Take A Break

This year I had a student who was showing a lot of anger due to a parent divorce. Because the behavior had a negative effect on many students (and parents), I kept trying to find different ways in which I can support this student in the classroom. 

My school went through a couple of Love and Logic trainings (which was really wonderful and I highly recommend it). One suggestion that was made was to create a place in the classroom where students can go cool off. I took this suggestion and created my take a break table and it was a hit! I told my students that if they ever get angry, sad, etc. they can always ask me to go "take a break." I was secretly hoping that this was exactly what my angry student needed, and he was the first one to try it out (yes!)! I was very happy that I added this to my classroom! This was also a perfect area for other students that were sent to my room for behavior issues from other teachers. 

I purchased Teaching in Progress's TPT product 

Behavior Management and Self Regulation-Take A Break

As a part of that packet there were signs where the students can see different emotions and see which one they are feeling, as well as steps on what they can do to calm down. Also in this packet was calming cards and one of the suggestions on the cards was to hug a stuffed animal, so I put a few on the table. There was also a sheet for the students to draw how they were feeling, so I printed and lamented a few sheets for the students to draw on. 

This was a very successful area in my classroom that I would like to continue to have and I hope that this is something that could also be useful for you!

Update and Class Dojo

Hello everyone,

It has been a LONG while!

Since my last post I gave birth to the most wonderful and handsome baby boy and started working at a new school, but still teaching Kindergarten. I have felt a bit overwhelmed as I am first time Mom working at a new school, but some how I am surviving! I think that the best job I have is being a Mommy! :)

This school year has been such a whirlwind as I am adjusting (still) from coming from a very small Catholic school with one teacher per grade, to a huge Catholic school with two teachers per grade. However my favorite thing at this school is that I love is having a partner teacher to collaborate with.

In the beginning of the school year all of the teachers attended a training called Love and Logic. I absolutely loved this training! Love and Logic is based on a positive discipline approach where teachers speak to children calmly, give them choices, and students assume responsibility and ownership for their actions. However of course now and then teachers will have their frustrating moments and not use Love and Logic in the moment, but I am glad to have this as a strategy to use in the classroom and help me to better speak with students when they make poor choices. {I will also for sure be using these techniques as my baby boy gets older!}

As a result of this training I really began to re-think the clip chart...I was so stressed because school was right around the corner and I did not know what I was going to do! As I began to think I remembered using a behavior management system of Class Dojo when I used to work with 5th intervention students. However the first thing that came to mind was how in the world can I use this in a Kindergarten classroom?!

I randomly assigned my students a monster.

I then added positive and negative options for points that students can earn/loose throughout the day. I tried to base these options on my classroom rules.

The main thing that had me switch from the clip chart to this was the "walk of shame." I did not want my students to think negatively of themselves as they walked to move their clips down as everyone in the classroom watched. So the key thing that I do is I never let the students see how many points they have. At the end of the day is when I tell the students how many points they have one-on-one. I tell my students that the points they earn is between me and them, so other students don't need to know their business.

I have students earn certain prizes as they reach a certain amount of points. And each month I reset the points. I created an anchor chart under my classroom rules that are displayed in my classroom.

This behavior system has worked really well in my classroom! I love how I can give student points on my computer, iPad or iPhone. Another great feature is I can connect with parents and they can instantly see how their child is doing throughout the day on their devices. I can also instant message them, send them pictures, etc. There is also a "Class Story" feature where I can post pictures or videos about what we are doing in the classroom. Also recently they came out with a video series that motivates students and they look forward to seeing it each week. All in all Class Dojo is a wonderful behavior management tool that can be used in any classroom.