The Colors of Behavior

Yesterday was my first full day in the classroom. My main goal yesterday was to observe the students and understand their daily routines. While working with the students, I began to learn more about them and their personalities. I also learned about their classroom management system. Their teacher has a painted yard stick with each of the students having there own clothes pin with their name on it.The students start off each day on green and move up and down according to their behavior throughout the day.  I noticed that this yard stick system is used school wide. Wherever the students go, the yard stick follows. It followed them to PE, lunch and the library. The yard stick system is similar to the Famous Traffic Light System. This clothespin system is widely used and varied depending on the class. I have even seen nautical themed systems. While many love this system, some teachers are not fans of the system like Fairy Dust Teaching. While I am no expert yet on classroom management, I feel as though the system should be catered toward the students. What may work great for one student, may not necessarily work well for another. Some think that this type of system is discouraging to some students and focuses more on punishment. My current practicum teacher said, "It's not the system, it's now you use it."