The Power of Halawa...

       It's amazing to see how much power candy (halawa) has with kids! Last week I decided to create a traffic light signal with smiley, straight, and sad faces to use for classroom management. I've decided to start all of the kids on yellow every morning. During the day if they're participating and behaving I move them to green and if they are not participating and/or misbehaving I move them to red. For those who are on the green smiley face at the end of the day I give them a sticker and candy. If they stayed on yellow they get a sticker only. For those who were moved to red get nothing.

       I felt confident that this strategy would work but, I never thought it would have such amazing results. My students have stopped running away, they now ask to go to the restroom (hammam), they have stopped eating during class time, and whenever they hear my candy jar rattle they sit on the carpet like perfect little soldiers!! I still have a couple who will want to do whatever they want during the day but as soon as I start complementing those who are behaving and working by moving them to green they stop and quickly do what they're supposed to.

       Today for example as soon as I grabbed the candy jar the students started whispering "halawa" to each other and sitting down. During the day several students asked me to use the restroom and I would answer with "red?" or "yellow?" and they would smile and sit down. Whenever I wanted their attention I would start walking to the traffic light signal and say "mumtez" (excellent/good job) and move students to green if they were doing a good job.

       At the end of the day I have the entire class sit down and I call them one by one to give them they're rewards. I also talk to the ones in yellow and red and tell them what they need to improve. I've had students cry every day if they were moved red and didn't receive anything. But even with the ones who cry there has been an improvement. Last week, for example, I had students lay on the floor crying others even kicked and screamed. But as the week progressed all the tantrums stopped and last Thursday and today I only saw tears.

       I am trying to make learning connections even with my rewards. Last week I taught the class the letter "M" and the sound that it makes. Since M&M's have the letter "M" I chose to give them M&M's as their reward. This week I will give them Skittles as well as stickers since I am teaching them the letter "S." I hope my class continues to improve and learn more and more each week. For now I'm very happy that I have managed to have, for the most part, control of my class! :D

Halawa= my sanity