As an Exceptional Education teacher I had to find ways to inspire my students; To keep them encouraged and full of hope. I couldn’t always show them what was wrong without highlighting what they excelled in. In the classroom I have used what is called “Stars and Stairs”. How it works is I would allow each student to create a chart. They could decorate it however they wanted as long as it had stars and stairs on it. The stars had to be big enough for us to write on. They kept a baggy of stars in their desk. After each class they had to write on the star something they excelled in that day and then paste it on their chart located on the Wall in Stars in the classroom. They also had cut outs of four steps, that would eventually form a stairs that would lead to the stars. On one of the four steps they had to write one thing they struggled with that day. On the other three steps they had to list three things they could do differently to become stronger in that area.
This helped my students chart their successes and embrace what we had to work on as a team to help them be successful in that area or subject.
Dr Lisa Melton
TruthEd101 