This month, we’re delighted to welcome one of our sellers, PrimaryTeachersIreland, to write a guest blog about Promoting Positive Behaviour. There’s a coupon at the end of the blog post for anyone who wishes to check out her store.
Promoting positive behaviour in the classroom is one of my favourite parts of teaching. As a former teacher in a special needs setting, I have used many different forms of positive behaviour promotion, and was happy to learn that they transferred over into the mainstream setting as well. Over the last few months, I have been subbing in different schools, and in different class levels, opening my eyes to a world of ideas and experiences. It’s not easy going into a new class every day, and trying to have control over the children in front of you. I picked up some handy tips along the way that I would like to share with you all.
The first thing I do to promote positive behaviour in the classroom, is observe the children while they play and work in the morning for the first half an hour. That way, I can identify what type of support is needed. Obviously, as teachers, we would like to use just social praise, but sometimes this just isn’t enough.
I like to use group reward systems, rewarding quiet work, helpful partners, tables that follow directions, and the groups who put up their hands to ask for a question. At the end of the week then, the group with the most points gets some kind of rewards; getting to pick their toy for playtime, a jelly, or something that interests the children. I find these work well to keep the groups on track, and encourage all children to try their best.
However, there is always at least one child who finds these group rules difficult, and so, the children who are trying their best often don’t get rewarded. That is why I think it is extremely important to also have some individual rewards in place. I pick a ‘wonderful writer’ each day, who has tried hard with their work and their writing, and I write their name up on the sign I have on the board. These resources are available on my Mash.ie store now!
They love their name being written on the wonderful writer sign, and take great pride in their work. The rest of the class try hard to get their name on the board the next day too.
With the junior classes, I find that rewarding a ‘star walker’ when the children are walking in their line around the school, really helps to keep the children focused and quiet. I pick the ‘star walker’ when we get back to class. They get their name on the ‘star walker’ poster, and also get a sticker.
I always try to reinforce the positive behaviour I see in my classroom, and tend to ignore (as long as it is safe to do so) the not so positive behaviour. This way, the children know what is expected of them, and try their best to get praise, their name on a poster, or a sticker throughout the week.
- PrimaryTeachersIreland
Resource Available: https://mash.ie/product/promoting-positive-behaviour/
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