The 2nd Grade Chick

This is such an easy, easy thing to do.  When we have an extra 5-15 minutes (usually on Friday when I plan lightly) I love to incorporate compliment circle.  We sit in a circle and take turns giving the person on our right or left (whatever you choose) a compliment.  Now my kinders have gotten really good at saying "I like your shirt, shoes etc."  Soooooo, yesterday I challenged them to talk about what quality they especially liked about that person.  This lead to a lot of blushing, smiling, and many warm fuzzy feelings.  It was as simple as saying "you are a really nice/fun/helpful person".  Afterwards there was a lot of hugging.  So cute!!!!! (and a great way to end a crazy week) Sometimes I purposely put this in my plans on a Monday to start out the week wonderful!

The warm fuzzies are still working!!  (To see the original warm fuzzy post from Mrs. Dillard enter  here .)  Now I am tweaking it a bit to help my students deal with other students acting up.   We are working on ignoring the students' attention getting behaviors, saying "please stop" or "you are in my space" when he/she is bothering others.  The students get a warm fuzzy if I see them practicing this.  The results are win/win!  The student handling the behavior get positive reinforcement and it stops the defiant student dead in his/her tracks when h/shee sees me give another student a warm fuzzy.  Warm fuzzies, who knew???

My name is Amanda, I'm a blogaholic thief!  Why wouldn't you be when there are umpteen million wonderful ideas already out there in teacher blog land!!  The next piece to my new and improved classroom management plan comes from Mrs. Dillard at I cannot wait to implement warm fuzzies and reward coupons!!!!!

Hi!  Due to all my new followers brought to me from I decided to blog about my quest to a more student-centered approach to classroom management.  I started a Master's program in curriculum and instruction two years ago.  I had three amazing facilitators, one whose name is Kerry Curtiss Williams, author of  She was a great inspiration when it came to building a community where the learner feels safe, making them do the thinking and being intrinsically motivated.  I also happened to have one of "those" classes recently.  The kind that makes first year teachers cry and veteran teachers go hmmmmmmmm.  I started out with my green, yellow, red system and got so frustrated I ripped it up in the middle of the year because I was tired of flipping cards and it obviously wasn't working.  I didn't really replace it with anything but caring, compassion and community building.  At one point we had a 45 minute air it out session where we li...