behaviour

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Home : 2003 : November : 14

behaviour
By Sarah

I agree that it only takes 1 disruptive student to affect a whole class.

Also, many kids today are very distractable and unable to sit for long periods of time. I have many who don't like to read in 4th grade because they've
never done it at home. Some have no rules at home so they come to school and don't know how to be "good". In other words, I think our culture has contributed to bad classes. So it's not a teacher's fault when s/he spends more time worrying about management than curriculum!
I have found success through making my classroom VERY structured and having procedures for everything.

For punishments for my "talker-outers" I assign dictionary words. If the class is chatty during quiet work time, I say, "It's DW time. The first talker gets 10 words, second gets 20, etc..." It works! Or for my 2 "talker-outers", sometimes I put them on a 5 dictionary-terms for every time spoken out. It's an educational punishment- they write out words and meanings to unknown words they pick from a letter I assign.

This year, my class is immature. I use a "Marble Jar"- add marbles for certain specified good behaviours and remove marbles for certain unwanted behaviours. Halfway up the jar on Friday = 30 minutes of Preferred Activity Time. I don't do it as much for the reward as for the visual and auditory cues it provides for behaviour. That is, the sight and sound of a marble being dropped in our glass jar serves as a cue to whether they are doing something right or not.

For bad behaviour, I write a note in the planner or send home a yellow "Postcard from Ms. ___" which describes the behaviour and gets the student's and parent's signature. (I use a pink postcard for missed homework.) I write notes FREQUENTLY- whenever there is some bad behaviour. I get on top of it right away.

There's no easy solution and I agree that saying "Go read this book" won't help. My last word is to say- Do you have a good principal? I have a very good one who is 110% supportive, and it makes all the difference b/c the kids know they can't get away with anything. Being sent to the office really is a dreaded thing because she will deal with the kids right away and with a strong consequence.