Teaching

 

Bubble’s & Duck Tails

I read an interesting article tonight on an education website geared towards teachers. The article spoke of the importance on teaching structure, consistency, and order in the classroom. It spoke of when children start school they must be taught what is expected of them and that expected behavior needed to be modeled. In order for a class to walk down the hall from one class to another it must be modeled for them of the teacher’s expectation of a straight line (3 S line) and “bubbles” in their mouth. (to be silent). So the saying of “Bubbles and Duck tails” teach children that when they walk down the hall they are still,  quiet and orderly.

The reason for the article below is because I was trying to find the study that coincided with what I remembered being taught long ago, that a child is pretty consistent with his behavior and mannerism’s by about the fourth grade. The FBI did a study on children years ago and established that the fourth grade was the turning point for children. I am not saying by any means that any child cannot change bad behavior, but what I am saying is naturally the fourth grade mark is pretty consistent in what I have seen in elementary school education. I will continue to look for that article on that study, and if you find it please send it to me.

Anyways, I am sharing another good article on children from the FBI website.

http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/may_2011/school_violence

 

 

Classroom Behavior Software

I have looked at several methods for monitoring classroom behavior. Some of the methods I have seen use color coded charts, and consist of moving your “clip”,aclotheslinepin up or down from color to color based on the student’s behavior.Theend result is using the child’s agenda to write a note home to parents at the end of the day for undesired behavior. In the third grade, I have found this to not be effective. At this age of the student, showing mom or dad their Agenda’s for undesired behavior most of the time does not happen. I havefoundthatthere are a large amount of parents that do not even look at their child’s Agenda on a consistent basis, so they are more than likely going to miss the update of unsatisfactory behavior from their child’s teacher.What I have found that is most effective is Class Dojo. It is a computer based behavior management program that is free in cost, very easy to set up, and very effective for informing the child’s parent of their child’s behavior throughout the entire day. There is very little effort from the teacher in using this program. I absolutely love it, because all the teacher has to doisobtain the email address from the parent and send them their parent code that allows the parent to set up their “parent account”. Once the parent signs up with their email and code, they have full access to viewing and receiving an updated report weekly of their child’s behavior. It breaks down the child’s overall strength and weaknesses using a percentage chart and shows them point by point the child’s progress throughout the day and week.Class Dojo is so easy to set up, and it allows the teacher to customize behavior categories. Some of the categories that I use are for positive behavior, completion of homework, on task, being kind, helpful, and extra credit work.  Some of the negative categories that I use is “no homework”, unkind, off task, out of their seat without permission, talking out of turn, misbehavior in cafeteria, and disrespect. If you think of another one you want to create or add, you simply click on the edit class button and add.You can also keep track of your students attendance on there as well. This is an effective tool that parents can see if they wonder why their child may not have received any points on that particular day, either they were not in class that day, or had a very poor day in regards to their behavior.

It also allows a student to set up their own account. I do not use this feature in third grade, but if a teacher wanted to utilize this feature; this would allow the student to personalize their avatar and have the capability to view their behavior as well. It does not allow the student to change or add anything else in regards to behavior or behavior categories. This feature may be effective for upper grades and older students.

What is so amazing that this tool is free of cost. There are also several tutorials and training videos on their website and Google as well, especially You Tube.

The website is www.classdojo.com. Please let me know your thoughts on this program, and if you have any questions from me.

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