Classroom Management Linky Party ~ UPDATED!!!!!!

One of my favorite blogs, Miss Kindergarten, is having a Linky Party! I love them. I get so much great information from teachers that link up. Now that I have a blog, I feel cool enough to join in the fun!

I have been teaching for 8 years now, going on my 9th. (Wow. I feel O.L.D.) Classroom management has typically been an issue of mine that I needed to work on, until I found the Clip Chart on ProTeacher. OMG. I started off my year in my K-2 Self Contained classroom using the typical red, green, yellow system. I found it wasn't working well with my kids, so over my maternity leave I found the Clip Chart on ProTeacher and decided it NEEDED TO BE.

My chart is formatted like this:

Outstanding
Great Job
Good Day
Ready To Learn
Think About It 
Teachers Choice 
Parent Contact/Principal's Office 

My students always start the day with their clips on green. I use plastic, magnetic bag clips from the dollar store and I write their names on them in Sharpie. This year I think I'm going to use clothespins. When the students make good choices, they move their clip up the chart. If they make bad choices, their clip moves down. They have to move the clip themselves, which is emotionally very difficult for them. If they refuse to move it and a teacher has to do it, it goes down TWO spots (dun, dun, dunnnn). This usually gets them to move it. I try to enforce that being on Think About It is not a bad thing, but they really have a hard time with that. 

Next year, I am going to spend a LOT more time explaining what makes a clip move up and what makes a clip move down. Like I said, I still need to work on classroom management.  I love this system though, because it has worked magically with my kids. They see that their good behavior is rewarded and there is a consequence for bad behavior. I am also starting a Hall of Fame. When the kids get to Outstanding, I will give them a sparkly sticker for their clip and they will be able to add their name to the Behavior Hall of Fame. I made a cute sign for it on my work laptop so I can't share it at this exact moment, but I think it's on my USB drive. I'll share it when I find it!!

**UPDATE: HERE is my my parent communication sheet. I based it off of one I found at Mrs. Smith's Classroom website.  The star gets colored the color the kids landed on the clip chart that day. I added a space for teacher comments, as their behaviors require explanation at times. This is also a good system for me to document their behaviors and keep track of improvements or backsliding in behavior. I keep them in their student folders at the end of each month. The parents LOVE them and they love that they can quickly glance at their child's behavior sheet and see how they did that day.