The GenWe Classroom

                Making a guide is extremely important. One of your roles is to observe and record what happens. Recording what happens is mostly for you so you can reflect on the day and see what you can learn from it. Another great use for the guide is to give yourself cheat sheets. If you are not certain how to mediate conflict, make step-by-step instructions and laminate them. Keep them handy, so you can get it easily when you need to help students work out their differences. Even better, make a role-play out of the steps for the students to use, and step back and allow them to try it by themselves.

                The students will see you using your guide, and will likely create cheat sheets and guides for themselves as well. Create a culture of passing on information. The students will internalize the information better if they are creating it for the good of the future members of the class, rather than something they are doing only for a grade. They will also be more careful to get it right.

                Add to your guide as new information comes to light. You may come across unique situations that need a different approach. Modeling change will help the students feel more comfortable with it as well. Let's say they are hesitating to change a rule. Find an opportunity to change something in your guide. Find something that is not working the way you thought, and improve it.

                The guide is the tool that will help make this classroom successful. You may also make it something that gets passed down from teacher to teacher. What worked for you, what did not work? What are some helpful do's and don'ts? Thinking about your guide as something that will help someone else navigate the GenWe Classroom will help you find ways to explain things and keep you motivated to keep updating it.