Teachers in middle school classrooms truly have to pick their battles. A never-ending battle I have seen over the years is kids saying mean things to each other. Instead of writing a referral every time a student calls another student stupid, dumb, retard, b%#*&, or homo (sorry for the strong language, but we all know it happens), I have them pull a kindness card instead.
Once I hear a student say something mean to another student, I simply point to where the kindness cards hang on my wal