Preparing for the New School Year: Visual Positive Behavior Plans

This year, I will be teaching at two schools instead of three.  I was also told that I will have two classrooms!  With everyone asking me how excited I am, I admit I'm nervous.  I was used to teaching from a cart, plus I am sharing the room with another art teacher.

So this week was setting up school #1, my home base school.  I share the room with two music teachers (who travel by cart during the day).  With my home base school also being the only school that takes on summer school classes, the boxes that are ordered every year are sent to my room first before being dispersed.  Basically, my room looks like this right now:

I'm pretty used to it and I learned to work around it!  Within a week, these boxes will be dispersed and the room will be ready for my creative thinkers.

One of the many activities I accomplished during the summer was researching all the sites I pinned on Pinterest.  Before I unpacked my classroom, I reviewed some ideas I found and utilized them in this year's room.

Our school also will be implementing a theme this year, which you may have heard of:  How full is your bucket?  While I'm still stewing on some ideas about lessons to share, I wanted to increase my visuals on positive behavior and responsibility in the art room.  Here are some signs I created (or re-created thanks to the many wonders of Pinterest and sharing among art teachers):

Whoever invented this...thank you!  It's above my desk where all my students can see it!

Our school uses P.B.I.S. (positive behavior intervention system) throughout entire school, even in the specials classes and lunchroom.  We use a variety of "cool tools" for the students to remember, plus we have the students held accountable for their actions the entire day with the use of a check system.  Teachers have clip boards with the class list, and a new page every week.  If a student receives one check for misbehavior, it's a warning.  Two checks, half their recess.  Three checks, all their recess.  Four checks and it's a detention.  This system worked really well last year since it was used for the student's entire day.

Thank you to the teacher who put this on their own wall!  I changed the wording to match our school setting, but the display is beautiful!  Here are the close-ups of the messages next to the words:

The fabric is so bright, the students can't help but look at it every time they walk in!

Enough said!  This hangs right above the sink.  No excuses!!!

Here's my new and improved coloring sheet stack, with plain drawing paper on the bottom (for those who finish early, they have the choice of  books, drawing, or coloring sheets related to art).

My biggest pet peeve is when I allow the students to take a coloring sheet...and they take a stack.  Or, when it's clean up time, they sneak to the box and take some under the "no" sign.  Grrrr!!!!!  Here's the scenario I had last year with this:

Students (sneaks a coloring sheet during clean up when the "no" sign is up)

Teacher:  What are you doing?

Student: Taking a coloring sheet.

Teacher: And what does the sign say?

Student: No means no.

Teacher: So what does that mean?

Student (puts the coloring sheet back)

This happened at least once a week.  Some classes had to have coloring sheets taken away because they were distracting them from their project...AND they would sneak a stack out of the room!  In the case of ESL students, they're learning by watching others, and when the others ignore the rules, it makes it harder for the ESL students to know what's right and wrong.

Enough of my grumpy behavior!  WIth my new set up, I can monitor the sheets much easier on my new"Creation Station" cart (seen in the next post)!