Goal:
- Students who are paying attention and thinking critically.
- An environment where you don’t have to fight for respect from your students.
- When you create an environment where students don’t believe their teacher is infallible, you don’t have to hide mistakes from them to maintain their respect.
- Small incentives can go a long way and be a fun addition to the classroom.
- Modeling a positive response to being corrected or challenged so students learn to respond in similar ways.
- Keep a bag of small prizes to give students who catch mistakes or ask pertinent questions you can’t answer (e.g. school supplies, swag from conferences, etc.).
- You can also give out prizes for asking a question a lot of students had.
- You can figure out these questions by checking to see if other students are nodding in agreement when a question is asked.
- After class, let those students pick a prize from the bag!