Classroom Management/Behavior

I'm so glad that you use the praise for the behaviors that you want. A lot of times, the kids with behavior issues only see people pay attention to them when they are MISbehaving, and then complain that no one notices when they do the RIGHT things. We need to be especially mindful of rewarding the behaviors we want and ignoring (as much as possible) the behaviors that we don't want to continue! It takes time for a new behavior pattern to be established. (Ever watch a smoker try to quit? It's as much changing the behaviors at the usual 'smoke' times as it is about the nicotine withdrawal.)

I've taught a long time ... but I still 'forget' the basics sometimes. And sometimes I am just worn out after a small group lesson. I used to teach general education, so I've had plenty of experience with dealing with a whole class full of students, and I can still do that successfully! I sometimes wonder why my small groups are so difficult. I finally figured out that I am forcing these kids to do the things they like the least and with a small group they can't 'disappear' and hide from the task they way they sometimes manage to do in the classroom, so they misbehave to avoid the task. (I'm pretty good at math but if you made me sit in an advanced calculus class for 45 minutes a day and if I perceived that everyone else in my 'group' could do these problems with ease, then I'd probably behave exactly like some of my students!) Also we usually share space with other people doing other tasks and many of my students have difficulty paying attention. Last year we shared space with a general education reading intervention teacher and at least one paraprofessional and 2 students (with others sometimes sharing the para's table). None of our schedules were the same so people were constantly going in and out of our room. Oh, did I mention that our large window on one side opened into the hallway and the windows on the other side looked out onto the playground. (No distractions there!)

Last year I had a math group of 4 fifth grade boys just driving me nuts. I felt like we just weren't 'moving forward' academically because of all the behaviors. I am always telling the gen ed teachers that we have to 'reward the behaviors we want to see', so I started thinking how I was really doing that. I have always had positive reinforcement so that the kids can earn a mark on their chart daily and it adds up to a very small reward after 5 days (not necessarily consecutively) and a larger reward they can choose after 20-25 days (depending on the age/cognitive ability of the kids). But, I realized I was going to have to figure out a way to reward these kids quickly and in an ongoing manner throughout the lesson. I also wanted something 'non-verbal' because these guys would 'argue' their way in and out of everything.

I finally had a basic plan and headed to the $1 store. I found some small round plastic 'ramekins' in the kitchen aisle and some of the glass 'stones' in the artificial flowers aisle. I think I bought 2 packages of the stones and 2 packages of the cups. At this point, I call them my MIRACLE STONES.

This worked from day 1. After I dismissed the boys, the reading teacher, the para, and I all looked at one another and basically said, "I can't believe the difference!" So ... how did it work?

I gave each of the boys a cup with 2 stones in it. I explained to them that normally when they earn something in my room, they don't lose it. (I don't take away what they've earned even when they misbehave at a later point.) However, in this case, I was going to take the stones if they were misbehaving, and since none of us is perfect, I was starting them with 2. As long as they were behaving in a way I 'expected', I would be putting stones in the cups throughout the class period (45 minutes). I asked the boys what the 'expected' behaviors would look like. They gave me examples like "staying in your seat", "doing your work", "listening to the teacher", "being polite", etc. I told them if they were not doing what they were supposed to be, then the other students might be getting stones, but I wouldn't put one in their cup. If they continued to misbehavior, I would take a stone from their cup. We talked about things that would be the "not expected" behaviors. They were able to tell me those pretty well!

A lot of the training was to train ME. I kept the stones in a container on the table and always kept a handful in my left hand as we worked. I dropped those stones OFTEN on most days. Some of it depended on the types of tasks we were doing. In 45 min, the boys might have as many as 25-30 stones. We had to make another couple of rules as we went along. If they were 'playing' with their cup or stones, I would take one out - the noise was a distraction. If they were 'playing' with someone else's cup or stones, they would lose ALL of their stones. (That only happened once, I think!) I thought I would need to put something in the plastic cups to dampen the noise from the 'clink' of the stones going in, but the sound itself was reinforcing to my boys. They didn't have to look up from their work to know they were being rewarded. Sometimes I would put stones in all of the students' cups but one, and the student might ask, "Why didn't *I* get one?" I'd usually ask if one of the other students could tell why (and they usually could). As SOON as the student came back to task, a stone went in the cup. (I don't care what they did, as soon as they came back to task, they were rewarded again.)

The boys became 'competitive' to see who would have the most stones at the end of class, but since they earned them by behavior and working on task, IT WAS GREAT! If the students had stones at the end of class, I marked the behavior card as a 'positive' day. Suddenly we were getting a LOT of work accomplished in 45 minutes and I loved this group! It worked so well, I started doing it with all of my reading/math groups and the kids all responded really well. I did this with students with mild disabilities, learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, emotional disabilities, etc. As long as they understood they were being rewarded for doing the 'right' things, it worked with them. When we were working on a task, I rewarded them for attempting it, for taking risks, for trying to get there, even if the answer wasn't right. They worked VERY HARD and they learned so much. One of the boys learned to ask me if he could take a 'time out' when he was getting 'agitated'. He would sit at a single desk instead of the work table, and after a few minutes would tell me he was ready to come back. This was a child who had been unable to return to task once he was 'worked up' and the entire period would be lost for him before.

There was an unexpected consequence. Sometimes they boys would actually take a stone out of their own cup and reward someone in the group for doing something really well! This was a group of kids who had difficulty with social skills, but they were showing me they were learning them! I'm working now on trying to tweak the system to encourage them to do more of this without it taking over the academic task!

I know ... how does this translate to a general education class? I've taught gen ed. I know there are things that are more difficult with an entire class! If there is a particular child (or 2 or 3) who are having more difficulty with the behavior, maybe just put a couple of very small boxes on the desk. Cut some small square of red and green construction paper. As you walk around the room, if you see the child doing what they should, drop a green one in the box. If they are not on task, drop a red one. (You do have to explain to them ahead of time what you are doing to try to help them be more successful.) When you drop a red one, pay attention because as SOON as they return to task it is important to drop the green one again. With a lot of kids, you can do some sort of inventory to determine what sort of rewards they like. You can structure the rewards in lots of ways. I like to do a list with bigger rewards requiring more points to encourage the kids to 'bank them' and 'save up' for a delayed reward, but there also have to be some 'small point' rewards so the kids can trade right away if they want. I just think we have to be careful that we are not 'taking away' what a kid has earned already. (If I have a 'bad day', they aren't going to take away my pay from the day before!)

I have used the two tickets on the desk at the beginning of class then taking them away as the students misbehave and a drawing for prizes at the end of the month and it was a disaster. 1. Art class. tickets constantly being knocked onto the floor. 2. Very negative. 3. When the kid with one ticket in the bin wins everyone stops trying. I think I will switch to the stone approach in a ticket kind of way. Walk around with tickets in my pocket and give them out for good behavior and participation. And I need to get to the dollar store for better prizes. Thanks for the inspiration!