Rethinking Behavior - Freebie

I don't know about you or your class, but every year about this time my students start to get a little squirrely.  I don't know if it is Spring Fever, or the anticipation of summer coming so soon, but they just seem to forget all of the rules! 

I always have to become a little stricter, give many reminders, and pull some new tricks out of my hat to keep those darlings working hard (we have tests coming up soon!).

This year I have made some reflection sheets for my students to fill out when they receive more than one reminder from me about their behavior.

With conferences coming up soon, they really don't like filling these out knowing that their parents will see them.  You can see an example of a filled one out below (along with my interpretations for you!).

I have uploaded these as a freebie to my TpT store in case you have a case of the squirrels in your class too!

What tips and tricks do you have up your sleeve for dealing with spring fever behavior?

Classroom Sign Out Sheet for Bathroom and Bathroom Passes Freebie

We have been having some issues in the bathroom at our school lately - students playing in there, making messes, and even breaking stalls!  Good Grief!  Our Vice Principal asked us to keep some classroom sign-out sheets for the bathroom so we might be able to figure out who is and who isn't causing trouble while out and about.  I looked on-line but couldn't find exactly what I wanted, so I made my own. 

I made bathroom passes (one girl and one boy) for the students to keep on their desk and a few that are smaller that could be used to hang on a lanyard for them to take with them.  I really hate the idea of them carrying a pass to the bathroom with all of those germies in there and then bringing them back - YUCK!

They put the pass on their desk when they leave the room (only one boy and one girl is allowed out at one time), and then sign out on the classroom sign out sheet for the bathroom. 

As you can see from the picture below, they were quite excited to use our new system.  I ALWAYS let my students use the bathroom when they ask unless it becomes a major problem because I had one student have an accident when I refused to let him go because it was almost recess and he had just gone 5 minutes before.  I really don't want to deal with that again!

And... being the teacher that I am, and the fact that we are working on elapsed time, I also made up a sheet that allows the students to calculate their time in the bathroom.  I will introduce that to my students next week.  Any excuse to get in some extra practice!

By the end of the week the newness had worn off, and we were back to our regularly scheduled bathroom breaks.  And now, if some naughtiness does happen outside of the classroom at a certain time, I can refer back to the bathroom sign in sheet to see exactly who was roaming the hallways at that time.


In addition to appeasing our VP, I can see some extra benefits to these sign-out sheets:

1. If I notice that a student ALWAYS goes to the bathroom at a certain time of day, it might make me wonder if they are avoiding a certain class activity?  

2. What if a student starts to frequently use the bathroom out of the blue?  This will give me some documentation to show the parents in case their might be a medical issue.



If you would like to give these bathroom passes and restroom sign-out sheets a try, you can download the freebie at my Teachers Pay Teachers store using the link below:

Bathroom Sign-Out Sheet & Passes Freebie

While you are there, be sure to click on the green star to follow my store to be eligible to win a $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card each month!  

Behavior Clip Chart

I am enjoying my second official day of Spring Break, but I still wanted to share something that I have tried this year that has really helped behavior.  Since I am on Spring Break, I didn't want to go down to school just to take a picture of it, but luckily, I had a picture I had already taken that had it in there!  Happy Dance!

I can't find the exact one I have (I printed it out a few years ago) but here is a similar Freebie I found on Teacher's Pay Teachers.

This is the behavior clip chart that I have my students use.  I love the fact that students can move up instead of just down.  When I ask a student to clip down, I try to find at least two students who are modeling the appropriate behavior and I ask them to clip up.  I really want to encourage making good choices instead of just focusing on the bad.

Each student has a copy of this sheet in their planner.  Each afternoon before we pack up, the students use a crayon or marker to show where they ended up by the end of the day.  They take their planner home to their parents who must initial it.  I give each student a sticker in our sticker economy the next morning if they have their parent's initial.  I collect them at the end of the week and give an additional small prize to all students who have initials for the whole week.  I save these in their files and share them with parents during conferences.

You can download a free copy of this clip chart weekly behavior chart here from Classroom Compulsion.  It is editable, so I edited for font and to match my own clip chart.


 I am linking up this week with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday.

Tokens For Behavior - Tried It Tuesday

I have been loving learning about all the ideas other teacher's have tried in their classrooms (as I hope you have as well!), so I am linking up again this week with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday.

This year we have a new Vice Principal and she has been FABULOUS!  I may be a slightly bit bias since I worked with her at another school a few years ago, and she did write one of my letter of recommendations for my current position, but really having her at our school this year has been amazing!  When she first started at our school she asked us to complete a survey to see what our concerns and needs were.  What was already working and needed to stay in place thank you very much, and what we desperately wanted to change.  I really loved that she asked our opinion before making widespread changes as can sometimes happen with new admin.  Anyway, one thing we begged to change was school wide behavior.  Most of us had no problems with classroom management INSIDE our own classrooms, but, when the little sweethearts traveled through the school outside of our watch (cafeteria, hallways, bathrooms, recess, etc.) they did not always follow the rules or listen to other teachers or staff.  So, she shared an idea that she had used at our prior school and we agreed to try it, so this is my Tried it Tuesday share:

When students are out and about and caught following the rules a teacher or staff member gives them one of these tokens.  The trick is, we are only allowed to give them to students in classes that are not our own.  The student then brings the token back to the classroom where the teacher keeps them until they accumulate 100 tokens.

She got these tokens at Oriental Trading Company here.

We use this token jar in our classroom (to match this year's Peanuts theme). 

 I have added my own little spin by having the student share with the rest of the class what they did to earn the token.  Some examples might be:

                                      "I was walking quietly in line."

                                      " I cleaned up my place in the cafeteria"

                                      " I picked up trash on the playground without being asked"

I feel like this allows the other students to hear ways that THEY can be caught being good.

We also add some mental math practice by figuring out in our heads how many more tokens we need to get to 100.

When the students reach 100 tokens in a class, the class as a whole earns a special party with the Vice Principal during lunch where they sit at a decorated table and have a special dessert (ice cream, otter pops, hot chocolate, etc).  They also earn 15 extra minutes recess (that the teacher also earns extra time because the VP is taking that duty time! Woo hoo!).

I don't know if this idea would work at your school or not, but I could also see using it in the classroom as a rewards system.  I have seen Brownie Points ideas and this might work in place of that as well.

First Few Days Back - Reviewing Expectations and Re-Building Daily 5 Stamina

Well, I have survived the first two days back after vacation!  They haven't been bad, but I have been exhausted after resting for two weeks straight.  The behavior has been amazing so far (knock on wood) and may be due in part to the fact that I planned to review expectations and re-build Daily 5 stamina this week.  Just like the first week of school we have been reviewing and practicing.  I started with a True/False PowerPoint review of our rules.

You can download this freebie at Teachers Pay Teachers here.

Even if you have already gone back to school you can pin it and save it for next year : D.  It is fully editable.

Then, we practiced building up our Daily 5 stamina.  We reviewed the expectations and wrote them on the board.  Then we practiced just like the beginning of the year with me calling them back to the carpet as soon as one person was off task.

(ignore my messy handwriting!)

I am not going to lie - it was a little ugly the first day - our best time (not shown) was a little over 9 minutes.  Luckily, by day 2 we were back on track.

23 minutes - can I get a woot woot?

Ahhhh!  Daily 5 Bliss - ready for me to work with small groups and meet for individual conferences!  A few days of reinforcing those expectations is so worth it!  What have you done to reinforce expectations since you have gone back to school?

Should Old Procedures Be Forgot... Reviewing Expectations After the Holiday Break

Last day of the holiday and I can no longer procrastinate any longer - I have to get in the lesson planning mode again unless I want supreme chaos in my classroom tomorrow morning!  Speaking of supreme chaos - after two weeks away from school, I know that I am going to have to remind my kiddos of what our classroom expectations are.   I was absolutely inspired  when I saw this post from The Science Penguin to make my own True or False PowerPoint to review my own classroom expectations during our morning meeting tomorrow.  I will show the students the PowerPoint and have them use either a thumbs up for true or a thumbs down for false (or I might have them show me a T or F in sign language).

We use Whole Brain Teaching in our class, so several of  the slides address the 5 rules.

Well, I'm sure you know what the answer is to that one!  LOL!  I have uploaded a file that you can customize to meet your needs as a FREEBIE on Teachers Pay Teachers.

What things do you do to review expectations after the holiday?

Whole Brain Teaching - The Scoreboard

The Scoreboard is THE classroom management tool piece of Whole Brain Teaching. Teachers who implement the Whole Brain Teaching method use tally marks for when the class is good and tally marks for when the class is not so good.  They are explicit about the good and not so good behavior and they have kids working for the teeniest little reward - and the kids love it!

Last year I just used a little whiteboard that I drew a line down each day with smileys on one side and frownies on the other.  But... this year I decided to go fancy dancy with this adorable Scoreboard made by Nicole from Teaching With Style.

 You can download this freebie from Teaching With Style. Not only does it have the Scoreboard above, but it also has a variety of other styles and some teaching notes to help you out if this is your first time using Whole Brain Teaching. I just printed it out and laminated it so that I could use it over and over again.



Using the scoreboard is a whole class behavior system.  The class works together to earn the reward.  If I spot a kiddo displaying negative behavior, I don't call them out specifically, I just add a tally mark under the frownie side and say, "Someone was blurting out, frownie." or "Waiting for someone to sit at the carpet, frownie."  Whenever I give a frownie, I try really hard to find someone modeling the correct behavior.  "I love the way (Child's name) is sitting on the carpet, Smilie.  If you are not sitting that way, please fix yourself so you can earn more Smilies for the class."

One trick of the trade is to use the Scoreboard A LOT!  Way more than you think you need to.  I always keep in mind that just like math and reading, students need to be taught the type of behavior that is expected of them.  The more you remind them, the more they learn.

Here is my scoreboard for just half the day:

What do the students get if they win? In my class they earn 5 minutes extra recess or free time (You Tube videos are a huge hit in our classroom - even the educational ones!). If they lose, we spend 5 minutes practicing correct behavior or procedures.

Prizes should be small and easy to implement - if you can get away with it let the prize be bragging rights!  My kiddos are a tougher crowd, but it worked last year for the first few weeks.

My other tip - USE THE SCOREBOARD!  Sorry to yell, but it is that important.  I have noticed my students' behavior goes downhill when I don't use it as often, and is AMAZING when I  am consistent with it.







You can watch Chris Bifle's video about The Scoreboard here:

Do you use the Scoreboard in your classroom?  Do you have any tips or suggestions?

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

Whole Brain Teaching - The First Hour

Ahhh... I have now survived day 2 of the new school year!  I was super exhausted yesterday, but today wasn't quite as bad.  I am using Whole Brain Teaching for the second year now, and I love it!
If you have been wanting to give it a try, but aren't quite sure what to do, here are a few tips for starting with your class.  By the way, you don't have to wait until the beginning of a new year to try it out, you can really start anytime.

Anyway, here is a video from Chris Biffle explaining the first ten minutes of implementing Whole Brain Teaching along with a few of my own implementations.

Chris Biffle suggests that the first lesson be conducted in the hallway before entering the room.  At my school, our students come straight to our room from recess (or are brought in early by their parents) so we are not able to do this. 

I had morning work placed at each student’s desk (with their nametag).  On the Smart Board were the following directions:

I want them to get in the routine of what will be expected in class every day.  They will come in and get started right away.  This fits with the Whole Brain Teaching idea of creating urgency – we don’t have one minute to waste in the morning.  I also have incorporated his idea of letting the students know that I am happy to see them, and I have used the word please as Biffle suggests.

Once I was ready to begin teaching (when all of the students had filtered in and the morning announcements and pledge were over). I started the lesson suggested by Chris Biffle for the first 10 minutes of class.  You can download a copy of the script I used this year here.  Feel free to make it your own and practice, practice, practice until it feels natural.

The agenda was posted on the board and looked like this:

Do you use Whole Brain Teaching in your class?  Do you have any questions or concerns about using Whole Brain Teaching?

Whole Brain Teaching - The Five Rules and Poster Freebies!

I use Whole Brain Teaching in my classroom - and I love it!  It has made classroom management so much easier.  Each morning we start class by reciting the five rules which are spelled out below:

The Rules

Whole Brain Teaching revolves around 5 main rules:

Rule #1 - Follow Directions Quickly
Rule #2 - Raise Your Hand for Permission to Speak
Rule #3 - Raise Your Hand for Permission to Leave Your Seat
Rule #4 - Make Smart Choices
Rule #5 - Keep Your Dear Teacher Happy

Here are some free whole-brain teaching rules posters you can download for your class:

Subway Art Style Rules

 

Cute kids in frames style

 

 

Chevron Style

For those of you who teach younger kiddos, you might like these color-and-trace rules to pass out as you teach each rule.

 

Color And Trace Style

 

 

Owl Style

 

Do you use Whole Brain Teaching In Your Class?  How do you introduce the rules?