Baseball Behavior

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Home : 2001 : June : 27

Baseball Behavior
By Trish

I printed out a page full baseballs, then copied them so that I would have a lot.

After each class, (we were departmentalized) I would award 1 baseball, sometimes 2 depending on how hard they worked, to the student
that stayed on task, had homework, etc.. maybe it was just the one that tried the hardest that day.. BUT THEY MUST HAVE THEIR HOMEWORK TO BE ELIGIBLE to win the baseball. It worked so well that all I would have to say was.. hmmm.. class is rowdy... not sure if a baseball will be rewarded today. You would see fingers going to lips, heads going down on the desks. It was funny and this was

5th grade!

Now, once the baseball is awarded, it is the student's responsiblity to keep track of it. If I found one left behind, it was tossed into the trash. If they lost it, too bad. I had my initials in an unusual color ink on each baseball, and the student's name, date issued, and class written on it.

Once they have 3 baseballs, they can return all 3 to me and get a prize. Sometimes, I gave the prize, sometimes I would have a bag of prizes and would let them choose.. all depended on what I had available.

For problems, they had 3 strikes.. 1st strike warning.. 2 strikes behavior report, 3 detention.. if the student was a constant problem, I would call his parents.. and so forth.. after 3 detentions.. STRIKE OUT.. Suspension. It really worked well with my 5th graders.

I also subbed a 4th grade class for a week. I explained this procedure and instead of it being an individual thing, I made it a class plan. If behavior was good, with no strikes, they got to watch a movie on the last day I was with them. I had other teachers and mothers walk by and ask me what I was doing.. they they didn't even behave that well with their regular teacher. I also used this in a 6th grade class sparingly.. that is where I came up with the idea.. It worked too.. not as well as with the others.. but I think that was because I was still tweaking it.