Today we had our quarterly student awards assembly and I was worried about how a few of my students would behave during the assembly. It is long (about an hour) and not exactly engaging for a 6 or 7 year old. They are expected to sit in their seat quietly and not move a muscle while about 85 other students get their awards read off as they go up on the stage. The ones you expect almost always end up with their feet on the chair in front of them or talking to the person next to them. Today I randomly came up with a really great idea. I happened to bring some sticky notes and a pen to the awards and sat the ones who I thought might have a hard time near me. Every few minutes I would write a note to them on my sticky note like "You're doing a great job sitting quietly!" or "You aren't getting this award (honor roll) but it's OK." They looked like this:
(I just used sticky notes that I already had on their awards folders but next time I will bring extras just for this)
I would tap them gently with my pen and show them the note. I had never tried this before and honestly I wasn't sure if it was going to do even an ounce of good. Surprisingly, every time I showed them the note, their face lit up with a big smile or they nodded their head and went back to doing an amazingly great job. I saw other teachers fussing with their kids while mine just kept looking at a new note every few minutes, smiled, and continued to sit quietly. Now I'm not saying I'm a miracle worker but it definitely worked much better than I ever though it would. I just wanted to share it to anyone who wants some peace at their awards ceremony. Hopefully it will work for you too. Let me know if you had any success or if you made any changes that worked even better!
-OneCrazyS
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