Social Studies and Classroom Management

This week as I read Chapter 8 in Schell and Fisher's "Teaching Social Studies: A Literacy-Based Approach, I found two great ideas that I would like to implement in my classroom. I need to think them through but I am going to try them next year. The first one is the rules of the class. I discovered some different ways of wording expectations that I feel will evokea more postive response in my children. I have always facilitated making classroom expectations but I had never made the connection to social studies with my children. I also liked that it stated rewards before consequences on a poster next to the classroom expectations. Having a visual reminder of rewards may encourage more good behavior. The other idea I loved was the 'banking behavior' section. This will require me to think alot about the management of this idea but it would cover so many objectives that we cover: money, adding, subtracting, occupations, earning, spending, saving, supply, demand, etc. The list can go on. This behavior management system is integrated with math, social studies, and comprehension skills! :) These two ideas are a wonderful way of integrating social studies into the classroom. I did not realize how social studies is everywhere until we began this class. It always seemed like social studies was the subject that got left out because we couldn't figure out how to fit it in but now it seems like every lesson has social studies in it. If I use these strategies, I will be addressing social studies everyday.