Educational resources for elementary students. Helping teachers, parents, and students become active thinkers and future leaders. We encourage giggles, grins, hugs, & high fives!
After they figure out which “friend” is going to be a problem in THIER group…
points don’t count.
I used to use “CLIP CHARTS”.
Great kids move up.
Those who need more “attention” moved down.
I had a great visual
of the “cans” and the “cannots”.
Not for me.
And so began ..
MY 3 STEPS to MY SANITY!
1. CLASS DOJO
2. GOLDEN TICKETS
3. BRAG TAGS
These 3 management strategies work for me.
If they help YOU…JUMP ON IN!
#1
CLASS DOJO!
* I am NOT receiving ANYTHING from DOJO…
I JUST LOVE IT!
Class DOJO has allowed me
to connect with
students
and PARENTS
quickly and effectively!
Isn’t that the point of classroom management?
To effectively
“manage” a situation
and correct it,
or support it,
immediately?
YES!
Dojo is an online program where each student has an avatar. They gain or lose points as they follow the positive or negative
attributes that YOU set up.
I had a BIG problem with tardies.
8-10 kids tardy…daily.
One of my positive attributes is
ATTENDANCE ON TIME.
Every student gets a point for being in their seat,
ready to work when the bell rings!
I am down to 2 tardies..average..daily.
FOR me? Success!!!
Dojo also sends an automatic email to parents on FRIDAY, detailing their child’s points for the week!
INSTANT PARENT NOTIFICATIONS
..and I didn’t have to do ANYTHING! 🙂
AND…
After parents have signed up for texts
THAT IS THE HARD PART…GETTING THEM TO SIGN UP
(I AM RELENTLESS…I BUG THEM OVER & OVER)
I can text them at a moments notice.
AND I DO!
I also do class messages and send pictures.
I am just learning DOJO, too.
#lifelessons #newtechtolearn
#2 Golden Tickets
THIS IS MY “GO TO” PROGRAM!
IT WORKS LIKE A CHARM!
Simple.
Run a copy of Tickets on YELLOW OR GOLD PAPER.
CUT UP into tickets.
Keep in a box.
Kids earn them for ANY positive interaction, action, or reaction.
Help a friend? TICKET!
Pick up the floor? Ticket!
Say kind words? Ticket!
A friend helped YOU? Give them a TICKET!
And so MY STUDENTS start looking
and listening
for ways to give positive feedback
tickets,
to each other.
They have to tell their classmate what
they SAW or HEARD
that earned their ticket!
SO engaging!
After they get their ticket,
they write their name on the back.
No…sticky fingers.
Twice a week we COUNT tickets.
If they have 10
they can choose
their reward!
I am NOT spending ANY $$$$$$
on rewards!
NO need to!
Here are there rewards…
Reward CHOICES:
Tech Time …15 minutes on the ipads!
They can choose whatever app they want!
Friendly Lunch..ALL TIME FAVORITE:
I purchased 8 plastic placemats – 4 sets of 2
They choose 1 friend to give a placemat to, and they sit next to each other at lunch in the cafeteria, and eat lunch with their placemat and their friend. AFTER lunch, they sanitize the placemat, and put it in the office so I can pick them up after lunch.
ROYALTY for A DAY..
Students can choose to WEAR A CROWN, and be KING____ or QUEEN _____ for a day. The crowns? BULLETIN BOARD borders I have
used, scrounged, saved, begged for from others,
on hand. Measure, staple, VOILA..instant CROWN!
Wear it, take it home. I DO staple a golden ticket to the front. EVERYONE will ask WHY DID YOU GET THE CROWN?
They can explain about GOLDEN TICKETS.
Teacher chair:
They get one of my BIG SQUISHY chairs at their desk for a day. They will spin, moved, be tall, and LOVE their BIG chair.
SWIP SWAP:
Change desks with a partner FOR A DAY!
Use their books & stuff and THEY use YOURS!
Must clean each others desk
( put things back better than they were
when YOU got there..)
at the end of the day.
FREE Homework PASS!
NO homework for 1 night!
I write a note and put it in the HW folder so parent’s know.
FLUFFY FRIEND:
They can bring a stuffed animal to school for 1 day.
Sits on their desk, works in teh classroom, cannot go outside.
If kids don’t have one..they can choose 1 of mine.
LINE Jumper:
First graders LOVE to “cut in line”. The LINE JUMPER can cut in line ANYWHERE they want, for 1day. They MUST tell the person behind them…”Excuse me, I am a LINE JUMPER!”
If you get a chance to hear her, see her, and/or youtube her…
DO IT!
When I teach reading, I don’t want my students to stop and ask for help.
I want them to have skills to be independent readers.
I want them to be problem-solvers.
So, I am…
How to create a community of readers
How?
What do you do BEFORE reading?
Take a picture walk. Cover the words. Make them use the visual cues in the story. Frontload any vocabulary that may change thinking, distort comprehension, or unfamiliar to them.
Have them make predictions PRIOR to reading.
After reading, check their predictions.
When you finish reading, do something!
I LOVE this!
After reading..then what? DO SOMETHING!
Reread it for NEW information. Retell it to yourself or a friend. We use our 3 fingers retell. I love this part…DIGEST IT! Just as a good meal…when you are finished, appreciate it. Think about it.
ENJOY IT!
Read MORE!
You are NEVER done!
When you finish…read more! My kiddos love to stack ALL of their books on the left..as they finish reading a book…place it in a pile on their right. Keep reading! Their goal is to read more every day! STAMINA! Reading MATS are used to make goals.
Our goals are to read MORE!
Use your eyes to read…not your fingers.
We want kids to quit using their fingers to read.
Good readers use their EYES!
“SCOOP” up words (phrases) with your eyes. When reading, put 3-4 words together and read the phrases! GREAT time to teach prepositions & prepositional phrases!
Always reread text
Always, always…reread!
You will see more, read more, and understand more when you reread a story. Read it to a partner, a parent, a friend. The same book can sound new when you are reading it the second or third time!
We as educator’s not only need to deliver the instruction, but we do have the need to ensure our student’s master and apply the knowledge we are delivering.
For me, it was a
CHANGE of MINDSET.
When I change my lifestyle, I need a WHY?
Why am I doing this? Why is it needed?
WHY? WHY? WHY?
BECAUSE.
Collecting data is NOT about the numbers.
It’s NOT about “judging” my teaching. It’s NOT about seeing
HOW many of my students DID or DID NOT master a concept.
It’s about looking for those SMALL skills, those giant holes, those little tweeks that are missing FOR THE CHILD!
What areas are missing…so I can fill them!
IT’S NOT ABOUT ME???
NOPE!
It’s about the KIDS!
Data is to help our kids.
OK. So HOW?
There are a MULTITUDE of assessments that you can use.
In this day and age, I bet your district has a LONG list of assessments they want you to use.
USE them!
Don’t just give the test & move to the next lesson.
LOOK AT THE DATA!
You might be surprised at what you see!
I recently gave a math assessment to my firsties.
We had spent 4-5 weeks (YES WEEKS) on place value!
Tens and ones. Tens and ones.
OVER AND OVER!
After my “district” math assessment,
I noticed a trend…
On 5-6 of the tests ( 25% of my class..)
they missed 3-4 questions about
adding ten to a number.
WHAT? ADDING TEN IS EASY!
We had gone over tens & ones, tens & ones…
BUT…
I “assumed”
…remember what they say about
ASSUME…
that it would be easy for them
because they understood place value!
So…a week later of
SMALL GROUP
math ..adding tens to numbers
SHAZAM!
100% on the place value review test!
So what if I gave the review test again.
They didn’t get it the first time!
It is NOT important that
OUR numbers
look good to others!
What is important is
DO THE KIDS KNOW IT?
Knowledge vs. numbers.
WOW!
A New MINDSET!
If you are looking for some reading/writing assessments
