Sunday, March 21, 2010
My behavior plan reflection thus far
I have been working on a behavior plan for my class; specifically dealing with transitions during the day. I have found this to be the most frustrating part of the day by far! During recess, we have established a new system for lining up to go back inside. They have 60 seconds to have all of their stuff together and be back in the line quiet and ready to go. I count down by 15 second increments. If they are not all back in the line, the whole class has a lap during the next recess. I think it works well because the day they aren't doing what they should be for transitioning back to the classroom after recess, they aren't really punished, but the next day they are. Then, they want to work even harder on the next day to be back in line in time, because they have just served the punishment. I have also instituted a class hall monitor to help the kids with transitions at the restroom. I pick a student each day to stand on the other side of the hall and watch for people who aren't doing what they should be. This allows me to more closely monitor the bathroom (listening in to make sure people are not goofing around) or to go to the restroom myself if I need to. I have yet to come up with a great way to deal with the students that are called out by the hall monitor. Sometimes I make them walk a lap at recess, but sometimes I just forget all together. I think these are a good addition to the positive reinforcement system already in place in the classroom for transitions (marbles for a class prize of some sort).
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Anna -
ReplyDeleteI can so appreciate your thoughts on improving transitions. This has been one of the main focuses of my behavior management plan over the last week and a half. About a week and a half ago, I finally decided that the noisy, wiggly transitions throughout our days were wasting too much time and allowing students to become unfocused and dsitracted. These transitions were not helping to create an engaged classroom experience.
Therefore, I sat our students down and had us discuss (as a class) what a good transition might look like. We talked about examples, nonexamples, and potential expectations. We also talked about what a transition is - many of them were just thinking of when we go to lunch, specials, etc etc. However, we talked about the idea of "put up your morning work" as a transition, or "take out your independent reading book" as a transition. These are all times throughout the day when students quickly become off task.
Now, before we make a move, I will say "Let's make a quick and quiet transition to the reading corner." This plan has really helped and students are more aware of the effects of a smoth transition.
I think that you have implemented a wonderful plan. The way you have it set up really makes the children take responsibility for their own actions. The fact that they are trying to beat the clock kind of takes the pressure and the blame off of you! It isn't you they get mad at, it's the clock. With the hall monitor system, I find myself also having a hard time of coming up with things for them to do. Or like you said, sometimes I forget. It's hard to remember it all. But, I really do love the ideas that you have and I might start the recess one with my class. Thanks for the ideas!
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