Behavior Plans - Getting to Know Our Students

Hi friends!  It’s Stacy again from Mrs. Johnson’s First Grade.  I’m here today to post about a personal experience I'm having this year with student behavior.  Let’s face it....I think every year I wouldn't mind the class from the previous year even if I was so happy sending them off for summer vacation!  New classes definitely have challenges but this year is different for me.  I think more in a humbling way.

I started the year with a few students that struggled with their behavior which was also having an impact on them academically.  I decided to try a weekly behavior plan.  Yes it was a PAIN at first!!  Like I wasn't busy enough, right?  I sent it home every day and they would bring it back the next day.  Yes, it was an extra effort, but let me tell you how this humbled me as a teacher.

4 weeks into this plan, these students began to change.   I grew to really “know” these little ones.  One student’s father is out of the picture and his mom had brain surgery and is cared for full time by her mother.  Just by knowing this, it helped me adjust my teaching and he has blossomed so much that it brings tears to my eyes.

The second student also blossomed!  She started out very angry.  Well, it turns out she had her second surgery this past week to remove tumors.  She wasn't so lucky this second round and will need to start Chemo this week and won’t be able to return until January.  Breaks my heart!  She's six years old! 

As teachers, please get to know your students no matter the behavior.  They have lives outside the classrooms and it often follows them to the classroom.   They need us! 

I hope you will see the “good” in your students this year as I have!  

If you want a copy of the behavior plan I use, just CLICK HERE.  

Have a great week!!