Behavior chart
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Anonymous
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My son's teacher uses this and he tells me that the teacher is constantly having kids move their clips down the chart. And for the most minor things that you wouldn't associate with bad behavior. I asked him if he has to move his down frequently because I haven't heard anything bad from the teacher and he said he doesn't, but he's had to a few times. He told me of three occasions and only one of them seemed like a legitimate reason to be reminded of class rules. He was talking to his neighbor when he should have been sitting quietly.
He said the same kids are moving their clips every day, and that some days, almost everyone has to move the clips down the chart. He describes the teacher and the classroom environment in such a negative and depressing way. He also claims that the teacher is mean. I don't know what to tell him other than to make sure he's aware of what's expected of him in class and to do his best. I also told him that I'm not hearing anything bad from the teacher, so he must be doing alright, but he hates going to school because of the "mean" teacher. The worst part is that he seems to think that she moves clips just for things that are minor annoyances to her. They didn't have this behavior chart at his old school. I'm hoping his teacher next year will NOT have this approach to classroom management. I guess I'm venting, but also wondering if many other elementary schools are using this as a method of classroom management. It seems like it's very distracting to my son because he's so focused on that stupid chart! |
Anonymous
| Teacher here. I don't use it. I can't think of any who do use one. |
Anonymous
| Google positive re-enforcement. This is not it. |
Anonymous
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Kindergarten or first?
Yes, those stupid charts are designed to suck the souls out of boys and do nothing but make them hate school or think they are bad at school. |
Anonymous
| Check the school's website to see if they advertise as being a PBIS school. This is a positive behavior program. If so, what the teacher is doing flies in the face of that. |
Anonymous
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My DS's K teacher uses a green-yellow-red clip system, and my DS is one of the group of boys who moves his clip to yellow most days and to red occasionally. Sometimes it is most or all of the class, sometimes just the group of boys. The reasons don't seem arbitrary, when DS moves his clip it's for a good reason (usually talking during quiet time or touching/playing with another student during class time).
With a young 5 year old and a full day of K, DS is not a model of behavior and the clips give him a visual reminder of when his behavior is getting off track. I don't think it's wrong to remind the more immature children that behavior is important. My SIL tells me that her DS is a perfectly-behaved student who gets stressed by bad behavior from others, more like your DS. Learning to tolerate or ignore other's behavior or misbehavior is another form of maturity. |
Anonymous
+1 My June-birthday boy had a terrible time in K-1st with those charts. And then my DD would report most days on which "bad boy" in her class was always on red. Hate them. |
Anonymous
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My kid's new/young teacher in K used a custom one for my son that came home every day, because she thought it would incentivize good behavior. We agreed at first, even though we didn't think it would work - we wanted to allow her to use her methods. The chart was usually mostly yellow, and most days when asked, my kid couldn't even remember why it was.
We could tell that it was stressing him out because it was reinforcing to him that "I'm no good at school" so one night my DH tore it up and we said "no more charts". My son freaked out because he thought now we were going to get in trouble for damaging the sacred chart. Unless you know your kid is reward motivated and is already pretty compliant and just has the occasional lapse, these things are disasters. Just say no. |
Anonymous
Fourth!!!! My son doesn't even get in trouble, but he hates seeing his friends in trouble every day and tells me how mean the teacher is. (Op) |
Anonymous
My oldest, who eventually turned into a wondeffully behaved child that teachers love, really struggled with the stoplight chart in kindergarten. His first year teacher started it the second day of school, and from day three on he was sometimes on yellow but usually red. Some infractions were noteworthy, but most of them were not. About six weeks into almost constant reds, he came home from school and said he didn't like himself anymore since he started kindergarten 
Thankfully first grade had an experienced teacher who didn't use those things. His behavior was night and day in her class and has been rrally great ever since. |
Anonymous
Maybe his friends shouldn't misbehave. |
Anonymous
Teacher and parent here. I HATE the chart. I don't know any parent who likes it, or any good teacher who uses it. It's mostly a crutch of new teachers or bad teachers. In Fairfax, it is not supposed to be used (it directly conflicts with their behavior management programs), but in some schools with absentee admins it is widespread. In our school almost all the teachers use it - the good ones sometimes have it but then alter it so that it is less harmful, or just let it sit there and ignore it. Our principal is not great, and the teachers in the school actually think the chart is a requirement of the county. |
Anonymous
They don't, which is why the chart is useless. |
Anonymous
Clearly they do, or they wouldn't be racking up the demerits. |
Anonymous
Ok, lazy teacher with poor classroom management skills who uses clip chart, you're right. |