Teaching Personal Skills In the Classroom

There was an Instagram Reel trend going around recently for teachers. So obviously, it was always in my feed. It was a picture of a teacher on summer break with the caption “Yes, I get summers off but I also get…” and the rest of the carousel was the impactful things they do in the classroom with their students. Like building relationships, cheering on their students, watching students' curiosity blossom and so much more. 

When I think about what I would write on that type of post I want to say “I saw students become well-rounded, passionate people in whatever field or life path they chose.” I care so much more about the personal skills they learn in my classroom than the content. Hands down. 

Some Career Tech programs have leadership skills or soft skills in their curriculum. But, some of us either don’t have it in the curriculum or tend to skip over those standards in order to get to the meat of the curriculum.

I like to think about personal skills as the bones. If you don’t have the bones the meat is just mush with no structure. 

Teaching personal skills are important regardless of the content area. 

Some of these skills are taught through your classroom expectations and routines. Some you might need to stretch a little bit for students to understand and then practice. 

Could you imagine if all of your students understood and consistently demonstrated things like:

✔️Accountability

✔️Curiosity

✔️Initiative

✔️Active Listening

✔️Generosity

✔️Patience

✔️Organization and so many more.

That would be the DREAM right?! But, I will say, the kids won’t grasp it unless we are intentional about teaching, encouraging, noticing and practicing these skills with them. 

I know for me I learn a lot of these skills through my involvement in extracurricular activities like 4-H, overnight camp, sports teams and clubs. 

I don’t remember one class I took in middle or high school that explicitly taught me how to be a WELL-ROUNDED PERSON.

But, be mindful and remember that not every student will be active in an extra-curricular activity. For a wide variety of reasons you may never know. This is why teaching in the classroom is critical so all students get the benefit of learning these skills. 

This is something that I want to change in my classroom. I want to make the space for students to practice these characteristics so they can continue to hone them as they continue through formal education and into their careers. Because someday they will be my doctor, child’s teacher, military, doctor, administrator, business owner, and so much more. And I want them to be equipped to be the best “whatever” they want to be. 

So how do you teach these skills and keep them on the forefront of your classroom when you have 587 other things to achieve in the year? I have a few suggestions that I have used in a variety of classrooms that you can try out. 

I think it is also something that you can invent on your own. Puzzle piece together some ideas and tweak and refine until it fits your classroom vibe. Like always, remember these are just suggestions to get your brain going. You are the expert in your classroom, with your students and your community and know what works best!

4 Ideas to integrate Personal Skill Development in your Classroom

Classroom Jobs

Classroom Jobs have been integral in both my middle and high school classrooms. And we all know elementary students love a good job! Classroom Jobs are good for all ages. I have done some jobs that are as simple as a “stamp team” who stamp warm-ups each day to application based jobs where students were in charge of classroom animals for an entire year called “animal mentors.” 

Most of the time when creating classroom jobs I think of a task that I could off-load to a student (with proper training). This makes having classroom jobs a win-win. Students are practicing personal skills and you have less work to do! 

So when you want to implement these classroom jobs ask yourself these question:

-What is a task that I do that I could delegate to a student?

-How will I select classroom job holders? 

-How will I evaluate their performance in personal skill development?

Weekly Focal Characteristics

Something very simple you could try is having one personal skill as a focal skill for that week. Introduce the characteristic in class on Monday with a definition and class discussion on “how can we demonstrate this skill in class this week” and then be on the lookout for that student throughout the week. 

I have seen ideas on Instagram of the selected student from the prior week chooses the next week's winner. You could also have a voting box/google form for students to provide evidence of their nomination. 

I think this year I might be using my wheel of names to randomly pick a student at the beginning of the week to watch for the demonstration of that skill. Then at the end of the week if they achieved progress, I would reward them with a positive note home and something from my prize bin! 

To get started using this technique ask yourself these questions:

-What characteristics are important for my students to learn and develop?

-How will I teach students about this skill?

-How will students demonstrate and be rewarded for their progress?

Quote/Leaders of the Week

Do you use warm-ups during the week? Yea, me too! A simple switch could be taking one day during the week to do a quote or leader of the week that demonstrates a personal skill. 

Your students will still get the content warm-ups throughout the rest of the week. Just add these quotes/leaders to one day for a quick discussion session with your students. You can also use the same techniques of rewarding these skills from the previous idea! 

When implementing a quote/leaders of the week as yourself these questions:

-Do you want to use quotes, leaders or a combination of both?

-When will you present these quotes/leaders to your class?

How will students demonstrate and be rewarded for emulating that skill from the quote/leader?

Personal Development Ponderings

I created this activity with my leadership class that actually had standards related to this activity. Students were assigned a week to present a Personal Development Pondering (PDP as we liked to call them) on Friday. Students would live their life looking for demonstrations of Personal Skills throughout the week. This could be something they saw in class, on a TV show, in a sports practice, at a club meeting, something they saw on a TikTok, something they read in a book/article. Truly the sky was the limit. 

Then on Friday, they would stand in front of the class and share about their observation and how that connected to something we learned in our class. I vividly remember a student brushing her teeth during a PDP talking about consistency as a leader. So creative and very memorable. 

This was a great way to take the training wheels off and let them experience personal skills and share about them in their own way. 

This idea was used exclusively in a higher level leadership class but could be modified to fit your students! 

If you decide to implement PDPs, ask yourself these questions to get started:

-How will students be assigned this assignment?

-How will students present or share their PDPs? 

-How will you grade them?

If you can’t tell, I am very passionate about preparing students for their future. Not just because my content is important but because our job as educators is to prepare them for life. I take that job seriously. 

Personal skills can be cultivated in so many ways but don’t fall into the trap that just because you have high achieving students they know and are proficient in these skills. Just like any skill like driving a car, creating a TikTok, changing your smoke alarm batteries, mowing the law, doing a pull-up, it requires practice. Challenge yourself to give your students a safe place to practice these skills!

Classroom Mgmt Series: Why Routines Aren’t Just for Elementary School (And How They Reclaim Your Class) Part 1

You need a plan/routine for vital parts of your classroom. Not everything. Your class will move organically in certain situations. The tricker parts are the transitions. 

This school year I didn’t start off strong, TBH. I had some things under control like my cute classroom rug, color coded table numbers and table bags of supplies. What I didn’t figure out until after winter break was that my kids needed consistency and routine. Heck, so did I! 

I would find myself frustrated that they didn’t follow my exit directions on the board, they didn’t come into class and immediately start their warm-up, that they didn’t know when it was appropriate to ask to go to the bathroom. 

But, it wasn’t on them to read my mind. I needed to give them deliberate specific instructions on what to do, how to do it and when to do it. 

I truly didn’t hit my stride until after spring break when I really felt in control of my classroom environment. 

And now as I look toward the next school year I feel like I need to write this all down so I don’t forget. So I am happy to have you come along for the ride for this series about the non-negotiable classroom routines in my classroom that just might help yours run smoother. 

As always, I preface this as these are things that work for me, while I will be giving you specific instructions and ideas I want you to find what works for you. Because every classroom is different, every group of students is different and every teacher is different. 

I started doing research on why routines matter, because truthfully I thought it was more of an elementary school thing. Things that 10 year olds and below need to just figure out how to behave in a classroom. While this is true, routines are also vital for middle and high school students even adult learners. 

Think about yourself, what happens when your routine is interrupted. Like you stayed up too late watching the World Cup games, or your significant other is out of town for the week or you are on a field trip with students. Everything (can) go haywire. You can experience increased stress and anxiety, you may get frustrated more easily, your body will fatigue faster and you may even become neurologically overloaded.

Kids have similar reactions to changes in routine. And in your classroom things change often, we know that. But, there are some repetitive things that happen daily that could use consistency.

When students can come into class knowing what to expect it has some pretty significant effects on the learning environment. 

Reduce Cognitive Load (if they know what to expect they don’t spent brain energy wondering what is going to happen therefor they can focus on the learning) 

Reduce Anxiety (we have an anxious generation, whatever we can do to lower anxiety is helpful, if we have consistency in our classrooms we can provide that and lower that anxiety)

Maximize instruction Time (instead of spending precious class time on instructions changing daily, you have decreased the amount of time you need to tell students what to do. They know automatically. So they can spend more time learning. 

If you are like me and want these kind of results for your students, you are going to love this blog series. In the next part of our series, I have mapped out SIX vital transition times in the classroom that need routine. I will provide the reasons why and examples of how you can build your routine.

If this sounds like something that you want more than just a blog post on, consider checking out our newly updated  Green & Growing Facilitation Menu. Our team travels across the US (anyone abroad need facilitation?) to provide instruction on these strategies. We would love to some to your school system or teachers conference to provide workshops on these techniques.

3 Ways to Manage Student Meltdowns

It's been a rough few days (or years).

Every year seems to be navigating the unknowns of what education will be like today. Because we are pretty sure it isn’t the same as yesterday and tomorrow will be different as well. 

It's been less than pretty. 

And for your students and possibly you from time to time you might have flipped your lid. 

And after attending Bri Guillory's Keynote at Germinate conference in Summer 2022, I can't unsee the visual that reminds you what is really going on when you flip your lid. 

It's this hand.

I can't get it out of my brain. Funny, as it represents the brain.

The hand on the RIGHT represents when all the parts of the brain are working in harmony. The "higher level" thinking of the cerebral cortex and the emotional part of the prefrontal cortex. 

The hand on the LEFT represents "flipping your lid." Get it?! It's like the brain is disconnected and the emotional center of the brain (that's where FLIGHT, FIGHT or FREEZE takes over) is now driving the car.

Logic can no longer influence behaviors.

I can hear myself saying things like, "let's be quiet other students are still working" or "I understand it’s hard to sit still but you need to while I am talking." All of which were lost as the logic parts of the brain are shut down. 

So, why is this all important to teachers?

Well, we've seen this happen. Probably more than once. And maybe it wasn't just with a student, maybe with another adult or even yourself. 

We have seen students who have experienced trauma in the past few years (maybe even more incidents than ever). 

We will continue to have moments as educators where we have someone flip their lid and we are there to help them find safety again. 

I am 100 percent not an expert, but want to pass along some resources to help you the next time you are presented with a situation like this.

1. Exceptional Teacher for Classroom Management

Customized support from teachers who want to help! The G&G community is filled to the brim with teachers who have advice and resources that suit your specific needs. It’s a support system that will allow you to continue pursuing your career with vitality. And, yes there is someone who specializes in classroom management. Get in contact with Katie Green for help to handle a flipped lid!

2. Katie’s Takeaway Document

Need a quick resource? Katie has you covered. Specifically check out her resources for a trauma informed and mindfulness classroom.

3. Podcast

The G&G podcast provides weekly episodes to connect, educate and encourage Agriculture teachers across the country. We also suggest checking out the following podcast episode about classroom management strategies.

Episode 129: Non-Verbal Classroom Management

Episode 60: Surviving to Thriving in 3 Simple Steps with Briana Guillory

Dealing with all the world has thrown at us (and continues to) is a full-time job own its own. Adding in the complexities of a room full of teenagers and that volume of weight exponentially increases. When you find the time to lean into your learning about how to handle these flip your lid type scenarios you will feel more peaceful then next time they come around.

Do you have any other resources that you would recommend?