Stop writing names on the board!
Imagine walking into a faculty meeting 20 minutes late. Your principal sees you enter and instead of saying something to you, he writes your "name" on an overhead projector for all to see. Later in the day you go down to the faculty room to get your lunch and the overhead sheet is hanging on the refrigerator door.
You go to your principal's office and ask him why the name is on the door. He says, "because everyone needs to know that it is not ok to come to my faculty meetings late! But don't worry, because if you are on time (or good) the rest of the day I will erase it tomorrow!"
You might be good the rest of the day, but you will also be miserable. Kids respond the same way. They might be good the rest of the day, but you really have not done any long term good.
Are you bribing or rewarding? You decide...
What is the difference between: "If you behave yourself today you'll get an extra 10 minutes on the playground," and "Because you were so good today I'm deciding to give you an extra 10 minutes on the playground. Thanks for behaving that way. Do not expect extra play next time. Or I promise it will not happen!"
The first is a bribe and the second is a reward.
The first example has the student in control. They decide if behaving is worth an extra 10 minutes. If it is they will behave. If not they won't. Either way, they are in charge. This type of "reward" will get good behavior in the presence of authority (if there is a chance they'll get caught being good).
The second example has the teacher in control. I am deciding that the actions already taken deserve something special. This is a reward. Rewards only happen after a desired behavior is exhibited.
Teachers that reward properly make it very clear that the students should NOT expect the reward next time, but that the desired behavior is still expected. If we always reward, kids learn to be good only because they will get something. If we never reward they learn being good never gets them anything. Which is why occasionally rewarding, when the teacher decides, works best! Good luck and stop back again soon!
Stop writing names on the board!
Imagine walking into a faculty meeting 20 minutes late. Your principal sees you enter and instead of saying something to you, he writes your "name" on an overhead projector for all to see. Later in the day you go down to the faculty room to get your lunch and the overhead sheet is hanging on the refrigerator door.
You go to your principal's office and ask him why the name is on the door. He says, "because everyone needs to know that it is not ok to come to my faculty meetings late! But don't worry, because if you are on time (or good) the rest of the day I will erase it tomorrow!"
You might be good the rest of the day, but you will also be miserable. Kids respond the same way. They might be good the rest of the day, but you really have not done any long term good.
Stop telling kids to Stop!
We often hear teachers tell their students to stop doing things. Stop talking, stop laughing, stop moving around, stop, stop stop. Instead of telling kids to stop, structure a time and place for them to do the behavior.
For example, if kids are talking for 15 minutes, a teacher might say, "guys, right now the talking is excessive. However, I like that you want to talk to each other and I will give you some time to do this every day. So, which five minutes would you prefer to talk? The beginning, middle, or end of class?"
Then allow them to decide which five minutes they will take. After the class decides, let them know that "you trust they will stop talking after five minutes and you will not even have to tell them when their time is up". During their five minutes of talking you can now talk with them. Get to know them better, and build relationships with students you might not talk with on a daily basis. Good luck!
Hand back your own graded papers!
Some teachers like to give a stack of papers to an individual student to pass back to the rest of the class. If these papers are graded, this is inappropriate and should not be done.
Imagine if your child often received one of the lower grades in his or her class. Would you be outraged if another student was able to see the grade they got? Grades should be confidential. At no time should any student be able to see what another student received.
Sometimes kids will show each other the grade they received. There is nothing we can do about this and we should not try to stop them. However, we should not be the ones that make the mistake of giving students graded work to pass back.
Check back next week for another common "mistake of the week".