Art Ed Geek Teaching for Artistic Behavior at Plymouth State University and Beyond

Positive Reinforcement Board Game

Being an Art Teacher brings with it it’s own set of hurdles when it comes to classroom management.   After you get  your students to understand your routines and procedures how do reinforce their positive behavior?  There are so many great strategies out there but this seems like the best tool for the art room.  I found the  “Positive Reinforcement Board Game” on  “Teaching Palette’s Photostream” on Flickr.

What do you need?

1. “Game Board”:  Some teachers use a whole bulletin board while others have made theirs out of card stock.  Your board can be as plain or as creative as you want it to be.  Some ideas I have seen include:  various art themes, the color spectrum, patterns, famous artists, or art related places in your city.
2. Board Pieces For Each Class:  Some examples might be pushpins, pieces of fabric on t-pins, magnets, or velcro.

How does it work?

1. The game’s rules are the rules of your classroom.
2. Each time you see a class and they follow the rules they get to advance a number of spaces.  The blog that I found this “tool” on suggested five spaces a class for top behavior.  You may want to keep track of the amount of spaces by adding stars or smileys on the white board during the class so students know how they are doing.
3. When the class reaches the end of the board game they win a big reward.   Don’t forget, this is a long term goal so students will need to feel like it’s worth it.  The idea that was suggested on the Teaching Palette’s website was an “Art Party” where students would be able to work in centers while watching an art related movie.  It’s their reward for working hard so think of what they love the most and get creative!