Classroom Management

In my classroom, I use a variety of techniques to encourage my students to make good choices.

Our school is a MiBlsi school (Michigan Behavior Learning Support Initiative).

This means that we use positive behavior managment techniques. This begins by explicitly teaching our students the behaviors we want and do not want at every location in the school building. Once students know what behaviors are expected, we can logically hold them accountable for their choices.

Here is the lesson plan we developed for teaching behaviors in the cafeteria. We have a plan similar to this for every area in our building.

In my classroom and our school building, we begin our behavior management by giving positive reinforcement for good choices. Being a positive behavior management school doesn't mean we have no consequences. It means that when a student chooses to exhibit inappropriate behavior first we help them make a better choice by praising those around them who are acting appropriately. If the student continues to make a poor choice, we explicitly ask them to change their behavior. I also use "Stop" cards to help students self-reflect on their choices. You can read more about my classroom procedures, rules, and consequences on my Rules page.

Here are the management techniques I use in our classroom to encourage good behavior choices.

Individual Management

Students who choose not to follow classroom rules and procedures (after being given a chance to change these choices) will be asked to move to yellow on our behavior chart. If this student continues to make poor choices, they will move to red.

In addition to the "Red/Yellow/Green" chart, students in my class receive tickets for good choices. These tickets go into a bucket and on Friday I choose 5 tickets and those students get to pick a prize from the prize box. I also give out awards every Friday to students for a variety of reasons- academic achievement, citizenship, and more! One student will even be chosen to be my "Pardner of the Week" because of the choices they have made during that week!

School-wide, we give out "Chiefs Tickets" to students who exemplify our school rules:

Be Your Best!

Be safe.

Be respectful.

Be responsible.

Small Group Management

My students work in small groups in the classroom. To encourage good choices in groups, all students receive "Free Choice" time at the end of the day on Friday.

Each group has a basket at their group. This basket starts each week with 5 "minutes" in it. The "minutes" are fuzzy craft pom-poms. Groups earn and lose minutes based on their choices during the day. Minutes accumulate all week and on Friday I ask each group how many minutes they have and they report the total to me. I write this on the board, set an overhead timer, and students know they must wait until it is their groups turn to get up to play.

Students are allowed to play classroom games, read, be on the computer, or talk during their free choice.

I like this system because groups who don't have many minutes must sit while other students play. This helps them make better choices the following day.

Whole Class Management

As a class, we earn marbles for our "marble jar". We earn marbles by making good choices as a whole group. This means walking quietly in the halls, staying on task, receiving compliments from other staff members, or just "because" I think we've made a good choice without being asked. When our jar is full (30 marbles), we decide what kind of "marble party" we'd like to have!

Marbles cannot be taken away. The consequence is not earning a marble.