Behavior Management

Haim Ginott, a teacher and child psychologist, pioneered techniques for conversing with kids that are still practiced today.  Haim Ginott is quoted saying, “I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom.  It’s my personal approach that creates the climate.  It’s my daily mood that makes the weather.  As a teacher, I posses a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.  I can be tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.  I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.  In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.”   Ginott’s words are a driving force in why I believe a strong proactive and positive approach is essential in managing student behavior, thereby creating the most effective learning environment.  Although there are many different principles and techniques used to manage behavior, I find CHAMPs to be most effective.

CHAMPs is an acronym that reflects the types of expectations used by the teacher to clarify the activity and transitions occurring in class. The acronym stands for Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, and Participation.  Randy Sprick, co-author of CHAMPs, designed this program to help classroom teachers develop a proactive and positive classroom environment so that learning time can be maximized.

The process of communicating expectations will begin with the start of each workshop and prior to transitioning.  Providing clear expectations for students eliminates the need for students to guess what is expected of them.  As I implement the program, I create anchor t-charts explaining responsible noise and disruptive noise.  After defining expectations, I designate corrective consequences.

Understanding CHAMPs:

CONVERSATION:  Students who are concerned about their ability to communicate with others may attempt to compensate by increasing the audible volume of their responses.  To discourage such a practice, I introduce conversation levels with examples of acceptable versus unacceptable levels.  They include:  0- silent, 1-whisper, 2- conversation, 3-presentation, and 4-outside voice.

HELP:  Students who roam the classroom looking for help are often distracted and easily off task.  When they understand how to properly gain the attention of their teacher and get their questions answered, unnecessary movement and interruptions can be avoided.

ACTIVITY:  Prior to the class working on an activity, I provide a snapshot of the objective and what is expected for the end product.  Example:  Read independently for the next twenty minutes.  When you finish a book, log the title and author.

MOVEMENT:  Providing students with permission to get out of their seats during the learning activity, as long as such movement is necessary and orderly, eliminates distractions such as students repeatedly asking for a pencil, water, the bathroom, etc.  Establishing independence and eliminating distraction is a key to orderly movement that is conducive to learning.

PARTICIPATION:   Obtaining effective student participation in the learning process requires an early explanation of the behaviors that are expected of the students during the learning activity.  The more structure a lesson requires, the more specific my explanation to the students should be.  Successful participation is measured by student responses during the learning activity.  Are they to be listening? Discussing? Watching?

Providing a simple system for reinforcing positive behavior and reducing specific misbehavior should follow CHAMPs guidelines.  I use two systems to reinforce positive student behavior.  First, I provide Bucket Fillers for students who make positive decisions, follow expectations, and work toward our classroom goals.  I recommend reading Have You Filled a Bucket Today: A Guide to Daily Happiness in Kids with your class while establishing intrinsic motivation.   Secondly, my behavior management chart provides positive and negative colors.  My school celebrates two students from each class during a flag raising ceremony each month.  My students are chosen for the student of the month celebration by moving through the positive colors on my behavior management chart.

While I’m aware that there are many different systems and theories for obtaining behavioral best practices, I truly believe that CHAMPs positive approach and clear expectations provides my class with the needed management and ability to learn effectively!

For more information about positive behavior management, please visit Randy Sprick’s Safe and Civil Schools at http://www.safeandcivilschools.com/index.php

The girl in me wanted to make my transitions a bit more fashionable so I created my own CHAMPs charts!  You can pick these up in my store.  Just a few previews...

So what does it look and sound like?