I wanted to get everyone's feedback on this idea.

I read Ron Blake's Essential 55 last year, and one of his ideas that really stuck with me is that your first contact with every parent should be positive. If you call a parent of a challenging student to talk about bad stuff first, commonly the response will be "well, yeah, I know he's hard to deal with, deal with it." If you call and talk about how good the kid is (don't have to lie, just find the one or two positive things) then later call and talk about the challenging behavior, you're going to get a more positive response, because your first contact was positive.

We talk a lot at the later levels of the Scoreboard like Bullseye and Agreement Bridge of talking to kids about their behavior without punishment attached.

My question is, then, what is the reasoning before doing white (practice) cards for weeks before purple (recognition) cards? Why not do purple cards first, catching students as often as possible for following the rules they do follow, and then later saying "Chris, you know, you've been so amazing for the last couple of weeks about staying in your seat. But it seems to me like you're struggling a bit with talking without raising your hand, I'd like to help you practice with that."

Build the rapport first, then go in for turning around the problem behaviors. Thoughts?

WBT Intern 2011-2012

Intriguing thought! It'll be interesting to hear what the experts have to say about the idea.

Ir should work fine to do this. I do not use the cards in my 8th grade classroom. I use Rules Practice instead, which is really sort of a cardless card approach.

Building rapport first is a GREAT idea.

When I take a kid in the hallway for a conference instead of "have you lost your mind?!" my first words to any kid I take in the hall are "How can I help. I know this is not how you want to act in class. What is going wrong that I do not know about, and how can I help you get back on track?"

This delivered in a gentle voice has short circuited many a kid's negative expectations and often produced tears and an explanation that I did not expect. Honey not vinegar has a better effect on both you and the kid, and ultimately your rapport with them, and their effect on the class.

Last year I also used a sort of cardless card approach, doing both rules practice and letters that went home praising the student. I'm going to implement the cards this year just because both of my students are very visual learners with lower IQs, so I want it to be as clear as possible.

Well, I'll go ahead and implement it and report back!

WBT Intern 2011-2012

So, are you talking about using the practice cards without using the scoreboard first? I haven't had to go to practice cards because the scoreboard has done what I need. (I work with small groups all day.) Most of the classroom teachers that I work with didn't need to implement the practice cards before Halloween. I am interested to find out what your approach is, especially since you said "both of my students". I'm sure you have already explained this somewhere, but what do you teach?

Susan Floyd
WBT Intern
2011-12

Don't know about practice cards. I was so lucky my kids stuck with me and the scoreboard until July!!!! With one child indepedant, so keep your fingers crossed for this year.
Annette

dsudia...you bring up an interesting question. The theory is that you have been working with the students for the first few months of school at Level 1. After several months, as Susan said, some time near Halloween or possibly even Thanksgiving, you bring out Level 2. The reason we use the white card first is because you have been doing the positive talking to them the whole time in Level 1, and now it's time to buckle down a little harder.

I think that you can still be positive with the kids for the whole year because this level is not a punishment, it's just more practice. I can even tell them that they need to practice with a smile, because it's not punishment. This will take some training of the kids and parents because they are so used to getting in trouble for breaking rules. Not in our system!

It's so interesting how this plays out at the beginning of the year! I have a few students who are used to getting sent out of the classroom for every little sound they make...and believe me they love the negative attention! Until...it's a non-issue and all that they do is participate in scoreboard. I'm only on the second week of school but I can see how powerful the scoreboard will be with my students.




Heather Hansen
Wbt intern
2011/12

Hi Susan,

I teach a self-contained class for middle schoolers with Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities, and I am the Behavior Interventionist for my school. I currently only have two students who are in my classroom because of their disabilities, but I am the case manager for 5 students. As we identify students through our Behavior RTI program, I will also work with them on their behaviors, something I use Bullseye and Agreement Bridge for quite a lot.

Will try and attach it to my blog:)