Students in all five of my classes are frequently called on through the use of equity sticks.  I use the sticks every day in every class I teach.  All students know that they have an equal chance of being called on at any given time.  In order to keep students on their toes all the time, I usually replace sticks after I pull them out to call on a student.  This way, students don't think they can sit back and relax after they have been called on once.  The sticks are also effective in making arbitrary decisions like who is on what team or who gets to take the attendance up to the main office.

 

 

The picture on the right is my "Dead Word Wall."  On this board, my students and I have placed words or phrases that we think should be "dead" in my classroom.  Examples of unacceptable words/phrases are stupid, D'UH!, I don't know, and I don't want to work with ____!  My students discussed these items specifically because each has been uttered at one point, and each has been hurtful to someone.  We have agreed to revisit the "Dead Word Wall" as the need arises in the future.  By eliminating these words from our vocabularies, we are striving to eliminate thoughtless remarks and improve the overall atmosphere of the classroom.

 

 

 

The next three photos on the right are from an activity I do with any class whose group work needs to be improved.  These photos are relevant to this particular standard for more than one reason.  First, the physical environment of my classroom strongly promotes partner and group work.  Desks are arranged in groups of four, so each student has an immediate partner and a larger group of four to work with.  I frequently encourage group collaboration in assignments.

 

These posters are also relevant for this standard in terms of the emotional environment.  The way the poster activity works is each group has to collaborate to come up with a list of things that constitute good group work.  Each group is assigned to consider a different aspect of good group work.  One looks at how good groups look, another discusses how good groups sound, and the other considers how good groups feel.  For the task itself of making and presenting a poster, each group member has been assigned a different job (like writer, speaker, leader, timekeeper, etc).  The students have to work well together within their job descirptions as well.  The teacher monitors the group's progress and their ability to work together.  Students present their posters to the class, and the posters are affixed to the wall in a spot with good visibility.  That way, the class can refer back to the posters during any sort of group work during the year.

 

 

 

The picture below is the job listing for two classes in my room.  There are various jobs in the classroom (passing out books, collecting homework, sharpening pencils, etc), and this job listing is intended to let the students know just what is expected of them in any given week.  The student can find some comfort in being able to walk into a room and know exactly what s/he is supposed to do.  Some jobs, like passing out folders, are designed to happen as soon as students enter the classroom.  By giving that responsibility to a student, it gives the teacher one less thing to worry about before class starts, and it gives a student a repsonsibility, lessening the chance that s/he will cause any trouble.  The job listing also saves time and discussion of who is doing what job.  Because students switch jobs every week, the distribution of labor is fair.