Being all around the school, I’ve also seen several different varieties of behavior management.  Here are what people are using in the classroom today.

Group Consequences

• “Smellies” – as mentioned in a previous post, smellies are really chap-sticks that smell good, and instead of putting a sticker on their hand or shirt, you smear a bit of chap-stick on their hand.  The little kids love it.  Make sure you don’t mix this with your regular chap-stick though!  Oh the germs that must be on there!
• Chips in the cup – each table group has a cup and when they are following directions, they receive a chip in their cup.  The group with the most (or has earned the “magic number”) of chips by the end of the day/session earns a prize (to be determined by teacher before hand).  This can also be adapted for individual use.
• “Fuzzies” – Every time the group is on-task, following directions, a fuzzie is earned for the group.  If they can beat their record (to be recorded and kept on board) for highest number of Fuzzies earned in a session/class, they all receive a prize.  Keep in mind that Fuzzies can also be taken away if people are not following the rules. 
• Tally marks – At the beginning of the day, set up a T-chart with T on one side (for teacher) and C on the other (for class).  If the class gets “caught” following directions, they earn a point.  If the teacher has to give out too many reminders on rules and directions, they earn a point.  By the end of the day, if the class has more points than the teacher, they earn free time.  If not, they have a quiet time (usually the smaller kids need to sit with their heads down).
• Beans in a can – This one can take a while (or not, depending on how well behaved your class is!).  This follows the same principle as the Fuzzies one, in that every time the class as a whole is following directions and participating, a bean goes into the can (I would use a coffee can, or ask your cafeteria crew for an empty container for salad dressing).  When the container eventually fills up, the class is rewarded with lunch in the classroom or a classroom party.  However, keep in mind beans can also be taken out of the container if people refuse to follow the rules.

Individual Consequences

• Strikes 1 – I’ve seen these done in 2 different ways.  In the first way, students who are misbehaving receive strikes, and they are recorded on a class chart for the week.  If they receive a strike throughout the day, they miss out on free time.  If they receive 5 in a week, they miss out on lunch in the classroom.  If they receive more than that in a week, the principal is consulted. 
• Strikes 2 – In the second way, students receive pieces of paper that they must take home to have their parents sign and return to school.  If they have more than three strikes in a marking period, they miss out on the end-of-marking period party.  Usually, these are given out in the upper grades for not handing in homework, but can be given out for not following directions at the discression of the teacher.  A strike given in this manner can be expunged, if and only if the student brings in their homework for 5 days consecutively. 
• Sticker Chart – of course, these can be used in a myriad of ways.  I’ve seen teachers use these as a daily reward for not getting any strikes.  I think the most common way that I’ve seen them used is some form of Daily reward.  Although, you must watch out for the high-gloss charts (or low-quality stickers) and the kids in your class that have figured out how to peel stickers off of other peoples charts to fortify their own and try to get to the prize box quicker.  True story.
• Tickets – Similar to the sticker chart, but easier to give out more frequently than on a daily basis.  Tickets can be rewards for winning academic games, as well as just following the rules and participating in class.  Tickets can also be taken away for misbehavior as well.  The classes I’ve seen that have these usually have “shopping” days on Fridays, and have various levels of prizes (10 ticket, 25 ticket, and 50 ticket items, all of which can be purchased at the Dollar Store).  Take caution with these as well, because just like the sticker charts that can be peeled clean, tickets can be stolen from others, and has been known to happen on occasion.  To prevent this, it’s a good idea to have students write their initials or names on the back of each ticket, and once they are spent (or handed in for different reasons) they need to be thrown away.   
• Smiley Face Charts – I’ve seen these especially for kids who have trouble staying on task throughout the day.  They have a Smiley chart which is broken down for every subject of the day, or in extreme cases, time intervals (usually of 15-20 minutes).  If the child reaches his simple goal (usually to follow directions the first time given, or participate in class, or something like that) within the given time frame, they can color in a smiley face.  If not, they have to color in a frown face.  Depending on the student, they may have a goal of getting 5/9 smiley faces in the day, or as high as 8/9 smileys, or so on.  This is very adaptable to any student, and not everyone needs to have one (because you would probably go nuts trying to keep track of 16-20 different ones in your classroom alone!).  These usually have a very specific prize also, like playing darts in the morning, or having an icecream at lunch – something you know they’ll like.

Several of these behavior management techniques are used across whole grade levels, which is nice to have something consistant, especially as students switch groups for Intervention times and intermingle with other students from other classes.

At one of our recent faculty meetings, we talked about a concept where you’re finding a consequence to meet the actions of the student.  For example, if they’re late to class, it doesn’t make sense for them to have to write 10 times over and over “I will not be late to class”.  That just gets them to hate writing.  They also steered away from the language of “punishment” because, in the real world, there are not always punishments for your actions, there are consequences, good or bad.  This just inspired me to think outside the box when dealing with students who already “know” everything anyway (or think they do).