How to Democratize your Classroom Shella Zelenz, M.A.Ed., Ed.D. Education Consultant Also Available: How to Democratize your School http://zelenz.com

Overview What does democracy look like in a classroom? How do you implement student-led democracy in your classroom? What are the risks? Does this create behavior problems? Does this take extra time away from precious lesson time?

Long-term goal To create a self-maintained classroom Students take ownership of their learning experience Students take responsibility for their actions and ownership of their community Teacher spends more time facilitating learning and less time managing behavior Students are more motivated to learn

The Present Situation Students are told the classroom rules Students are held accountable to rules that they have no control over Students may rebel because they have no ownership over their experience Students are not as empowered as they could be to self-manage

Development up to present What are your current classroom challenges? Is the way that your classroom operates similar to the democracy in which the students live? Do you feel it would benefit the students to learn how to operate in a democracy? What would your classroom look like if the students held more ownership over their entire experience in your classroom?

Potential Alternatives Do you spend more time enforcing rules than teaching? Do you find resistance in your students when you reinforce those rules? How many things have you tried? Do you still have students who won't comply? Do you trust your students? Why? Why not?

Recommendation The guideline will offer you an alternative way in which you can run your classroom Running a classroom democracy encourages participation by your most challenged students Students will take ownership in collaborating to support community participation in community established guidelines. The teacher will have more time to interact with students Classroom behavior will improve dramatically