After a week full of team building we moved on to Gardening week! Every year we work together as a group and tend to a garden on the side of our building. The kids are in charge of everything--weeding, watering, and planting the flowers! At the end of the summer, we get to celebrate with a party of everything that we grew over the summer and eat it all! YUM!
The kiddos are finally getting more into the routine and learning behaviors that are appropriate. Even though they have been in school and learning routines throughout the whole year, we still must teach them again because they are testing boundaries of the us constantly. We are constantly trying to reinforce positively and not negatively and I wanted to take some time on this blog post to talk about the positive reinforcements we are doing.
- Brownie Points--I found this idea on Pinterest and fell in love with it! You post a cookie sheet to the wall and print out brownies and laminate them. Everytime a student does something STELLAR or the class they receive a brownie point. Once the pan of brownies is full, I have to bake and bring in a pan of brownies for them.
- "Caught ya being good"--This is a fish bowl that has the phrase "caught ya being good" on the side. Anytime we catch a student doing something good, we put a pom-pom in the jar once the jar is filled they get to have a party! The jar is about half-way filled now!
- Build-A-Bear Field Trip--We have a very special field trip planned at the end of the summer and the kids have to earn their way to Build-A-Bear. We go on a field trip everyday during the summer and after every field trip we decide if we earn a bear or not after that field trip. They have a goal set of getting 40 bears and then we get to visit Build-A-Bear in Omaha. This gives them the motivation to behave when we are off-site.
So far these have been working REALLY well and the kids have liked having goals set for themselves in a positive manner. We will see how it goes for the rest of the summer!
Meg, this is a really thoughtful post. Any time that we are working with reinforcing behaviors, we have to keep ourselves in check as well. Is it about the child or making it easier on us? Clearly, you are helping children set goals and understand how to work toward those goals on many levels. The short-term and long-term goals are a great way to keep kids focused and feeling some "return on their investment." I think that "managing behaviors" is one of the trickiest aspects of good teaching--it is a delicate balance between group functioning and individual growth. One thing that I used to ask my (high school) students was, "Do you want to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do or because I told you to do it?" This kind of discussion is helpful in alleviating the mentality of "I was good, so what do I get?"--there is a very thin line between manipulation and nurturing of behaviors. This is a constant threat to using rewards; however, bringing the child into the discussion is a huge step in the right direction.
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