First off- I teach in a way that my students can handle. I have a predictable schedule, first work then break. (All of my students require frequent breaks in their IEPs and material in small chunks) That being said, I do 1/2 hour chunks. Yes it is a huge challenge for me to get my lessons done in time, but it helps our overall behavior for the day. Early in the year we set some classroom ground rules... pretty much the same as any room except in my room you are allowed to not raise your hand. (I only have 7 kids). On the other hand, no yelling at me and hands to yourself are two huge issues we have and thus the stoplight. In my room we made endless charts of what are "green" behaviors and "red" behaviors. For example, green is doing your work, red on the other hand refusing to do your work. Yellow is your warning. If you are on green at the end of the lesson, you have earned your 5 minute break!
Everyone starts on green. I have picture icons for each kid since some of my kids can't recognize names in print yet. If I have to give you a warning I move you to yellow. This really wasn't enough of a consequence for some of my kids as I learned when they said "Yellow doesn't matter", so I upped the ante and if you get a yellow, you can't use the computers on our next class break. If I have to talk to you again, you move to red. Red means an immediate time out. Normally its because by this time the student is distracting the rest of the class from learning or really just needs a little quiet time to cool off. We have a seat in our room which is designated for the time out spot. Most of my kids go there willingly, and if they don't, I don't fight them. They know they have a time out and the sooner they do it, the sooner they get break back. If you go on red, you lost your next break. No buts about it. That's the hardest part for me. I am a wicked softie and I tend to always give break back. I have to stop doing that!
Time out really isn't a punishment, but a way to teach my kids to walk away before you get too mad. Over at time out, we fill out a "red alert" page. This goes with a unit we did on anger management. (I'll post a picture of the paper soon). On the page you identify how you are feeling, and circle icons of why you are on red. There are "calm down" strategies. When the kids are done they raise their hand and say "i'm ready to talk now". I then go spend a few minutes and we discuss what happened in a calm manner. If they aren't calm, I give more space and wait until they're ready. After each break time, we reset everyone to green and we start again.
The system isn't perfect, but its a good work in progress. I have some updates coming soon about how I keep parents in the loop about their child's behavior during the day. Keep posted!
