behavior modification – Astute Hoot

Golden Keys to Success, classroom management plans, behavior modification

Flash Friday Freebie: Classroom Management Keys

August 15, 2014By astutehoot

It’s our Flash Friday Freebie! Download the free Golden Keys to Success Classroom Management Plan and purchase the accompanying Golden Keys to Success Lesson Plans to start your year off on a golden note.

Do you every feel as if you are a glorified manager, simply trying to control the herd and maintain peace? Your classroom management plan is to blame. Most of the current, trendy behavior plans focus solely on teacher-based management. In these systems, the teacher directs and tries to control students’ behavior with little student involvement or ownership.

The clip system is the perfect example. Each student has a clothespin labeled with his/her name on it and begins the day in the middle of the chart on green “ready to learn.” During the course of the day students have the opportunity to move their clothespin up and down the chart according to their behavior choices. Positive behavior choices allow the student to move up a level and inappropriate behavior choices cause the clothespin to move down a level.

This system is extremely laborious as it requires constant teacher monitoring and feedback. What happens if the students didn’t move the clip when asked? What happens if you forgot to tell the student to clip up or down? What do you tell the concerned parent when you forgot why her son clipped down? How do you handle the student who “lost” his clip? Everyone who’s used the clip system has experienced these scenarios, probably more than once as in my case. These issues occur because we are trying to dominate students’ behavior rather than make them accountable.

The Golden Keys to Success Classroom Management Plan and accompanying lesson plans are your answer! This program teaches five critical life skills: be respectful, take care of self, be prepared, be prompt and participate. Students learn how to apply them to the classroom and transfer them to new settings and situations.

Golden Keys to Success, classroom management plans, behavior modification

In this program students learn the definition of each key and practice the specific, accompanying behavior indicators. Furthermore, it provides daily home-school communication as students are required to get parental signature on the Keys to Success chart nightly. If an infraction occurs, parents can easily read the marked indicator to understand what happened.

Golden Keys to Success, classroom management plans, behavior modification

The Golden Keys Success also provides weekly reflection; on Fridays, students write a Glow, an achievement, and a Grow, a short-term goal for upcoming week. A colorful, parent brochure explains the system, positive and negative consequences and essential questions about classroom behavior.

Golden Keys to Success, classroom management plans, behavior modification

The best part? It’s our Flash Friday Freebie! Download the free Golden Keys to Success Classroom Management Plan and purchase the accompanying Golden Keys to Success Lesson Plans to start your year off on a golden note.

Jessica_blog_signature-SMALL

Your 2014 Fresh Start

January 6, 2014January 30, 2014By astutehoot

These 5 easy tips are guaranteed to recharge your classroom and start your new year off on the right instructional foot.

Get organized: Purchase inexpensive book boxes to store center games, house student work portfolios and hold daily work. Target has several cute prints and patterns in a wide variety of colors. Print labels for easy organization. Revisit rules and procedures: Students need time to get back into school routines. Review rules and behavior expectations. Practice daily procedures such as lining up, walking quietly in line and transitioning from one activity to another. Turn this procedure practice into a game by timing class, encouraging them to beat previous practice times. Check out our Routines, Procedures and Transitions Toolkit for additional ideas on how to teach, model, practice and reinforce important systems and routines.
Encourage parental involvement: During the first week of the new quarter, invite parents to help at school. This could be working with small groups, filing paperwork or prepping materials at school (or home). Work schedules often change after the holidays which can lead to new opportunities for parental involvement. Grandparents (and other relatives) often love helping in the classroom as well.
Planning ahead: Instead of waiting until Sunday afternoon to plan lessons for the week, use a planning template to create an overview of upcoming units, standards and activities. The template should serve as a working document, easily modified to accommodate instructional needs that might arise. This will save you endless hours of last minute preparation and put an end to stressful Sundays.
Work-life balance: Teaching can be all-consuming. Be mindful of your work-life balance. Schedule daily down-time into your calendar. This could be as simple as a bubble bath or 30 minutes of leisurely reading. Relaxation is critical and makes you a much happier, productive teacher.

Beat the Behavior Blues

August 5, 2013August 18, 2013By astutehoot

Do you have the Behavior Blues? You know, the horrible knot you get in the pit of your stomach when you think about the “naughty” students in your class, the cold sweat when Johnny challenges you in front of the class, the cringed toes as you repeat directions for the 100^th time or the exasperated groan when you call home yet again. We’ve all experienced the Behavior Blues in one form or another, but how do you beat them, once and for all?

We all know that misbehavior, whether minor or major, causes major teacher stress and loss of instructional time. Yet many teachers, including me, have made the conscious choice to “just deal” with it and trudge forward rather than create an effective solution. Why is this? For me, I tried everything I had in my repertoire—Treasure Box, teacher helper, loss of recess, parent contact, principal referral—with little results. I kept using the same techniques simply because I didn’t know what else to do.

A few years ago, the Behavior Blues finally got the best of me. After a daunting year with extremely challenging students, I was defeated and ready to quit teaching. Something had to give. I spent the summer reading about behavior management strategies and programs. After a great deal of research, I created the Golden Keys to Success, a systematic behavior system that teaches 5 key life skills that students need to become successful citizens. Students learn to be respectful, responsible, prepared, prompt and active participants. As a result, they take ownership of their behavior. Specific positive and negative consequences are used to reinforce behaviors. There is also daily home-school communication, which promotes a strong partnership.

The Golden Keys to Success program has everything that my classroom was lacking: explicit behavior expectations, specific positive and negative consequences, consistency, parent communication and student ownership. Detailed lesson plans and activities teach behavior indicators in a fun, engaging way with quality literature, cooking, writing and art activities.

Download our Golden Keys to Success Classroom Behavior Management Plan and accompanying lesson plans to beat those Behavior Blues once and for all!