Classroom Behavior

Having behavior problems with your students? Now, my little first year teacher self is NOT trying to sound like the poster child for classroom discipline--(I've DEFINITELY got a lot to learn!) but one thing that I truly believe is that students respond better when acknowledged for doing the RIGHT thing than to only hear their name called out for breaking rules! I believe it's important to establish that discipline in my classroom and yes there are consequences for those rule-breakers--but I also want to reward students for following my rules! :)

Here's one thing that I do each week with my students:

The tables that my students sit in are the Baseball Table, Basketball Table, Volleyball Table, and Football Table. Each week the students of each table must work together to earn tally marks. They can earn a tally mark if every member of the table is on task completing their work, and has their voice level under control! The winning table gets to take their shoes off during reading station time on Friday. :) They get really into this, and it really makes them stay on task during class! SIDE NOTE: If you do this in your classroom, make sure that you inform the students at the winning table that if they have to go to the bathroom they have to put their shoes back on to go in the hallway! :) I failed to make this announcement the first time my students "learned without shoes" and I'm pretty sure some of my students got some funny looks from other teachers! Whoops!

The way that I keep the voice level down during station time is with my little friend named Carl the Cop. :) Carl tells the students what level their voice needs to be on. (If I have made an announcement that our class is to whisper, I have one student that never fails to remind me that Carl the Cop needs to be moved to 1. Too funny!)

These are just some of the things that I am attempting in my classroom, to go along with my regular behavior plan (the traffic light). Like I said before, I am a first year teacher so everything is an experiment at this point--but these things seem to be working well for me!