Now that you have had some time to think about what you feel is most important about classroom management, AND what you feel like works and doesn't work in your classroom, think about what you feel should be included if we update our OUR SCHOOL PLAN. What parts of classroom management should be common (either school wide or even primary/intermediate) and what part of classroom management should be based completely on classroom needs/not be common?
Think about things like school wide positive reinforcement strategies, behavior boards, office referrals, etc.
I have talked with my team quite a bit about changes they would like to see made. I know one thing that we agree on is that we would love to find a way for our first graders who are already on blue or red early on in the day to be encouraged to change their behavior. Unfortunately many of them get discouraged because they are already going to be punished and continue to misbehave. I know that there are some classrooms at JELV that use some type of clip system where students have the opportunity to move up and down. Each student starts on the same color everyday and students who exceed expectations have the opportunity to move up the chart. Students who misbehave and have to move down the chart also have the opportunity to move back up if their behavior improves. This would give students the desire to turn their day around. I'm not sure how this would look in the intermediate grades, but I think something similar may work well for the younger grades. I don't necessarily think positive reinforcement (classroom money, warm fuzzes, ect.) needs to be common across the school. Teachers use different ones that work well for their classrooms. I'd love to look into some other behavior systems that allow students to move back up based on improved behavior.
ReplyDeleteI talked with 4th grade about ideas we like and don't like. We agree that intermediate should not get to turn their cards back to green to turning their day around. The consensus is that our card turns are usually for "serious offenses" and students need lasting consequences for their misbehavior. We do think it's a good idea to have a way for kids to be rewarded for positive behavior, so maybe adding "star cards" to the behavior board is an idea. That way a kid might be on yellow for something they did wrong but could still do something right to earn a star card.
ReplyDeleteIt's my opinion that the card turn system should be common throughout primary/intermediate but not necessarily through the whole school. 4th grade doesn't usually have kids who are on red by lunchtime and need to find a way to turn the day around like Courtney mentioned. I'm thinking we need to approach behavior differently for younger and older kids.
I also think positive reinforcement should be left up to the teacher. There are so many good positive reinforcement ideas out there, I think we should be able to use what works for our class. Also, that would keep things fresh for our kids from year to year. I think changing up positive rewards from year to year keeps kids motivated to do the right thing.
I do think we need a clear cut rule about office referrals. Last year the office referral rules became unclear when we were told not to send every pulled card to the office. I don't necessarily like the idea that some kids with pulled cards will go to the office and others won't. By the time their behavior has warranted a pulled card, I think an office visit is appropriate, regardless of why they flipped through all their colors. Being consistent with sending kids to the office for any/all pulled cards sends the message to all the other kids in the room that pulling a card is serious business.
I believe the card system should be common throughout the entire school to avoid any confusion outside of the classroom. I agree with both Courtney and Melissa in regards to whether or not it is appropriate to allow students to turn their cards back and/or move their clips to a “better” color. I feel this would encourage some students to turn their behavior around, however, it is my opinion that a handful of other students with behavior problems already would take advantage of the system. (However, these students might already be on an individualized behavior plan already.) I keep going back and forth whether or not I feel that this would work effectively. I know at the JELV the clip system is used, but as students get older, I foresee some, like I said earlier, working the system. Maybe students could display the appropriate behavior for a certain amount of time before a color change, but then that may be hard for teachers to keep up with.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Courtney and Melissa that positive reinforcement should be the teacher’s choice, or maybe it would be beneficial to make it common throughout each grade level as students are switching classes throughout the day. I do agree with Melissa in regards to office referrals, as students should receive an office referral for a pulled card regardless of the reason why they pulled their card.
I definitely think we need a clear definition of expectations for school-wide behavior that will filter into classroom behavior and classroom management. I like how school-wide expectations allow us to tell students that whatever negative behavior they are exhibiting is not following our school pledge. For example, Little Johnny writes on his desk, then I can tell him he is not "taking care of this place" and that warrants a card turn. I also like how this is uniform throughout the whole school because negative behaviors not only occur in the classroom but in the hallway, cafeteria, etc. This overarching pledge allows all school personnel to be on the same page in regard to behavior expectations no matter where the behavior is occurring in the school.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to implementing school-wide behavior expectations, it is important we remember that the behaviors many of our students may exhibit (or may have learned) at home are not acceptable for school. I think if we put more responsibility on the students to help implement a school-wide behavior system, it will be more effective. Some things I think we need to consider implementing are opportunities that allow students to be leaders in promoting our behavior expectations.
An idea I think that might be beneficial for student by-in to our school-wide behavior expectations is having the intermediate students “teach” the primary students about school expectations. For example, pairing up primary students with intermediate students or primary classes with intermediate classes. I also have read about a conflict management program that allows student leaders to help mediate conflicts. I think if we put more responsibility on the students they may better embrace the expectations.
I feel that it is really important for us all to have a basis to build our own classroom expectations from our school's behavior expectations; however, I think there should be some personal choice in classroom rewards. I think all teachers should do some type of reward system whether that be dojo points, star cards, etc. I agree there is a benefit in allowing students to correct their behavior, but I worry that turning cards back and forth could potentially cause confusion.
Things I think we need to take into account are the communication that cards turns provide between home and school, parents becoming aware of student’s behavior that occurred during the school day, etc. (For these reasons I think card turns are definitely a positive aspect to our behavior system.) I worry though, that reversing card turns could open doors for students to ask to change their cards back and I think there are some negative behaviors students may exhibit that should not warrant the ability for them to turn their card back to green.
To be completely honest I think right now we have too many reward systems school-wide. I like the losing marbles rewards/incentives because it is school wide and it is easy for specials teachers to reward classroom behavior. I do think we lose a little significance to rewards when there are so many. The rewards that come to mind used within our school include, the Mrs. Mcguire is proud of me, pony points, the lunch room stars, attendance stars, recess minute rewards for attendance, lose your marbles, dojo points, etc.
I understand there is a purpose for all of these rewards, but I just wonder how effective each of these rewards really are in regard to promoting positive behaviors and attendance. I am really not trying to be negative, like I said before I truly understand each of these rewards has a purpose, but I just wonder if anyone else thinks this is a lot of reward systems to have in place?