Red light / green light behavior charts in Kindergarten - common?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My children have always been on green and I have a big problem with the system. There are much better classroom management techniques than a system that shames children. Some teachers are just too lazy to use it. You will have a hard time finding anyone in the counseling department that thinks this is a good idea.

and you're an expert how?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They used it in our school. It worked and was not used to shame kids. Just a reminder about how to behave in the classroom. There are so many other things to worry about......

Whether or not it is is used to shame kids, it does. Anything that publicly compares and ranks kids will shame kids who do not come out on top. That is the nature of competition. Whether competition should be used in this context is another issue.

...same with those stupid charts that show where kids are on being able to write down the answers to fast facts fast enough. Real helpful to kids with fine motor delays.

Hey - my son has fine motor delays. You don't see me complaining. The only way to address it is through practice.

[Anonymous]

I have seen this discipline in action this year with my grandson. No matter what is said in tis page it has severe effects on the 5 year olds. My grandson was happy, excited to go to school and learn how to read. He loved all day preschool and was to eager. He was a polite, caring little boy who always thought about every ones feelings.
He has a hard time with red, yellow and green light and is always on yellow or red. But not for things you would associate with the system. Doing something at recess, marked away from green even though his teacher didn't witness the so called action, talking, laying down on carpet during story time. He was humiliated by the other kids everyday when he didn't get Green. They were telling their parents afterschool and would tell me the second they saw me. This w2ould bother my grandson every time. He was sad and upset everyday when I brought him home.
The teacher would not discipline for the same things for every child. It got to be so bad that she was watching him and writing every tiny infraction that normally would not even noticed and dropping him to yellow then red.
He started to hate going to school and doing either classwork or homework. He said he would raise his hand for help and after a long while he would speak up to get the help( I witnessed this his hand was up for 5 minutes, no acknowledgement of his being up nothing, but she looked at it 3 times. He then called her name and started to ask her for help and she demoted him to red. For talking, then even said she wasn't good because he didn't finish his work. PLEASE tell me how he was supposed to finish when he had a question that never got answered, couldn't get out of his seat to ask, followed the rules to get help and then was punished not once but twice for it.
So not all teachers are using this system correctly and it hurts the kids. This so called teacher even withheld his valentines this past week because he had yellow. Every other student got to take their valentine3s home along with the balloon one parent gave to every student. except THOSE THAT HAD YELLOW OR RED. they were left not feeling loved or special on Valentines because they got yellow. He was hurt, heart broken when he was so excited to give and get valentines. Stop this system since not all teachers are capable of seeing the affects it is having on this kids.
What ever happened to positive encouragement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have seen this discipline in action this year with my grandson. No matter what is said in tis page it has severe effects on the 5 year olds. My grandson was happy, excited to go to school and learn how to read. He loved all day preschool and was to eager. He was a polite, caring little boy who always thought about every ones feelings.
He has a hard time with red, yellow and green light and is always on yellow or red. But not for things you would associate with the system. Doing something at recess, marked away from green even though his teacher didn't witness the so called action, talking, laying down on carpet during story time. He was humiliated by the other kids everyday when he didn't get Green. They were telling their parents afterschool and would tell me the second they saw me. This w2ould bother my grandson every time. He was sad and upset everyday when I brought him home.
The teacher would not discipline for the same things for every child. It got to be so bad that she was watching him and writing every tiny infraction that normally would not even noticed and dropping him to yellow then red.
He started to hate going to school and doing either classwork or homework. He said he would raise his hand for help and after a long while he would speak up to get the help( I witnessed this his hand was up for 5 minutes, no acknowledgement of his being up nothing, but she looked at it 3 times. He then called her name and started to ask her for help and she demoted him to red. For talking, then even said she wasn't good because he didn't finish his work. PLEASE tell me how he was supposed to finish when he had a question that never got answered, couldn't get out of his seat to ask, followed the rules to get help and then was punished not once but twice for it.
So not all teachers are using this system correctly and it hurts the kids. This so called teacher even withheld his valentines this past week because he had yellow. Every other student got to take their valentine3s home along with the balloon one parent gave to every student. except THOSE THAT HAD YELLOW OR RED. they were left not feeling loved or special on Valentines because they got yellow. He was hurt, heart broken when he was so excited to give and get valentines. Stop this system since not all teachers are capable of seeing the affects it is having on this kids.
What ever happened to positive encouragement.

You should meet with the teacher. Does this happen every day?
She should have a list of rules/ behavioral expectations that the kids are explicitly told.

It will be difficult, but you need to use the correct language so she does not get defensive and stop listening.

I wanted to talk to you about Bobby
1. He used to love coming to school. Now he comes home upset, he is trying to figure out the rules but must be having some difficulty because he is consistently on yellow or red. Could you tell me what he is doing that takes him off of green?

2.When he does something wrong is there a warning? What language do you use?

3. Is there a chance to move back to green with improvement?

4. I know the goal of the system is good classroom behavior, but it doesn't seem to be working with Bobby. Do you have any suggestions based on your experience?

[Anonymous]

yes and they are moronic.

[Anonymous]

PP who wrote about the Valentine's day issue-You should report this to the principal or the district. Teachers should not be imposing that kind of punishment. It's unethical! I can't imagine what kind of person would do that to a five or six-year-old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP who wrote about the Valentine's day issue-You should report this to the principal or the district. Teachers should not be imposing that kind of punishment. It's unethical! I can't imagine what kind of person would do that to a five or six-year-old.

I agree.

Heads should be rolling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of schools have kids who can't speak English so they use colors

You are ridiculous PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP who wrote about the Valentine's day issue-You should report this to the principal or the district. Teachers should not be imposing that kind of punishment. It's unethical! I can't imagine what kind of person would do that to a five or six-year-old.

I agree. That is just cruel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of schools have kids who can't speak English so they use colors

You are ridiculous PP.

I'm still trying to figure out how colors would be helpful. What would it be instead, if everyone spoke English? Just text? for kindergartners?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My children have always been on green and I have a big problem with the system. There are much better classroom management techniques than a system that shames children. Some teachers are just too lazy to use it. You will have a hard time finding anyone in the counseling department that thinks this is a good idea.

and you're an expert how?

I don't know about the person who posted that, but I consider myself an expert, or close enough. 25 years teaching and a PhD. And I agree with exactly what they said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have seen this discipline in action this year with my grandson. No matter what is said in tis page it has severe effects on the 5 year olds. My grandson was happy, excited to go to school and learn how to read. He loved all day preschool and was to eager. He was a polite, caring little boy who always thought about every ones feelings.
He has a hard time with red, yellow and green light and is always on yellow or red. But not for things you would associate with the system. Doing something at recess, marked away from green even though his teacher didn't witness the so called action, talking, laying down on carpet during story time. He was humiliated by the other kids everyday when he didn't get Green. They were telling their parents afterschool and would tell me the second they saw me. This w2ould bother my grandson every time. He was sad and upset everyday when I brought him home.
The teacher would not discipline for the same things for every child. It got to be so bad that she was watching him and writing every tiny infraction that normally would not even noticed and dropping him to yellow then red.
He started to hate going to school and doing either classwork or homework. He said he would raise his hand for help and after a long while he would speak up to get the help( I witnessed this his hand was up for 5 minutes, no acknowledgement of his being up nothing, but she looked at it 3 times. He then called her name and started to ask her for help and she demoted him to red. For talking, then even said she wasn't good because he didn't finish his work. PLEASE tell me how he was supposed to finish when he had a question that never got answered, couldn't get out of his seat to ask, followed the rules to get help and then was punished not once but twice for it.
So not all teachers are using this system correctly and it hurts the kids. This so called teacher even withheld his valentines this past week because he had yellow. Every other student got to take their valentine3s home along with the balloon one parent gave to every student. except THOSE THAT HAD YELLOW OR RED. they were left not feeling loved or special on Valentines because they got yellow. He was hurt, heart broken when he was so excited to give and get valentines. Stop this system since not all teachers are capable of seeing the affects it is having on this kids.
What ever happened to positive encouragement.

What an awful awful teacher. I'd like to say that's rare, but I don't think it is that uncommon. Was this FCPS or ACPS? I know FCPS has some truly horrid teachers. Some great ones, too, but it's hard to be great when you're in a school full of teachers like the one above. There is actually peer pressure to be cruel to the kids, with the belief that if you aren't then you are "too soft." Plenty of people here calling kids "snowflakes" have similar feelings.

[Anonymous]

Behavior charts are so awful. Last year there was a kindergarten child in my child's class who was on red constantly. They also took away his recess nearly every day. The teacher told his parents he probably had adhd and needed medication. I volunteered in that classroom and can say that his behavior was not that disruptive - I am a teacher, and would not have had a huge problem with him. But this teacher just wanted everyone to sit still and be completely quiet all day - not a peep out of anyone, ever. It was so stressful and dismal in that room. Then over the summer the parents took the kid to some doctors and he was diagnosed with a medical condition that completely explained all his behaviors at school - not adhd, not autism, but a physical condition totally beyond his control. Can you imagine how bad it felt for him to be the "bad" kid on red all year, when he could not control his behavior? And in my professional opinion, it should have been obvious to the teacher, but also in my professional opinion, a significant number of teachers are complete morons who lack sufficient education and empathy to make the judgements they make every day that can affect kids for the rest of their lives.

It's time to get rid of clip charts and similarly stupid, non-research based methods of behavior management and start training teachers to better understand children. And there is a great system - Responsive Classroom - if only more teachers and schools would use it.

[Anonymous]

There is NOT peer pressure to be cruel to the kids. That's ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We left a preschool that was using this kind of system to shame the kids who misbehaved. We left for a host of other reasons too, but that was on my list of things I didn't like. Jump forward a couple of years and it turns out the elementary we've enrolled in uses this system. I found it very inappropriate for preschool, but maybe once the kids are a little older it can be effective? I don't know if DD's teacher is making everyone's status (green/red or what have you) visible for all. Can anyone share with me the experience they've had with this tool in the classroom and whether it was or was not a big deal?

Who are you to say it's inappropriate? It's a very effective tool. All the kids know who's badly behaved constantly. Shame is a good technique.