Thinking in Primary

Today's Big Time Blogging Challenge topic is classroom management.  This is something that I've been thinking a lot about this summer.  For the last several years I've really been struggling with the use of behavior charts.  I don't like them.  The same kids end up turning their card over and over proving to me that having a child turn his or her card does not change their behavior in the long run (although it sometimes puts them back on track for the day).  For some it deflates their self esteem. You can see it in their faces.  They feel bad and so do I.  So, decision made.  I am not using it this year. This is going to be hard because parents seem to love that dang chart.  They love seeing the little behavior calendars come home.  Also, we use it as our behavior progress reports.  I'll have to do something else.  It will be more work.  I don't like more work :(  Do you see the problem here????? Anyway, Last yea...

I'm joining in with  Miss Kindergarten's  classroom management linky party! I think the most important thing with classroom management is taking the time to really teach and practice the rules.  I've been reading The Daily 5 and I love their method of having a student (one who is having a little trouble) model the inappropriate behavior first, and then model the appropriate behavior.  I think modeling is so important so I try to always use a soft voice and nice words myself (sounds easy enough but we've all had our moments)! I've also used Kelso's Choices  for the past few years.  We spend quite a bit of time role playing how to make good choices. For monitoring behavior, I use a red, yellow, green, purple behavior card system.  Students start on green and like the traditional red-yellow-green system they move to yellow or red if they make bad choices.  The purple card is my reward system.  It's pretty easy for kids to get on purple at the ...