Behavior Management Ideas

      This semester I've been keeping track of brownie points and bookworm stats in my classroom.

BROWNIE POINTS:

      The whole class earns brownie points by learning to control noise and behavior. I write down the numbers 1-5 on the board. I move a magnet between the numbers throughout the day depending on what noise level I think they are on. It keeps the class more aware of their talking and helps me monitor noise without having to constantly say to do something with voices off etc. In my room, 5 is the highest and 0 is ideal. I check where the magnet is when a random timer goes off, at the end of a segment of time or at the end of a class period. The kids try and collect 15 points to fill up a 9 by 13 pan. When that happens, I bring treats. Here are the points I use:

5= minus 2 points (Way too loud)

4= minus 1 point

3= no points awarded (average)

2= 1 point awarded

1= 2 points awarded

0= 3 points awarded

APPLES TO APPLES or APPLES TO ATTITUDE:

      I am a firm believer in having individual and whole class rewards in my classroom. I have created a behavior management system that allows me to easily inform kids about misbehaviors while allowing them a chance to change them before they end up in a safe seat, buddy room or the office. In my classroom, every student has their name written on a bookworm. The goal for all students is to end up on the green apple all day long. Every time I have to stop my instruction for talking or a misbehavior I move them down an apple. I usually move their magnetized worms down to the side a step for a verbal warning and down an apple after that. This is similar to having students pull a card except it allows you to keep students in their seats and it gives students a constant reminder of how they are doing. After a student lands on red, the next step is to take them to the safe seat and have them fill out a "think sheet." After that, they get a second chance and start back on green. Yet, the next time they end up on red, they will need to head to the classroom buddy room. I always make sure to tally who ends up on green all day. Those tallies are added up at the end of a period of time and used as a ticket to a movie or minute to win it game. Extra tallies are used to buy concessions for the activity. I like this system because it makes behavior management more consistent among students and between various misbehaviors. The warnings and steps are predictable and it takes the guess work out of consequences.

7 Literature Circle Job Worksheets: Great for Stimulating Discussions on Comprehension

      I created these literature circle job worksheets that you can use to discuss a novel or some other sort of reading assignment. Once your kids get good at filling them out you can assign each of your students in small group to a different job. Have each student present their worksheet to start off your discussions on the previous reading assignment. 

Find the link to these documents on my teacher's pay teacher's page: 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Teaching-With-Class-1

Here is a sample worksheet

Post-It Predictions Worksheet/ Activity for Guided Reading

      Have the kids use post-its to mark up the book and then encourage them to make predictions before reading on etc. on this sheet. Here is a freebie for all of you teachers out there! 

Check it out here: http://personal.crocodoc.com/NZnQDg1 

Another Internet Find: Crocodoc.com

      Want to upload documents onto your Tumbler or view & comment on any document? On Crocodoc.com, you can view a Word document, fill out a PDF form, mark up an image, and more all for free! I actually used it to upload documents for this blog as well.

Check it out at: http://personal.crocodoc.com/

Sub Tub Idea: "Caught Being Good!"

      Make many copies of this “Caught Being Good” fish for your class to give to the sub on the day you are gone. Help the sub out and have them write down students that they see doing exceptional work or showing positive behavior. Have the sub write down the student’s name and a short sentence about what they did and add it to a fishbowl or fishing net. At the end of the day, have the sub draw out a few for prizes and keep the rest of the fish for you to see who behaved for the sub. If you want to use this for your personal classroom, you could use this as an ongoing way to award students by letting them color their fish and putting them up on some sort of bulletin board about what an “Awesome School of Fish you Have” etc. You could title it something like, “This School Knows How to Follow the Golden Rule!”

Here is a freebie for you all as well: http://personal.crocodoc.com/1EoIj5y

*NOTE: This would also be a great product for any substitute to add to their personal traveling sub tub!

Tip of the Week- Download every teacher's new best friend the Apimac Timer for your Mac to use as a classroom management tool.

     This week I’ve been using Apimac Timer to help manage talking in our classroom. We have been playing Teacher Vs. Class all week and it has worked wonderfully. I simply set my timer to go off with a small beep every 8 minutes. If the class makes it until the timer goes off with only a warning or two then they get a tally. If not, the tally goes to the teacher side and I start the timer over so they have to last another 8 min. Eventually I want to use songs from my iTunes to signal transitions as well. You can use pre-programmed buzzers with this free mac app as well as songs from your iTunes account. 

Check it out here: http://www.apimac.com/mac/timer/

The Latest Teacher Must Have: Download Evernote Today!

 I recently started my first semester of student teaching. Now that I am getting into the swing of things, I have decided to start a classroom blog. The first tip I have learned that I have to share is that every teacher needs to download the Evernote App to their Mac! It is a fantastic program that allows you to take notes in different notebooks and share them with other Evernote users or keep them private for yourself. I have been using this program for everything under the sun since I started! 

      One of the biggest reasons teachers need this app is that it makes it really easy for you to put all of your observations about your students in one place. I have made a notebook for all of my classroom notes. Inside I have a note for each student. I simply click on their name and type the date and a few bullet points about any incidents or praises that I feel are important to document. Additionally, you can share parts of the notebook with administrators online if need be. Better yet, you can email individual notes as well. I also use it as a place to categorize different teaching ideas so that I can easily reference them sort of like a text version of Pinterest. 

    My last argument about why teachers need this free app for their macs is that Evernote allows you to store any documents, videos, pictures, or files you would like on a note. You can simply drag and drop any file from your desktop right into a note. This makes it easy for you to drag notes, emails, worksheets and scanned homework or folders into each students note. Finally, Evernote has a web-clip that you can download to help you copy text directly from a site or email into your notebook.

Download Evernote at: http://evernote.com/