Building and Creating Climates/Cultures
Mix to Meet/Mix it Up Student Activities
Mix it Up
Popping Back Activity
Artifact Bag
Artifact Bag Slides
Student Leadership and Conference
Student Leadership is needed today. More and more we see incidents of poor choices and poor examples of what a lack of skill building can create if students do not actively engage in approaches to build up levels of responsibility, accountability and leadership. Positive outcomes are the goals we strive to achieve and we have known for decades that student-led discussions, along with skill building result in better outcomes.
John Hattie’s research provides evidence on the best practices and the effectiveness the approach has to learning achievement. Hattie has been known to state, everything we do in education has an effect on learning, but at what level. We only have so many hours in a day to work with the children we serve so why not maximize our time by enhancing the learning and teaching practices.
Class discussions ranks high on the list of practices. I have personally pushed for vocabulary instruction, not necessarily as a stand alone curriculum but integrated into what we do daily. I have as an elementary principal place a word bank in my newsletter with challenges of words of the week and words of the month. As a middle school principal I made a bulletin board with a word of the week. I asked kids to send me a sentence using the word and I would post their response. Students who responded received a prize from me as well. The board was located in a place all students passed daily multiple times.
Professional Learning Resources and Guidance
End of the School Year Fun
Ending the school year for staff and students in a fun way helps to create an environment of joy. Looking forward to Friday is fun when you have something exciting to look forward too! There are several ways you can engage staff and students in this Flamingo Fun! Here are a few ideas!
- Staff: Purchase the flamingo floats on amazon to give at a staff meeting with bottles of water, juice or soda. On the bottom of the Flamingo’s place a number with permanent marker. Explain that each Friday you will be giving away prizes by drawing numbers so be sure to have your Flamingo ready to go! Have a variety of prizes to give away!
- Students: Provide students with ways to earn, achieve or just recieve Flamingo Cards! On each card place a number. As the cards are given out tell the kids to keep them ready for the Friday Free Flamingo giveaway. Each Friday draw a number to announce the student winners! Have a variety of gifts to give away. (As the cards are given to students, they can report to a designated place to report their number to place in the container for the drawing. Already have the numbers ready to go.)
- Staff: Find the Flamingo-Each week have a designated day and time to gather staff together. We have 4 Flamingo’s that have escaped into our school. We need to find them before students do! When a Flamingo returns a prize you will receive. Only 4 individuals will receive the rewards, unless they share with you!
- Students: Where in the Flamingo? Provide the students with a math problem to discover where the Flamingo could be. Example: The Flamingo travled 10 miles south, stopped to eat and then turned east to go 4 miles. The Flamingo bought flowers to take back to the school where he started. How does he get back? Answer:_______ All answers are placed in the container for the classroom. The first correct answer drawn out wins the prize.
- Many ideas you can do to enjoy a Fabulous Flamingo Finish!
Leadership Resources and Guidance
Two Rule School Approach
