My Classroom Management » Behavior Plans

Two Keys to Starting the School Year off Right

jenniferw — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:19:16 +0000

Key One:

Know your expectations.

You need to know what you expect of yourself and your students above all else. You cannot implement a behavior plan, manage discipline problems and keep students focused on learning if you do not know exactly what behavior you expect both from your students and yourself.

It is a good idea to write down your expectations for each part of your day. Consider printing out a schedule and writing in a list of expectations right on the schedule. Only then can you create an effective classroom management plan.

Key Two:

Teach students your expectations.

While knowing your expectations are vital towards creating a behavior management plan, students cannot possibly fulfill your expectations if they do not know them. Take time the first few days of school to explicitly teach, preferably through demonstration, your expectations for students. Be sure to have students practice these expectations and allow chances for them to ask clarifying questions.

Only after these two keys are completed, can you move on to teaching a well-managed classroom.

Is your Management Style Good Enough?

jenniferw — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:15:57 +0000

Sure, you make it through each day, and you feel your students are pretty good most of the time, but have you ever sat down and reevaluated whether or not your management style is good enough? It’s time to find out if things can be better than they are, even if you think they’re ok as they are.

Evaluating your Management Style:

When you ask a student to stop doing a behavior, you ask:

I never have to ask, my students are perfect!

A couple times

Once

I don't ask - I threaten to take away recess or anything else I can think of

Transitions between two activities are:

So smooth you can't even tell we are transitioning it goes so fast!

Never smooth and take a while

Sometimes smooth, and take a couple minutes

Smooth and take about a minute

You have to utilize your discipline system:

Never!

A couple of times a day

A LOT!

Several times a day

You remind students of the rules:

I never need to!

Several times a day

Probably once a day

When necessary but not often

Your students:

Never step out of line, so they must be the most respectful students ever!

Respect authority most of the time and respect other students as well

Are usually respectful of authority and other students but have problems frequently

Have a big problem respecting others

Choosing Behavior Plan Rewards

jenniferw — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:10:50 +0000

When setting up a behavior plan it is vital for the child to have a say in the rewards that he receives for success. This will make the reward a motivation for changing daily behavior and will encourage him or her to get back on track after a bad day.

Have a conference with the child prior to setting up the behavior plan and explain that there will be a plan targeting this specific behavior problem and that as the child improves his behavior, you want to provide rewards. Allow the child to provide input into what rewards he will receive for proper behavior.

Guide this conversation so that it does not turn into a pot of gold situation where you can’t assign homework or some other important aspect of learning. It is also vital that every reward is agreed upon by both the teacher and student and that those rewards are the only ones used on the behavior plan. Otherwise the plan will fail because the student will not find the rewards motivating.

Choosing a Target Behavior

jenniferw — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:10:42 +0000

When a teacher is writing a behavior plan for a troublesome child, it can sometimes be a problem trying to choose what behavior to target on the plan. It is important to choose only one or possibly two major behaviors to focus on, this way the child will not be overwhelmed and will be able to succeed.

When attempting to choose the target behavior, think through the behavior problems the child has and list them. Then, order them in degree of importance or seriousness. If there is a behavior that is potentially harmful to the child or to other children/adults in the classroom, that needs to be the target behavior.

It is important to think through each behavior as well, because if a child throws chairs frequently, that may not be the best behavior to choose because by the time the child has thrown the chair he is already in a state of out-of-control anger. Finding a behavior to target at the onset of this anger is a much better place to focus.

Once one behavior has been targeted and improved upon, it is time to celebrate and move onto another problem behavior. Once the child begins to see success in one area, it will be easier to continue that success to other areas.