If there is one thing that seems consistent across elementary classrooms everywhere, it is the pervasive use of reward systems. How do you plan to use them? If not at all, why not? If some, how? If you plan to use them a lot, what is your evidence for why that is the best plan?

In just about every classroom room that I have been in there has been some sort of reward system put into place for students. The things with rewards systems are that you have to be consistent and as the teacher you have to believe that they work. I know that I pretty bad at enforcing the reward system personally and that I typically forget to add tallies or provide tickets for students. I don’t know if I would use a reward system if anything I would use a class reward system and we would do something together after a certain number of tallies were meant. I see the benefits in a reward system and how it provides the students a physical reminder of how they are doing and encourages them to keep up that behavior in the classroom. I have seen it become goals for students initially but the newness of it eventually wears off and it doesn’t become exciting anymore.

    What do you think of Gus' (Kovalik's) idea of a set of powerful vocabulary like the LifeSkills? Do you think you will use something like that in your classroom? Why or why not?

I think the ideas of LifeSkills is a great idea and so easy to incorporate in the classroom. There is such a wide range of topics that can be discussed such as growth mindsets, how to deal with problems, and traits such as courage. In the classroom I feel like LifeSkills can be talked about and demonstrated in many different ways such as video clips, discussions, acting out, and through books. I have seen this this seen in the classroom during sessions with the school counselor where the students watch videos about problems in school and they talk about how they might approach the issue in a different way. Also, in the classroom that I’m in they do mindset Mondays where they watch videos and read books then they discuss about the topic with a question.

 

The class rules to be very teacher driven and seems like they were made for the teacher to make their life easier in the classroom instead of the students. Essentially the rules were be quiet, listen, and make sure that your teacher is happy in the classroom, but what about the students? This list seems like it was obviously made by the teacher with no student input on the rules of the classroom. Although the use of images seems like it might be a fun way to personalize the rules, maybe including bit emojis and include student’s too as a way to make feel more relevant to the class.

These set of rules seems to be student centered and get them to think of their behaviors in the classroom. What I liked about this poster was that the students signed the bottom of it, so it became a pledge that they will keep. This seems like it would be a great way to end the activity where students help create the class rules. Even though there weren’t very many rules on the poster they seemed to cover such a wide number of situations.

Having the students become part of the process when creating the rules, I feel like they would come up with similar list like the second example. They would probably come up with rules that they would want other students to follow like work quietly, respect property, and make sure to always try your best in the classroom. They might need some more guiding than what we had as college students. The students would work in groups and they would probably have sections like we did that might include behavior, safety in the classroom, expectations for work and group work would all be subjects that would be discussed. An important part of this process is getting the list down, so that it is manageable and students can remember it with ease. As a group the students will decide what is important for them to include this way the list won’t be some number 40 and would be next to impossible to incorporate in the classroom.