Classroom Management

I had a really great professor at Longwood University (Farmville, VA) that focused on the area of Classroom Management.  He had great anecdotes to accompany each lesson.  I'll never forget the one about the "Claw of Death."  The important lesson was- don't ever leave a student in charge of the class.  I'll let you use your imagination to figure out how the "Claw of Death" came into play there...

My college professor stressed the importance of having a plan in place and documenting everything.  As a result, I have always had a classroom management system in place and my students and their parents have always read and signed a behavior management contract.

Last year, a colleague was telling me about the great success she had with the clip chart system she had in place in her classroom.  I have always used some form of the green, yellow, red "stoplight" system for classroom management.  (I've never tried to go without a management system.)  My colleague told me that she really liked the emphasis on seeking out and rewarding positive behavior, rather than solely looking for negative behavior.  Because of that, she used a 6 color chart system.  Students began in the middle of the chart each day, and could climb up and down depending on student choices throughout the day.

Classroom Management Clip System from previous school year

Since that conversation, I've spoken with other teachers across the state about their classroom management systems.  My sister, a first grade teacher, uses a clip chart system similar to that of my colleague.

I began searching Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers for ready made resources for this year's classroom management system.  I knew I needed to find the following: a chart to use in the classroom, a monthly communication calendar to document student daily behaviors, and a classroom management contract describing the clip chart system and the classroom rules.

This year's clip chart system from Creative Lesson Cafe

First things first, I started looking for a clip chart system.  I found several variations of the clip chart system- some started with purple for outstanding behavior at the top of the spectrum with red for parent contact at the bottom level, like Lesson Plan Diva's behavior chart, while others followed the traditional spectrum from red for outstanding behavior to pink for parent contact, like what I found on TeachersPayTeachers via the Creative Lesson Cafe.  There was also this adorable Rocking Behavior Chart from The Inspired Apple.

Ultimately, I decided to go with the really great printable chart from the Creative Lesson Cafe Teachers Pay Teachers site.  It was a free download at the time- catch it while it's free!  I printed on regular printer paper, cut down each section, laminated, and then taped in the correct order.  (My home laminator is limited to smaller pieces of paper.)

The next piece to search out or create was the monthly communication calendar.  In my searching, I came across this post from Lori at Teaching With Love & Laughter.  She has created monthly clip chart take home calendars for FREE!  For the most part, this is not a huge change from my previous monthly communication calendars.  I love the fact that the behavior chart is listed on each monthly calendar page.  The students get to color in the blank chart at the beginning of each month and the parents get a visual reminder of the behavior system.  This is AWESOME.

Download from TpT

Finally, I needed to create a behavior contract.  This is something I have always had my parents and students read and sign.  I like to begin the school year with clarity.  I believe I've put the finishing touches on my behavior contract.  I have my own Teachers Pay Teachers site, where I've only posted things that are free, because I haven't made anything I would want to pay money for as of yet.  Here's the link to my behavior contract.  It's free and it's a Word Doc.  Page 2 lists our class rules, which I modeled after Sara Cooley's 5 Bee Promises from First Grader at Last.

Here's to a successfully managed class in the 2012-2013 school year!