Educators at Northshore Charter School attended a fun-filled training Thursday featuring Mark McLeod.

With school starting next week, first-year Principal Dee Dee McCullough said she wanted to bring all the teachers and teachers’ aides together for a course on classroom management and teambuilding.

“It’s been wonderful,” said McCullough, after the first few hours of the training. “The teachers are really excited.”

McLeod is a former teacher, principal and coach from Mississippi, and he said he tries to get educators to adopt good classroom habits prior to the school year so they’ll get started on the right track.

“It takes 21 days to form a habit,” he said. “So we want the good, effective behaviors to be established. Because a habit is going to form, whether it’s effective behavior or not.”

McLeod said most of his training gets teachers to understand how to relate to their students on a personal level.

“We focus on building relationships with students and adults,” he said.

He calls this effort “making deposits” with people and McLeod believes that good personal relationships lead to mutual respect. And respect, McLeod said, can result in effective classroom management.

Some deposits could include recognizing a student’s birthday or going to an afterschool event. These things can strengthen bonds.

“This motivates students to behave and perform accordingly in the class,” McLeod said.

McCullough said this was the first such speaker the school has had, but she plans to continue teacher training in the future.