Modeling Appropriate Behavior

• 1). Practice good social skills in the classroom. Most children learn social skills by imitating those around them, such as parents. Since some children will not have good role models at home, it is important that teachers show them the right way to act socially.
  
  
• 2). Talk explicitly about social skills, explaining what they are and why they work. Talk to your students about greeting someone properly, the skills of conversation and active listening, and the idea of body language and social cues. Some children will be unaware of these concepts.
  
  
• 3). Give children plenty of opportunities to practice appropriate social skills when greeting adults or other visitors who enter your classroom. Give discreet private feedback to students who find this difficult.
  
  

Bucket Fillers

• 1). Introduce your class to the idea of “bucket fillers.” In this analogy, everyone has an imaginary bucket that contains her feelings. Bucket fillers are those people who behave in a thoughtful and socially appropriate manner, filling their own buckets and those of others and making everyone feel good. Bucket dippers are people who take from others without giving back or behave in a mean way.
  
  
• 2). Give your students positive recognition for kind acts by illustrating the bucket filler concept. Set up a wall of actual miniature buckets, one for each student.
  
  
• 3). Put a small token into a child’s bucket when you observe a kind act, so she can watch her bucket fill over the week.
  
  

Class Discussion

• 1). Pick social skills topics for occasional classroom discussions. You can adapt the topic to behaviors you observe in your students. You might see a need to discuss how to deal with bullying, or decide the students should talk about the value of apology. Whatever your topic, be explicit about what you are going to talk about.
  
  
• 2). Begin with a brainstorming session where students contribute ideas on how to deal with a difficult social situation.
  
  
• 3). Guide the discussion toward a few key learning points and have students write up the conclusions of the discussion.
  
  

Pairing

• 1). Observe at the beginning of the year which students are socially adept and which have social challenges.
  
  
• 2). Pair together a socially adept student with a socially challenged student on a project or assignment. This does two things: it provides positive peer modeling, and it builds bridges between students who might otherwise have found themselves on either side of a social divide.
  
  
• 3). Check in with pairs to see how things are progressing. If there is friction between the two students in a pair, moderate a discussion between them to air out differences and come to a resolution.