After speaking with the school administrator about Mini-Mouthboy, and speaking with the bus driver that transports him in the morning times, I have seen a HUGE improvement in his behavior. The child that was back talking me now does what he is supposed to do, he sits in his seat and he does not cause a disruption anymore. I’m hoping this marked improvement continues to be the norm for him.
What really helped him is the responsibility of seating my Pre-K students as they got on the bus. Since he was the oldest child and the closest to the front, I asked him if he would be willing to take on that responsibility. He has risen to the challenge. I’ve also told him if he continues to do well in his current seat that I would be more than willing to move him back further in the bus should his behavior continue to show me he can handle it. He is a sweet child and I always make sure to point out that he had excellent behavior on the bus before he gets off every day.
Hyperboy is another one of my regular front seaters. Since he cannot seem to sit still and the only speed he moves at is a run, he has earned himself a front seat. Again, he is not a bad kid, just very hyper. He sits next to Blue-Eyegirl who also cannot seem to stay seated and insists on standing on the seat most days where I have to tell her repeatedly to stop and sit down. I think firm consistency, expectations, and staying calm are the keys to getting these children to behave the way I want them to behave. Calm bus driver = Calm students.
I have worked on finalizing my assigned seats for my younger kids, and now I have to tackle my middle schoolers. Hopefully by the end of the week I will have finalized their seating arrangement as well. From there I need to tackle the second half of my route with my 4th and 5th graders earning assigned seats. I need bigger index cards, but hopefully once I get everything arranged I can go through and record where I have everybody seated, get the large index cards, and re-do my names and numbers on each seat so I don’t have a million index cards taped to the sides of my bus.
Finding Normalcy,
The Bus Driver
3 comments:
Hey...thanks for the comment on my blog!! :o) If you read my other blog at all you might be able to tell that I am a bus driver also.
Maybe we can commenserate (sp?) together. (I actually work for the City which is a transit system...who has a contract w/the school disrict...to transport Middle and HS children. Hmm...somedays.
I also drive for a private company bus company for another school district and do their charters. Today I did the UW Badger Football game. My 9 yr old went wit me...she says at the end of the day "Why did you yell at 3 different people out your window..."HEY DUMMY..GET OUT OF MY WAY...it hurts to get hit by a bus?" LOLOL...oh what a joy.
I'll be checking back w/your blog soon!!
gala
haha thanks for the comment!! yeah i bookmarked your page and will probably end up adding it to my favs.
wow. who wouldve thought that bus drivers need management skills too. Sounds like you have a lot of patience!!!
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