The Bilingual Nook

Works for me! Wednesday

Do you have a clip chart? As far as I can tell, the idea originally came from Rick Morris' e-book New Management.  My chart reverses the colors on Rick Morris' original.

I had been seeing them on blogs everywhere and wishing I were back in the classroom so I could use one.   I don't know why I thought I couldn't use one as a resource teacher. 


So anyway...in October this year my wish came true.  I was able to go back into the classroom for a few weeks while we were between teachers.  My partner was super flexible and completely on board with trying a clip chart.  I LOVE it! 

I love that it's colorful, I love how quickly the kids respond to "moving up," I love that it helps me focus my feedback on moving kids up.  It reminds me to spend more time acknowledging appropriate behaviors.

What works best for me is to try my best to keep kids above the "danger zone."  When I see kids on yellow, I try to notice something, anything to get my young friend get back on track. 

The real magic happens when one of the kids who always seems to be in trouble gets all the way up to purple.  It happened to one of my young friends last week.  I know because his teacher told me.  And he told me.  And one of his classmates.  And his brother.  And when his mother came in for conferences the next day, she told me he was about bursting with excitement and pride to share the news with his mom.

I am a true believer that kids need to feel better before they behave better.  (I'm pretty sure that idea came from a parenting book I read.  If you know where it came from, please write a comment.. I'd love to attribute it to its original author.) This tool helps me remember that, and helps me to remember the role I play in not only teaching appropriate behavior, but in helping kids, especially the ones who struggle with behavior, to manage their fragile egos so that they are able to learn.

Now that I'm back in my support staff role, I decided to use the chart for my intervention groups.  Now, with my small groups, I really didn't NEED a clip chart because I rarely have behavior issues.  But since I've started using it, behaviors are even better.  I need to use fewer redirects and am more conscious of acknowledgeing their on-task behavior.  I even clip them up for good use of reading strategies!

If you'd like to try out a clip chart in your classroom, there are several available on TpT.  If you are interested in a dual language clip chart, or are looking for a way to tie a clip chart to an existing PBS or PBIS structure, check out my clip chart resource packet in TpT. .