Drawing Self Portraits and Building Positive Self Talk

DAY 1 - DRAWING THE PORTRAIT:

I am not an artist working on improving my artistic skills (see what I did there... I replaced that negative self talk with something a bit more positive!).  Although I am getting better, I can't deny the fact that I can barely draw a dog to save my life.  Once, I was trying to draw a dog on an anchor chart and when I was done, a very honest 8 year old commented, "That looks like a dog-chicken!"

*Sniff*

Needless to say, I was thrilled when I found this gem of a video! I was actually looking for videos that would help me teach my students, but I found something even better... an art teacher to teach my students! Ha! I could not resist using this YouTube video as my 'substitute art teacher' for a solid 6 minutes and 29 seconds!:


The video is targeted towards kindergarten kids but I think this aspect makes it perfect for students of any grade! When it comes to directions, children and adults alike benefit from slow, step-by-step instructions (I know I do!). Also, many of my students are ESL learners, so this video was just perfect for them too!

The great thing about using a video to teach art is that you can pause, rewind or re-play the lesson   for  students who need extra time or just need to   re-visit a step. I loved this aspect of using video to teach my portrait lesson!


To help her draw her portrait, the artist uses a mirror. I don't have 20 mirrors in my class... BUT our school has an iPad cart... so, my kiddos put it in selfie mode and used this to attend to the details of their faces. I thought this was a brilliant idea (if I do say so myself)! Students also practiced taking portrait style photographs of each other which was a fun way to add a quick mini lesson on photography.  They had the option of using their photograph or "selfie mode" to help them as they worked on their portraits.

Here is an example of how they turned out!  

DAY 2 - BUILDING POSITIVE SELF TALK

I read the book, "The Way I Act", by Steve Metzger.

{Note: The posters seen in this picture can be found HERE}

This book is PERFECT for inspiring students to build positive self talk and it was a great tool for sparking dialogue amongst my students. Bonus: The image on the cover was a good reminder of what a portrait entails - a close up shot, from the shoulders down!.

As I read each page, I turned to my class and asked them to reflect upon a time when they demonstrated each character trait mentioned in the book. By asking them to reflect, and share memories that highlighted their character, I was getting them to build evidence to support their beliefs about themselves. This exercise strengthens and shapes positive self talk. Saying words like "I am ...." is powerful, especially when supported by events in one's life because it helps to strengthen the belief.  Tony Robbins - you know, the energetic author and motivational speaker - encourages this exercise in his books.

My students were displaying all sorts of positive self-talk as they shared their stories. Let me tell you, it is heart warming to hear young children reflect upon moments when they were courageous, or accomplishments that made them proud! My heart melted several times during this sharing period!

As I read the story, I also introduced synonyms for each character trait by referring to my character posters. {You can get a free poster HERE!}.  Along with the posters, I use raffles to positively reinforce my students for demonstrating specific character traits. Praising children in this way helps to build positive self talk because these words of affirmation (saying things like, "Wow! You are so responsible!") influences how a child will perceive him/herself.

I love all the positive words my students used to describe themselves!  Just look at how perfect these turned out:

Not only do I love how these turned out... the best part is... I'm over hearing my students use this vocabulary in their conversations with each other.

For example, the other day one of my students said to me, (after quietly observing me getting frustrated with annoying tech issues I was having):

"Mrs. Pinkerton, remember?! PERSEVERE!!!!".

This made my day, not only because she used this fabulous 'spiced up' word but because if she was telling me to persevere, she is likely to use such vocabulary when faced with a challenge of her own. This is what self-talk is all about!

 Of course the beauty of having an 8 yr old tell you to persevere is just perfect all on its own!

Classroom Management Tips

Using Positive Reinforcement to Manage your Class 

I have been teaching for ten years now, and I have to say, it took me a while to realize that it couldn’t be sheer luck that year after year I keep getting blessed with a “good class”... I would even dare to say, the “best class ever... in the history of classes!”.  

Seriously, each and every year teachers will comment on how lucky I am to have such a well behaved group. Each year, substitute teachers come by my room to let me know just how much they love covering my class because my students are always so respectful and responsible. 

After years of being "lucky", I realized that there was something that I was doing that just seemed to work like magic! It had nothing to do with luck at all.

It’s my raffle system! 

WHO doesn't love being entered into a raffle? The anticipation of winning something...anything... gets folks of ANY age excited! That's why this strategy works so well..with any grade!

I have shared this strategy with many of my teacher friends but noticed that some were having more success than others.  I came to the conclusion that knowing how to implement the system is a crucial element... because as B.F Skinner said:

For those of you who are new to this idea, here's an explanation of the raffle system in a nutshell: Every time you catch your students following expectations and behaving appropriately, you give them a raffle. The raffle is put into a raffle box and at the end of the day, there is a draw.  The selected students win a prize! You will be surprised that the prize actually doesn't have to be that big - it's all about pairing the prize with praise and words of affirmation. 

The best part? Setting up the raffles can be as low prep as you want it to be.  Simply cut or tear paper into strips that are long enough for students to write their name on and use any old container as a raffle box. That's it. Done!

But, I like taking it one step further by integrating character education, building positive self talk, as well as vocabulary building into my raffles. 

Ok so now for the HOW:

1. Do not give any attention to negative behaviors.

2. Instead, focus your attention on the kids who are doing the right thing and praise the heck out of them.

3. Be generous with raffles when your goal is to change a specific behavior

4. Be unpredictable.

5. Pair the prize with praise.  This is MORE important than the actual prize itself.

The main purpose of a raffle system is to change disruptive behaviors into behaviors you want to see more of. 

1. DO NOT GIVE ANY ATTENTION TO NEGATIVE BEHAVIORS.  

Don’t even acknowledge these behaviors for a second. By giving these kids attention for misbehaving, guess what's going to happen? More misbehaving! In my class, I want to teach my students that they will ONLY get my attention for positive behaviors (such as being respectful, responsible, inclusive, caring, etc.).  As soon as I see someone behaving in a way that I’m not pleased with I immediately find someone who IS behaving the way I expect...and I reinforce that child right away.  I do not make mention of the misbehaving child. It seems counter intuitive but it works! 

2. PRAISE THE HECK OUT OF THE KIDS WHO ARE DOING THE RIGHT THING!:

It’s so important to pair the idea of each raffle with lots of positive words. Your students need to build an association between this raffle and your praise.  By doing this you are also helping them expand their vocabulary (ie. if you are mindful to use a variety of adjectives to describe how fantastic they are!).
  

Instantly, you will see everyone wanting to change their behavior so that they can win a raffle too.  It causes a ripple effect. Students quickly realize that the only way to get the attention they desire is to demonstrate positive behaviors.

But this can ONLY work if you keep focusing on the positive behaviors. This is, at times, easier said then done, hence my reason for stressing this point so much.

3. BE GENEROUS WITH RAFFLES WHEN YOUR GOAL IS TO CHANGE A SPECIFIC BEHAVIOR 

In the beginning of the school year I have my work cut out for me.  Kids will test what they can get away with so it is important to implement this system right away.  (But don’t stress if it’s the middle of the year and you’re reading this - better late than never I say!)

Last school year, I remember my chatty lil monkeys would take for. ev. er. to trickle into the classroom after recess.  I get it, recess is exciting, there’s so much fun to be had, and every kid wants it to linger for as long as possible.  But I don't have time for time wasters and this is a behavior I like to nip in the bud right away.

This is how ‘being generous’ works:

(Let’s take the classic “taking forever to come into class after recess scenario”)

First, I let my students know what my expectation is and that I will be handing out raffles to the first 5 kids who come into class as soon as the bell rings.

On day one, I’ll give out a bunch (ie. 3 or more) of raffles to the first 5 students to come in from recess promptly. Now the 6th kid in might feel a bit bummed - but guess what - tomorrow, he’s going to be even quicker. The seventh or eighth kid to enter the class is also thinking ‘hey I was pretty close too... that darn chatterbox beside me... tomorrow I’m going to ignore her so I can get a bunch of raffles too”. For the first little while I will give out 3,4 or 5 raffles to the first several kids. Gradually, I'll reduce it.

Before you know it, the whole class is trickling in around the same time.  At this point I don’t need to hand out so many raffles anymore. Heck, I might not even give out raffles at all for this behavior once it has been changed.  

On occassion, I will hand out raffles here and there, just to keep the positive behaviors continuing.

4. BE UNPREDICTABLE!

Usually, I give my kiddos a heads up as to how many raffles I will be giving out and for what behavior... but sometimes I will make it completely spontaneous. This just keeps them on their toes. For instance, let's say homework was assigned over the weekend and only two students handed it in. Even though I didn’t announce that students would receive raffles for completing homework, I will give these two superstars a bunch of raffles (3 or more) just to make a point! It rewards the kids who are responsible and shows the rest of the class that they just never know when they might get rewarded!  

It might seem like homework has nothing to do with classroom management, but it does. If I don't have to waste precious class time chasing up notes, homework, trip money etc. this results in a smooth flowing morning (the time when I get students to hand this stuff in)! A smooth flowing morning sets the tone for the rest of the day!

5. THE PRIZE ISN’T AS IMPORTANT AS YOU THINK

It’s really not necessary to go out and buy a whole bunch of goodies from the store. In fact I think the smaller the prize the better. This is because the prize shouldn’t be the focus. It’s your constant praise, attention and encouragement that your students value (and need) the most!

6. BE SPECIFIC:

When I hand out the raffles I try to remember to be very specific about the behavior I am reinforcing.  

Up until last year, I used to get kids to write their names on regular old paper that I had cut into rectangles. This worked fine to a degree, but I found that when I asked the raffle winners to recall what they won the raffle for, sometimes they would forget, or it would take them a while to remember. I needed to tweak my system...and so I did!  

My new system can be used for: character education, story writing, building self esteem, building a positive classroom climate, and developing positive self-talk in children...all while building vocabulary too! 

This is just a sneak peak at what's inside my prize pack. (Update: this giveaway is now over). Click HERE if you would like to learn more about it. 

If you want a chance at winning My Raffle System, enter the contest below!!

ENTER THE CONTEST HERE:

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Thanks for hopping through! Make sure to visit the next blog in the hop :)

Using Raffles to Teach Character Education

In my district, Character Education has become as important as teaching literacy.  Each month we have a Character Education assembly to recognize students who have demonstrated specific character traits in an exemplary way.  We focus on one of the following character traits:  1. Caring 2. Cooperative 3. Honest 4. Inclusive 5. Respectful and 6. Responsible 

Although there are definitely many more character traits one could add to this list, these six attributes were selected through consultation with students, staff, community members and faith groups in order to form a manageable number of traits that everyone felt were most important.

In my class, I use raffles as a way to positively reinforce my students - doing this really helps with my classroom management. You can read more about how I use raffles to manage my class {here}, but for now, I'll be focusing on how I integrate character education and vocabulary building into my raffle system.

Last year, it occurred to me that I should start handing out raffles that were geared towards the 6 character traits our school focuses on.

I spiced up my system even further by adding synonyms for each character trait onto character education/raffle posters!

I love using these posters because it reminds me to be very specific when handing out raffles. The synonyms for each character trait are also a great visual for my students and exposes them to a wide range of vocabulary. What a great gift to give our students - these words of positive affirmation! This is SO powerful because when we use these words to describe our students... THEY start to use these words to describe themselves. This in turn shapes and molds their thoughts and opinions about themselves.. which then inspires and develops into positive self-talk and increased self-esteem! When faced with a challenge, a child might think to himself: "Yes, I can do this! I am a determined person".  They start to use this vocabulary to deal with challenging moments that rely on CHARACTER!

So many WINS here! Can you see why I'm so excited about this!

An added bonus: Students can also refer to these posters during story writing when they might want to think of adjectives to describe the characters in their story.  Boy do I have a ton of ideas on how to use these posters for writing - another blog post, another day - promise.

My raffle system used to be very low key. I'd cut (sometimes even just tear) sheets of scrap paper, put them in a basket and my students would grab one of these wonky shaped rectangles to put their names on.

The old way:

This worked fine. I mean it did the trick in terms of being an amazing classroom management strategy!  BUT, I found that when I did my draw and asked my raffle winners what they won the raffle for, (I wanted them to reflect and recall what they did to deserve it), it would take them a while to recall why the raffle was given to them. I would then remind them by saying something like, "You were so cooperative during group work today...remember?"... to which they would reply, "Oh yeah!".  NOW, I don't have to worry about reminding them. The character trait on the raffle is that reminder!

PLUS, they can take the raffles home and show parents/guardians how awesome they were in school that day.  What a great way to keep on-going communication with parents!

Students can also keep track of the number of raffles they win by using this graph. 

Although "Perseverance" is not on our school's list, I created this as my 7th set because this one is an important one to me. I really want my students to know that it's not about being the best reader or strongest mathematician. Perseverance is way more important.  I try to reinforce this character trait as often as possible!

The 8th set I created is blank because sometimes there are other traits I'd like to recognize when I see it! Having a blank one gives me the freedom to still reward students for demonstrating these other traits.

My Awards:

Note: I realize that some of these pictures could be better. Looks like I'll need to schedule a picture re-take day! 

As I mentioned at the start of this post, our school has an awards assembly where students are recognized for demonstrating character.  I just thought it would be so cute to hand out awards in the shape of a raffle as well. Plus, during the awards assembly, we usually select 1 or 2 award winners, but often times I just want to give it to each and every kid in my class... and now I can!! Once you start reinforcing positive behaviors, you start seeing MORE of it ... to the point that it becomes very difficult to select just one or two winners!

I can't stress how much I love my system. It is so much more than just a classroom management tool. It's a tool for: character education, writing stories, building self esteem, building a positive classroom climate, and developing positive self-talk in children... all while building vocabulary too! That's pretty darn spectacular!

To purchase this Classroom Management Raffle System, click {here}