I haven't heard the words, "behavior chart" in a long time!
My third grade students loved these! and I've long forgotten how I gave these out as rewards, but I do remember using a behavior chart in my classroom! It was a five color card pocket chart. Green for go behavior, blue for keep your cool, yellow for warning, orange for too hot and red for stop!
A student changed their chart pocket for not doing their homework, after three warnings of not following any classroom rules, except for fighting. Fighting was an automatic chart change. If you went past the colors, we used black strips of paper and called them sticks.
If you stayed on green or blue all week on Friday, we celebrated every Friday with an Academic Party, usually a science experiment, like a Diffusion Party and we'd observe, draw and predict how quickly 7 up turned green, learn how to make origami paper cups to sample green soda we made ourselves, and draw our portraits with green tongues.
Another was chemistry with cooking, like turning liquids to solids with homemade ice cream in a zip lock bag or green eggs and ham, variations of Stone Soup from the different stories of it, etc. It was the best and most fun lesson planning of the week!
Every Friday, everyone wrote a letter home to their parents about their behavior and how to keep up the good work or improve it and then the party started! If you were on yellow then the class decided if you could join them. If a student was improving, they would decide that too. If a student was on red or had sticks they most likely spent their time completing their missed homework assignments.
All the letters went home on Friday to be signed by parents over the weekend and on Monday were collected and each were given a dollar amount in credit. At the end of each month, we held an Auction Party. Students brought in their toys and such to be reused and I had many other educational related items available. Also, if you had a prized possession that was taken away because after several warnings, it was still getting in the way of learning, one could use the classroom credits to get it back and take it home for good!
It help improve many students' behaviors because it was straight forward structure and applied to everyone! I remember one student who used to stay after school each time we were about to go off track to help me pack up. He loved packing up the behavior chart and on the last day of school as he was putting it away, he was smiling, smoothing it out over and over and said, "thanks for the behavior chart, it helped me so much!"
It worked well for me and my students, but was a lot of record keeping. I do miss the Academic Parties! Seeing all the happy faces celebrating and having fun while learning!
I wondered in one of my other posts if teachers still used behavior charts and this last weekend, I got an answer in "Note to Buyer."
A kindergarten teacher is going to use them in correlation with her
behavior clip chart! I am so thankful they will be used in a classroom and wonder what she does to reward her students!
Saying Goodbye: No sweat, no problem, no nada letting go and I am thankful they will be used in a classroom again and an Etsy buyer left me a kind note about it, however my "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" mouse doll and book left over the weekend too without a story and I do feel a slight tinge of anxiety over it, but when I ask myself if I'll remember it in six months the answer is no, so that kind of thinking helps me.
What I Learned:
1. Letting go of my hoard is still a roller coaster ride, but most of the time it seems easier and now that over 600 items have found new lives and homes I can see and feel a difference. I even think it's uncluttered my mind, which is good because now I can focus and try other things as alternatives to my hoarding ways.
2. I think I'm about half way through my hoard or maybe one third because there's probably about 600 listed and in drafts and another 600 more to go! It's been worth it!
Thank you Etsy buyer from Hoarder Rehab for leaving me a note! It brought back some good teaching memories which I seem to be short of!
Thank you Etsy for a short and sweet connection that helped me so much!
Thank you US, Brazil, Canada, China, Chile, India, Mexico, Venezuela, Isle of Man, Suriname and many other countries for visiting as I unclutter my mind with dehoarding through my HoarderRehab and The Destiny of Things!
Click on the shop names to visit my hoard listed daily: HoarderRehab, The Destiny of Things, VintageToGoEtsy and now JunkDrawerLoveEtsy! There are about 104 items listed on JunkDrawerLoveEtsy and will resume new listings in a few days and will continue to relist 1-2 items at the other shops! Thanks for looking!
Click on the shop names to visit my hoard listed daily: HoarderRehab, The Destiny of Things, VintageToGoEtsy and now JunkDrawerLoveEtsy! There are about 104 items listed on JunkDrawerLoveEtsy and will resume new listings in a few days and will continue to relist 1-2 items at the other shops! Thanks for looking!
Maybe you'll find something to take home and share
your story too!
Related Stories: More Stories from Teachers...
1. My favorite sterling alphabet bracelet teacher jewelry, story here
2. Date Stamper: "Must Have" Teacher Tool, story here
3. Rainbow Works "Ways to Go" Educational cards to a teacher in Australia, story here
Happy Monday, see you Wednesday!
No comments:
Post a Comment