Behavior in the Classroom

 

In this linky, part of TBA's International Blog-Hopping Day, you can read about my techniques for dealing with behavior problems in the classroom!

School Behavior

PBIS - As part of the school PBIS plan we have BUG slips which stand for Being Unbelievably Good which students can get for extraordinary behavior.  They are like "Gotchas."  For receiving these, student can attend parties or get their picture taken and put on bulletin boards in the hallways.

My Whole-Classroom Positive Behavior Tools:

Marble jar!  

My principal gave me a class apple jar my first year and it sits on the corner of my desk!  Students can earn marbles for getting compliments from other teachers, 100% class attendance, 100% homework turned in, and everyone getting to outstanding.  After each 30 marbles, we have some sort of class party.  They like to watch cartoons on the Smart Board: Magic School Bus, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Wild Krats, Disney Cartoons, etc.  We have also had events like: Ice Cream Social, Pajama Day, Toy/Ipod afternoons, Pizza party, cupcake parties, etc.

Cupcake Boss!

This is my student of the week.  It serves as a behavior tool because I am very open about how I choose the Cupcake Boss.  Students know what types of behaviors I expect out of them to be the Cupcake Boss.  Students that are the Cupcake boss get:  a cupcake boss key chain, a no homework pass, a cupcake, a little card/certificate, and a chance to write about themselves in The Weekly Mix (our newsletter).  They can also read aloud one day during Shared Reading.

Individual Behavior:

Clip- Chart!!

 This is a picture of mine!  I just ordered the one of the website.  While most teachers associate red with being a bad thing, I liked having pink at the bottom because one of our school-wide behavior things are "pink-slips"  which is like a office visit/in school reset.  So when they get down to Pink - they receive a pink slip.

Tiers of Clip Chart:

Ready to Learn- where every student starts
Yellow/Orange - headed to great things!
Red (Outstanding) - When students get to outstanding, they get a little Vista Print creation saying that they got to outstanding.  They also get a little stick on piece of bling and a coupon.  I have coupons  for computer time, no homework, lunch with a teacher, etc.  After receiving 5 blings they get moved up to a different color clip.  We go through the rainbow colors.  They get to take their old clip home.  They love keeping their clips!  I even had a hall of fame one year!
Blue (Think about It) - Just a verbal warning
Purple (Teacher's choice) - This is usually just 5 minutes @ recess where I can have a short conversation with the student about their choices.
Pink (Parent contact) -  They do get send to the office for a brief reset, I contact their parents, and they lose their whole recess. 

I use Christina's Clip Chart Behavior Log to monitor where students land each day.  You can see it in the picture below underneath my pencil cups.  One student job is to record where each student is at the end of the day. 

 There is a lot more to how I use the clip chart such as learning to find positive behaviors, etc.  But this is just a very brief, brief, overview of how I use it.

For good morale:

Bucket Filling!

 You can read more about it here.  Basically at the beginning of the year, you read the book and talk about how we all have "buckets" we carry around with us.  It's all about helping others and having a good classroom environment!

PYP Attitudes and Aspects of the Learner Profile!

In the picture above, you can see a bulletin board devoted to attitudes and learner profiles such as integrity, creativity, principled, thinker, open-minded etc.  My school is an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme school.  Learn more about that here.  An essential part of the program talks about how the attitudes and the learner profiles shape learners to become internationally-minded.  The idea is that internationally-minded learners are well-rounded, better inquirers, and overall better learners.  So an essential part of my classroom is teaching the kids what it means to be an inquirer.  How can we be caring?  What does it mean to have integrity?  What does being open-minded mean?  If it I had to compare it to anything I would say Character Counts.  Basically, as a school we have a attitude we focus on each week and a learner profile we focus on each month.  There is always a literature connection (books in wicker basket), and they have reflection journals (in green basket).  It has increased their vocabulary and made the students more accountable, caring learners.
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I would definitely have to say the most important thing I have learned is to be consistent and as positive as possible!