Who Me? Discipline Problems?

[zesty_steig]

Today there were some good things today and some really NOT good things. Let's just say that I was stuck with both halves of the 6th grade class for TWO periods in a row and that from the start I made them write sentences -my first mistake was punishing them and the second was making them write far too many- and at the break I didn't let them

Comments

Re: teen appeal

[zesty_steig]

Thanks for the advice. These are great ideas. I've heard some of them before and have (tried) to do some of them already. At the start of the year we came up with "Classroom Expectations" but I never finished making a visual poster for reminders. I also promised that if they are good I'd reward them -but I never picked a proper reward system for them -like marbles in a jar, stickers on a poster (I have many stickers and can get poster paper from the store). I also never thought I'd have a problem with discipline.

With my 5th grade class, I only need to look dissapointed and perhaps pout a bit for them to get the message. I might threaten the boys with a seat change and then they whip into shape. Or, I threaten the boys with having a girl put next to them and then they look really scared (can't have that 'cuz of cooties!!). Sometimes I DO make a boy or two move seats in the 5th grade class. It's a relief to teach them after the 6th graders.

I'll spend some time tonight making a poster with all the kids' names, perhaps. Too bad I have no ruler. Is it ok to keep track of homework/participation grades (ie, I give a 5 if they DID the homework but am not sure what grade to give for no hw -a 1 I think-) on the wall? Then, maybe every two weeks the children who have come with all the hw and participated a certain number of times can get a treat (and then I keep a bag of sweeties in my desk in the teacher's room)?

Would that work? So far I've only been keeping track of which children did not do hw, listed under the date of my lesson in my book. I don't have all the hw assignments listed which doesn't help keep track of things.

My 5th graders, with the exception of one or two here and there all come with hw done. Almost always. I just automatically planned to give them all 5's for being such good students. I haven't really given much thought about grading them beyond that. Parents at parent teacher conferences said that their kids love me.