So I'm reporting back on my first chat share, where I wanted students to take on more active roles self-managing their behavior. I had noticed, that the students who had an easier time following guidelines, listening and sitting still, were the quieter spirits in general. I asked them to be leaders and assert themselves kindly by modeling exceptional behavior with pride and large body movements. This was supposed to help signal their peers to quiet down and self manage with less teacher intervention.
The first day it was incredible. My more meek souls were spreading their good influence and seemed to beam when they could help their table partners quiet down. Then it was day two, and the impact dwindled. Then it was day 3 and the effect was even less. Basically, when I remind those quiet souls how to assert themselves - they really help. i don't know if they will need fewer reminders as the year goes on. But basically, if we don't do the reminder in the morning - it won't happen that day. If I do, it works nicely, and helps me stress less. Surprisingly, I have not had any issues with students being bossy about reminders. My noisier ones seem to respect their peers for showing good behavior and tend to listen.
I think I am going to take this a step further and have one of my class jobs be the "General Manager." The Managers will be responsible for helping the teacher track table points for good behavior and will be allowed to give one verbal signal to help the class quiet down when we work in partners or groups. They will not have the floor when the teacher is giving instruction. I wonder how things will go...
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