Reddit mentions of Classwide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports: A Guide to Proactive Classroom Management (The Guilford Practical Intervention in the Schools Series)

Its not about a teacher being taken seriously. Its not about bribing. Its about routines, consistency, expectations (rules), and consequences (both negative and positive).



You can hit a restart button. Many people recommend Harry Wong. I know PBIS is a 4 letter word in education but in a classroom it works well if you do it with fidelity. The key is fidelity and consistency. You need a solid Tier 1 plan in the classroom and then you can start working on those Tier 2 plans. But first you need a solid Tier 1.



So check out Classwide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports: A Guide to Proactive Classroom Management. The key is proactive and not reactive. If you're putting out fires all day, you're not actually accomplishing anything.



The first step is expectations or rules. They need to be basic. There needs to be no more than 5. Anymore than that and they just become white noise. The rules I use in my class are

Be caring: Keep your hands, feet, and other objects to yourself

Have a Good Day: Smile, have fun, and be happy

Be a good citizen: Listen to your teachers and do what they say quickly

Respect others: Do not bother or hurt others

Be responsible: Raise your hand and wait for permission to speak; no interrupting

There are 5. They cover everything a kid could do wrong in a classroom. I have them on a poster in the front of the classroom.



You need a solid Tier 1. For this age level I would go with a simple token economy. I do a star chart. The students earn two stars a day and if they get 80% of their stars during the week they get treasure chest. Works great. We go over rules before lunch when I give out the first star and at the end of the day when I give out the second star. That way the students are frequently reminded of the rules. You can even go over the rules in the morning as part of your morning routine.



The first is establishing routines. How do you want them to come into the classroom? How do you want them to do each task in the room? How do you want them to walk in the halls? How do you want them to walk to lunch? How do you want them to raise their hands? How do you want to quiet the class? Etc. Etc. You need to explicitly teach those routines. If they are not doing the routines correctly at first they need to practice again. Until they understand those routines. They need to have those routines daily. Yeah it sounds robotic and they don't have to do it with 100%. You're looking for 80%. You don't yell at them. You have to praise them for doing the routines or you will lose them.



Talking about losing kids. For the first 3 weeks, all kids needs to earn all their stars. They need to learn that stars equal fun and fabulous prizes. If they don't learn that, its not worth working for. And there has to be some give and take. Yeah Johnny yells out in class but use that time at stars to talk to him. (Johnny you did great work this morning but we really need to work on that yelling out, can we do that this afternoon?) If he decreases the yelling out in the afternoon, give it to him. Small improvements are still improvements.



Behavior management plans take work. However, if you do it with fidelity and consistency it will help. You may have to tweak it along the way but start out with something solid.