Guest Blogger!!! And a Freebie!

Hi everyone, my name is Amanda and I blog over at Mrs.Pauley’s Kindergarten.  I was delighted when Nicki asked me to guest post on her blog. 

It is winding down to the end of the year for most of us (we only have 9 more days of school left) which means that half of my brain is already starting to plan and prep for the beginning of next school year.  I always like to reflect at the end of the school year and think about two things:

1.  What tools or ideas did I use in my classroom this year that went well?

2.  What things do I want to change for next year?

I am sure we all have things we want to change for the next year.  I know I always do.  I like to change things up a bit from year to year, but I want to tell you about something I think went well in my room.

One thing I did this year that I loved was our new school wide behavior system.  I have posted about it a few times on my blog, but in case you are not a follower of my blog yet I will explain it.

We have six school wide rules and each rule is associated with a particular color.  For example, talking is yellow.  Therefore, if a student is talking in the hallway or talking while the teacher is instructing, the student will be asked to move a talking (yellow) stick.  We teach the students the colors and within a week my students knew which rules were which colors.  Here is a picture of my rule & stick area in my classroom.

  

Each day I would chart which sticks were pulled.  Throughout the building there are many

different ways that the teachers are collecting their data.  Here is how my data chart looks:

{This is a chart from September…..It was the only one without the students’ names}

What I like about the way I am charting is that it is colored coded just like the chart.  I am a visual person so it is easy for me to quickly glance at the chart and notice something like “Wow, I see a lot of purple on the chart for this week.” 

At the end of two weeks (because that is how many days fit on my chart), I tally how many sticks each student moved on the right hand side and then at the bottom I tally how many of each color were moved for the class.

We analyze this data for a couple of things.  First, to see which classroom rules we should

focus on with the entire class and we also use this data to place students in social skill groups with our school counselor. As you can see from my chart above, talking was a BIG issue at the beginning of the year.  105 talking sticks in a two-week time frame!! I can tell you that seeing that seeing that data right there in front of me was more powerful than just thinking “Man, my students have been really chatty lately.” 

As a result, we really focused on raising our hand, being quiet in the hallway, etc.  At the end of October, my students had only moved 67 talking sticks. 

That was a HUGE improvement. 

I can also tell you that my little kinder baby who pulled 34 sticks in that two-week time frame started going in a social skills group right away.  Her behavior has improved dramatically as well.  She rarely has to pull sticks now.  I think having the counselor look at her data and focus in on those areas she was struggling with was the key.

We look over our students’ academic data all the time….why not start doing the same with their behavior data?

I really encourage you to collect data on your students’ behavior.  I have always kept a record of their behavior in years past, but never before have I sat down and really, truly looked at the data.  I have to say that overall this has not only helped me as the teacher, but also my students.

Here is a freebie behavior graph for you so you can start charting your class behavior.

Thanks for stopping by to read my post on Nicki’s blog and thank you Nicki for having me!  If you are interested in my blog, please click on the button below to check it out.  I would love for you to “follow” my blog if you like what you see!