Month: November 2021

Behavior Scale

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In my last post about exit tickets, I mentioned that I have my students self-assess their behavior at the end of their one-hour-long class session. To do this, I have developed a four point scale based on Marzano’s model. Again, I needed something that I could use consistently across all my classes which include students in kindergarten through twelfth grade and with a wide variety of educational needs. The current version I’m using is shown in the picture below.

On our scale, four is the highest and one is the lowest. Anytime we use a four point scale, the goal should be for students to earn a three. In my setting, that means the student attended class, worked on their assignments, and was generally respectful to those around them. Students who are having a rough day and unable to really focus on their work can still earn a three. If they let me know what’s up, we work together to make a plan for the class period–which looks different each time. Sometimes it’s drawing; sometimes it’s writing; and sometimes they need to just focus on something different for a while so we’ll grab some puzzles, word searches, or sudoku. I even had one student ask if he could do 83 push-ups! Sure you can! Me? Not so much! 

A four is earned when behavior is even better than expected; maybe the student was especially helpful to a peer or persevered through something that was really tough. Just today I had a student earn a four. She had never before used long division to divide polynomials so I showed her how to do it and she worked super hard all hour (I even forgot to dismiss class because we were so into it!). She thought it was really hard, but she stuck to it, kept working through it, and ended up doing a great job. 

A two means you had an okay day: not great but not terrible. Maybe the student was on websites that are not allowed and chose not to stay off them after being redirected. Maybe we said a bunch of not-so-nice things to our peers. Maybe we decided to throw fidgets at the ceiling after Melissa told us sixteen times not to…(that would never happen, right?).

A one means things were not good…in a pretty big way. I’ve only given out maybe three or four of these all year so far. This looks like throwing chairs, ripping things off the walls, punching someone…basically, there is a path of destruction somewhere. A one also means I need to review the day and see if I can make any changes that will help tomorrow go better for that student. Behavior is communication–what was that student trying to tell me? 

I purposefully designed each of the spots on the scale to use mostly the same wording. This allows students to know what behavior expectations are important and they don’t have to remember different standards when reflecting on their own behavior when earning a two instead of a three, for example. I also added the smiley faces to help guide my students who aren’t readers yet. 

I love using four point scales in my classroom! I think they work exceptionally well for measuring behavior in a way that teaches students that perfection is not expected and each day is a new day. If you use any, I’d love for you to post a picture!

Exit Tickets

MelissaLeave a comment

It’s common knowledge that good classroom management includes routines students are familiar with. When I started my new job this school year, I knew I would be moving students around in different groups, so I needed to run each group throughout the day in the same way. Therefore, I needed routines that would work well with students from kindergarten through twelfth grade and with a variety of educational and emotional needs. 

I decided to end each class with students completing an exit ticket. Most of the time, teachers use these to assess what students have learned or what questions they still have at the end of a class period. Since my day is structured into what is pretty much four sections of “resource room,” (each student working on something different than the student next to them) that wasn’t going to work in my setting. I wanted to make something that would ask students to reflect on their choices and behaviors during their hour of school each day. I also wanted useful information for myself and useful feedback for my learners. After many iterations, I came up with what we are currently using. I got the border and “exit ticket” words from a free file on Teachers Pay Teachers. Then I made the rest in Google docs, cut out the pieces, taped them on (because I’m super tech savvy-haha), and made copies; I get three tickets out of one piece of printer paper.

The current layout of my exit ticket

Students write their name and the date, then check off where they feel they fell on our four-point behavior scale (I’ll share this next time!). Next, they check off what they worked on. I added this for two reasons. Sometimes if I don’t get to my “charting” until the end of the day, I forget that Tommy worked on math while I was helping Sally with social studies. I also like to see if what they checked off matches up with what I observed. For example, if it looked like Mary was watching a video on the Pythagorean Theorem but checks off that she worked on English, I make a note to check on that with the student the next time I see them. After students turn these in, I check off what behavior scale number I observed them to be; then I leave a little note, a sticker, etc. I record both my score and the student’s score in my daily charting (I’ll share this tip in another post). 

This has given me extremely useful data. Is a student rating themselves very high or very low and that’s different from what I’m observing? Is a student having an exceptionally bad day? In many cases, students have written notes to me on the exit ticket about how they are feeling, that they need additional help, that they don’t feel safe, that they are sorry they didn’t do a lot of work that day for xyz reasons. Because they know I read these every day, they know what they write on them will be seen and taken seriously; they will be heard.

Do you use exit tickets in your classroom? What has worked well (or not so well)? If you don’t currently use them, consider giving them a try. What information would be most useful for you to get from your students? What feedback would be most beneficial to them? Use these as your guiding questions and you will end up with the exit ticket that is right for you!

A New H.O.P.E.

Melissa1 Comment

Hello! I haven’t posted in quite a while because I felt I needed to rethink my site’s mission. I thought about what I love the most–being a mom and being a teacher–and how I could incorporate both of those into my message about mental health. So, welcome back to H.O.P.E. with Melissa:

Honest

Odyssey of a 

Parent and

Educator

When I think about what I want to share, my main goals are to be transparent in my family’s experiences with mental health, as well as offer ideas to others that I use in my classroom and at home that have been helpful in some way with this adventure we call life. 

This school year I started a new teaching position at a psychiatric hospital and I. Love. It. I have up to 36 students each day coming from up to just as many different schools. When they enter my classroom for the first time, all I know about them is their name and age. Diagnoses can include depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. I’ve had students with intellectual disabilities and others who are taking advanced placement and college-level courses. They can be in kindergarten or seniors in high school.

I feel I’m pretty good at flying by the seat of my pants; this may sound like I just make things up as I go but I really just have Plan A, and Plan B, and Plan C, and Plan D ready to go, with a sprinkle of “just in case” also lined up. Because this is how my brain works, this job is a really good fit for me. I’ve developed some strategies that may be useful for other educators or parents to try, and I’m excited to share them with you.

I’m finding my own mental health to be, actually, the best it’s been in probably as long as I can remember. I’m genuinely happy to get out of bed in the morning. I didn’t know you could spend Sundays with no anxiety about the upcoming week. I want to do lots of stuff, not just take naps (although I still enjoy a good afternoon snooze when I can sneak one in). 

I know I haven’t been taking care of my physical health as much as I should. I need to make better food and exercise choices. My headaches and migraines have been especially bad lately which makes it really hard to want to cook a meal and hop on the treadmill when I get home when we can just grab a pizza and watch tv. I need to find some ways to motivate myself to make the changes I know I need to make. I can do anything but not everything; I just need to move the healthier stuff up in my priorities list.

I’m pretty much addicted to Schitt’s Creek.

So welcome back to Hope with Melissa, or just welcome to the page! I hope you’ll stick around and I’ll try my best to get new content up at least once a week!