Working together with the students towards a positive classroom environment in Physical Education.

Before starting the design of a classroom management plan for the year, it can result very useful for the teacher to count on the students to make it appealing for them, and adjusted to their needs, attitudes, and characteristics. Approaching the design of the guidelines for routines and expectations from a perspective in which the students are active participants of the procedures and transitions will make the implementation much more effective and attractive for the students.

When planning these transitions, a teacher can wonder how can the students take the lead for the interventions to certain behaviors and contribute to the design of certain routines, here are some suggestions and examples that can result very useful:

Creating the classroom/gym rules WITH the students. By having the students suggesting and establishing the expectations with the teacher will generate in the students a feeling of being valued, they will understand the relevance of group work and collaboration, and will more likely follow and understand the expectations, since they were directly involved on its design. The teacher can guide the process by carrying out a brainstorming activity in which he/she will act as a moderator and give the approval to the rules.

Creating a Conflict Corner. In the field of Physical Education, in which the students are constantly moving an d interacting with each other, there are certain occasions that, due to he presence of a competitive situation, can generate a conflict or discussion between students. The P.E teacher can create a space in where the students, with the supervision of the teacher, can solve the conflict by following a series of steps for behavior intervention.

Creating a Sportsmanship Code WITH the students. Sportsmanship is one of the main components that a Physical Education teacher wants to make the students aware of and follow. In order to main it, a very useful strategy is building a Sportsmanship Code together with the students, in which a series of principles (four or five can be enough) are stablished and written down on a post or banner that can be placed on one of the gym walls.

Having the students leading transitions. The teacher can design the different class transitions making the students responsible for the good development of them by assigning duties or responsibilities to individuals or groups, so the students are taking the lead. Some examples of these student-lead transitions can be directing the warm ups, lining up once the class is over, or having a group organizing or storing materials.

These strategies can result very effective when trying to maintain a positive learning environment in where the students can learn and grow not only as students but also as people, by developing the sense of responsibility, empathy, and leadership.