Classroom Management Party!

Today I am linking up with Mel D. at Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations. I really like reading about other teacher’s classroom management strategies because I am constantly on the hunt for ways to improve my classroom. I have already been at work on my brand new management strategy for next year. This will be my third year teaching and I have had a different behavior system every year. I learn so much every year that I feel the need to tweak the system to better fit my classrooms needs. Here’s what I’ve learned over the years:

My First Year: I had a lot of parents who were “surprised” by their child’s misbehavior and just couldn’t believe when they got a referral because their child was so well behaved at home and they didn’t know their kid was having trouble in school and blah, blah, blah… I don’t mean to be rude, but honestly their child is most likely the same at home and they are just trying to get them out of trouble. Not that I can blame them, I’m sure I wouldn’t want my kid to get a referral either. Long story short, the lesson I learned was SEND HOME DOCUMENTATION OF BEHAVIOR EVERYDAY! Even on days when students were well behaved because parents need to be in the habit of looking for it and they can’t say they were unaware of their child’s behavior.

My Second Year: I decided to have a monthly communication card that went home every night. Students started off the day with 5 points and could lose point during the day for poor behavior. At the end of each day I marked their behavior, checked that their parent signed the day before, and wrote a quick note on the back if they lost a point. Now, let me tell you, this took about 15 seconds for each child at the end of the day and that is FOREVER when you are trying to pack up/clean up and your last lesson ran long. The long story short here is that I can be lazy and the lesson I learned was to PICK SOMETHING THAT IS NOT TIME CONSUMING FOR YOU! Don’t get me wrong, there were many benefits to this system. I loved that the parents saw the behavior every night and I had no issues this year with parents being “shocked” due to behavior. Also, I keep each month’s record, so I had great data of each student’s behavior record. This really came in handy when one parent needed a copy of all the past month’s records for their kid’s psychologist and the principal needed a set for another student when another issue arose. Having these daily forms with notes as to why students lost points really covered me.

So basically what I have learned is:

• send documentations home everyday
• pick something that isn’t time consuming
• reward the well-behaved students
• use something tangible that will redirect students
• lay out the specifics from day one