As a teaching candidate at West Virginia State University, I understand the critical relationship between student behaviors and academic success, and I have learned to discipline myself to ensure students are actively aware and self-monitoring their behaviors to keep track of their R.O.A.R.S. points and maintain a level of acceptable behaviors in daily functionality. Student behavior is one of the fundamental values I pride myself on professionally developing to manage situations for which I have never experienced. As a professional Kanawha County Schools employee and a West Virginia State University education student, I have had extensive life experiences that have placed me in unique situations to learn. Clarification of defining rules is the very first observation I learned. How can students know if they are acting desirably if they do not realize it is undesired from desired behavior? I learned that accountability goes with any action; I will question why they do these behaviors and restate for clarification that if they know why this is undesirable behavior, question why they would do it. I am learning from a more holistic view from the student rather than getting angry, and I am being more sensible about the matter.

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At my residency, I let the student know that actions have consequences (desirable and undesirable). It is important to note that students lose their R.O.A.R.S. points for undesirable behaviors that result in not following the Wildcat promise; our clipboard shows the points for which students can have a maximum of 10 per day (starting the day off with ten), which a student can lose three max in the day which then puts them under 70% for behavior goals. Students will not receive their daily paw stamp in your Daily Planner, a tool for monitoring student progress that indicates they met that goes home to your parents, which they will sign to return to check on daily progress.

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One specific instance: I watched a student have a complete meltdown in the class, smashing a book to his forehead; the teacher calmed him down and took his R.O.A.R.S. point for the morning. When he was assigned to me in groups, he was on the verge of doing this again and began hitting his head, but I was able to comfort him at the moment; he has a fixed mindset and claims he is not smart enough and started hitting his head saying "why am I so stupid?" I told him and the group that we do not lie in this class; you are very smart and always finish your math quickly and accurately." (That is his strength). He smiled, and it worked, though bringing accountability; I always give him three strikes with me before I take his R.O.A.R.S. point, so in this case, I did erase an 'X,' but his behavior led to the distraction of others, because we respect their time too, it was holding him accountable.

 

This model of questioning motives is similar to the strategies I read in Annie Brock and Heather Hundley's The Growth Mindset Playbook: A Teacher's Guide to Promoting Student Success. There is no question by now that the Growth Mindset is a huge factor in my success, and these authors take the work of Dr. Carol Dweck and create a teacher's guide with great exercises, ideas, and remarkable advice. The authors state, "If you find yourself at odds with the same student, try getting curious, not furious" (Brock & Hundley, 2017, pp. 37, para. 4). "Developing a positive relationship with students will make having difficult conversations more productive and comfortable. Teacher-student relationships are based on mutual respect, which can spring-board these difficult talks. Teachers sometimes focus too much on negative behaviors, but focusing on those too much may sabotage the teacher's ability to control them. Focusing on positive, meaningful relationships may help behavior management strategies be more well-received" (Brock & Hundley, 2017, pp. 35 - 37).

 

Some students are more accepting of specific management strategies than others. Many students I have worked with are receptive to B. F. Skinner's applications of Behaviorism and Positive reinforcement, which entails offering rewards or incentives to strengthen desired behaviors. Actions have consequences (desirable and undesirable), and at Nitro Elementary School, we use R.O.A.R.S. as our P.B.I.S. system with points; however, we also give out R.O.A.R.S. tickets to students exhibiting desirable behaviors, raising their hand, being silent when others may be talking, having a clean workspace or cleaning up after themselves, helping others or giving their best effort on assignments! At the end of the week, our class draws a ticket from the basket, and one student gets a reward from the class treasure chest. Then, during lunch, the students have a name drawn from the basket for our class to get a chance to win a variety of awards from the spin the wheel!

 

As a personal dedication to my development and in a motion to help show student growth in positive behaviors through self-reflection and modeling, I developed an Action Research Project for my Residency placement that consists of the works of Dr. Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset and the authors Annie Brock and Heather Hundley from their book The Growth Mindset Playbook: A Teacher's Guide to Promoting Student Success. My project comes from blending two ideas, one from the Growth Mindset Playbook: observations in desired behaviors, which is documentation of desired student behaviors;  I put a spin on another idea I saw by creating the "Friendship Chain" students will receive a "You have Been Caught Being Kind!" slip. They sign it and join the wall with the class of others being caught. Also, they will fill out a Daily reflection on the actions they were caught doing, the scale of the value they felt doing what they did and something they learned (this also aligns with our R.O.A.R.S. promise).

 

The data accumulated shows the value of the growth mindset in how students perceive the tasks. Students do not know when they are getting the slips, so they are challenged to increase desirable behaviors. Their reflection tells us how they felt about the task they performed for being awarded the slips; with the data, not every student gives a perfect. They still enjoy doing what they do; it just shows that students are not always happy, and the classroom environment has room to improve. I can ask those with lower rates how to improve the environment so they can increase these ratings. This information has more value than what I can perceive at the moment, and I will continue this and compare months' data to see which times of the year were the most desirable for outcomes from stress factors, testing, and holidays play a role. This entire project is a new spin, reflecting an idea from renowned psychologist Carl Rogers, "Unconditional Positive Regard," which is "a humanistic approach to psychotherapy developing healthy and productive relationships at school and beyond." Students learn respect for themselves and others, model desirable behaviors for peers, and self-reflect on these moments; these behaviors are reinforced and valued in the classroom.