comments on the bulletin board or wall. Make sure that all of the students in the class receive positive comments. It does help to build relationships between students and relieve tension in a class.
For classrooms where there is high tension, make sure to read all comments before posting them. And, model encouraging comments each day. Some students need to be taught how to be positive.
Catch a Good Deed
Watching a good deed or pointing out one can persuade others to do it too. A whole school can give treats for "Get Caught Doing Something Good." Logan Hocking Middle School teachers give tickets to students for doing a good deed. These tickets can be turned in for small prizes, like pencils, book markers, pens, etc. Then, each month there is a drawing for larger prizes. At LHMS, one female and one male in the building choose from prizes worth around $20 that were donated from a local store.
Making the classroom and the school a positive place takes some work. It is the small things that really make a difference. Start with positive comments and work up to a school-wide program.
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