Monday, December 19, 2011

New Behavior System

I revamped my behavior system  last week.  It’s a terrible picture, but my cellphone is not great.  I went back to my old ring and clip system.  I was using the clip chart that has been all over blog world.  It just wasn’t working for me.  Only a few kids were getting to the top, I was forgetting to use it, and the kids that really needed to have consequences were sometimes able to get out of it by doing something to get their clip out of the hot zone.  I just really needed to tighten down on some of the behaviors.

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Long story short, this system really works for me. It uses a pocket chart with several pockets per row.  I think is was for attendance.  We have a system widely used through my building call  ”Shoot for a Rainbow.”  Some use the clip style system.  I use cards in the order of a rainbow on a ring.  The last card is a rainbow.  The kids switch their cards as a reward.  The cards do not go back to red every day.  The kids keep flipping until they get to the rainbow. 

Different teachers use the rewards is a ton of different ways.  I put a card in the back of the pocket with the students’ names and, when they reach the rainbow, they put their name card in the pockets at the top with rewards.  They are easy, but effective rewards.  I usually pick 3 or 4 rewards for a month or so.  I currently have:

  • read to the class
  • share
  • line ender
  • switch seats

They cost nothing and result in the minimum of interruption.

The clips are the  reminder/consequence system.  It aligns with 1, 2, 3, Magic, which is another system popular in my school.  The clips all begin on green.  The yellow is a reminder, the orange is a warning with 5 minutes of recess owed, and the red is 10 minutes of recess owed and a parent phone call.  This has worked wonders this week!

I guess I have learned once again that I should K.I.S.S. (keep it simple silly).  I changed a lot of things this year because I loved how someone else did it and realized I should stick to what works rather than try to use something that doesn’t work for me.  It was taking too much time and energy to change my thinking and was consistent enough.

I am much happier now and I am much more consistent. Behaviors are evening out to a certain extend and, if I can get through this week, maybe everything will hit the mid-year click!

3 comments:

  1. I'm interested. How do you align the clip system with the shoot for the rainbow system? Do you use 2 separate sets of cards? On the rainbow system, do children change their color if you notice something good going on? Thanks for clarifying!
    Dee
    First Impressions

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  2. The systems are separate, so the students are able to receive positive reinforcement while still getting counted if they need reminders. The cards for the positive are in the pockets and the clothes pins for the reminders are on the lip of the pocket, where the stickers are. This nice, because it is visual and all contained in a relatively small area. I tell them to flip a card for stellar behaviors and move their clip for problems. The clips go back to green every day, but the cards stay until they reach the rainbow, then they start over again. I'm not sure if I am explaining this well. Let me know if there are more questions.

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  3. I love your new system! I am having a giveaway, come over and check it out! :)

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