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Katey Klein
About Me
- Katey Klein
- In 4th grade I won a "When I Grow Up" speech contest. I wrote about wanting to be a teacher someday. Teaching has been a dream of mine since I was very young and I feel so honored to finally be living out this dream. I am currently in my third year of teaching 1st grade in Michigan. I have never done something so challenging that requires such a great amount of dedication. I have learned how important it is to constantly strive to be better than I was the day before by continuing to educate myself about this field. I hope that blogging provides and outlet to learn from other educators who are equally as passionate about their sudents' success!
Does your school have a counselor? That was where our elementary students were sent if they needed a moment to cool down. The counselor had games and bean bag chairs so it was a very relaxing environment. She was amazing at getting kids to cool down and open up about what caused the behavior that sent them there. Would your school's counselor do something like that?
ReplyDeleteAlso, my school has an academic as well as behavioral incentive program. They are two separate things, which sometimes confuses the kids, but it works very well. Students who make honor roll are inducted into a "club" called Renaissance. They get special seating at pep rallys, free ice cream and a "club" t-shirt. For behavior, students who follow the school rules (we have a monitoring system similar to demerits) will receive an award every 4.5 weeks. To tempt them to continue to perform, we will do something smaller every two weeks for the students who still qualify. Rewards include free time outside (it's a big deal for middle school students who do not get recess anymore), free hot dog served by the principal, free ice cream, attendance to a movie during class time, admittance to a school dance, etc. Some prizes motivate students more than others, but we also recognize them by putting a color coded trophy on their locker. Each 4.5 weeks is a different color; the students love to see their name written on all of the colors and displayed on their locker for their peers to acknowledge their acheivements.
I hope this helps. Good luck!