Frustration-Behaviour Management and the joy of Pinterest

What a day!
Today was a challenging day but on the positive side there are always those children that you can rely on to bring a smile to your face. Whether it is being obviously proud of their swimming achievements or coming back from a Techsperx meeting to so confidently share with the whole class what they learnt. Stepping them through the process step by step.
We are in Week 4 now and it has been a challenging start to the year. I need to remind myself that the first two weeks weren't full weeks and Rome wasn't built in a day, because it feels like the weeks are rolling by and what have we actually achieved? Looking back we have done a lot but I guess I would have liked to have been further ahead...Establishing expectations does take time and the more you put into it at the start the more I will get out of it as the year goes by.

Before coming home I set up my class jigsaw puzzle where the class have to work well together to gain a puzzle piece with the aim being to complete the puzzle having collected all the pieces. To make this I found a picture which resembled people working together as a team and have cut it up into jigsaw pieces. Hopefully the puzzle pieces themselves will reiterate the message of working as a team (class).

So coming home I have turned to Pinterest for help and more ideas...
What other great strategies are out there to use?

I found hellomrssykes.blogspot.co.nz which has some great ideas.
I like her idea of the 'Secret Star.'  She uses this when moving around the school (another area some of my kids are struggling with). She tells her class that she is going to be looking at how well her secret star makes it to their destination without talking. She picks a name out of her secret star container but doesn't tell the kids who it is. The idea being that they will all walk quietly as they don't know if it is them. If the secret star is not quiet then she just tells them that her secret star did not make it this time without telling everyone who it was keeping them on their toes. She gave the kids a starburst when they got back to class. This is something I will have to look at. What kind of reward will I substitute it with instead of lollies? Maybe computer time as this is a popular choice in the class...

I also found this cute little song to the rhythm of 'Do Your Ears Hang Low.' To promote walking sensibly to the hall.

Are you ready for the hall?

Are you standing straight and tall?

Are your hands behind your back?

Are you leaving any gaps?

Are you quiet as can be?

Are you looking straight at me?

Now, let's go quietly.

She also had a cute idea at handwriting time. She has a 'Printing Princess' and a 'Handwriting Hero.' She picks one boy (the hero) and one girl (the princess) to acknowledge for their fantastic handwriting effort and displays this on the special wall. How could I alter this?? Perhaps take a photo of their work and post it on our class blog??

The other idea I liked was the Magic Necklace. When she is busy working with groups she tells her class that she is looking for a friend to earn the magic necklace for their hard work. She called it the magic necklace because it was made from solar beads and changed colour in the sun. I like this idea and I remember having a dress up crown in my class last year when we were looking at fairytales. The kids loved wearing the crown throughout the day and this is something I could capitalise on.

To stop calling out I saw a cool video (just below) where the kids blow the answer into their hand when the teacher says release they all call it out together.
As a attention grabber saying 'Class' and the kids saying 'Yes' and vary the rhythm to it.
I like the gestures that they use like when they share their ideas the teacher claps twice and raises her hands in the air and says 'teach'. Then the kids clap back and raise their hands in the air to say 'Ok'. I think this clap signal might be a good idea for those in my class that struggle with instructions. The clap and movement might help them follow along and give them a chance to make some noise.




Something else I have seen before is brownie points and I would like to try this next term as I already have my behaviour ladder with the kids names on pegs to move up and down signally where their behaviour is, as well as starting the jigsaw. We also have earlybirds for the individuals who get on with their work quickly and I think that is probably enough for now.
But I would like to try the brownie points with the reward being making some brownie when the cooking tray is fill of brownie.

I also wonder about using music more in my class. The type that they aren't all going to get up and dance too in the middle of maths, or reading or writing but something that can just be played calmly in the background. Then the music can be the volume guide. If the kids can't hear the music then they know they need to be quieter.

This (below) is a powerful video about working together and I wonder how I could use this with my class. I could start with a voicethread comment from each child on what the video meant to them. But it would be good to take it even further and get them to realise they are the ones that control their behaviour and hopefully ignite that intrinsic motivation to be the best that they can be.

Personality types

I have done a lot of personality tests myself over the years at high school and since high school. But attending the International Conference On Thinking 2013 in Wellington at the beginning of the year reminded me of these tests and got me thinking of how these could be used in the classroom.
I knew that going into 2013 I had two particular boys that did not get on, in fact they have used very strong words, expressing how they feel about each other.
This got me thinking...
Is it that they are purposely going out of their way to annoy each other or is there a way to show them that sometimes that don't mean to annoy, it is just who they are? That message of all being different but because of this we are special and unique.
David Koutsoukis was a fantastic presenter at the conference and spoke about these different personality types.
Firstly he spoke about having 'Kefi'- a zest for life and that this will radiate out infecting those around you with a positive outlook. He had great messages about using the soft calm voice (which we all know gets the best results but sometimes I know I can be pushed past the soft calm voice) and the power of the pause. Don't just default as the teacher (or a parent) to outright 'No' as the reply to questions take the time to pause and make a more  thought out response to children's requests.
Sitting at a table with some other ladies I really liked the saying one of them shared. "Catch children in the art of being good." It is something I am always trying to do, acknowledging the positive behaviour but I thought is was a nice quote to remind you of that when kids haven't had such a great day.

But the majority of David's talk was about how we all walk to a different tune and see the world through different coloured glasses. He gave us four cards; a blue one with a triangle for the analysers, a red heart for the carer's, a yellow circle for the players (the spontaneous ones) a a green square for the safekeepers.
He asked us to read the cards which gave examples of what these personalities are comfortable with and what they don't like as well the habits that are often noticed by others but sub conscious to the person. We had to stack the cards in order with the least like us at the bottom through to the most like us being on the top. We then moved to a corner of the room to see who else was like us. He spoke about how one personality would frustrate another eg: the players who are impulsive might frustrate the safekeepers who are organised and need to have a plan and dislike surprises or risks.
SIDE NOTE-David mentioned that most teachers fall into the Safekeeper or Carer personality.

So in the second week back at school I decided I would like to get my class to value the differences in people through this personality game.
We first of all talked about how we are lucky because there is only one of us. No one is exactly like us we are unique and this is also what makes us special.
I spoke about the cards and I explained what traits you might find in each personality type and then gave the kids a chance to have a look at the cards for themselves and decide which one resonated with them. I was surprised to be honest at how well they managed this. I then asked them to get into certain corners of the room to show who were our carer's, safekeepers, analysers and players.
SIDE NOTE-Interestingly I had a lot of carer's and players in my class this year.
I then modelled what David did sparking discussion around how some personality types could potentially frustrate or annoy others.
We had a great discussion around it and then I posed the question to the class. What do you think was the purpose of doing this exercise? Why do you think I wanted us to find out more about our personalities?
The responses were very mature I thought coming from 7&8-year-olds and a I was very impressed.
It was also interesting at the end one of the girls in the class put her hand up and asked. "What personality are you Mrs Head?" I told the class that I had done this in Wellington and that I was a yellow but that I was a stronger (player-yellow) when I was younger and have become more of the green Safekeeper as I have got older. A few then sparked up and said yeah I think I was ....and now I am more ....
Below is a photo of what I recorded from these discussions.

NEXT STEPS:
Come Monday I would like to have a post on our class blog about our personalities including the photo above. But I would also like to get some video footage of kids talking about their own personality. Why did they place themselves in that personality type? How has it changed their thinking about people in their class that they may not have got on with in the past? What will they do differently next time someone in the class annoys them? Do you think it is a good or bad thing that we all have different personalities and why? Do you think your personality has changed at all and if so why do you think it might have changed?

I will also set up a classroom display with a copy of the cards, who falls into which type with a brief description of that personality and our thoughts around the purpose of the activity. Hopefully when kids become frustrated they may with practice look to our personality wall and see that they are not like me they think differently and may not have realised they upset me. This can become something the kids refer to throughout the year and it maybe that in time they set goals from it to become more of another type. eg: If they are too much of a player and need to have some order/organisation in their lives.