Blog 6 EDN319--Classroom Management

PART 1: FE Classwide Behavior Management System Observation

                In my field experience observations, the school I am working at uses a schoolwide PBIS (positive behavioral intervention and support) behavior management system. This must be a county-wide thing because my daughter also has this at her school. At school, each day every student gets a color written on their agenda. Blue is for excellent behavior (4 points), green is good behavior(3 points), yellow means they had several warnings (2 points), and red is unacceptable behavior. At the end of each 9 weeks, students that earned 45 points and above can go to the PBIS celebration, which may be a pizza party, ice cream party, time to play games, etc. Students that did not make the goal are not reprimanded, but they cannot attend celebration. In this classroom, the teacher sometimes writes names on the board. Having their name on the board means a student will get to walk the halls during recess, instead of playing on equipment. My PT teaches math and science, the teacher next door to her teaches social studies and language arts. They each teach their own homeroom, and then switch students. When there is a behavior issue with the other teacher’s class, my PT also relays the issue to her.

                One of this week’s strategies that I have observed is self-monitoring.  Even though teacher writes their “color” on agenda to be signed each night, students also have a chart just to record their behavior colors. This way they can be mindful of how many points they have, or how many they need to go to celebration. Also, each entry has a little box for describing why they got that color. So, for example, if a student got a yellow, he/she might write in box something like “talking too much”.

PART 2: The Stoplight Behavior Management System

                I hadn’t really thought of behavior management as possibly being negative, but I can see the points of this article. Publicly displaying a child’s behavior can be embarrassing, which in turn could damage their self-esteem, and possibly even open a door to bullying. I had always thought some kind of creative system, like the stoplight, or berries in a basket (used in my first grade), would be a necessary component of my classroom. When thinking about these points though, I am re-thinking that. The fact that I have my own children, one that is in school already, probably influenced my thoughts on this. Those of you that are parents know, whenever there is a situation of your child being reprimanded at school, even if they were misbehaving, you’re just a little annoyed at the teacher. You also know that when your child is having some sort of problem, maybe they’re being picked on by one kid, or having trouble with fractions, their problems concern and upset you more than it does them. Just the thought of one of my kids being humiliated in front of other infuriates me, so I can definitely see the points of these articles.

One kind of public spotlight behavior strategy that makes me so mad every time I hear about it, or see it used is group punishment. For example, two students are chatting and playing in the line, then teacher says something like “now everyone will get 10 minutes of silence lunch” they might even say something like “you can thank Jack and Jill for that”. The reason this makes me so mad is because first of all, it’s not fair. It’s not fair to teach students that even if they follow directions and do everything right someone else might still come along and mess them up. I feel like then student will think “well what was the point of me doing good, since I’m getting punished anyway”. Also these group punishments really can cause bullying, in fact they promote it. By pointing out the deviant students to the others, teacher is indicating everyone should be mad at them and encouraging ridicule.

                I think some good ideas to manage behavior that avoid these public, and often embarrassing displays, focus on public praise for good behavior. Starting from the first day, when writing class rules. Instead of writing a bunch of DONTS, make positive depictions of DO’S. For example, instead of writing “Don’t interrupt when teacher is talking”, you could say “DO raise your hand when you want to say something or ask a question.” Another good strategy, that I forgot to mention I have seen my PT use, is to call out those kids that are doing the right thing. For example, when they are transitioning cleaning up after an activity, then taking out notebooks to start paying attention to lecture, she might say things like “I see Melanie knows what she’s supposed to be doing.”

PART 3: Your Class-wide Behavior Management System

·         When writing class rules, I will create a DO list instead of a DON’T list (as described above)

·         Publicly praise positive behavior and correct answers.

·         Often have class applaud their peers for a job well done. (Learned this in Ron Clark’s book past semester)

·         If I have to use the PBIS system implemented in Onslow county, the student’s “color rating” will not be displayed to peers, only parents. (I really think, and my PT agrees this is a waste of time. The time she has to walking around to each agenda could be used much wiser).

·         I really liked the “token system” described in the video. I could have a jar that I put a marble in every time they do something good as a class. For example, during independent work, they weren’t talking to class mates, they stayed focused. Or maybe during group work, each group was productive and spent their time working. Then I would make an announcement, praise them for the good behavior, and add a marble. Once the jar is full, or they reach a certain number of marbles, we will have a reward. The reward will be decided upon beforehand, I would probably let them give some suggestions, and vote on the reasonable ones.

·         Even though I know there will be situations, I don’t want to spend much time focusing on correcting bad behavior. I want students to see they get attention for good behaviors, bad behavior isn’t even worth my time. I don’t want to waste valuable class time saying “Johnny won’t stop talking, so I’m going to have to write his name on the board”. These kind of comments can create a negative environment in the classroom, even possibly making them counter-productive.

·         When class does need to be reprimanded, for example, they are being too loud, and have been asked to tone it down more than once, I would say something like “I was hoping we would be able to add another marble today. If we keep this up we won’t be able to add any today. I am really looking forward to playing (some game) with them, but, if we can’t get it together, I don’t know how long that will be.”

·         If an individual student is still misbehaving in my classroom, I would have an individual conversation with only that student. Perhaps I would have them eat lunch in my classroom and have an honest conversation with them. I would first give them a paper to fill out with the following questions. If the student is younger than 2^nd grade, I would fill out the paper with them.

Why am I here, eating lunch in Ms. Martinez’s classroom?

Why did I do this (the unwanted behavior)?

How is this (unwanted behavior) affecting me in the classroom?

How is this (unwanted behavior) affecting my classmates?

If I continue this (the unwanted behavior), what will be the consequences?

(not only the punishment, I want them to think about what else will happen)

             Whenever I feel like I want to (the unwanted behavior), what can I do instead?

I will tell the student for the next 2 weeks (10 days), he/she will monitor their own behavior. Every day the student successfully abstains from the unwanted behavior, he/she will add a little star sticker on their agenda. If the student reaches 10 days of stickers consecutively, I will give them an individual reward. Maybe he/she could choose a book (or bring one from home) for read aloud, or get their own 10 minute show and tell slot to share a favorite object or experience with their classmates.

If any student is still having problems, at this point I would start sending notes home, maybe set up a parent conference. Oftentimes if kids realize they won’t only get in trouble at school, but at home too, this can fix the behavior problem.