Positive Behavior Management

I have had several people ask me about my classroom management system, so my next few posts will be about just that! Tonight, I am going to share my behavior system for you. My building has been using a Positive Behavior System for 7 years now.  It’s a fantastic system and works especially well with young children.  Prior to this program, we all had our own type of management system going on in our classrooms.  We decided that we wanted our behavior program to be extremely consistent school-wide.   Thus, the creation of the behavior wheel.  

After several years, it was decided that the wheels were just too bulky.  They were replaced by yard sticks! As shown in the photo, the stick is spray-painted to give students a visual of how their behavior is.  The colors are as follows:

Blue: Outstanding

Green: Meeting Expectations

Orange: Warning 

Yellow: Warning (phone call/note)

Red: You’re in big trouble, mister!  (Did you read that aloud in your best Michelle Tanner voice?)

The student names are clothes pinned to the stick and a ribbon or clip is at the top.  I hang my stick on a Command hook.  Now, back to the consistency part: the stick travels with the class to specials.  If Johnny is acting all crazy in class and thinks he’s going to keep it up in Music, guess what? His clip gets moved again by the Music teacher…even if he is already on Orange.  Johnny will typically get his act together prior to walking through the Music doors.

Let’s remember that there is a “blue” section for outstanding behavior.  I typically let a few kids that are on green and displaying great behavior move up to the blue.  Occasionally, if I have a student who made some poor choices and is then trying to meet my expectations, I will ask him/her to move their clip up to the blue.  There are two rewards for being on blue: 1. You get to sign your name on the “BLUE CREW” poster immediately 2. You get to choose from the treasure chest at the end of the day.  Note that there is an immediate reward and a reward that will come with patience.  The kids know they better keep their clip on blue if they get there, or it’s no treasure box for them!  Tip: Laminate your poster and have students sign their names with a Vis-a-Vis marker so you can wipe it off with a wet tissue as needed. 

This system has proved effective for many reasons:

1. It gives students a constant visual and reminds them to shape up!

2. All teachers use it and students know the expectations from year to year

3. Students are given the opportunity to “correct” their behaviors

4. It promotes goal setting and reviewing

Let’s rewind a bit: On the last day of the month, students get a new behavior calendar (it has Monday-Friday for the month) and set their individual goals (how many days they want to be on green or blue).  The goals require a bit of coaching, especially at the start of the year.  The calendars are colored each night and sent home in the student data binders (more to  come on those next week). That way, the parents can see how their child behaved on a daily basis.  At the end of the month, the children count their “green/blue” days and see if they met their goal.  If they did, they will participate in a grade-level reward. Activities include: a Sock Hop, ice-cream party, hayride, art project, extra recess, etc.. Our central office makes our behavior calendars for us, so I do not have those to share with you, but Mrs. Cupcake makes some super ones that are editable!!!

Things can get hectic (as we all know!) and it can be hard to keep of who has met their goal each month and especially who has met their goal all year (there is a big reward for those few students!).  In addition to students tracking their own behavior goals in their take-home data binders, I let them sign their names on the monthly behavior goal posters.  These stay up all year and it helps my students and I remember who is meeting their goals. If you would like a copy of the behavior posters that I use, you can grab them at my TpT store for free. 

xo
Megan