Several years ago I was a high school girls lacrosse coach. I loved it! One of my favorite organizations that I learned about was the Positive Coaching Alliance. They have a great technique called Positive Charting, that they encourage coaches to use... to help them "look for the positive" in each player... instead of looking for what is done incorrectly and focusing more on the negative.
As teachers, we know that focusing on the positive and reinforcing positive behavior tends to yield more successful results than focusing on the negative.
I have NOT been focusing on the positive at our house lately. This week I am going to attempt to use Positive Charting at our house so that I am consciously looking for the positive (in myself... and everyone else). I created a kid-friendly positive charting form that I'll be using and shared it here.
Check out this link to learn more about Positive Charting.
Main Points that we're following are...
1. Write person's name on top of octagon
2. Look for the positive things that the person does
3. Write down positive notes throughout a certain time period (or day)
4. Be honest... don't be fake or be too general... specific comments are more meaningful
5. Share your comments with each child/person (maybe during a special 1:1 meeting during the day?)
I know many teachers out there (and parents) have their own ways of sharing positive comments with students/children... What's your favorite way?
As a dad, I'm not home during the day to see my kids interactions. So during dinner I like to ask, "did anyone do something kind today?" This promotes positive discussion and perhaps motivates them to be kinder the following day.
I love this! We give out stickers for positive behavior. Example: sharing is big in our house (ages 3 and 4) so when they do, it's a sticker! Or helping mommy and daddy with chores. I love this chart too. Will have to add it to our list! Thank you for sharing