Chop! Chop! Chop!

Do you hate when your favorite teaching book keeps flopping closed every time you walk away, stop to answer a question, get distracted by social media, let the dog out, feel thirsty or blink?  

Well...chop, chop, chop folks!  

The nice folks at Office Max (prices and locations may vary), will chop the binding off my favorite teaching books and add a spiral binding for just $3 or $4. It goes like this...I take my favorite teaching book to the counter (with another one that already has my favorite kind of spiral binding with me as a sample).  I hand over my book and give them a lecture about how precious it is and how I don’t want them to remove, lose or misplace any of my sticky notes.  Then the nice folks there stick my book into a giant fancy chopperooni machine (I’m sure it has a more official name) and CHOP (goodbye old binding)!  Then PUNCH (holes added)!  Then TWIST (new fancy spiral binding added)! 

Voila!

Just like that...I can check Instagram, get a drink and let the dogs out and MY BOOK STAYS OPEN!  

Oh happy day...

A Day in the Life Linky

Doing a quick link up today about daily schedules with Amelia, from Where the Wild Things Learn.

Here is a sample of a typical day in my room. Our special class schedule changes each day, so each day my schedule looks different as a result.

You can head over to visit Amelia at the link above to view other sample schedules. There are lots of great ideas that are inspiring me to rethink my current schedule to change things up a bit.  For me, it's always a good idea to reflect and change...

 
 

Positive Behavior Management (Freebie)

Over the years, I've become pretty comfortable with classroom management. I say that, but I also believe that there is always room for improvement. Every group of students is different and something different challenges me every year. This year, it is the listening (or should I say lack of). Nice kids...not a lot of listening so far. It's a work in progress.

I do not use a clip system, a stop light or a pretty behavior chart. Lots of my favorite teachers use them. It's just not for me. I tried it during one of my first years in 1st grade. I felt like it drew attention to the children displaying negative behaviors (which some of them seem to enjoy). Goodbye pretty clothes pin chart.

My rules are simple. My expectations are clear. This year, I decided to add a positive behavior support system. I found the most adorable set of awards from Teacher to the Core on Tpt this summer.

I copied the awards that I wanted to use from the pack on different colored color copy paper.  

I put them in a medium sized index card file box.

When I give a student one of the awards, I take their picture with the award and add it to a book that we keep in the classroom called Check  Us Out. By the end of the year, the pages will be full of pictures of our students with their awards for good behavior/effort/problem solving.   I invite the students to read the book whenever they are finished with their work or have free time.  I also invite the parents to stop by and read the book when they visit the building.

Along the same lines, I also have a book called Our Best Work.  When I notice that a student works super hard on their work (and I'm super picky) and it looks like their very best work, I take their picture with it and put them in Our Best Work book.  My students and parents are invited to read this book as well.

If you'd like to download a copy of the covers I made and make your own books you can click on the image below.

Enjoy your day!

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