Simple Solutions

Today I'm sharing just a couple of ideas from my room.  Now, none of these are new ideas by any stretch of the imagination. They are all ideas I regularly use from year to year.  However, I did spruce them up for my new bunch of friends coming through the door on Monday.

I'm sharing my favorite first.  And I need to begin by explaining that I did get this fresh take (and download!) on an old idea from a delightful teacher blog.  However, I did it before I decided to start this blog so I didn't leave myself a way to remember who to give credit to.  Oops.

Without further delay, let me introduce Brownie Points!  The idea is simple, for whole class great behavior/effort that is recognized by me or other adults on campus, my class will earn a "brownie" on the baking pan.  When the pan is full my little friends will be treated with a brownie treat.

 And you won't believe how simple and inexpensive this was!  First of all, I printed the sign after downloading it.  I bought the baking sheet at the Dollar Tree.  I also bought a sheet of brown foamy stuff at Joanns.  I used my paper cutter to cut brownie shaped pieces.  Then I used a white paint pen to draw an icing squiggle on each one.  I slapped a little piece of magnet tape on the back of each "brownie" and I was done.  Oh yeah, I taped a piece of ribbon on the back of the baking sheet for a little extra something.  The baking sheet is attached to my white board with a couple of command strips, and the sign just has magnet tape on the back too.

In the name of research I may have even bought a box of brownie bites from the bakery in order to taste test and make sure this would be a sweet reward for my kidlets.  Now I know where to buy them when my kidlets fill up the baking sheet.

I've always given my students table points for group good behavior and effort, and then there has been a reward for the winning group.  I've varied this for the most points over a week, month, or even the first group to 25 points.  This year my tables aren't just numbered, but they are called Camp Sites.  That's it.  Not a huge change, but just enough to make it a little bit of fun.

 I just sectioned off  a part of my whiteboard with blue duck tape, then used green painter's tape for  my vertical lines.  The Camp Site image came from Pete's PowerPoint and fit in perfectly.

As general practice, my lessons are taught in an "I do, we do, you do" format for modeling, guided practice, and independent practice.  This year I made formal labels, and it was so simple.  I had some owl notepaper (That fits with camping, right?  I mean, you see and hear owls when camping, right?), wrote the label on it, laminated it, and slapped magnetic tape on the back.  See?  Simple.  During my first week of school I will be generating ideas with my students for what it will look/sound like during each part of our lessons and I will write these ideas next to the owls for a reminder.

And So a New Year Begins

I know, completely crazy, a New Year beginning in July!  Yup, here in Arizona our school year starts crazy early.  Our kids return to school on August 6th.  As a Mentor Teacher my report date is July 27th.  This means that I'm spending my last days of summer freedom preparing my room for the coming school year.  And I'm in good company, as most teachers I know follow the same ritual.

Last year I switched grade levels and therefore classrooms.  Everything was so rushed that I simply couldn't handle setting everything up exactly as I wanted.  This year I'm staying put, so I have more time for set up and don't need to worry about putting away and organizing.  Go me!  I was also lucky enough to have the district paint my room this summer.  I'd inherited a really gross, pukey green color and hated it every day.

Yesterday when I walked in this is what welcomed me:

As you can see, I had my work cut out for me.  Those bookshelves are all full of books.  And super heavy.  The file cabinet too.  And guess what?  Where they are in the pictures?  That's not where I wanted them.  Ever.  Yesterday I moved all that furniture around.  It took forever, and every bit of strength I had.  I also rewired and connected all of my electronics . . . . laptop, document camera, printer, SmartBoard, and projector, and made sure it was all working properly.  Today I worked on bulletin board backings and borders and some organizing and lots of planning where to put things.   As any teacher can tell you, the amount of thought that goes into each decision is amazing. 

This year I've decided to have a camping theme in my classroom.  I'm really excited as it is starting to unfold.  I think my students are really going to enjoy this.  I've also done a lot of reading and have lots of new things to try this year, some of which are quite radical for me.  I'll be back at it tomorrow, and I'll be sure to take pictures to share of my progress.