Hello There!

We have been trying a new behavior plan in our class for the last few weeks.  I meant to write about it a long time ago, but I kept forgetting.  Some of you are already familiar with how our plan works, but here is the rundown for those of you who haven’t heard about it yet.

We came up with some basic classroom rules.  We posted them in our classroom and all of the students signed them.  The first time a student breaks a rule they are given a warning.  The next time they break a rule they are given a “time-out”.  This means they are sent to their desk or to sit right outside our classroom for a few minutes.  The third time, they are given a letter to bring home to be signed by a parent or guardian.  This is the letter that is sent home:

Dear Parent,

________________________________ broke the following classroom rules on ___________________.

1. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____ We will respect each other by being kind and not bullying.  We will not touch our classmates or their things without permission.
2. _____ We will respect our teachers by following directions the first time and not arguing or talking back.
3. _____ We will respect our environment by cleaning up after ourselves and putting everything in its proper place.
4. _____ We will respect each other’s right to learn by raising our hands for permission to speak and by using quiet voices in the classroom.

It is very important that the students follow our classroom rules in order to maintain a positive learning environment.  By choosing not to follow the rules, your child interfered with the rights of others to learn and feel safe in our classroom.  Please acknowledge that you received this letter by signing below and returning it to school tomorrow.

Thank you for your support,

Ms. Kirsten

Parent Signature: ____________________________________________________________________________

The challenge has come in getting these letters to come back to school.  Many students receive them, but never bring them home.  I will try to be more consistent in e-mailing you when a letter is handed out, so that you can follow up with your children.

Another thing that we started doing this week is having incentive activities on Fridays.  On Monday, I gave the students some very clear and realistic expectations for what work they needed to get done during the week in order to participate in the Friday activity.  We talked about it throughout the week and the students were given many reminders.  Our activity for today was making and eating apple pie!  The students who were allowed to participate had a great time.  However, there were several students who were unable to participate.  The goal of these incentive activities is not to make students feel bad, but to increase productivity in our classroom.  Many students are struggling to reach their potential and this is meant to give them that extra motivation to get their work done.  We will continue to have work expectations during the week and incentive activities every Friday.  I hope that the entire class will be able to participate in the activity next Friday!

A quick reminder that the Veteran’s Day projects are due on Tuesday!

Thanks for all you do!  You have amazing children!  Please contact me with any questions or concerns at my school e-mail address:  kgonzales@mariamontessoriacademy.org.

Kirsten