Daily Expectations

At The Pinnacle Schools in Huntsville, AL there is a school-wide behavior management system. Students earn points in each class and the points result in moving up levels and earning various rewards. In the Middle School, we try to keep all of our expectations for points the same across classes for consistency. One of the ways we found to remind students of these expectations, is by keeping them permanently posted on the board. Students know how they earn points, how they lose points, and how they earn a bonus point for each class.

Must Do: what students must do in class to earn their two points.
May Do: what students can do extra to earn bonus points.
May Not Do: what students may not do will result in loss of points, even if they complete the Must Do activities.

 The Must Do activities are usually "complete required assignment" and "stay quietly seated." May Do sometimes varies, but most of the time it is "have no redirections." The May Not Do includes things like "sleeping," "getting out of your seat without permission," "talking in class," and "playing computer games without permission." Basically, all negative behaviors can result in loss of points and positive behaviors result in gain of points. The posted reminder helps me to enforce the expectations without too much push back from the students.

Behavior BINGO

In October, we had Halloween BINGO with a Halloween Party reward. For the next 3 weeks, we are doing Valentine's BINGO.

Students can earn spaces for a variety of things: academics, good behaviors, doing jobs in the classroom. 1 BINGO = a Valentine's treat. 2 BINGOs = dress out on Friday February 13. Fill the card and get an invite to the Valentine's Dance Party.

The BINGO cards require students to do well in all of their classes. They can lose stickers too. If a student is sent out for a misbehavior, the teacher gets to take back a space.

It's another fun, competitive, and interactive behavior management system that lets students see their behavior choices and the positive and negative consequences of each choice.

One of my students has started earning spaces on his BINGO card!

Sticker Charts in Middle School? Yes!

I have a terrible addiction to the Dollar Tree teacher section. It's actually a pretty wonderful addiction considering the price. I am always finding great posters and reward incentives.

I recently got a bunch of sticker charts. I am using them with my homeroom students as a behavior chart. At my current school, students earn points for their behaviors. Every week, students who earn all of their points are rewarded with a pizza party. This semester, we're adding another level. Every day that the students earn all of their points, they get a sticker on their chart. When the chart is full, that's their ticket to a no uniform day. My students are loving that!

Sticker charts are a daily reward working towards a larger one. Plus, there's some competition in it. It's just the right kind of incentive for middle school. Don't let those tough ones fool you; they love stickers too!

The No-Uniform Sticker Charts for my 8th grade homeroom. 

Feelings Chart

Every morning, my students write a journal entry that includes how they are feeling that morning. It is a great tool to gauge for carry-over emotions. Working with troubled students, it is important to help students process their feelings before they go off at me or each other. I found this Muppets Feeling chart on Pinterest this summer and had it blown up into a poster at Staples. Many of my students refer to the poster for words and characters that represent them. They are getting to express their feelings and developing their vocabulary skills. The colorful visual representations are great too!