Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Behavior Management & SEAT

What the Teacher Wants! is having a linky party for behavior management, which is a PASSION of mine!  I teach a kindergarten special day class and use a simple token economy system in my classroom.  Students earn happy faces with Velcro on the back, which they attach to a chart that is on the white board.  At the end of the day, they take their happy faces down, count them with 1:1 correspondence, and get their reward (reinforcer).  In the past, I have had students who need more than this.  One idea I've tried with great success is making "passports" that they carry with them to all centers and circle how well they did--a happy face, straight face, and a sad face.  It works well because it's always in front of them, reminding them what they're working for.  
 
Before implementing a behavior management system, it's imperative to know several different things, such as identifying and developing reinforcers for your students, and what the function of their behavior is.  Here are some things about behavior I've learned over the years in my ABA trainings and simply working with students in my classroom.

ALL behavior is a form of communication and serves a function (to get something or get out of something).  There are 4 functions of behavior, and you can easily remember them with this simple acronym: SEAT...
S-sensory (taps the pleasure zone in the brain)
E-escape (trying to escape or avoid something)
A-attention (when a student is trying to get your attention or that of his/her peers)
T-tangible (can be a toy/object or power/control). 

One behavior that looks the same can have very different functions.  Ask yourself: "What is he/she getting from it?"  When you figure out the function of the behavior, you'll want to try to be proactive instead of reactive.  Here is one example (of many) for how to be proactive vs. reactive for just one example of each function... 

Sensory: give a squishy ball vs. "stop it"

Escape: provide a first, then or when, then vs. stopping them

Attention: positive reinforcement/attention before the behavior vs. ignoring the behavior (I know you may be thinking "but ignoring works!", but just think-if a new, appropriate behavior is fragile and not reinforced, the likelihood of it being maintained is decreased.) 

Tangible: for an item--teach them to ask for the item vs. take it away from them; for power--give them an amount of control that is acceptable by you (for example, I had a kid who was bossy, so I gave him the job of picking who got to go line up first from our whole group activity...solved that problem!)   

Every behavior that you experience will fit into one of these 4 functions, and knowing the function will allow you to figure out how to modify the behavior, if needed.  Think about some of your own behaviors!...What are the functions of your behaviors?!?!? 

For a little poster to remember SEAT, click here!     



For more behavior management ideas, you may also be interested in reading our posts on Walk, Talk, Rock and Seat Cushions for motivating students.





Sunday, September 9, 2012

Create a class inspired Important Book!


 Hello there! I hope everyone has survived the week! Before I begin, I must say welcome and thank you to all of our new followers! We are more than thrilled to have reached the triple digits!! Thank you for taking time out of your day to read our little ol' blog.

Today I'm going to share with you a fun back-to-school writing activity, however, for those of you that are about to click out of our blog because you started school three weeks ago- stay here! This activity can be easily adapted for other things! 

Have you ever read The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown? If not, I encourage you to add it to your library. For today's activity, I start off by reading this book to my students. Then, I read them a book I wrote called, The Important Thing About 3rd Grade. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of it to share with you guys today. 
Later, I tell my students that they're going to be learning the important things about a friend from the class. I break the students into pairs and hand them this "Getting to Know You" sheet. The students spread apart throughout the classroom and take turns interviewing each other. They love it!

 Once the interviewing process is complete, the kiddos head back to their seats and I teach them how to make a person book. I am NOT the creator of this book. I learned how to make it from a colleague my first year of teaching and do not know the original source. 


 Teaching the students how to fold the paper in order to make a person book is a great informal assessment. It really shows me who is able to listen and follow directions! After they make their person book, the students use the information from their interview to write a paragraph about their new friend. Their paragraph should include information that they learned from the interview. 

 For the final sentence, "But the MOST important thing about _____ is..." I have the students write something nice about their new friend. The paragraph is another great informal assessment for the beginning of the year. 

When the paragraph is complete, it's time for the fun part- decorating their person book. The person they are creating, however, is not themselves- it is the friend they interviewed. I had a lot of left over scrapbook paper that was donated for a past project, so I let my students decorate their person book using scrapbook paper, construction paper, markers, crayons, etc. For the head of the person book, I have the students glue a picture of their friends' face. You can always just have your students draw the face if you want. 

When the person book is complete, they glue their paragraph to the middle. 




 Now, if you've already started school awhile ago and don't need to do any more "getting to know you" activities, you can still make a person book for other purposes. Students can write The Important Thing about a character from a book they're reading or perhaps they can write about a historical figure. The possibilities are endless! I like having my students create these books because they are a nice, quiet activity for them to be doing while I'm pulling kids to complete running records and other assessments. 

You can download this all for FREE by clicking here

Monday, September 3, 2012

Currently...

Hello Friends! I am likning up with Farley at Oh Boy, Fourth Grade for my first ever currently! Her blog is amazing, and I encourage you to check it out if you haven't already. 
I can't believe it has taken me this long to get on board with "Currently!"  




Favorite Things

Silhouette Machine: I have the original Silhouette Machine that I purchased after becoming obsessed with it when reading craft blogs. It's basically the same thing as the Cameo but can only take 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper. I made this shirt the other day for a good friend's daughter to wear for her Mini Mouse Birthday Party!



Green Smoothies: I'm on a healthy eating kick these days and started making my own Green Smoothie concoctions. You actually cannot taste the spinach and they are deeelish! I can make one quickly as I head out the door and I drink it in the car. It's a great way to fit in those nutrients in order to have the energy you need for a day of teaching. My favorite mix- a handful of spinach, a bunch a pineapple, one banana, and water. 


Jesus Calling Devotional: This is a great way to start your day. I actually have the app for this devotional on my Iphone, so instead of grabbing my phone to check email, I start my day by reading something motivating and inspirational. You can look for the app or buy the book.



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