Behavior Tip: 4 questions

I thought I'd share this amazing behavior tip with you as it has totally saved my life today.  I learned it from my amazing behavior specialist Sarah who should be world renown.  She shared this with us at a faculty meeting yesterday. 

You use these 4 questions to address a student's negative behavior. 

1.  What are you doing?
2. What are you supposed to be doing?
3.  Were you doing it?
4. What are you going to do about it?

The goal is to say them in a very boring way.  You want to be super enthusiastic when praising your little ones and totally robotic when redirecting.  Now let's be honest, not being emotional with bad behavior is incredibly hard.  So that's why this script works so well.  You don't have to think about what to say you just rattle off these questions.

Let me tell you....they work.  It just so happens I am fighting a sinus infection right now from a few weeks of allergy struggles.  Uggghh I feel completely awful.  It also happens to be that I have a little guy this year who needs constant repetition of expectations.  Well...today....I'm just not feeling like repeating myself.  I definitely don't have the energy to be emotional about it.  So, I tried using these questions and lo and behold.  SUCCESS!  He stopped and I didn't get stressed out.  I have them up on my board for me so I don't forget to use them.

Try it, I think it will work for you too. 

For all you allergy sufferers out there.  I feel your pain . I think this is this worse season ever!  I am praying for rain to wash out these infested skies. 

Behavior- Using CHAMPS

I thought you might find it helpful to explain a little more on how I'm keeping track of my student's behavior.  I showed you some posters on my previous post "Classroom Tour" explaining the color system.  I mentioned that I use CHAMPS and a clip board with my student's names on it.  Here's the page I use.  It lasts me a week.  I carry this around everywhere.  The kids can come check how they're doing whenever they like and I almost always tell them when I'm writing down a tally and why.  Tallies can be "erased" (Never erase, just cross it out.  It's good data to keep) I'm fairly certain my dear sweet colleague Meagan made this in Excel.  I posted a copy from one of my former years.  I keep these all year long.  You'd be surprised how many times I need to reference the.  Parent conferences, behavior specialists, giving out special awards, all kinds of stuff. 


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/CHAMPS-tally-sheet

Speaking of special awards.  Last year we, as a grade level, went through our Tallies pages and found the student who had the least amount of tallies for the six weeks.  We named this kiddo the CHAMP of the ____ Six Weeks.  They got their picture taken with the principal, a special certificate, a cool sticker, and some 15 tickets.  It was a BIG deal.  I turned the picture into a magnet by mounting it on a die cut of a school house.  We hung the magnets on the door frame outside our rooms.  At the end of the year all CHAMPS from every six weeks in all 4 1st grade classrooms got to have a special CHAMPS lunch with the principal and assistant principal.  We decorated an unused classroom for them and even played "We Are the Champions" when they walked in!  They LOVED IT!

Behavior and Rewards

Ticket Rewards-

I'm sure you've heard of many teachers using tickets as rewards. It totally works for me. I put some in my pocket each morning and give them out with appropriate behavior or participation. Students put their name on the back and turn it into the basket on my desk. The beauty of the tickets is I can hold as many drawings in a day as I want. I don't ask the children to save them up and cash them in. Waaaaay too complicated for me. As soon as the ticket is pulled it is thrown away and the winner can choose a reward from the poster. I created most of the rewards and left some space at the bottom for student's ideas. Another little gem with these is you can totally rig the winners! It's like magic for you most struggling students to win with the first sign of good behavior. Talk about positive reinforcement. Last year my kids came up with the idea of putting a "Whole Class" ticket. If that's pulled everyone gets a ticket reward. You can also pull a ticket and wait to announce the winner when the lesson is over or supplies are put away. It's a great way to get kiddos down to the carpet quickly. I just can't say enough about ticket drawings!

We created our class rules together the first week of school. The kids brainstormed rules and I guided them into fitting our school's code of conduct.

 

 

Classroom Colors- We use a color system in the classroom.  Everyone starts on green.  If they are not following CHAMPS rules the drop to yellow.  If it continues the move to blue and parents are called.  If the problem still progresses students are on red and we involve the principal.  All of my other years of teaching we've used this system in tandem with a stick.  Each child has a clip with their name on it and we carry it around with us.  This year our Positive Behavior committee decided it is not appropriate for us to be broadcasting our student's colors to the school by carrying around a stick for all to see.  So the colors stayed but the stick is dead.  May he rest in peace.  Makes sense.  I agree with their thinking but I'm having some adjustment to not having the stick at all.  I'm going to give it a fair shot.  I do still use my CHAMPS sheet on my clip board but I'm worried about not having the visual for my little guys.  We'll see....it's gonna be fine. 

 

 

Now if the kiddos make it a week with greens and/or purples they receive a prize from the treasure box on Friday.  It's a big deal.  My little nephew Carter had a pirate birthday party last year and my sister ordered this pirate treasure chest from Oriental Trading Co. to use as a cooler.  I of course snagged it as soon as the last drink was gone.  A must for my classroom.  I was worried about it being inflatable and lasting more than a week but we're going on year 2...fingers crossed.  :)   

 

Items in the treasure box, hmmm I guess I should really be calling it a Treasure Chest!  lol  It started as a box I decorated just so ya know.  Anyway items can be anything from rings to silly bands, stickers to books.  I got soooo mad at my class last year when they complained, "There's only books left."  ooooooohhhhweee you did not want to be in the front row that day. 

 

I'm going to hope for lots of parent donations to keep the treasure chest stocked this year. I seem to have a rockin' group of parents so I think I'll be okay.  

 

The treasure chest is sitting here with our student computer.  See those labeled colorful solo cups?  They will soon be hanging on the pretty blue wall to be used as bucket fillers.  This was my first send home parent request.  I passed this amazing momma a bag of cups, post-its, tape, and a sharpie in morning assembly and she returned these beautiful "buckets" by dismissal.  Amazing!  Now if I can only remember to ask others for help this year.  One of my personal goals for 2012-2013

 

 

 

 Fuzzy Ball Jar- Use for compliments from other teachers.  Most originate in the hallways.  There are 2 sizes of fuzzy balls regular sized for teacher compliments and "big momma" fuzzy balls for principal compliments.  See how full it is with "big mommas?" We had a fire drill on Friday and our principal was so positive when we walked by.  Yay!  They are super close to filling up the jar to the first line: class treat.  This will get them something like a fancy sticker, pencil, eating lunch in the classroom etc.  The top line is class party.  Now I know we are not supposed to say "party"  but you know that really is just for the kids to get super excited.  They will vote for a popcorn, Popsicles, ice cream, bubble gum, etc. sssssshhh...party!

 

 

What do you use for your rewards?  What kind of behavior tricks do you have up your sleeves?  Please share or leave a comment on how you might alter mine.  I'm all ears :)