Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Back 2 School! Behavior Management!

How many days do you have left of summer break? Let me check the calendar...40 days until I'm officially back to school! But I really don't mind I'm completely in love with school and sometimes I kinda wish summer break didn't exist! LOL! But anyway in those 40 days I have lots to do. Including putting my classroom back together. I moved classrooms so everything is completely unorganized :( 

So anyway! I'm linky up with Stephanie from Mrs. D's Corner and Sara from Mrs. V's Busy Bees and I'm so excited to share my take on all these topics.  

This week's topic: BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT!

As far as I'm concerned...if you ain't got it what's the point in teaching?! Am I right or am I right?! If procedures, routines and expectations aren't explicitly taught learning doesn't happen because you the teacher have to spend all your time managing student behavior. Now I'm in no way an expert in the behavior management area I'm a newer teacher headed into my 3rd year of teaching so I'm still learning myself...I hope even if it was my 33rd year of teaching I would continue to learn and change my techniques.


If you think you don't need to teach them "how to do it" your WRONG! I found myself thinking this right before Spring Break when my students were struggling to come in at the beginning of the day. They line up outside in the hallway (no talking) then they come in and make their lunch choice and hang up their backpacks and then go to their seat and start their entry task. Well on this particular day things were OUT-OF-CONTROL! There was yelling and talking and nothing getting down, and so I began thinking "Did I ever teach this procedure? Did I really go over not to talk in line, how to move your magnet for lunch count, how to hang up your backpack and turn your folder into the basket? Did we really practice these morning expectations at the beginning of the year?" Well it seemed we didn't! So my first tip is just because you think your students are old enough or have had enough experience with a specific routine or procedure...TEACH IT anyway, your way and make a list of every PROCEDURE or ROUTINE you have your students do throughout the day and make sure you have a plan to teach it.  OR you could use my list! I tried to think of everything possible that needed to be taught to the kids at the beginning of school. I came up with 54 procedures/routines so far, if you have others I would be happy to add them. 

Click here to go your list!


In teaching all of your procedures and routine, consistency is KEY! Have students practice and I mean PRACTICE until they do it exactly as you envision. If it takes 4,6,8 times or your whole morning, in the end it will pay off! The time you spend with your routines in the fall will make your life so much easier for the rest of the year. Don't forget to reteach all those procedures and routines after long breaks too!


POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT! I have used a behavior clip art and I have found it to work pretty well but I also used tickets. I gave out 6 tickets a week, but the students could earn or loose tickets throughout the week. At the end of the week we traded in tickets for prize coupons. I use Mel D's reward coupons, they are AWESOME and don't cost a lot to implement either, the kids L-O-V-E them :) You can read about them here. I have found I get much better behavior giving out coupons rather than taking them away ;)

Well I hope you have enjoyed my tips! Now I want to hear from you! What are your go-to's for behavior management?


11 comments :

The Cutesy Teacher said...

I found your blog on the Back to School Linky :-) I just wanted to say I LOVE your list of procedures. You thought of some that I had forgotten. I quickly learned to never assume that the students know what to do! Great post, thanks for sharing!!

Erika said...

Hey thank you!

Sara {Miss V's Busy Bees} said...

Hey Erika! Thank you so much for linking up with Stephanie & myself for our Back to School Weekly Linky!

I absolutely LOVE your list of procedures to teach/go over. At the beginning of the year, things are a WHIRLWIND (at least that's how it seemed last year with it being my first year)! I honestly didn't teach HALF the stuff on your list and soooo wish I would have. It would have made things go smoother! Not that my class wasn't amazing, just would have made it easier.

I love that you included things as minuscule as how to get out the materials - this is something that would have saved a LOT of chatter time throughout the year.

I cannot wait to put your list to use!

See you next week when we link up to discuss our assessment strategies :)

Sara
Miss V's Busy Bees
ventrellasara@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Thanks for the great list! I am a new teacher, do you teach them all these procedures in one day? I feel like it is a lot, but maybe it really isn't that much and just looks like a lot on paper.

Rachel W.

dailymrsw.blogspot.com

Erika said...

Hey Reachel!
Oh no I do not teach all of those procedures in one day! I pick my most important ones to teach (like walking down the hall, behavior in the cafeteria, raising hands, etc.) It depends on your kiddos too, i teach 1st grade so we have a LOT to learn in those first few days. In the upper grades you might not have to d that. I don't teach the test taking ones until a few weeks later. I made the list long cause THERE are sooo many things that you have to remember to teach. I'm sure I forgot some things though too! Does that help at all?

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for procedures!! You're awesome!

Shauna said...

What a great printable list. Thanks!

2nd grade teacher said...

Found you through Pinterest! Just getting back into the classroom after 7 years! Your procedures lists will be an invaluable tool! I look forward to reading more from you! Thanks for making the lists printable.

Erika said...

No problem I hope you found them helpful, and your first year back went well :)

Lisa McDowell Govers said...

This will be so helpful for remembering what procedures I have taught! Thanks!

Unknown said...

I love this! What is the name of the font you used to make the procedures list?

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