A positive welcome for your returning students!

As an educator, I’m always thinking of ways to maintain a positive climate and culture in my high school Cosmetology classes that are full of girl students. What I’ve learned is that a POSITIVE classroom climate goes hand and hand with classroom management! Setting a positive tone while also establishing your classroom expectations from day 1 is key! One thing that I do in my classroom is assign seats! Yes… I said it! I give my students assigned seats.

when assigning seats….

Make sure to strategically place your students!

Now you may be thinking, how on earth is that your way of establishing a positive culture when students typically HATE assigned seats!? Well the answer is I assign seats with positive reinforcement. Every year at the start of the school year, I go to Dollar Tree and find these super cute and colorful heart shaped notecards! I then write the names of every single one of my returning students on a card along with a positive affirmation that is specific to each student! (If you’ve built relationships with your students, then this is easy!) For example, I may write “Lisa, You are intelligent!”. Once I’ve completed all of my personalized affirmations, I strategically place the notecards in my preferred seating choice for each student. I seat the students based off of their needs. I may ask myself questions like “Which students struggle with vision?” Or “Which students need frequent redirection?” Or “Which students thrive no matter where they are seated?” to help with my seating choices! When my students enter my classroom on the first day of school, I welcome them with love and tell them to find their seat! They may give an eye roll when they see the assigned seat, but they are typically smiling again soon after reading their personalized messages!

Your Positive affirmations matter!

Once they are settled I collect the note cards and store them until I’m ready to rearrange my classroom and assign new seats! This technique is highly effective in setting the tone for my classroom starting on the first day of school. It also helps with classroom management because students are able to focus better in my preferred seating choice vs letting them click up around the classroom with their best friends! Give it a try and tell me what you think!!