Yes, ladies and gentlemen….skip the clip chart to manage student behavior. Yes, yes, I know it has been around for ages. While we are at it, probably rethink the card chart as well. These strategies are all just basically the same as the good old fashioned name on the board with checkmarks. This style and strategy of management at best amounts to nothing more than public humiliation, and at worst causes excalation of behavior and possibly some ferpa concerns when misbehaving students become the topic of conversation around someone else’s dinner table. I once had an administrator pose the question…
PBIS….Positive Behavior Intervention and Support…AKA Positively Believe It Saves sanity!
I have heard the tales of dysregulation, I have heard school staff cursing the covid year in what is has cost kiddos, I have heard horror stories of kids running amok, and I have heard sad stories of teachers in tears. I know being back in school in more ‘normal’ circumstances is hard for kids who have not been used to the strict and consistent routines that schools have to offer during the last 18 months, especially if they were distance learning. Truth be told….it is sort of hard for teachers and school staff too. For this I am so…
Apple trees…
Why is she writing about apple trees? Seriously? Yep. Read on. You may see the connection here. I need to preface this post with the statement that although I am employed by Jackson Public Schools, this is purely my opinion and does not reflect the positions or opinions of JPS. As a teacher, I always had a pack of paperwork that I sent home on the first day of school: the forms from the office, a personality inventory, and my discipline procedures. My discipline procedure letter started out to the effect of, ‘This is the letter that is my least…
Summer’s End….Unlocking the Office Doors
Don’t be deceived…..my office doors were never locked. Despite being off contract for the last five weeks, I have in fact been working. Emails never stop, phone calls must be returned, and yes, there’s are still meetings to attend. Plus, I have teachers who need to get in to work in their classrooms, because despite those pesky rumors that teachers have summers off… that is just a myth. They work (we work) our tails off during the summer. It’s is all the behind the scenes work that takes place in the summer that makes the magic happen when the kids…