"From Chaos to Confidence" webinar

I did an online webinar called "From Chaos to Confidence" on a site I subscribe to - it was about effective classroom organisation.  It was run by Cassie Tabrizi, a former teacher in the US.

The main idea of the webinar was: "How the classroom environment is organised influences the behaviour in it." (Stronge, Tucker and Hindman, 2004).

It had great ideas about organising a classroom library (breaking books down into genres and having a simple coding system so children could shelve their own books), having a folder on the wall for each child for assessments and a turn in box for handing in work.

A great idea I got about behaviour management was to make a 10x10 grid and whenever a child does something outstanding, get them to write their name on one of the squares.  When the grid is full, draw out chips labelled with the coordinates of those squares and they will win prizes.  This has the feature of teaching graphing skills, too.

Another was to use whole-brain teaching.  I have been reading the whole-brain teaching book and would like to implement some of the strategies from this such as the 'Class?  Yes?' call and response.

Cassie pointed out that it is useful to have a scoreboard for smooth transitions etc but that it is important to keep the difference  in the positive and negative points within 3.

She had good advice for rewards that don't cost money - these were brain breaks, the chance to sit in the front of the class all day, a desk swap, a lunch date with the teacher and getting to use scented marker pens.

Takeaway:  I thought this seminar gave me some good ideas for positive rewards and I liked the central idea that the environment influences behaviour.  

Behaviour management

Since the start of Term 2 I have been using a behaviour management system from Michael Linsin's book "The Classroom Management Secret."  His main idea is that you need to have a clearly defined set of rules, phrased positively,  and a step by step set of consequences for not following those rules.  You need to teach the rules explicitly and also get the children to act out instances of not following the rules.  I have read elsewhere that it's a good idea to get a child to demonstrate following the rules, not following the rules, then following the rules again so that the last impression they're left with is the desirable behaviour.

My rules are:
1. Listen and follow instructions.
2. Raise your hand before you speak.
3. Keep your hands and feet to yourself.
4. Respect your classmates and your teacher.

My consequences are:
1. Warning
2. Time Out
3. Time out in another class
4. Contact home

I have displayed these rules and consequences on the board, and have made magnetic names to move through the list of consequences if need be.  I have found that having the rules clearly displayed makes me give more precise instructions like "My instruction is...sit quietly and listen for your name on the roll."  It has been good to be able to hold behaviour accountable to a specific rule - "I'm giving you a warning because you have broken our rule about keeping hands and feet to ourselves."

I have struggled when at times children have refused to go to time out in another class.  At this point I have moved them to the next step - a phone call home.  I would like to work out a better way of getting children to comply with this step if they reach this point with their behaviour.

Overall I think this system has helped me to be more consistent with noticing and managing behaviour.  I have kept a checklist of where on my chart each child is at the end of the day and this has helped me track behaviour patterns.  I will keep using this system in Term 3.