CBG-Caught Being Good

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Home : 2002 : January : 13

CBG-Caught Being Good
By Sharon D.W.L

It's funny. I had forgotten about this until I read your post. I used this idea from a past issue of Mailbox with my grade 4 class when I studnet taught and while subbing. I didn't use it when I first took over grade one
last year nor have I used it yet this year but I think I'll introduce it this week during my "discovery" time.
I use a clothes peg with my name on one side and CBG on the other with a little penguin sticker (I love penguins.) I wear this clothes peg on my pen's string that hangs around my neck. When someone is "caught being good" you clip the cp to them and don't say a word! You

just keep doing what you were doing. When you get a free second (rare in my room) you quietly ask the child to pick a surprise out of a CBG Box or you pick something out of it for them. I have an assortment of things and try not to use candy as an individual reward. (Stickers, pencils etc.) As they get the "Prize" I thank them for the "good" behaviour and I try to be very specific about what was done. I say this a little louder. Not so everyone can hear but a few who will always ease drop can usally hear me! After I've awarded the same "positive" behaviour 2-3 times I say something like WOW! You can really "the beahviour" well! Now that I know you can do that, I'll expect it always. Great job Grade One! (Praise the whole class.) This means you should not reward that specific behaviour again at least for a long time and try to "find" a different "good" behaviour to reward. I also don't give our rewards if a child asks for it. I have to "catch you"...

I also have a 3 strikes board for negative behaviour and after three strikes you have a 5 minute time out. (It started out as a 3 minute time out, but after first term I changed it to 5 minutes.)
Strike one - first warning (loose 1 pt)
Strike two - last warning (loose 2 pts)
Strike three - Time out chair - 5 minutes (loose all 3 pts). I have had a couple refuse to go to the green time out chair in my room. I tact on 5 minutes each time they refuse. So far the longest has been 15 minutes. He served the time on two differnt days (10 and then 5 minutes). At the end of this term I will not use the chair but will simply take some recess time which is 15 minutes in the AM and 40 minutes in the PM. If they refuse twice they loose the whole recess and this way I can place them in the office or outside the staff room for as long as needed.

I keep track of the three strikes. 3 points a day equals 15 points a week. I give out weekly conduct marks in Health this way. Each day I mark a number after the attendance (0,1,2 or 3 points) at the end of the week I add each child's points up out of 15. Those absent get zero but it is marked in (red) a differnt colour so I know it was due to being out for the day and not inappropriate behaviour. This also lets me see who's attendance is not where it should be. (That's another post...)

I'm fed up with all the time outs and the same children always making the day so long... Looking at my conduct marks you can see who are un-cooperative all the time! I think I might as well thank those who are really making my job easier. I also try not to give out more then 2-3 "prizes" a day.

Hope this makes sense. Please E-mail me if it's not clear.
sdwl