Keeping My Kids Accountable: The Change Process
Dear Readers, "I. need. you. to. make. a. change." are the six words I use as a parent and teacher to hold my kids accountable for negative behaviors at home and at school. It took me many years to get here, but here's my story of how I verbally teach my kids the process of correcting a behavior that negatively affects our team or family. For the first half of my teaching career (2006-2010), I had been taught to use behavior charts and incentives to manage behavior or encourage desired behavior. However, I was either defeated by BIG behaviors in my room by the end of the year and/or exhausted by the greediness of my students who just wanted me to give them more and more and more... to do less. The sixth year of teaching I was trained in PBIS and introduced to "flipping my chart" to explicitly focus on a few positive expectations and give attention to the kids who were following the rules. Again, I would constantly reward them for behaving with bucks an
