A couple months ago I had the
opportunity of coming across a great behavior management strategy. Like all
teachers I had a few in my classroom that could cause quite a stir when given
the chance. The original post can be found here: 2X10 Strategy
The 2X10 strategy is an easy one. The main thing is you talk to the "hard to reach", "challenging behavior" student in your class for two minutes over a period of 10 days. Sounds easy enough right? That's what I thought........
So, immediately the next day,
arrive at school, get my stuff together, bell rings, in comes the kiddos. In
the morning, I like to have them working on their F.R.O.G. binders, morning
work, or finishing up anything that they didn't get done the previous day. This
was my chance to start my 2X10 strategy!
At first it was unsuccessful. I
felt like I was drowning trying to pull topics to talk to these students about.
It was also a struggle to get them to talk to me using more than just two
words. I was wracking my brain to come up with a better way.....
So, I decided to extend the two
minute time frame. I must point out that in the original post I read it said
that if the conversation lasts for longer than two minutes to keep it going.
Not to just say, "Well, your two minutes are up. Good talk, we will do
this again tomorrow." Trust me, the first couple of days you will be lucky
to make it to two minutes.
I would talk to these students
in the morning for a little bit, at center time, walking to lunch, at recess
(if it was indoor recess), and before they left for the day. Over time I
started to notice a change in their behavior for the BETTER! It was amazing. I
then thought I was competent to not use the strategy anymore. What a BIG
mistake. As soon as I took it away, they went back to step 1.
I only wish I would have read
the article earlier in the year. Another thing I would have done differently
would be to include all the teachers that saw my students in the strategy. For
example, the special teachers, Title teachers, and etc. It might even be a
great idea to include the Principal. I'm sure the students who usually cause a
little bit of trouble would love having a positive conversation with the
Principal.
If you decide to give this
strategy a try, let me know how it turns out. Also if you happen to come across
the article, feel free to leave the link in a comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment