Welcome Tangelia from Buggy in Kindergarten: Classroom Management!

Hey everyone! It's Tangelia from Buggy In Kindergarten here! I am so excited to be blogging over here for Lacey today!  Lacey, thank you for having me over here at your wonderful blog!

When Lacey and I started talking about me guest blogging, we discussed the topic of classroom management. 

The first thing that I thought of was behavior. What do I do to help keep those little munchkins angels behaving? Well my advice is to first MODEL, MODEL, MODEL those behaviors that you want them to do. Explicitly teach them what they are supposed to do and what they should NOT do. Think about how you want them to act in centers, during carpet time, while they are working independently.

In my class I expect my students to listen, to follow directions the FIRST time given, to work quietly, to put things back where they belong, and to keep their hands to themselves. Every morning we go through these rules. We talk about WHAT they mean and WHY they are important! 

My students know the rules.... HOWEVER that does not mean that they always follow them. So what do I do in this case? Well I am a firm believer in warnings. The first thing I always do is to give a warning. Sometimes this is all that child needs and their behavior is much better the rest of the day! But then you have those stinkers students that just don't get it. They keep repeating the same behavior. In this case, my students have to mark a star. Each star has its own consequence. 

If they mark one star they lose 5 minutes of recess. Two stars 10 minutes of recess. Three stars they lose 15 minutes of recess, and if behavior is disrupting class progress, they go to timeout. At four stars they have no recess and have a letter going home to their parents about their behavior. 

I used this system mainly because I thought I HAD to! This is the behavior system that all of the teachers on my team use. However it just doesn't work for me. This year I am changing my behavior system to something that I am much more excited about! 

Some of you probably use it! It is the clip chart system! (Click on the picture below to get your very own copy of my clip chart system for FREE!)

Here are the reasons that I love this type of behavior system. 

1) It focuses on the behavior you WANT to see instead of just the behaviors you DON'T want to see!
     In the past it has felt like all I was able to focus on is the negative behavior in the classroom. This means that these children get the attention. Yes, it is negative attention, but it is attention nonetheless. Using this behavior chart, I will be able to pick out and praise and reward those positive behaviors that I want to see.

2) It gives students to ability to climb back up if they have had a bad morning but a great afternoon!
     A student's behavior is affected by so many factors. Their life at home may be negative. They could have seen something on the bus that affected them. There are so many things that we do not see in a child's life. I believe that sometimes these things cause student's to misbehave. So say a student comes in one morning and begins acting up, you warn them, maybe you give them another warning, but they don't quit that negative behavior. They have to move a clip. Once they move that clip they think about their behavior, they realize that it was inappropriate, and they become that angel that you knew they could be. They begin exhibiting positive behaviors, that child may move their clip up. Therefore reinforcing those positive behaviors and encouraging them to do better.

3) It offers POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT instead of just NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT!
    If you are looking for students that are behaving like they should be they DESERVE to be praised. Letting them move their clip UP reinforces their positive behavior. I LOVE this! 

4) All students start on green "Ready to Learn" EVERYDAY!
    Each and every day a child deserves to begin fresh... to have a clean slate. Using this behavior chart, each and every day students get to SEE that they are on green. Seeing this shows them that "Today is a new day."

I am really excited to get to use this new chart in my classroom this year. I look forward to rewarding those students with positive behavior instead of just focusing on negative behaviors!

Lacey, thanks again for having me today! I hope all of you enjoyed hearing my take on the Clip Chart Behavior System. I would love to see you over at my blog, Buggy In Kindergarten!

-Tangelia