Quality Counts Board

It's about this time of year that students get antsy and don't always put forth their personal best.

I find myself saying over and over, "Is this your best work?" or "Did you rush?"

So, this week I'm bringing out my trusty Quality Counts Board.

I ordered a large size car magnet from Vista Print a few years ago titled "Quality Work". When needed, I simply display it on my white board. Then every so often I will pick a few model work samples to hang underneath it.

The work I pick has to show quality effort. If I pick a student's work he then gets to write with a special pen until I replace their work with someone else's. It works like a charm and saves some of my teacher sanity as the "holiday-itis" sets in.

~Denise

Keep in touch. Find me at:

My TPT store

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

Classroom Management: Tips for Keeping Kids on Track

I posted over at All Things Upper Elementary today about ways help students stay focused and on track.

Pop on over to read more

~Enjoy

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Birthdays Celebrations in the Classroom

Just sharing how I'm recognizing my students' birthdays in a quick but fun way this year.

The past few years my school put into place a No Food treats school birthday policy, which I do like because one year, on the same day, I had 2 sets of cupcakes dropped off unannounced and a whole sheet cake to slice up and serve from 3 separate families. YIKES, talk about sugar overload and interruption of instructional time.

My solution to still giving a bit of attention to birthdays is using this Ice Cream and Cake dance song on each students' birthday. It gets the kids' attention and celebrates the birthday girl/boy in a fun way.

Click picture for  Ice Cream and Cake song

 Happy Birthday Mice (another option)

 I print and label this free birthday calendar graph from Scholastic to keep track of every birthday so we can celebrate it Ice Cream and Cake style.

Now, I'm off to call my mom because it is her birthday today.

~Enjoy

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Parent Conferences Conferencing Note Freebie

It's the day before the first day of school for me and I've got a running list of a million things to do.

I'm also thinking ahead for later when conferences with parents will occur.

I made this handy reference sheet to document meeting discussions any time you might need to conference about a student. Grab this freebie in my store.

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Conference Time!

I'm heading into conference week come Monday.

Here's what I did Friday evening.

I collated and organized work samples, benchmark test results and report card data for each student.

I've found that it helps to organize the work by the way it is categorized on the report card. This makes presenting information to the parents easy.  I also have a Trimester Note with important  data to share with parents. It looks like this:

I also plan to share this Apple for the Teacher Poem with parents which is an important reminder of the home school connection to their child's learning.

Click picture to get your own copy:

Find more great ideas at my TPT store

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

My Favorite Vista Print Items

My favorite Vista Print items I've made are a tremendous help for my classroom management.

I make homework, extra choices, and reminder signs from their car door magnets and display them on my white board.  Take a look see.

I post what choices are available for free time under this sign

I post important school or class event dates under this one

I post daily homework assignments for students to record

Here is my homework display in action

You can see that I created smaller magnets with the same title sign image for the assignment listings.

I have loads more Vistaprint creations, but decided to limit my sharing to these for now!

~Enjoy

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Behavior Volcano - Helping Students Self Regulate

Many years ago at a classroom management training I brought away this self regulation idea for students who have difficulty with managing their behaviors. You involve the student in identifying what behaviors they display when they are calm, BUGGED, and their personal signals of stress. Then you work together to plan "Short Cut" choices to avoid a "meltdown". This sample is one I made a few years ago. I simply attached the visual to the student's desk as a constant reminder for self monitoring.

Find more great ideas at my TPT store

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

On Task Behavior

I loved the self regulation idea I ran across on Empowering Little Learners.  It called to me because I have at least 3 students who have difficulty realizing when they are off task. I'm hoping this cue sheet will become a magic bullet to help them self monitor their choices. I'm willing to give anything a try. Today was my first day giving it a spin, and all 3 students were able to honestly tell me what level they felt they were at when I asked them. I posted a mini version on each of their desks. Enjoy this revised version of the original.

Join The Wise and Witty Teacher Linky for more ideas!

~Enjoy

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

SLANT Focusing strategy

Do you need some Hocus, Pocus for some focus in your classroom?
I make use of this SLANT strategy cue card for some of my students that need help with redirection and on task behavior. I tape it to the corner of their desks. All I have to say is, "Show me SLANT" and they know they need to get back on track.  More information about SLANT  can be found {at this link}. 

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Nifty Game Piece Pockets

So I've spent a good part of today printing, prepping and laminating games I've gotten from great blogs.
I found a wonderful Post It pocket that can hold all those game pieces or flashcards that miraculously always seem to go missing upon clean up time. The pockets are self sticking and can be removed easily and then reattached! Here's one of the games I prepped today with a pocket attached for you to see. Want your own pockets? I got mine at Office Depot.

Homework Management

In 3rd grade responsibility is expected for my students to record their daily homework. Here is how I manage it. Students are given a weekly homework chart and as part of their morning routine copy down assignments from the board. It takes a few tries to get the process streamlined for some students, but it's a valuable skill learned.

Click image to get a copy

Classroom Computer Management

I have 3 classroom computers and always found students would clamor to grab one.
I'd see them hovering around just waiting to be next. Sound familiar?  It drove me crazy. This past year I introduced my "Computer Wait List" notepad and it was a lifesaver.  What are ways you deal with computer use management in your classroom. I'd love to hear your ideas.

Mystery Worker Classroom Management

Do you want a classroom management tip that will solve "The Case of the Noisy or Unfocused Classroom"?  Well.....here's a CLUE, it involves a little mystery. This past year I had teams of teachers from other districts observing my teaching techniques for collaboration, ideas and professional development. The common observation by all of them was always, "How do you get your class to behave so nicely and stay on task?" Well the Teacher Sherlock in me shared the all powerful "Mystery Worker" technique.

I have "Mystery Worker" reward cards always on hand to use and as needed I say, "I'm watching a Mystery Worker".  That phrase works like MAGIC.  Students quiet down and get to the task at hand. Then for a brief amount of time, usually for 10-15 minutes, I observe my target student. At the end of my "sleuthing" I decide whether the student earned the "Mystery Worker" honor. If they did, I hand them the card with a note explaining how they set a good example. If by chance the honor was not earned, I never reveal who I was watching. I do keep a running checklist of who I've targeted, so I can be sure to try and honor every student at some point.  Many of us have probably used the "Mystery Walker" in a similar way to target line behavior or transition times. I just took the idea a step further and brought it into my regular classroom teaching routines. Give it a go and see if it cracks the case of the craziness that can hit your classroom sometimes. Wondering where I made got my mystery worker cards? I created them on Vista Print business cards.

Find more great ideas at my TPT store

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

The Value of Bucket Filling

For the past several years I've used the popular Bucket Filler books by Carol McCloud in my classroom.

If you've not taken a peek at this series it is a MUST do.  At the start of every school year I begin the bucket filler program. I have this bulletin board display of personalized buckets for classmates to add positive bucket filler thoughts.

Here's my Bucket Filler Bulletin Board. I personalized each bucket with student's names and taped them to party favor treat boxes.  

 

I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

Come Join the group!

 (Freebie ideas and giveaways are sometimes shared there!)

I've also created seasonal themed bucket filler notes. Grab them here:

Pick of the Patch notes

Thankful notes

Holiday cheer notes

New Year's notes
Valentine notes
St. Patrick's notes
Eggstra Special notes
Friendship Growing notes

 

Stay in touch. Find me at:

My TPT store