Behavior Management

Although the school year so far has had its ups and downs, I feel as though am on the right track to completing IEP goals, and giving all of my students an appropriate and valuable education experience including authentic and academic skills.

The latest addition to the classroom has been a behavior management system in which my students are required to monitor their own behavior, by means of positive reinforcement for a reward of their choosing.  I, along with the help of my wonderful assistants, have laminated stars, reward cards, and names (sequenced and glued by the students) in preparation of this new idea.  Each student is able to choose their own reward/motivation to have a positive and agreeable attitude throughout the day.  The rewards I chose to make available to them were based on my own observation as to level of motivation and interest.  Some of the rewards availbale to them include:

-Computer Time

-Educational Movie

-Playdough

-Resistance Tunnel

-Puppets

-Swing

-Blocks

-Ball Maze

Each student is able to earn up to five stars per day for various positive behaviors such as:

-Body Control

-Listening Ears

-Hand to Themselves

-Eyes on the Speaker

-Participation

-Use of Gentle Words

-Completion of Work

Each time a student earns a star they are immediatley rewarded with cheers and hugs (if appropriate) from teachers and fellow students.  At the end of the school day, the entire class has a meeting to count the stars each student has earned.  If she or he has collected the required five stars, they are then able to complete the activity they chose at the beginning of the day!

As I have seen this tool in use for three days now, I can report that my stduents seem to be responding well and monitoring their own behavior quite well.  As teachers, we are constantly encouraging all students to remember what they are working toward (stars) and what the desired behaviors are to earn these reinforcers.  I have noted a dramatic change in two of my seven students behaviors just this week, and cannot wait to see more improvement throughout the year!