Pawsitive School Counseling: New Year, New Room

Friday, August 21, 2015

New Year, New Room

I share my classroom with two other teachers, but I am lucky enough to have a wall =). I put all my "guidance stuff" on the back wall.

Everyone teases mea bout my love of animals and especially dogs, but I have found that using this theme helps me build a relationship with the kiddos.

The 1-5 paw chart is part of my "behavior plan." I clip the entire class up as they follow my three rules:

Be Remarkable

Be Responsible

Be Respectful

At the end of class I write their "score" in my grade book (#teacheranchor #cjayneteach). When the class has 5 5's they get a reward day. That's normally the day we watch a Trevor Romain video or do extra Go Noodles.

Students who do a great job get to "put their name in a cup." Each month I put out 6 books students can win. They put their name in the corresponding cup of the book they want to win. Then at the end of the month one student will be drawn and they win that to keep forever. It's part of my closing the gap plan to improve literacy scores.

The Martha Speaks board is to help isolate problem behaviors, such as blurting. I got the idea from the wise Amiee Dean, Behavior Queen. The students start with 10 bones and as the problem behavior occurs I take one away. So say for example the class keeps talking over me, we would focus on blurting. Each time someone blurts I take away a bone. However many bones are left at the end of class they get that many minutes to "free talk" or whatever reward I've decided on.

Note: For your "problem students" you know your "Richards" as Amiee calls them I have a separate plan for them. I won't take away a bone if they blurt. They most likely have more individualized behavior plan, so I don't take away from the class for this behavior. I will however let them earn, so if they do raise their hand I might give a bone back. It's been very positive so far.

Speaking of my Teacher Anchor. I can't live without this amazing binder and planner from C Jayne Teach.

The Anchor is full of helpful worksheets and planning guides. When you factor in how organized it keeps me, helps me document my connection to common core standards, and keeps me solution focused for groups and individuals, it's worth every penny.

They sell out fast so make sure you pre-order! I love the personalization.

I use my binder for individual notes, small group notes, lesson plans, and meeting notes.

The Teacher Anchor contains this individual conference form, which I made copies of and put in a special section of my binder.

Here is the blank example:

Here is an example of how I use it for individual work. Don't panic, Brooklyn's furry confidentiality is safe.

Here is a sample of how I used her small group conferencing sheet. I love the design because it allows me to write down notes on what we did and then individual notes.

Boss wasn't thrilled I used him as an example!

The Teacher Anchor also contains a yearly planner, which I use to keep track of our character education traits, our books of the month, and develop a scope and sequence for parent workshops, lessons, etc.

My weekly planner is broken down into individual, small groups, class lessons, meetings, and program planning. I also keep a tally of my totals for the week for our semi-annual report.

In years past I had these three beanies and stuffed animals that sat with students. The leopard represents our school mascot, Lottie, and responsibility. The goldfish, Goldie, represents respect. Last is Luca, and she represents being remarkable. As younger grades came in these three would look for tables being well behaved in these areas and sit with that table. However I found them to be distracting and my beloved Luca got colored on, so this year they are going to be my "Elves on the Shelf."

Here's my upside down tool belt. It's where I keep my pens and stickers, but also my non verbal cue cards for behavior. Just grab a cheap tool belt from home depot, decorate, and then don't you have a great place to keep things on hand.