Classroom Management with CHAMPS!

Hello Kinder Tribe, it's Cori from Mrs. B's Beehive! Today I wanted to touch upon the topic of classroom management.  5 years ago, I had the most challenging class of my career.  As they have gone through the grades, all of the teachers have struggled with them, and even questioned their teaching abilities while doing so.  When I taught them, I was sick the entire year, and drained at the end of each day.  I'm not a perfect teacher, but I feel like I have pretty strong classroom management skills.  This class pushed those skills to the limit, and forced me to research other classroom management systems and find new and fresh ideas to motivate them.

Regarding my general teaching philosophy, I like to focus on the positives. When I am employing a normal color chart with my students, I am far more likely to move students up to the "good" colors while pointing out the positive behaviors that I like, than I am to move a student's clip down to the "bad" colors.  While researching management techniques, I came across the CHAMPS system.  What drew me to this system, was that it set out clear expectations for each task, and gave the students a visual to keep them on track. It helped me state the positives I was looking for, even before the lesson started.  I began by reading the following book:

They have a newer version of this book, but you can find the first edition on Amazon for very little money, and it will give you the basic principles to the system.  I later learned, that the CHAMPS system fits in very well with the PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support) system.  If you have not heard of PBIS, I suggest that you visit the following website, and read more about it:

https://www.pbis.org/

After reading the book, I was sold on this idea of clear expectations.  Here is a brief overview of what each letter stands for:

C - Conversation - What voice level will the students be allowed to use during a certain activity?

H - Help - If a student is unsure how to complete an assignment, where can they find help?

A - Activity - What kind of activity will the students be participating in?

M - Movement - When the activity is in process, what type of movement is allowed in the classroom?

P - Participation or Post Activity - You can either choose to inform the students what kind of participation you expect from them, or you can choose to use this category to inform students what to do when the assignment is finished.

S - Supplies or Signals - You can use this category either to inform the students what supplies they will need to complete the assignment, or what signal they should be listening for, to inform them that transition time has begun.  Some schools also just use the S for things like Super Students, or Star Students as well.

After all of my research, I decided to make cards for each category, and list them in my TPT store.  The book and the actual program do not provide you with these cards.  I thought that it was very important for the students to have visual reminders, especially in the lower grades of what the expectations are. 5 years later, and this is still the #1 resource in my store.

Each category has a ton of slides to choose from.  You just print up the ones you need and laminate them.  I attach sticky magnets to the back like the ones below and display them on my white board. You can also display them in a pocket chart.

Here are a couple more pictures to show you the variety of cards that you can use with this system:

This system truly helped me, not just for that difficult class, but for all the ones that have followed. That year was so challenging for me, but I think that you can agree, that when we have classes like that, the ones that push every button, and give you more gray hair, you come out on the other side of that experience as a better teacher.  Those classes force you out of your comfort zone, and force you to adapt and change, and keep you on your toes!  For all of those teachers out there that are going through one of those years right now, my thoughts and prayers are with you!  Take one day at a time, and remember, it will get better!!!

If you are interested in this resource, check it out in my shop with the link below:

CHAMPS Behavior Management System