Advice From a Seasoned Teacher - or Two

A teacher asked me what one piece of advice could I give him that he could implement this year to support confidence and self esteem.

I thought for a moment and came up with one of my pet peeves.  A pet peeve you say? Yes, because it leads to a better way of doing business.

When educators are selecting teams or groups of students, it is often convenient to let the students select their teams or groups. At this point, I cringe. Somebody will always be the last one picked.

Enough said.

Here's a great idea for you:

This year, make a comittment to always pick the students yourself, whether it be by a draw (I love the popsicle stick idea) or just number the students off with a 1,2 or a 1,2,3,4. Do not allow the students to pick their own groups or teams.

If you have a SMART board, you'll find the random group selector quite handy. Simply put your student names in and select the number of groups, the randomizer does the rest. (To access, go to the SMART exchange site and type in random group generator.