This is one strategy I used this past year, like I mentioned was my first year, and it worked extremely well! I found it on Pinterest and I have it on my side board as soon as you walk into my classroom (as shown above). When the students walk in on Monday or the first day of the week, they will grab a sticky note and put their name on the sticky side (where their names do not show when they stick it on the board). They will then put the note in the section of how they are feeling (could be at the moment, last weekend, last night, upcoming plans, etc.). The sections are titled as the following: I'm great, I'm good, I'm meh, I'm struggling, I need a check-in, I'm not doing good. I will collect the notes in order of section at the end of the class period and sit them on my desk in sections and look at them at the end of the day. Throughout the week, I will randomly ask students privately why they put their note in that section. If they want to share, I listen and we talk. If they don't want to share, I respect their privacy and just show them I care. Some students will open up right away because they see you care about them, others might take awhile to open up, and some may never open up, but this helps to create that relationship between teacher and student without worrying about school and material.

This is a strategy that I decided to do with my students midway through this year and I found it really helped with keeping my students engaged and not disruptive towards the end of each class. I have always seen when teachers get done with a lesson early and there is about 10 or so minutes left of class, they will give the students "busy" work. I have always hated that as a student and even as a student teacher observing other teachers. What I have decided to do instead is either bring up a topic and have a regular conversation with my students, or relate a life lesson that all or most students will encounter in their future lives to help educate them and give them personal experience advice. They get so into the conversations and on days that I know there won't be any time for it, they beg me to allow time. It helped tremendously with students acting out the last 5-10 minutes of class. More information and reaction from personal experience is mentioned in my Ted Talk located at the bottom of this page.

A teacher can teach a class anything they want, but if the students don't have TRUST in that teacher, they won't listen and learn anything. The teacher needs to provide a positive classroom environment in order for each student to feel a certain belonging. Once the student has felt that, then the classroom environment is in a good place to allow the teacher to educate the students in any way they feel need. The mindset of Belonging is connected so closely with Classroom management. Without one or the other, a teacher cannot TEACH their students any material.