Reward the Kids that Make Good Choices!

Last year I had a very interesting class. I took this opportunity to learn more about classroom management, teaming, and many other things that proved to be a bit of an issue. I believe the issue stemmed from having kids that followed all of the rules and were on green ALL YEAR (where's the problem, right?) but then I also had kids that had to move their clip to red every day. When you have this mixture in a classroom (which most teachers do), sometimes the "green" kids get put on the back burner...meaning, we don't always reward them for staying on green, we just expect it. However, if a "red" kid stayed on green...I just oohhhhed and ahhhhed over them. Fair? I think not. After clicking through Pinterest for a while last night, I found this:

Each child gets a punch card, for each day they are on green they get a punch in their card. After 20 punches, the student gets a reward (of your choice obviously). I believe it is something tangible that the students can have as a goal for good behavior. I will start this DAY 1 in my classroom. A classroom with well-behaved children=more education time for students and a less exhausted teacher! I am allllll about that! :) I already ran these off for my kids on colored card stock. Also--for you that team out there. I plan on sharing this with my team teacher, if she likes...then we will use it for her class too! Consistency is important when teaming! Here is the Girl Punch Card and here is the Boy Punch Card.

I also ran across this little goodie:

I plan on using this to commicate with parents when their child gets on red. I prefer things in writing, and I can keep these (signed) in a notebook so that when I have parent conferences, or the student has to go to the principal...I can show the signed Red Card Reports. I believe communcation with home is key, but sometimes I doesn't work and you must go a step further...always good to have documentation! :) Here is the Red Card Report

I know I have some friends that are going to be new teachers next year--if I can offer ONE piece of advice...please make sure you have a classroom management plan IN PLACE the first day! Talk to your team or campus...if they don't have one, then come up with on of your own! We (at Gilmer) use the Green, Blue, Yellow, Red system. We have ours on painted yard sticks and use clothspins with the kids names on them to move their clips. (I know a lot of schools use this system.) But whatever, system...have it in place the first day! Explain it to the kids...the make no exceptions! It's called tough love--it is so important when teaching children!