Aww, chetos..

I feel like the big thing in behavior management these days is the clip chart where you can move up as well as down throughout the day. I’m wondering if any other tumblr teachers have used this and how it has worked.

I’m an old school stoplight user. Probably from all my years of softball with 3 strikes, you’re out. Strike one is a verbal warning/reminder that I’m watching and something needs to change. Strike two is a move to yellow with small consequence (time out of recess or a center or possibly both). Strike three is the move to red with no recess, loss of center time (work gets made up later while others are having more of a “free time”), rule writing with a red note home stapled to it that needs to be returned the following day.

I like the idea of rewarding kids for great behavior. I do it all day with our PBIS system. Each kid gets a sticker chart. A filled chart gets them a trip to the office and a prize.

Does the moving up of clips as well as the sticker chart seem redundant?

Will kids figure out that they can be pains all morning then angels in the afternoon to get back to green? Or possibly vice versa?

Will I have more parents on my back that their perfect kids aren’t at the highest of the choices every single day?

I’m curious to hear from teachers that have used this or plan on using this method. I definitely know that different things work for different classrooms. What worked in my classroom last year may even need some tweaking for this year’s crew. I accept that.

As of right now, my behavior plan includes the following:

• PBIS sticker chart system (I am considering collecting all completed charts from the week and doing a raffle in the class on Fridays for a big prize)
• Stoplight with red notes home only (last year I had a couple parents that wanted daily reports so we worked something out but with most kids falling on green most of the time, it seemed like a waste of paper to have weekly/monthly report sheets)
• Class incentive - I’ve seen ideas using math links for when the whole group is being awesome. I may also add links on days when everyone stays on green, perfect attendance, etc. When the link chain gets to the floor, class gets a prize: movie, popcorn, popsicle, free time, etc.

Any feedback/thoughts are appreciated!

I’m not sure what other teachers call them, or if they even acknowledge this action with a name but when we start learning words and the kids begin to notice them on signs, posters and in books around the classroom/building, I remark that they are becoming Word Hunters.

We’re up to about 25 sight words now so as the kids pick out books for their 5 or so minutes of read to self time when they’re done with morning work, a lot of my higher students spend their time searching the pages for words they know.

They get really excited when they find a word they know and even more excited when they find a string of words they can read, they go to, we can see, I look at the, etc. Instead of just saying good job, I tell them that they are on their way to being Word Hunters. Great Word Hunters turn into Great Readers because hunting for words gives them extra practice at reading and figuring out words. It has spurred a lot of my average kids to look at books longer and focus on the words too which is great.

Does anyone have any other fun names for emerging readers? Feel free to steal mine if you need one. :)