Student wears the necklace of clothespins
(Suggestion offered during seminar)

The Clothespin Clip Chart is a simple behavior management strategy. Every student has a clothespin with his name on it. The clothespins are clipped to a tall chart that is divided into seven sections. From the top down, the sections are labeled: Outstanding, Great Job, Good Day, Ready to Learn, Think About It, Teacher's Choice (as a consequence), Parent Contact.

At the beginning of the day, all of the clothespins are clipped to the Ready to Learn section. Then, during the day, students move their clothespins up or down the chart based upon their behavior. As I explain the technique during Interactive Discipline seminars, I share some of my own experience using it.

A student had his clothespin clipped to Outstanding. I then told him to "Clip up," or move his clothespin one section higher.

"It's already at the top, Mr. Morris," he pointed out.

After a pause, I walked over, removed his clothespin from the side edge, and reclipped it to the top edge of the chart. There was a quiet, "Oooohhhh," from the students. Thus was born the new section: Top of the Chart.

Fast forward a week or so. A student's clothespin was in Top of the Chart mode when I showed her the "clip up" sign. (Index and middle fingers come together like the blades on a pair of scissors and then a thumb's up. Clip. Up.)

She pointed at the chart. When I turned to look, I saw her clothespin sticking up from the top edge.

"Excellent," I said. "Now what?"

She shrugged her shoulders but clearly wanted some kind of special recognition. So, I walked over to the chart, removed her clothespin, and clipped it to my shirt. Everyone was, to put it mildly, impressed.

Well, the next day one of my students brought me a necklace. His older sister had just had a baby and the family had been making baby necklaces that contained lettered beads for spelling out the name.

"Here, Mr. Morris," he said as he handed me a necklace. "I made this for you. I thought you could wear it and clip clothespins to it."

After thanking him and giving him a hug, I put it on and wore it proudly. In fact, for the remainder of the year, putting on the necklace was the first thing I did to start class for the day. And at least once a day, someone would end up with his or her clothespin clipped to the necklace.

Anyway, to make a long story short--if it's even possible at this point--a teacher told me that she allows her Student of the Day to be the one to wear the necklace. Even if no clothespins are clipped to the necklace, it still acts as a simple reminder to everyone that the wearer is the day's special student. And if a clothespin does get clipped to it, we're talking icing on the cake.

What a great idea. Thanks.

Name, number, date?
(Seminar interaction)

For years I've explained how I use a simple hotel bell as a signal to my students that I need to pass out materials.

Here's the procedure:

I ring the bell one time.
Each student team sends up a representative to request materials.
The representative returns and disseminates the materials.
Each student writes his name, number, and the date on his paper.
Everyone puts down his pencil and directs his attention to me.

However, when I was working with a sweet group of teachers in Hanford, I ran into a problem. I rang the bell and the procedure described above proceeded smoothly. I then began to demonstrate how to fill out the card when a teacher asked, "I thought we were supposed to write our names on the materials as soon as we received them. Now you're showing us something different. What's up?"

What's up is that I'm going to change a long-standing procedure. Now, instead of asking students to automatically write name, number, and date, I'm going to eliminate that step. One advantage is that I will more quickly be able to gain their attention after they've received their materials. They'll just put 'em down and look at me. Another advantage is the freedom to pass out materials without any fear that they're going to immediately write all over them. (Imagine you passed out a study guide you wanted to collect and reuse later. You sure don't want anything written on them, do you?)

And if I do want them to write name, number, and date, I'll just play the N-B-C song we use to indicate that. (See Chapter 4 of the book, Eight Great Ideas. It's called How to Use Music for Student Management and describes how effective TV theme songs can be for initiating procedures.)

Tough middle schoolers
(Question asked during seminar break)

Teacher: I teach a chorus class that contains a number of students who have been kicked out of other electives. There are only about 4 or 5 that cause problems, but they really mess up things for everyone. I'm beginning to feel like a pirate and I hate that.

Being able to focus your attention--which is Core Principle #4 of the six I've listed below--is one of the most effective things a teacher can do to gain control of difficult students. The teacher just needs a tool which enhances the ability to focus. One of the easiest techniques is the use of a seating chart on a clipboard.

A student who tests the limits of the classroom--and that's all misbehavior is: limit testing--has a letter code written in his space on the seating chart. It could be an O for being off-task or a T for social talking. (The codes will vary from class to class since not every teacher has to deal with the same issues.) At the end of the period, students could be dismissed by the number of codes recorded. No codes? First out. One code? Next to leave. The teacher could then hold back, for a minute of so, the student--or three--who had the most codes recorded. A week or two of this will have most students changing their behavior.

And, since we're recording marks for negative behavior, why not record them for positives? I suggested making a dot in a student's space for anyone who was attentive and ready to go at the beginning of class. With the clipboard in one hand and a pencil in the other, the teacher could point at an attentive student with the pencil and then make the dot. A subtle point-and-smile would let the student know he was being "dotted" and help to reinforce attentive behavior.

At the end of the week, a student could go through the seating charts and record the number of points for each student. Points could then be spent for some reward or privilege.

I'm the queen
(Suggestion offered during seminar)

Kindergarten teacher: I circled the crown on the Kcon's master sheet blackline before making copies for my students. When I pass out copies of the sheet to my students so that they can select a Kcon, I'm going to tell them that, since I'm the queen of the classroom, I have chosen the crown as my own symbol.

As I've said for years when discussing the use of student numbers, if the students each have a number, the teacher should have one as well. The best number to use is zero because it both separates you from the group and includes you in the group. (I also like to inform my students, at some point in the year, that the idea of the zero was one of the truly great inventions in the history of math. It replaced the tedious stick tally with the use of place value. And, since I'm a great teacher--I tell them--I should have a great number. Whatever.)

Anyway, the idea that the kindergarten teacher will use the same system as the students sends a strong message of unity and togetherness. And just think about how many times that crown will come in handy when the teacher needs to demonstrate something that requires the students to draw their Kcons.

Restroom management for first graders
(Question asked during seminar break)

Teacher: I had such a hard time last year trying to manage my first graders and their use of the bathroom. It seemed as if I had some students who wanted to go all of the time and some who would abide by my request that students should use the restroom during recess or lunch. And it didn't do me any good to ask a student if he could wait because I almost always heard, 'I really have to go.' What should I do?

Yeah, the restroom thing can be a killer. As much as we would like our students to exercise some self-discipline, we certainly don't want to have someone who was denied permission to end up wetting his pants in the classroom. That would be a bit of a PR nightmare. (PR = parent relations) Nor does it make sense to try to take class-wide restroom breaks. I can't imagine anyone would be happy listening to ten variations of "But I don't have to go!"

My first suggestion was to issue each student two coupons. These would be redeemed for permission to use the restroom. Out of coupons? Out of luck. Unless, of course, you could cadge one from a buddy. To curb that, the coupons would have to have some value and so I suggested that students be allowed to deposit unused coupons in a container for a drawing. (The kind of coupons I use, as described in the Tools & Toys book, have a six-digit number on each end. Students tear the coupons in half, drop one half in a container, and keep the other end. Coupons are then drawn from the container and the number is announced. The student who has the matching half is the winner.)

Then I realized that you would be running through a massive amount of coupons. So I suggested using numbered clothespins clipped to a length of wide ribbon. Each student begins the day with two clothespins. Whenever a student needs to use the restroom, he merely removes a clothespin and takes it to the teacher. (Another option would be to drop the clothespin in a little box.) All clothespins still attached to the ribbon at the end of the day are placed in a drawing container.

The next morning, the teacher could hold the drawing container aloft and pull out two clothespins. The winners would receive some small prize or privilege for the day. A student would then reclip all of the clothespins--the ones still in the drawing container and the ones that were dropped in the restroom box--to the ribbon so that everything is reset for the day.

Note: Having the drawing the next morning will act as a reminder for the day that self-control is a good thing. Just ask the two winners. That effect would be diminished, however, if the drawing had already taken place at the end of the previous day.

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