Tips & Tricks :: Non-Color-Coded Behavior Management

Recently, I wrote a post detailing my dislike for those color-coded behavior clip charts that dominate the land of Pinterest and teacher blogs. Sure, they're cute, they're easy, and they change behavior, but they also undermine respect and dignity, humiliate students, and strain relationships.

I promised during my last post that I would provide some alternatives to help manage behavior while encouraging learning that doesn't involve public reprimands, so here goes, but first I want to get a few things straight!

1. Extrinsic motivation is not the enemy. The argument a lot of people use against many different types of reward systems is that it encourages students to work for "things" rather than that "feel good feeling." And while this can be true, I want to offer a thought. Adults are extrinsically motivated too. If you were to ask 100 adults why they work, I guarantee that one of the top reasons would be because they earn a paycheck. Sure, many adults works also primarily because they feel a sense of pride, feel like they're making a difference, or changing the world, but if there was no paycheck attached I'm assuming that a great majority of the world would be unemployed. And when was the last time you used your own paycheck to buy "feel good feelings?" I used to hate it when my mom asked me to do something "because I would feel good about it." So while intrinsic motivation is awesome, extrinsic motivation can be very beneficial to. It just shouldn't be the only motivation.

2. Not every technique or strategy will work for every kid. Sure as the sun shines, there's always going to be those 1 or 2 kids that are just going to have a rough time. For kids with lots of defiance, check out my previous post for some suggestions. For some kids, more individualized behavior plans or IEP's may need to be developed to meet their needs. More specifically, some kids may have a much harder time developing intrinsic motivation and need exclusively tangible rewards...some students with severe Autism or cognitive impairments, for example.

All right...onto the good stuff! Here are alternatives to the rainbow rocket-ship, pirate-themed, or flower behavior clip charts.

Have Students Manage Their Own System
This gives them ownership! It can be as simple as giving them punch cards at their desk that you periodically punch throughout the day for turning in work, sitting quietly, not getting discipline referrals during the day, etc. Or, it might be a pouch of tickets they keep to earn tickets. One of the really cool things I've seen teachers do with the tickets is having a weekly or monthly reward time during which kids can spend their tickets or punches on various activities. More popular activities like iPods might be more expensive, whereas less "in-demand" activities are less expensive. Either way, all students participate. It's just that the better-behaved ones during the week get more choices as to what activities they're able to do! Really want to use color-coded? Just have the kids keep a card at their desk in a private location that you can quietly go over and trade for a different colored card. At the end of the week, each color corresponds to a point value, which determines how much "money" they have to spend on activities.

Make Your Classroom Resemble the Real World
The main purpose for education is to prepare kids for the world after school, right? So why on Earth are we having kids move clips on a chart when they're never in their entire life going to be moving clips or being a certain color for their behavior? Hopefully, we'll get a job and work for money and earn bonuses for good work (unless they work in schools, of course!) So the most effective way to prepare kids for this type of system is to make your classroom some type of token economy like the real world is!

Use A Variety of Reinforcers
Kids are motivated by food, others by certain activities, some by "stuff," but everyone is motivated by CHOICE. And yes, I'm well aware about the restrictions being placed on food and school setting as well as the various dietary restrictions and needs of students. So if there issues surrounding food in your classroom don't use it as a reinforcer! For tangible reinforcers, go spend $2 to buy a bunch of colorful pencils at a teacher discount store instead (or get them to donate - many will!)  I've also seen teachers allow students to wear hats Friday, earn a homework pass, be able to spend time in the classroom at the shoes off, or be allowed to use pen for the day. There's a million different types of reinforcers, but the goal is to allow students to CHOOSE what they will be motivated by be it tangible, activity, or otherwise. In the spirit of aligning our behavior strategies with real world, when was the last time that your boss told you how you could spend your paycheck?

Keep It Private
Ultimately, the goal of any system should be to keep it as private as possible. No other student in the classroom should know how many points or how many tokens or how many punches a student has earned unless that student wants to tell others. The purpose of discipline should never be to humiliate or torment. Along with that, avoid disappointing in groups as much as possible. I love how in schools we send the worst behaving kids to the principal's office or keep them out of recess all together, so they sit outside the office or on the side of the playground for hours each year commiserating together and forming an army against the adults in their lives. There's a reason that in counseling school we are told not to put all of the people with behavior kinds of problems in a group together. Unless two students wronged each other and are mediating a conflict, disciplined students should not be put altogether. Have them each go "help a teacher" or do something productive somewhere in the school when possible. It makes them feel like they have a purpose, and keeps them from forming a coalition with other kids who have difficulty behaving.

Encourage Intrinsic Motivation Too
So far, I've talked a lot about strategies that encourage extrinsic motivation so here are some thoughts about developing intrinsic motivation because that is also crucial in the adult world:

• Keep all educational material relevant to students lives. One technique I saw recently was to have a "fact of the day" board in the classroom where students could submit interesting facts from some nonfiction source they found. Then, their fact and their name would be written on the board. What a great way to encourage students to read nonfiction while gaining peer and adult attention as a motivator!


• Provide choice - let students choose between different ways of demonstrating  nowledge (a worksheet vs. "create your own" test vs. "tell your partner"). Choice helps students cater their own learning toward their interests while discovering and developing their own strengths. If doing this is too overwhelming for every assignment, just pick 1 day each week. After a year, you'll have 36 days of differentiated instruction. After 3 years, you'll have 108! Or...find a friend to each pick a day each week and you can get a differentiated year 2 or 3 times as fast!


• Focus on Relationships - authoritative teaching styles work best to increase student interest, enjoyment, and performance, just as authoritative leadership styles work best to improve employee productivity and happiness.  Listen, give encouragement, and show empathy for students. You'd be surprised how much better behavior gets when students feel like you are their ally rather than their dictator. They WANT to work to impress you if they feel loved and cared for.

Fair is Not Equal
We educational people live and breathe this fact almost every moment of every day. We differentiate, flex group, and we try to give every student exactly what they need. This is why we all look like post-apocalyptic zombies come the beginning of June! But what I mean by this is that the students have to know it too! I often use the Band-Aid analogy in that if a student came in with a broken arm, I wouldn't give them a Band-Aid just because their classmate got a Band-Aid for a paper cut that morning. There are tons of visual lessons  and demonstrations that can be used to teach this fact to kids and I highly recommend weaving it into every aspect of what you do in the classroom. Reminding kids that "I give every student what they need even though it's not the same thing" is so important because as you and I know, when they get to the real world things are not the same for everyone. People earn giant promotions or get laid off, live in trailer parks or giant mansions, have 5 kids or suffer through infertility. Students will have so much more respect and trust for you if they know that they're going to get what they need from you even if it's not every other kid in the class needs.

Unfortunately, there's no magic wand. There's no "easy button." There's just a lot of hard work, long days, and undead-looking teachers by June. But in the end, it's worth it. These kids are going to be running the world pretty soon and even though there are 7 or 8 now, they are just as important as you or I. And they have just as much dignity, worth, and value as any other person. I absolutely love the following quote: "Each child in your class is someone else's whole world." We need to always remember that.

"Yes, behavior charts can create a classroom full of raised hands, quiet voices, walking feet, please-and-thank-you's. But a child’s dignity is too high a price to pay for criss-cross-applesauce." Thank you for the reminder, Amy!

Pinterest Find :: Colorful Behavior Management Charts

Ok...so the title of this post is probably misleading...but please don't throw anything. Hear me out!

Really, I should call it "Why A Little Part of me Wants to Die Every Time I See One of Those Colored Behavior Clip Charts." When I was finding additional material for this blog post, I came across an amazing one that said 90% of what I wanted to say, so I'll start with part of it. The entry is from Amy of Miss Night's Marbles. I changed a few details, but she tells it so well so there's really no other reason to re-invent the wheel.

Imagine that you have a new job. You’re VERY excited about this new job, and a little bit nervous. You know there are parts of it that you will be very good at, but there are some things that you are still working on, or that you might need support from your boss to master. It’s okay, though, because you’re pretty sure that your boss is really nice, and will help you work on those things.

You arrive at work and start meeting your new co-workers, who are just as excited and nervous as you. You notice that some of them seem to be VERY good at nearly everything, and others seem to struggle with even more things than you, but altogether they are a nice enough group and you feel like you will be a good team. You start to make some work friends. It feels good.



Then, at some point – maybe right away, maybe after a few days or weeks or months, your boss sits you ALL down together and explains a new performance management system. On the wall of your communal work area, Boss has posted a list of all the employees, by name. Next to each name is a rainbow of color-coded cards. Boss explains that every employee will start each day on the same color, but depending on your performance, your name can be moved up the rainbow, or down the rainbow. People who move up the rainbow will get special extras: a small bonus, or an extra long lunch, or a half-day off. People who move down the rainbow will face consequences: a shorter break, a docked paycheck, a note in their file.

The next day starts out badly before you even get to work. There’s no hot water left for your shower, you’re out of coffee, your cat has peed on your favorite shoes, your car isn't starting AND it’s raining. You get to work about 5 minutes late and within an hour, your name has been moved down to yellow. You get a warning from your boss. Then, your favorite work friend doesn’t want to work next to you because you just got in trouble and she doesn’t want to get in trouble by association. Your hurt feelings make you distracted, and you make a few careless errors in your tasks. Your name gets moved to orange and now you only get 20 minutes for lunch, which is really upsetting because the sun is finally shining and you had been confident that a nice walk in the fresh air with your buddies would help turn your day around.


The end of the day approaches. A few of your colleagues get to leave 30 minutes early because their names got moved “up” to blue. This leaves you with extra work that has to be done before you can leave. Among these colleagues, one of them had his name moved up to purple, so he is buying a round of drinks for everyone… Everyone who can leave early, that is. It’s always the same people who can leave early, and really, they’ve become quite clique-y. You convince yourself you wouldn’t really WANT to have drinks with them, 

anyway. You really fit in better with the red and orange card crowd.On your abbreviated lunch break, you try to get online to order some new shoes. Impatient and frustrated, you curse under your breath when the site won’t load properly. In front of everyone, your boss moves your name to red. There goes 50 bucks off your pay. Apparently you won’t be buying new shoes, after all. You approach your boss privately, trying to explain and apologize. Boss tells you, kindly-but-firmly, that “No cussing” is an ironclad rule, and that because other employees heard you cuss, she has to give you the same consequence she would give anyone else. Later, you take a bit too long in the bathroom, and your name gets moved off the rainbow altogether. A note is placed in your file, documenting a reprimand for inappropriate language in the 

workplace.

UGH...right? I mean, if it were me, I'd probably put my big girl pants on, pack up my bags, and find another job. Really, ANYWHERE would be better than this. Unfortunately, our kids don't have this luxury. They're trapped. Whether we maintain their dignity and privacy or announce to the whole class when they're not living up to our expectations for them, they're required by you, the truancy officer, or their parent to be there the next day...and for the next 180 or so of them.

Sure, I've seen teachers "adjust" these systems to use numbers instead of names, hiding the clothespins on chalk ledges so they don't face the class, etc, but let's be honest, all kids know who the "purple and blue" kids are and who the "red and orange" kids are.

So why on this earth have we decided that it's ok to do this to kids? Nearly all research point to public discipline as ineffective or counterproductive. Because it's easy - that's why. Unfortunately, we're not in this business to make things easier for us. We're in it to do what's best for kids. We owe it to them to find another way to balance order and dignity.



Amy ends her post with these absolutely perfect words:

"There are many many reasons not to use publicly-displayed, one-size-fits-all behavior "systems" in a classroom: they undermine a sense of community; they prevent kids from generalizing good behaviors;  but this is the biggest one, to me:

A child’s dignity, privacy, self-respect are no less real or important or valid, than mine. When I undermine a children’s privacy and dignity, I do damage to their relationships: with their peers, with me, and with themselves.


Yes, behavior charts can create a classroom full of raised hands, quiet voices, walking feet, please-and-thank-yous.

But a child’s dignity is too high a price to pay for criss-cross-applesauce."

Here's a few other blog posts others have written regarding the downsides to public behavior clip charts as well as what they use instead:

- Teaching in Progress
- A Teeny Tiny Teacher
- Teaching Ace

Update: Head over here for follow ups on behavior strategies that WORK to encourage intrinsic motivation and community while maintaining dignity!

Tips & Tricks :: Using Creativity to Help Others!

One of the biggest obstacles I first faced when becoming a school social worker was that I literally started with office supplies and 2 books that my internship supervisor gave me. One of the schools I first worked in had a bunch of VHS movies (even though we were well into the 2000's) and super outdated materials, but nothing I felt would be helpful at ALL for students on my caseload. I mean, most of it looked like it hadn't been touched in years and had questions related to record players and type writers!

I quickly learned that if I wanted to have updated, attention-grabbing activities and resources for my students I had to either make them myself or spend a good portion of my paycheck paying a publishing company for some $50 activity books. So during my first several years, this is what I did....buying a bit, but making a ton!

Then, in September of last year I kept thinking..."wow, it would have been awesome if I could have had access to all the things other counselors have made and tested on their own kids!" Literally a week later (I'm not even kidding), one of my other social work friends asked me if I had heard of TeachersPayTeachers. I hadn't, but checked out their website later that evening. It was there that I came across thousands of free and paid resources that I could download directly onto my computer and use with my kids! Then, I thought, "Maybe I should try sharing some of my stuff!" I figured I could save others tons of time and maybe make a bit of pocket change too, so at the beginning of October, I opened my store...with something like 4 products.

Just a few short months later, I was making tons of supplemental income, which I could put right back into my classroom or help with my mortgage. And with each day that went by, I felt more and more proud that I'd be able to help out so many other teachers, counselors, and SLP's, while saving them precious time and energy that they could then pour into their kids. Not only could I impact the 70 kids I see each week, but I help reach thousands of kids all around the world each day!

So instead of spending $30 on an activity book and using 3 or 4 pages out of it, you can look through the thousands of resources on TpT, read user reviews, ask the creator questions, and download it instantly. How awesome is that!? Here's the only problem: there's not a ton of us social work/counseling types!



Well, consider this your invitation! If you use my referral link here, you can sign up for a free account and get ready to buy or sell resources you think will be helpful to others! You can spend as much or as little time as you'd like and TpT handles all of the transaction. Your only time commitment is whatever it takes to make your products and upload them to their site. Then you're done!

Have questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments below! I'd love to help you out :) Already a member of TpT? You can link your counseling/social work-related store in the comments as well!

Enjoy and happy creating!

New Product :: Striped Digital Backgrounds

If you've been looking for a way to spice up some of your TeachersPayTeachers or homemade classroom activities, check out my new Striped Background Bundle!  It includes 66 different backgrounds in PNG format, so they can be scaled to fit any sized project. It also matches my Chevron Background Bundle so you can have consistency in your projects! And because you're all awesome, loyal blog readers, you can get 3 of them for free!

Enjoy :)

New Product :: Escape from Anger Volcano Game

I am so excited to share this new product with you all. Recently, I've really gotten into making social-emotional games like my Social Skills Land and Social Superstar Games. My students love playing them all and I've found that they've been so much more effective than more "traditional" social-emotional lessons because the kids feel engaged and don't even realize they're learning. I mean, let's be honest...working on emotional regulation, empathy, or anger management skills can get old and boring quickly!

This volcano/treasure-hunting-themed game contains 150 cards (including some blank ones and decorative card backs) of the following types to increase empathy and anger management skills in students with bipolar disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, or other emotional difficulties.

-        Empathy Questions “How Do They Feel/What Are They Thinking?”

 


-        General Anger Trivia Questions


-        Cause and Effect Questions “What Happens Next?”


-        I-Statement Questions


-        Trigger Questions “How Angry Would You Be?”



The game also includes a printable board game in color or black and white, “cool down” tokens, boy and girl characters in various ethnicities, and treasure reward cards. A great game for groups or individual students!



Example Questions:

1) TRUE OR FALSE? If you have a hard time controlling anger, you can’t do anything about it.
2) WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? Samantha has a spelling test in 15 minutes.
3) WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? A man yells at his boss at work.
4) Make and I-Statement: Your brother stole your video game controller.

And until Wednesday it's $2 off, so swing by and pick it up!

Enjoy :)

Tips & Tricks :: Autism

This summer, I've writing a blog series focusing on several different disorders that affect children at school: ADHD, Autism, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety Disorder, and ODD. Each entry will describe the disorder, give practical strategies for improving success at school, and also a few social-emotional goals and accommodations that might be appropriate for students with special education services!

This time, I'll be talking about Autism. Once a completely unknown disorder, Autism is now becoming one of the most common disorders for which students receive Special Education services. According to Autism Speaks, current statistics suggest that approximately 1 out of every 88 children (1 in 54 boys) will be diagnosed with Autism.

In the past, Autism has one of the five pervasive developmental disorders, which are characterized by widespread abnormalities of social interactions and communication, and severely restricted interests and highly repetitive behavior. Other PDD's include Rett Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Asperger Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder - no otherwise specified. This year, the diagnostic manual that doctors use to diagnose many disorders, DSM-IV, is due to be revised and many of the classifications may change.

The diagnosis of Autism covers a wide spectrum, from severely impaired individuals to high functioning people. Every child is unique. Some individuals with Autism only display a few of these behaviors, while others exhibit nearly all of them. Also, some of the following symptoms can also be characteristic of other disorders as well such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, ADHD, or Cognitive Impairments. Autism is characterized by a range or behaviors or impairments in each of the following areas, not a single trait.

Symptoms:



Social Development -

• Pay less attention to social stimuli


• Don't smile and look at others often


• Little to no response to their own name


• Less eye contact than their same-aged peers


• Exhibit social understanding


• Impaired ability to imitate and respond to emotions


• Delayed language or absent verbal expressive communication


• Difficulty expressing wants and needs in socially appropriate ways

Repetitive Behavior -

• Frequent hand flapping, head rolling, or body rocking


• Compulsive behavior that appears to follow strict rules, such as arranging objects in stacks or lines


• Resistance to change


• Ritualistic behavior involving unvarying patterns of activities


• Restricted behavior that is very limited in focus, interest, or activity, such as preoccupation with a single TV show, toy, game, or subject


• Self-Injurious behaviors such as eye poking, skin picking, hand biting, or head banging


• Echolalia, or repeating words or phrases said by others

Other Symptoms that are sometimes found in students with Autism -

• Sensory abnormalities such as overreacting to loud noises or bright lights


• Deficits in motor coordination


• Unusual eating behaviors such as extreme avoidance or preference for certain foods


• Extraordinary talent or "splinter skills" in one particular area


• Unusual speech habits, such as referring to themselves in the 3rd person past the normal developmental time for doing so


• Frequent meltdowns

Suggestions:

Before I go on, I would like to point out that since I am a social worker, my suggestions will focus on interventions to use in a school or home setting. There are many other interventions out there ranging from medications to dietary changes, but I am not an expert in that area, so I won't be addressing them! On to things to use at home or school:

• Encourage the student to get involved in extra curricular or sports activities in order to boost their confidence and self-esteem


• Keep routines and schedules structured and predictable so the student will always know what to expect


• Provide a way to communicate (ranging from full communication systems to break cards if they need to leave a situation)


• Try a visual schedule. These can be made out of paper and pictures, or you can try one of the several apps for iPads or Droid devices.


• Provide visual reminders of behavioral expectations such as pictures of rules posted on their desk, behavioral charts, etc., or have students act out rules. Simply yelling a student the rules over and over won't work!


• Color-code materials for different subjects throughout the day to help with organization


• Provide a "cool down" or break area with stress balls or other sensory toys, as well as visual reminders of how to calm down


• Allow students to leave assemblies if noise is too stimulating or to sit in quieter areas to eat lunch


• Use a visual transition timer before transitioning to a new activity


• Use social stories and or other social skills curriculum to teach appropriate social interaction and empathy skills


• Talk to other students about disabilities. Since students with Autism have impaired social functioning, they are often excluded from social groups. While being mindful of confidentiality issues, have discussions in your classroom about student diversity and explaining that some disabilities are more visible, while others can be more hidden. Be especially watchful for bullying.


• Collaborate with social workers, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, or physical therapists to be sure all student needs are being addressed

Sample Goals

• Given small group practice, Mallory will improve her classroom performance from requiring frequent redirection to independently remaining in her seat and following directions.


• Given social skills training, Joey will increase his ability to recognize emotions in others from being unable to label any emotions to correctly identifying happy, sad, mad, and scared in others independently.


• Given a social skills curriculum, Hannah will increase her conversation skills from answering questions from peers with 1 or 2 words to answering with a full sentence with no prompts.


• Given social skills training, Sarah will increase conversation skills with peers from ignoring others to starting, maintaining, and ending appropriate conversations with 2 adult prompts.

Sample Accommodations:

• Break work into smaller pieces


• Allow extended time for assignments as well as frequent breaks which give the student a chance to get up and move


• Don't allow students to "pick their own groups." Either assign them, or allow independent work.


• Provide sensory items, swings, or other tools to meet student's sensory needs


• Present material in visual ways


• Allow students who struggle with organizing their writing to dictate assignments, or record their verbal answers and then write them down

I've posted this before, but Ellen Notbohm offers some great thoughts to keep things in perspective when you're working with students with Autism here. And if you're looking for activities for your students, check out my Social Skills Activities for Girls and Boys and my 180 Social Skills Cards: The Ultimate Pack! You can also check out my Pinterest Board especially for all things Autism for even more ideas!

Thanks to Wikipedia for contributing to this article!

Review :: Erin Condren Life Planner 2013-2014

Last year, I ordered my first Erin Condren Life Planner. I loved it so much that I convinced a few of my coworkers to get one too and wrote a review about it here as well. This year, I found out the new ones would be available on June 4th and started the countdown in my head to when I could order mine (my husband thought I was nuts).

I placed my order this morning, but here's what I can say so far:

Loves:

- Having a weekly "to do" list on the side of each week and daily "to do" lists below each day. Prior year's planners had them on most pages, but were missing them for the first week of each month. This will definitely help my organization!



- Ability to personalize rectangle stickers. In the past, I got a million "vegas" or "play" stickers, which I didn't have a lot of use for. Now, I can personalize them for institute days, school improvement days, parent-teacher conferences, etc., which is awesome!

- The classic cover choices. I was a little nervous when I started to see some of the new color options for this year, but was super relieved that many of my favorites from last year were still there! This is the one I ordered this year, with a list of my favorite things for the background and "2013-2014 School Year" for the title, of course:

- Continued durability that I loved from last year. Everything from the super laminated cover to the sturdy aluminum coil put up with all the abuse I put it through last school year. I was happy to see none of these things changed!



My Wishes for Next Year:

- More "circle sticker" choices. You can upload your own images, but I'd love if they had more pre-made images for holidays to choose from.



- Cheaper notebooks for the back. I'm already forking out $50-$60 for a planner. I feel like it's a little rough to charge an additional $18.50 for matching notebooks, even though they are super cute and personalized. Surely they could get the cost down a bit for those of us already buying a planner!



- Ability to personalize ALL the rectangle stickers. While it is faster (for me and probably for them too!) to have some of them with specific events already made up (sale!, no work!, doctor appt., party!, etc.), it'd really be nice to do ALL my own. That way, I can color code and not be stuck in the colors they've decided for certain types of events (light blue for fun things, red for work).



- An improved pen holder. I still ordered one again for this year, but my one from last year started stretching out after only a month or so. I'd love some higher quality elastic for it.



Even though I think there are a few improvements for future years, I am SUPER excited to get mine!! The bright colors and fun overall feel of the planner got me through last year! I ordered it today and the estimated ship date is June 14th, so I'll post an update when it arrives in its adorable, bright-colored box :)

A final note: All of the pictures on this post are from the Erin Condren site. None of them are mine!

Update:

Here are some pictures of mine! I love it so much. It *almost* makes me feel ready for school!