Oh, behavior management. This is one thing that I think I will work on improving for the rest of my career, and I must say that in the past 3 years I have come a LONG way. My management style has changed a lot over the years based on the grade, students in the class, and new things that I have learned. I can attribute it to one thing - it was this AMAZING professional development class I took 2 years ago. It's called...
Love and Logic!
If you haven't heard of Love and Logic before then you are SERIOUSLY missing out! This class has completely changed my teaching for the better, and I am beyond thankful that I took this class early on in my career. I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.. (you get the idea!) about how much I LOVE Love and Logic, but I'll try to keep it short.
I used to have clip charts, write names on the board, and try basically every system imaginable, to ultimately have the students drive me absolutely insane and take time away from my teaching. I would go home infuriated at the end of the day because of the bizarre and horrible behavior I had in my class (to this day I am so thankful for the wonderful children I had, too, because they helped me keep my sanity) and ultimately so FRUSTRATED because of the behavior that took away from the lessons. I knew I couldn't go on like this, and when I saw a Love and Logic class come up as professional development I thought - Why not?!
Oh.
My.
God.
If you are not using aspects of this system YOU HAVE TO START RIGHT NOW!!
Love and Logic is a system that is based on establishing positive relationships with students, and setting and enforcing limits to keep control of your classroom. It allows you to teach, keep your sanity, all while maintaining the learning environment. What more can you possibly ask for?
I got rid of the clip charts. I stopped writing names. I tried my hardest to keep behavior issues private, and the difference in the "health" of my classroom is like night and day. Instead of using a public display to show behavior, I came up with a Habits for Success reflection that my students complete periodically. Last year I did this every week, and then come Novemberish it became once a month. This year I told the parents that a Habits for Success reflection will go home every other week, and I think that is something that I can commit to for the rest of the year.
I have the students rate themselves on how they think they are doing on their Habits for Success, and then I go in and rate them on how I think they are doing. If I disagree, then I will write a comment for why. Sometimes the students think they are doing better than they are, but sometimes they are much harder on themselves than they need to be. It's a really useful and informative tool to keep parents informed about their child's behavior, and to give the students feedback about how they are really doing!
Click the image above to grab this as a FREEBIE in my TpT shop!
What do you do to manage behavior in your classroom?
Click the image above to grab this as a FREEBIE in my TpT shop!
What do you do to manage behavior in your classroom?
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