Hey friends!
I've been in full on "looping" mode lately. I'm going through my files and resources and deciding what to scrap and what I can tweak for 2nd grade.
A hot topic around blog land right now seems to be centered around procedures and classroom management. As I reflect on how my behavior tools worked last year, one thing that I found that worked well was my clip chart. It started out like your typical clip chart:
I'm sure you've seen or use one of these.
I like the theory- but I hit a few pit falls.
It didn't work.
1. I wasn't consistent.
2. It didn't always feel fair.
3. I wasn't consistent.
...are you noticing a pattern?...
I attended a great behavior management webinar last school year and I had a real "ahh-ha" moment while sitting there.
The instructor said, " How many of you hesitate to enforce your consequences on a consistent basis?"
...I sheepishly raised my hands...I couldn't lie...
He continued,"Well, that's probably not because you want to be voted most popular, but instead because your consequences are too harsh. The behaviors that bother you don't warrant the consequences you have lined up so you make excuses in order to save that child from your own behavior management system. You probably find yourself giving too many chances and then reaching a breaking point and over enforcing, am I right?"
BINGO!
{Was there a camera in my room?!?}
I had 5 colored behavior tiers and sometimes I would find myself having a student move their clip for something little or silly or just because I was lacking patience or because I couldn't for life of me remember how many warnings I had actually given them...but I just knew it had to be like 20 10 or something and they deserved to move a color!
Like I said, I wasn't consistent...as I'm sure you can tell by that last sentence.
I knew it wasn't fair.
I knew I had to come up with something different.
I was ready to toss out the clip chart
...until...
it hit me!
Why not make it "consistent proof"?
I knew I wanted to give 3 warnings before making them move down a color.
I knew I wanted to be consistent.
And I knew, above all else, I wanted it to be fair...oh yeah, and it had to be easy for my to keep up with.
Is that too much to ask for???
...
I came up with a clip chart that was similar to the original...just...stretched out.
I have 3 green levels, 3 yellows, 3 oranges, 3 red...you get the picture?
(without a picture...sorry)
Instead of me keeping track of how many times little Johnny shoots his pencil across the room during my math lesson, I simply made the students move a clip for every behavior that required redirection.
Now, before you pass judgement or call me crazy- keep in mind that my green section had 3 levels within itself. That's 3 warnings before changing colors.
...that's 3 behaviors that require redrection...
I think that's more then fair.
This little tweak fixed up my consistency problem.
...and the being fair problem...
and the 3 warnings problem!
It worked perfectly for me!
It took the work out of it...I didn't have to think anymore.
My students could see exactly how many warnings they had left before they found themselves sitting in a new color zone. I think that part was really critical because the students knew what was coming if they didn't make better choices. They were in control.
There were no more surprises.
The truth is, with my warning tracking skills, my kiddos never really knew when I was going to stop giving them warnings and actually enforce a consequence. Now it's black and white...well more like green, yellow, orange and red ;)
Needless to say- once I figured out how to fool proof my management system, my student's behavior improved. Guess that goes to show that my lack of consistency was the real problem.
I guess we all live and learn, right?!?
