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!
