Giving students ownership was one teaching strategy that I found effective. The first time my students had the opportunity to take ownership was at the beginning of the day when we were building a community in our new group. I introduced a small stuffed animal in my fist activity. The students got together and named stuffed animal (George Small Fry). George became both a mascot for the group and a useful motivator. At the end of the lesson, I had planned a hike to look for animal scat. I picked two students to hold on to scat identification guidebooks. Both students that received a book took the job seriously and were actively engaged in the scat hike. Increasing responsibility, decision-making, and ownership in the classroom makes students feel empowered as learners. I want to increase opportunities for my students to make decisions about their learning in my future lessons. An example may be allowing my students to decide where we do an activity or the order in which we do activities. Most of my students are very enthusiastic to be learning at the Catamount Mountain Campus. At times their excitement led the class on tangents. I found that reminding the students of the current topic and when they would have an opportunity to have their discussions successfully re-directed students to focus on the current topic. This strategy allowed me to preserve my caring relationship with my students and get the conversation back on topic. Creating a phrase, gesture, or call and response that reminds my students to stay on topic could be a quick way to introduce a behavior norm.