"How to walk in a line" There's an anchor chart for that.

Lately I have been thinking about how to best make visual representations of common classroom and school routines and rituals for my students. A lot of thinking has gone into this because it needs to be easily accessible, multi modal (reach multiple student's through their learning style), and something that can be referenced as needed.

One of the most common school routines is walking in the hallway, and it's one of the hardest skill to master. This is an important skill to learn though because not only does it translate into a safety routine (like with fire drills) learning how to walk through the halls is an important community access skill (like for going on field trips) Walking through the halls is hard, there is a lot going on; people and things to look at touch and hear, the excitement of where we are going, talking to friends, a lot more then you realize if you're not a student with sensory needs or ADHD. So when we ask them to "line up" and quickly go over the rules of walking in the hallway (by speaking them most likely), they have already forgotten them before they step out the door. The other problem with this is my student's don't do auditory processing well. Either they are not paying attention, can't process the information fast enough, or can't internalize it. It's not the best learning modality for my students to retain information.

So what do I do about this? Well, after a lot of thought the idea ended up being pretty simple.

I made an anchor chart! Now, I have seen anchor charts used for behavior management before, but there are some special elements in this one that I have included, and for a reason.

All of my students are verbal, they are able to use expressive language, and most of them are cognitively ready, or to say they don't have any cognitive impairments. That being said, they still need a lot of visual support. I love visuals and for many reasons:
   
     1. They are interesting - they capture the attention of a student, and in order to learn a student has to be attending.
     2. They are easier to process - Simple visual images are easier to process than words (both spoken and written) for those students with processing and sensory disorders, or whom are just upset. I also find that visual are less of a trigger for a lot of my students over spoken directions.
     3. They help make sense of the words - visuals help because they are context clues, they help students comprehend the written material (like ELL and SPED students)
    4. They give the student a way to communicate when using words is hard - we can all relate to this, even as adults we find it hard sometimes to "use our words" to express what we really need. (for me this is about the time I start interjecting some colorful language into what I am saying, but more on using visuals to support communication later)

Even though the anchor chart is simple looking there are two key elements. The fist key element is that it is multi modal. It has written language, pictures, and when the teacher goes over it, auditory information. To a certain extent it is also kinesthetic because the students should be actively practicing the skills as we go over the poster. The second key element is that it is concrete. It is something the students can see and refer to. When posted by the door it prompts the students as to what behaviors are expected in the hallway. It also allows for fading of the support, you may start off with going over it every time the student's leave the classroom, then only twice a day, then once, etc, until it is just posted by the door as a reminder.

I also made a sister anchor chart to this one about how we line up at the door.

With these two posters by the door I can now in a concrete manner teach the expectations of how to line up and walk through the hallway. This gives my students a better grip on the expectations, and hopefully leads to better understanding of the hallway routines.

Welcome to Behavior Management where everything's made up and the point's don't matter!

My students. I love my students. If you asked me the number one thing I learned from them thus far was? “Welcome to behavior management, where everything’s made up and the point’s don’t matter!” Now if you’re not quite finding this comical yet let me tell you two things:

1. Go watch an episode of “Whose Line is it Anyways?”

2. My students all have point sheets.

Still not laughing? Well, if you’re not one of my co-workers, you’re probably not yet, if you are one of my co-workers, starting to giggle?

Working as a behavior interventionist in a program designed for students with emotional and behavioral challenges I get to experience the worst of student behavior regularly. In fact, that is what I am there for, that is what my job is all about, intervening when our students go off the wall. I am there to get students back on track so that they may go back to class and learn. Working as a behavior interventionist you start to develop an appreciation for well-planned plots, like the day one of my students held a computer hostage and made demands for it’s safe release (chocolate milk by the way he was demanding chocolate milk). But still, the core thing that my students have taught me is when it comes to behavior management is “Everything is made up and the points don’t matter!”

Working with my students I have developed this new love for behavior and behavior management that I previously was unaware that I had. I am constantly challenged and in return I spend a large part of my time trying to find new resources, implementing new techniques and attempting to develop my own behavior management system. I actually find it quite enjoyable, it’s this large puzzle that is constantly evolving, and in the end, I see change happen (or always have the hope to). Now, I would be lying if I also didn’t tell you that it is also incredibly stressful at times, but overall I wake up everyday excitd to go see my students.

So what about these points? Well, like any “good” behavior management system we have daily point sheets. The student’s behavior is recorded on the sheets all day long and the students earn points for good behavior. On the flip side they loose points for bad behavior. Well, sadly, by the time the students are with me they no longer care about the f***ing points, and many times, they are with me because they have lost their points, and this core nuclear reaction has gone off with-in them that caused their brain to melt and now I am with a student who is trying to crawl out a window just because they lost their points all over swearing in the classroom. And I wish I was exaggerating. Really though, by the time they are with me my students could not care less about their point sheets, the normal system of incentive behavior management has been throw out the window and the student is about to go next. My students do impulsive things like swear, loose a point and then implode (Now I have many many many reasons as to why this occurs, but we will talk about that another time) The number of times I am talking a kid out of crawling out the first floor window is comical. I could say I average 1-2 a week.

So when it reaches the point that on some days I have three students running the halls, another screaming at a door (and who is even behind that door you’re screaming at?!?) and one with me whom I am just trying to keep in the building (please don’t climb out this window because I am in teacher clothes and don’t have my walkie) the fist thing that pops into my head at the most in-opportune times is Drew Carry announcing “WELCOME TO BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT where everything’s made up and THE POINTS DON’T MATTER!” because in the end, they don’t. The student does not care about their point sheets, and no matter how many times I remind them of earning their points, it always ends the same, the points just don’t matter.

So this is how I started my journey wondering about and trying to find what behavior management really is, how do I best work with my students to see them make real progress and change, and find out if in the end, do the points really matter?