Losing Excitement

I have exhausted the responsive classroom website with the list of activities and greetings this year. We are now cycling back through all of them. My students are getting "bored" or they are just not as excited about Morning Meeting as they were in the other parts of the year. Does anyone have any suggestions to "kick it up a notch"? Has anyone found another site with lists of activites/greetings?

Little Social Issues

As we are nearing the end of the year, I have noticed that my students are SO comfortable with each other that we are having lots more little social issues popping up, getting students upset and interrupting our learning time. Some examples are, sitting really close to each other and not moving over, saying things in mean ways, giving "looks" and other minor things like that. We have really been modeling polite ways to say things, talking about using your words so people know that you are upset and why and thinking about how you would feel if someone treated you like that. Any other suggestions for these little social troubles?? Thanks!

Breaking a Child out of his "Role"

This year, I have a student in my class that has challenged me all year.  He is incredibly kind and caring, and he is one of the first students that will go to help someone who is hurting or feeling sad.  At the same time, he has taken on the role of the "class clown."  He intentionally makes inappropriate comments during lessons to get others to laugh, and he'll purposely break rules to see what reaction he will get.

For a long time, I have felt that the issue for this student is not that he is a "bad kid."  The issue is that he thinks that he is.  Whenever I need to pull him aside to talk about a poor decision he has made, he begins by saying that he is receiving a consequence because he is a "bad kid."  No matter how many times I reiterate that he is not--that it was the choice that was bad--he can't seem to get past this view of himself.  We have had conversations about the great qualities he has, I praise him when I see him make good choices, etc.  Continually, though, he goes back to seeing himself as bad and, I think, makes poor choices to continue on in that role. 

Does anyone have any ideas about helping him to see himself in a different role?

"Take A Break"

At the beginning of the year I felt overwhelmed (as usual) about implementing new strategies and teaching techniques. One of my goals was to use the Responsive Classrooms approach toward behavior. However after going to the training I did not feel that I could do EVERYTHING involved in this approach. My theory behind it was that I only want to try a few things, and to do those things very well, instead of doing everything and getting overwhelmed and not doing anything correctly. With all that being said, I have a couple questiosn. #1 Who is using/has used the "take a break" chair this year. #2 How did you implement it? #3 Do you think it was successful? I would like to explore the possibilities of using this strategy next year in my class. I have asked students to take breaks in the cluster, but I do not believe I have used it to its utmost potential. Thanks!