Catch Up: August 8th - 26th

Behavior Plan -

     I am so impressed with our behavior plan!  Since I have been teaching K-1 for the last few years, I never really had a serious behavior plan or procedure (mostly because it wasn't really needed with those particular classes).  This year, however, I  have borrowed a very structured plan from a fellow teacher at my school and it is working out so well!  It is a typical colored card flipping chart where students have individual cards that visually let them know where there behavior is. 
     Here's the basic run down:  They all start at Green (excellent day!), if they misbehave the go to Yellow (warning), then Blue (lose 5 min recess), then Red (lose all recess and sign a note explaining why they had to turn their card red to be taken home, signed by their parents and then returned the next day), or Black (referral, sent to the office.  A student can be moved to black and skip all other colors if it is a severe offense).  Research has show that if a student is responsible for flipping their own card they are more likely to take ownership of their behavior instead of just write it off, so we make sure that they physically do it themselves. 
     Not only do they have a chart that they can check throughout the day, but we also have them record their color on a blank calendar everyday at the end of school.  This way their parents are updated DAILY about their behavior in class, and anything serious (red or black) is documented and dealt with immediately.  And we are going to collect their monthly behavior calendars and put them in their assessment folders so that we always have record of their behavior.  What a relief!  A way to easily document student behavior, and they do it for me!  I love this method.
     The proof that this plan is working is apparent everyday.  We have a squirmy little one that was a severe behavior issue at his old school, and even receives weekly counseling to help him control himself.  His behaviorist has come into our classroom a few times now and has commented that she had to check her records to make sure that she was actually observing the right students because he was exhibiting hardly any of the negative behaviors that he had in the previous year.  I am hoping that this class wide plan will also keep us from having to make any individualized behavior plans in the future. 
   
Thoughts:
 - I want to reward the students that stay green all month... how should I go about that?  I also want to do some kind of month to month improvement awards for kiddos that are starting to control themselves... not sure what to do with that yet.


Guided Reading Groups -

     This year, because I moved up to 1st grade special ed inclusion, there is a certified special ed co-teacher, and two instructional aids (one for am and one for pm) that are helping in the classroom.  Since I have all this extra help, I have made one of my goals for the year to do guided reading with every student everyday.  Right now we have 5 groups, so my co-teacher, one of the aids and I read with a group for the first half of readers workshop, then either the aid or the co-teacher and I read with a second group afterwards.  This way every child gets a chance to be heard and instructed in a small group everyday. 
     So far it is working out quite well, but it has ended up being a lot of work for me.  I decided to have each group read a new book every other day so that they are getting an intro on the first read, and then working on some type of skill for the second read.  This is all well and good, but it is forcing me to chose and document a LOT of guided reading books.  I am hoping that I can train the other teacher and the aids to pick books for their own groups... however, we do switch groups frequently so that we all get a chance to see how everyone is doing. 
     I suppose I will have to see what our DRA scores look like in December if we really want to see how well reading is going.  1st graders are supposed to be reading at a level 16 non-fiction by the end of the year, and the reading coach said that if we can get them to 10 by December they have a much better chance of achieving that goal. 

Thoughts -
 - Since we are doing so much reading (5 times a week when other classes only do 2-3 times per student) I decided to make Thursday reading time art time.  I'm wondering if I should incorporate that art into reading as well to make it kind of flow with the schedule... I hate feeling guilty for doing art.


Promethean Board -


     Once I actually figure out how to fit the board in, I cannot wait to dive into the programs that they make for it!  I will have access to a bunch of free programs from the Promethean website, and there is even an Investigations program that goes along with our math curriculum.  How exciting!

Thoughts -
 - Does anyone have a Promethean Board?  If so, what types of activities do you do with it?  Are there any websites that you like that work well with it?