Positive Classroom Management

I love this topic. It is heavily related to the previous post about student engagement. If students are engaged, discipline problems are much less likely to pop up. Students often misbehave because they are bored or because they don't understand the lesson. In first grade, it is all classroom management all the time. Positive management is definitely my style. It is amazing how quickly students shape up when the good students start getting attention. Why not give attention to the good students and ignore the bad behavior? Of course I can't ignore all the bad behavior, but positivity helps. This week I tried something new called "mystery student". I told them that I would be picking mystery students throughout the day. If they did what they were supposed to do, the whole class would get a point. Points earn fun time for the students. It worked like a charm. As soon as I would mention that I picked a mystery student, they would all get super studious. It was a great week. Thanks for the idea, Dana!