How Color Code Behavior Charts Almost Ruined My Son’s Love of School and Much More

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I’ve been wanting to write this post for a long time, but it is hard to talk about. I still get very emotional about it. But after 4 years, I am ready to share, and I am purposefully posting it right at the start of the school year.

This story takes place when Trent entered Kindergarten.

Trent has been in daycare then preschool and then public school since he was 5 months old. He had always loved school. It was never a fight to get him there. His love of learning, of socializing, of playing, of books–it was all so wonderful to witness. Throughout his first 5 years in school, there had been incidences here and there, as with any kid, but overall I was told he was a pleasure to have in class, he excelled at his work, and he was truly loved by so many teachers.

Then we entered kindergarten. He was so excited. I still have pictures that pop up yearly of him with his huge backpack, our family photo on day one, and the photo with his teacher. Just so filled with joy.

But over just a few weeks, I watched that wash away.

I had learned at his meet the teacher that his new teacher used a color coding behavior chart. We’d never had one in one of Trent’s classes before, and I knew about some negative opinions about them, but I was optimistic because I had to be. Also, as an educator, I understood to some extent needing to give visuals to students about their behavior and to keep track of warnings.

As the school year began, though, my optimism fell away. At first, it was just yellow or red dots coming home in his planner with small notes from his teacher. I emailed her to get more info, and we emailed back and forth about how to help Trent.

But then Trent’s demeanor changed. He tried to hide his planner from me, he stopped wanting to go to school, and he started to call himself a bad kid. It happened so quickly. My sweet boy who loved school now was wanting to avoid it as much as he could. There were so many tears.

Through communication with the teacher, I learned that students could earn their way back up; however, with the focus on negative behavior, Trent, I believe, was giving up. He told me he was bad so he was red. When I asked him what he thought he could do to move up, he said that he tried but that he was a bad kid.

Through talking with Trent, I learned that the kids very much paid attention to who was where. When he wasn’t red, he’d make sure to tell me who was the bad kid that day. That is always how my little 5-year-old put it: the bad kid. No wonder he viewed himself that way, that is how they all viewed students who were on red.

Eventually, I realized that this system was public shaming. It was not helping the situation at all; it was embarrassing and setting kids up for failure. I mean, would we want our boss to let everyone know how we were doing every day?! No!

I cannot put into words what this transformation of Trent, in just a few weeks, did to our household. The whole climate of the house changed, Trent’s whole demeanor changed, and we were helpless because this emotional beat down was happening at school where we weren’t.

I emailed his teacher a lot. I asked a lot of questions. I advocated for my son. But she wouldn’t budge. I think she, too, after only 3 weeks, only saw my son as a bad kid, all because of silliness, some impulse control issues, and his tendency to question.

Thankfully, without any warning, Trent was moved to another class where the culture was completely different. The teacher never talked to me about the why, which was a whole other problem, but I am so thankful the move happened. After moving, it took another few weeks for the toxicity to wash away, but Trent returned to himself and blew kindergarten out of the water and is still rocking school to this day!

But what about the kids who were in that room all year who found themselves on red? Did they enter 1st grade already knowing they were a “bad kid,” so they knew they needn’t not even try?? How does this affect the mental health and longevity of schooling????

This is one way educators can ruin kids. Can we PLEASE realize this practice is more hurtful than anything and move away from it? Because how many kids out there are being hurt the way Trent was but for an entire year????

So, what can be done instead? Get to know your students, don’t ever publicly shame them, use your team of support at your school (the guidance counselor, school psychologist, etc.), and focus on positivity in the classroom. These little change could change everything.

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Educators’ Guide for Symptoms of a Heartbreak by Sona Charaipotra

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Symptoms of a Heartbreak
Author: Sona Charaipotra
Published: July 2nd, 2019 by Imprint

Summary: The youngest doctor in America, an Indian-American teen makes her rounds―and falls head over heels―in the contemporary romantic comedy Symptoms of a Heartbreak.

Fresh from med school, sixteen-year-old medical prodigy Saira arrives for her first day at her new job: treating children with cancer. She’s always had to balance family and friendships with her celebrity as the Girl Genius―but she’s never had to prove herself to skeptical adult co-workers while adjusting to real life-and-death stakes. And working in the same hospital as her mother certainly isn’t making things any easier.

But life gets complicated when Saira finds herself falling in love with a patient: a cute teen boy who’s been diagnosed with cancer. And when she risks her brand new career to try to improve his chances, it could cost her everything.

It turns out “heartbreak” is the one thing she still doesn’t know how to treat.

In her solo debut, Sona Charaipotra brings us a compelling #ownvoices protagonist who’s not afraid to chase what she wants. Symptoms of a Heartbreak goes from romantic comedy highs to tearjerker lows and is the ultimate cure-all for young adult readers needing an infusion of something heartfelt.

Tools for Navigation and Discussion Questions: 

Please view and enjoy the educators’ guide I created for Symptoms of a Heartbreak:

You can also access the educators’ guide here.

Recommended For: 

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Educators’ Guide for A Match Made in Mehendi by Nandini Bajpai

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A Match Made in Mehendi
Author: Nandini Bajpai
Published: September 10th, 2019 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Summary: Fifteen-year-old Simran “Simi” Sangha comes from a long line of Indian vichole-matchmakers-with a rich history for helping parents find good matches for their grown children. When Simi accidentally sets up her cousin and a soon-to-be lawyer, her family is thrilled that she has the “gift.”

But Simi is an artist, and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with relationships, helicopter parents, and family drama. That is, until she realizes this might be just the thing to improve her and her best friend Noah’s social status. Armed with her family’s ancient guide to finding love, Simi starts a matchmaking service-via an app, of course.

But when she helps connect a wallflower of a girl with the star of the boys’ soccer team, she turns the high school hierarchy topsy-turvy, soon making herself public enemy number one.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation and Discussion Questions: 

Please view and enjoy the educators’ guide I created for Cake Creative Kitchen:

You can also access the educators’ guide here.

You can learn more about A Match Made in Mehendi by visiting Cake Creative Kitchen’s Library.

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Author Guest Post: “Big Ideas: Ways of Making Abstract Concepts More Tangible for Students” by Laura Wippell, Author of Feeling Hopeful

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“Big Ideas: Ways of Making Abstract Concepts More Tangible for Students”

One of my favourite things about picture books is their ability to communicate BIG IDEAS, BIG EMOTIONS and BIG ISSUES on their relatively small pages.

In an age of book bans it’s extremely encouraging to see authors continuing to tackle these big subjects within picture books, but is it something we are doing enough of in our classrooms?

I’m an Australian teacher who has been teaching English to students in Chile for almost a decade.  It can be challenging to explore BIG ideas with my ESL primary school students, who often need extra support when it comes to vocabulary or finding ways to describe these non-tangible concepts.  So, what I try to do is find ways to help them visualise these abstract concepts, or make them more tangible.

Here are three examples of how I’ve done that:

  • Show, don’t tell

When it comes to ESL classes, students have sometimes shown anxiety when I introduce a new concept, because while they might know what it is, they haven’t heard the term before in English, and it sounds big and scary.  When starting a new unit, I’ve learned that it’s best to retain a bit of mystery, and rather than telling students what our new unit will be about, I use inquiry activities such as the Question Formulation Technique, or Project Zero’s Thinking Routines from Harvard.  One example is their Name, Describe, Act activity.

Here’s how I’ve adapted that activity for my class:

I wanted to talk about fear as an emotion (a fairly abstract concept), so I displayed an emoji on the board and the students had to try to name it, describe it, and explain what sort of actions that emoji might produce.

The great thing about inquiry activities is that the students’ answers can give you a good indication about their prior knowledge on the subject, and how much support you might need to give them in the upcoming classes.

  • Food is a love language!

I’ve come across quite a few language and cultural barriers since living in Chile, but one sure way of breaking them down is through food.  Gosh, Chile has some incredible food!  From its soft, spongy marraqueta bread, to its creamy ‘manjar’ or ‘dulce de leche’ as it’s often referred to in other countries, to its colourful rainbow of seasonal berries and fruits, there’s something here for every appetite.  Food is a fantastic way to find common ground when meeting someone new, both in and out of the classroom.

Since food is so universal, I find it to be a great tool for making connections to more abstract ideas or concepts with students.  When I tutored students one-on-one, I was able to bring a few snacks for us to smell and nibble on and then compare each snack to something abstract, like an emotion or even a character from a book.

If the visual aspect of food wasn’t enough for them to make connections, the students could use their sense of touch, smell and taste to make surprising connections to those intangible concepts.  I once heard that watermelon was chosen to represent fear, because of all of those scary dark seeds that are hidden within.  Who would have thought?

For bigger classes at school where food sharing can sometimes be tricky or not allowed, you can always show high resolution pictures or videos.  The Hiho Kids channel on YouTube has a lot of cute videos of children trying food from around the world.

  • Differentiation is key

If food isn’t your thing, you might like to get your students to choose how they would like to describe a concept in a more tangible way.

For example, if you are exploring ‘fear’, they could choose between one of the following options:

  • If they had to write a letter to their fear, what would they say to it? Here you can always use vocabulary lists for extra support.
  • How would they represent fear in a dance? What music genre would they dance to?
  • What about a meme? If they had to sum up what their fear looks like in one meme or gif, what would it be?
  • How would they draw their fear? What does fear look like to them?

If you’re wondering why I’ve used fear as an example in my activities, it’s because it’s something that I feel we need to talk more about.  As teachers we often have a lot of social-emotional check-ins with our students about how they are feeling, but sometimes we need to dig deeper and look at their current fears in order to understand why someone might be feeling a certain way.

Fear can be tough to explore, so I wrote a picture book about it.

Published

About the Book: In my picture book, Feeling Hopeful, Hope takes on the form of a happy, somersaulting dragon, who is hunting Fear.  Fear appears as a creature that likes to climb on children so they feel its full weight and presence.  Don’t worry though, there is a happy ending!

Far above the world, Hope the dragon somersaults through the sky, protecting those below.  But he encounters a formidable opponent in Fear.  Fear proves no match for Hope, until he meets a curious character, The Reader.  And it’s inside The Reader’s vast library that Hope finds what he’s looking for, plus much more…

This lyrical story has an uplifting SEL message and contains themes of hope, fear, the importance of reading and friendship.  While this book is marketed at a younger audience of up to six years old, I’ve used it with students up to 11 years old, and all of them have been able to make surprising, honest and beautiful connections.

That’s the beauty of working with BIG ideas, emotions and issues – they really have no age limit.

You can find a free teaching resource for Feeling Hopeful on my website at https://www.laurawippell.com/resources, which contains activities aimed at helping students visualise hope and fear.  Please feel free to reach out with comments or questions via my contact page.

About the Author: Laura is a children’s author.  In 2022, she won the Bee Ethicool author contest, which received over five thousand entries.  Laura’s debut picture book, Feeling Hopeful, is out now with Ethicool Books.  As an Australian living in Chile, Laura loves writing imaginative children’s books that make you feel local, and think global.  Laura has a background in Education, and is passionate about sharing her books with children and educators around the world.  Visit her at https://www.laurawippell.com/

Thank you, Laura, for these activities for the classroom!

Discussion Guide for Merci Suárez Plays it Cool by Meg Medina

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Merci Suárez Plays it Cool
Author: Meg Medina
Published: September 13th, 2022 by Candlewick Press

Summary: In a satisfying finale to her trilogy, Newbery Medalist Meg Medina follows Merci Suárez into an eighth-grade year full of changes—evolving friendships, new responsibilities, and heartbreaking loss.

For Merci Suárez, eighth grade means a new haircut, nighttime football games, and an out-of-town overnight field trip. At home, it means more chores and keeping an eye on Lolo as his health worsens. It’s a year filled with more responsibility and independence, but also with opportunities to reinvent herself. Merci has always been fine with not being one of the popular kids like Avery Sanders, who will probably be the soccer captain and is always traveling to fun places and buying new clothes. But then Avery starts talking to Merci more, and not just as a teammate. Does this mean they’re friends? Merci wants to play it cool, but with Edna always in her business, it’s only a matter of time before Merci has to decide where her loyalty stands. Whether Merci is facing school drama or changing family dynamics, readers will empathize as she discovers who she can count on—and what can change in an instant—in Meg Medina’s heartfelt conclusion to the trilogy that began with the Newbery Medal–winning novel.

Discussion Questions: 

After writing the educators’ guide for Merci Suárez Changes Gears, I was so happy that Candlewick returned and asked me to create this discussion guide for the finale of the trilogy. Please view and enjoy the guide I created:

You can also access the discussion guide here.

You can learn more about Merci Suárez Plays it Cool on Candlewick’s page.

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Educators’ Guide for Fox + Chick: The Quiet Boat Ride and Other Stories by Sergio Ruzzier

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The Quiet Boat Ride and Other Stories (Fox + Chick #2)
Author and Illustrator: Sergio Ruzzier
Published: March 5th, 2019

Summary: Opposite personalities attract for these two unlikely friends: In the second book of this lauded series, Fox and Chick are off on three new adventures involving a boat ride, a mysterious box, and an early morning trip to see the sunrise. Despite the antics ensuing from their different personalities, the contradictory duo always manages to have fun together.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation and Discussion Questions: 

Please view and enjoy the teachers’ guide I created for Chronicle Books for The Quiet Boat Ride:

You can also access the teaching guide here.

You can learn more about The Quiet Boat Ride and Other Stories on Chronicle’s page.

Recommended For: 

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Review and Educators’ Guide!: The Witch of Woodland by Laurel Snyder

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The Witch of Woodland
Author: Laurel Snyder
Published: May 16th, 2023 by Walden Pond Press

Summary: Laurel Snyder, author of Orphan Island, returns with a story of one girl’s quest to answer the seemingly unanswerable questions about what makes us who we are.

Hi, whoever is reading this. I’m Zipporah Chava McConnell, but everyone calls me Zippy.

Things used to be simple—until a few weeks ago. Now my best friend, Bea, is acting funny; everyone at school thinks I’m weird; and my mom is making me start preparing for my bat mitzvah, even though we barely ever go to synagogue. In fact, the only thing that still seems to make sense is magic.

See, the thing is, I’m a witch. I’ve been casting spells since I was little. And even if no one else wants to believe in magic anymore, it’s always made sense to me, always felt true. But I was still shocked the day I found a strange red book at the library and somehow…I conjured something. A girl, actually. A beautiful girl with no memory, and wings like an angel. You probably don’t believe me, but I swear it’s the truth.

Miriam is like no one else I’ve ever met. She’s proof that magic is real. And, it’s hard to explain this part, but I just know that we’re connected. That means it’s up to me to help Miriam figure out what she is and where she came from. If I can do that, maybe everything else in my life will start to make sense too.

Anyway, it’s worth a try.

About the Author: Laurel Snyder is the beloved author of many picture books and novels for children, including the National Book Award nominee Orphan Island and the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner Charlie & Mouse. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in writing for children and young adults program. Laurel lives in Atlanta with her family and can be found online at www.laurelsnyder.com.

Review: Zippy was so happy; her best friend Bea and her bonded over magic and everything has been Bea and Zippy since then and it has been wonderful. Then 7th grade begins and Bea is different and Zippy is not. This leads to Zippy feeling socially isolated and just so different than everyone else, a feeling that so many middle schoolers & those us of who went through middle school, will understand. This is the feeling that the book starts with–Zippy just wants someone who understands her again. This is the foundation for the rest of the book.

Laurel Snyder’s middle grade writing always enchants me, and Witch of Woodland is no different. Her characters in Witch are so easy to connect with (including her parents, who I love are included in such a realistic way), the magic she includes is captivating and unique, and her stories are unlike anyone else’s. What got me the most about this book, though, is Zippy. Zippy is special. She is a walking contradiction, just like many early teens are: she is strong and weak, confident and insecure, magical and human, quiet and loud, angry and optimistic… she is all of this and more, and none of that changes, though she evolves and grows in a way that she is just a better version of her same self. Zippy makes this book, everything else just supports her.

I want to note with this review that I am not Jewish, so I did not comment on the religious aspects of the book as I do not have the prior knowledge to do so. However, I did learn a lot about Jewish religion and faith through this book.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation and Discussion Questions: 

Please view and enjoy the publisher-shared Educators’ Guide :

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**Thank you to Walden Pond Press for providing a copy for review!**