Teachers have regular opportunities to observe classroom behavior. Bad behavior can be disruptive, of course. However, when we focus on our students’ successes and describe the great things they are doing, we can create a positive classroom culture that minimizes bad behavior. Chuck and I call this strategy CCBA — Catch Children Being Amazing!
Here’s what to do when you catch a child being amazing:
1. Refer to the student by name.
2. Name the task that the student is doing.
3. Describe the behavior that you want other students to notice and imitate.
For example:
I see that Natalia and Carlos have opened their books and are already writing their stories.
I see Mariko making a big ‘M’ using her whole body. At first she made a small ‘m’ with her fingers, but now she thought of another idea.
I can hear Jiwoo singing all of the words to our song. She is pointing to the picture cards, too.
We Did It!
(from Magic Time, by Kathleen Kampa and Charles Vilina, © Oxford University Press 2012)
We did it! We did it! We did it today!
We did it! We did it! Hip, hip hooray!
MagicTimeKids 