First week done...and those boring perpendicular lines!

Blogger friends!!  I survived my first week of fourth grade!  Not only survived, but I absolutely love it. :D

This is the first year that I've really felt like I have a stronger handle on my classroom management system.  I did so much research over the summer (and thanks to some of you for sharing your wonderful ideas and serving as inspiration!) and really hit the ground running!

Last year Angi and my first-grade teammates introduced the clip-chart system to me, and I loved it!  The thing that I love most about the clip-chart is that you can tie it in nicely with any other behavior systems, such as schoolwide systems, or even integrating it with my classroom economy system like I want to do!  So I am still incorporating the clip-chart in my classroom this year.

However, with learning more about whole brain teaching, I'm also incorporating elements of that with my classroom.  I created my own set of class rules, but much like whole brain teaching, I make it a point for my class and I to recite the rules every day, and I also tied in some gestures to go with the rules to help us remember them.

I'm also using some of the "chants" (for lack of better term) from whole brain teaching - day one, I introduced "class-yes" and "hands and eyes" and oh goodness, I so wish I had known about them YEARS ago!  Honestly, "class-yes" is the most basic idea ever (for those of you unfamiliar, you teach your class that whenever you as the teacher say "class", the students have to respond with "yes" and then be silent and ready to listen to what you will tell them next) but it is by far ALREADY super effective at bringing my kids attention back to me when necessary.  I do have a few chatters (haha, what year have I not?) but I've already noticed the positive peer pressure from other students to encourage them to kick it in gear and get on board with the rest of us. Love love love this idea the most of all.  Honestly, try it, and I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised as well! :D

I am loving the difference between first grade and fourth grade.  My kids can already read, and can already express their ideas through writing.  We can get to the meat and bones of stories now, really thinking about what is happening and the devices that the authors are using, instead of just working on decoding words.  In math, (most of) my kids already understand how to add and subtract (one I'm not too sure about...poor sweetie) and even have experience with multiplying (dividing is still a little shaky).  I introduced silent reading and talked about the behaviors we should be using during that time, and today (after only 2 days of practice) we sat and read...actually READ...for 20 solid minutes.  My kids were engaged with their books, and we were working on writing down predictions as we read.  I was able to walk around and give individual attention to some students who needed a little extra help.  SO NICE!!

And my team of fourth grade teachers...no, I take that back, basically all the staff at my school... are so WONDERFUL to work with.  And SO extremely willing to help me out with whatever questions I have, even if I've already asked them the same question 5 times in a row for 3 days straight. Haha.  Friends, I have NEVER felt so much at home in a school setting...and this is STILL just the first week!  Even after the first day, one of the other teachers asked me how things were going, and she said it just looked like I was "radiating happiness".  I'm head over heels with it all. :)

I want to leave you with my first funny... we took a math pretest before beginning with the first lesson in the book, and I didn't realize (because I wasn't the one who typed up the page) until I went to check over them that there was a typo on one of the problems.  The question should have read "are these lines perpendicular and INTERSECTING" but instead said "perpendicular and INTERESTING".  One student really considered this as she wrote her response:

Happy Friday!!

Classroom Economy (with printables!)

I've been in my classroom each day this week - pretty soon I'll have some pictures to share with you!

In the meantime, I know I've been alluding to the classroom economy system I want to implement this year, so I'm finally getting around to posting about it! (Stay tuned at the end for some freebies!)

I'd seen various formats for classroom economies posted on the internet and around pinterest, so I combined  a lot of the ideas I liked into my own classroom economy system!

(I haven't tried implementing this yet, so all of this thinking is how I *hope* it will run!!)

COMPONENT ONE: CLASSROOM JOBS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

First step will be showing the list of jobs and responsibilities and explaining each one, so that the students will have an idea of the jobs that exist, and what will be required.  I am a strong believer in every student having a job for which they are responsible in the classroom.

After that, students will complete a job application for their first, second, and third choice jobs.

I'll collect the job applications, and assign jobs. Students will be responsible for knowing when and how to perform their jobs, and how much "pay" they earn each day.

COMPONENT TWO: ECONOMY AND "PAY" SYSTEM

Students will receive "earnings" each day based on 3 categories: behavior, classroom job performance, and homework completion.
Behavior: I have integrated the clip chart system with this economy structure - students gain/lose earnings based on the color where they finish their day.  For more about the clip chart system, see here.  
Classroom job performance: each job receives a specific amount of "pay" each day.  If students complete their jobs, they earn their wages.  If not, then they do not earn their wages.  I'm hoping this will help motivate the students and keep them accountable for performing their jobs!
Homework completion: If students complete their homework, they earn $1 per assignment.  If they don't, they lose $1 per assignment.

Students will keep track of their monetary earnings in a personal ledger:

At the end of each day, they will total up their earnings and/or losses with a "banker" (one of the classroom jobs).  At the end of the week they will "pay rent" for their property (desk and chair) and have the opportunity to spend their earnings. (I've tried to make sure that even the lowest-paying jobs, combined with good behavior and homework habits, will allow students to have AT LEAST enough to pay rent and to start saving up for some of the rewards!! - hopefully this will hold true, otherwise I may have to adjust a bit!)  If students don't have enough money to pay rent, they can borrow a loan from the bank:

I printed some of these out and laminated them. :)

As students save up money, they can purchase privileges, or they can purchase property!

I already have to change this a bit, as I've learned my school has a strict no-food-in-the-classroom policy.  No candy option for me anymore! :)

I've tried to make the rewards enticing enough that hopefully they will want to save up to get the good ones, and hopefully it won't take too long or happen too frequently!

Or, as an alternative, students can opt to purchase their property (desk and chair) AND/OR others' property!

For example, if Sally purchases her own property, she will no longer have to pay rent.  If Sally purchases Billy's property, then Billy has to pay his rent to Sally!  Depending on how this idea goes over, I may have to instate a rule that if you can afford to buy your own property, you get dibs on it...or something like that, just so there aren't too many arguments and/or tyrant property owners! :)

WHEW! I think that's everything! Now for some FREEBIES!! :D I've included some of the above documents, in case this classroom economy system appeals to you!

information sheet

job application

list of jobs and responsibilities

weekly ledger

rewards and prices

record of property purchases and bank loans

I'd love to hear if any of you choose to implement this in your classrooms, and how it goes! :)

Monday made-it!

I'm linking up today with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for her weekly Monday made-it!

This week I worked on my classroom rules display. I was inspired by a pin I found on pinterest of a teacher who had hung her rules vertically on ribbon, and was intrigued! I thought it would match my clip chart if I made mine in a similar fashion, so this is what I came up with! :)

Here's what the whole thing looks like.

And here are some close-ups.

And here are the files for my signs if they strike your fancy as well!  I printed them out on white cardstock, and then glued them to blue cardstock and laminated them.  Then I hot-glued them to the ribbon.  I love how they turned out!!

Another element of my Monday made-it is my new blog header and my new blog button!  I'm so excited with how they turned out, and think they look a lot more polished than my previous ones.  Hooray!

And FINALLY my most exciting Monday made-it item of all... a dress!!  I asked for a sewing machine for Christmas this past year from my parents, and have just finally started using it with a passion.  My mom has incredible sewing skills - she made just about all of my sisters' and my Halloween costumes growing up, and she made all of my homecoming and prom dresses.  I'd been hoping that I inherited some of her talent!  I finally found some really easy tutorials online of how to make some dresses without needing to use any patterns (basically just sewing the fabric to the top of a tank-top) and finally took the plunge and am so proud of how this dress turned out!! 

This is actually my second dress - the first one I made with a different fabric and a shorter length.

I knocked it out in a day - something around 9 hours altogether, with sizeable breaks between working on each part.  And I also added something that the online tutorial didn't call for - lining, since the bottom fabric is a really light color.  And I finished it!  I even wore it the next day to my friend's bridal shower, and got some compliments on it!  I can't wait to attempt other dresses and skirts - this was a huge confidence boost for me and my growing skills! :D

I'm hoping to be able to get into my classroom sometime this week to start the unpacking/decorating process, so cross your fingers for me, and stay tuned! 

 

The Teacher Keeper!

Happy July 6th!! :)  Hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday on Wednesday!  I had a few friends over to my apartment, and we watched my (new) town's fireworks...and we didn't even have to drive anywhere!!  My town apparently shoots off their fireworks from just down the street where my apartment is, so my friends and I laid a sheet on the lawn next to my apartment building, and had a great view! :)

I'm starting to get used to the new town (but not to this oppressive heat wave we currently have!) and found my way to Office Max and to Michael's (which was in the next town over, but still, not too far away!) to collect some materials for the project I wanted to attempt today - my Teacher Keeper.

I actually made one this past spring when Angi showed me her "big book of everything".  A central place to keep all your important documents...hello, brilliant idea!  So I quick whipped one up too, with my then-limited creating and envisioning skills.  This is what it looked like:

Notice how advanced the design is...and the fact that the page for the front cover doesn't fill the entire pocket.  Blech!!

And the inside: 

I could only have as many tabs as came in the package of page dividers I had purchased, and I was at the mercy of the colors they decided to include in the package.  I'm not a huge fan of reds and yellows and the "warm" colors... I'm more of a green-blue-purple kind of girl.  So needless to say, I haven't been totally thrilled with the binder I had.  And some of the sections that I chose to create were not necessarily things that I would need to access on a regular basis.  Sooooo I decided that today I would make it my project to give my teacher binder a makeover!!

After shopping, I came back with these supplies:

Michael's had sets of cardstock in my favorite color schemes - I was so excited!! And that's right friends...I bought myself a paper trimmer!! No more having to trim sides time and again to make sure they are straight and even...boom!  Now I can do it in one fell swoop! (Plus, I had a 50% off 1 item coupon for Michael's... how could I not?) :)

So I got crafty, and this is the end result, of which I am 110% prouder than my first attempt!!

I even browsed around Pinterest for some naming inspiration, and came across Mrs. Pollard's creation, which you can see on her blog here.  I loved the name "teacher keeper" because it rhymes (for the most part) and literally it's going to keep everything useful that I need.  Yay!  I love using scrapbooking paper for the outside of binders now, because I can cut it to fit, and usually the pages have far more design than I could ever think to dream up!  Huge improvement!

Inside, I used Kristen's binder labels, found here, for the larger section labels.  I created the smaller ones, based on some of the same categories she used.  I have (the all-caps are her categories, and the sub-headings are mine):

PLANNING

calendar

lesson plans

standards

ASSESSING

INFO 

class info

behavior/management

ELL info

meeting notes

GRADING

references

AND I was able to do them all in the color scheme that I like!! I'm so excited with how the binder turned out, that now I kind of want to go through some of the pages I'm going to put inside and retype them...which I actually might do!  But probably tomorrow, because I should get some sleep! And Libby kitty wants some attention now too... so that might be a project for tomorrow! :)

No-Homework Binder

Been busy creating all day today!  Unfortunately I didn't feel like turning on the AC today (some days I just feel like trying to save money and suffer the consequences!) so I've had my little tower fan right next to me, and been swinging it around between the computer and the floor where I was sitting.  But the afternoon sun has been brutal, so I may cave in soon... ;)

I wanted to share one of the quick projects I did this afternoon!  First, I have to credit Leslie at Jack of all Trades for the idea, which I found a few weeks ago through Pinterest!  Such a great idea, and easy to maintain - especially if I link it to one of the classroom jobs I have in mind, and put a student in charge of monitoring it when homework needs to be turned in... more on my ideas for classroom jobs in a future post, I promise! :)

So I present to you, my very own No Homework Binder!

Ta-daaaaa!

I printed the labels on cardstock, and used packing tape to secure the labels to the outside of an old binder I had.  Unfortunately, after I was so proud of the shell of my little binder, I opened it up...only to discover that I hadn't looked closely enough and had taped the labels upside-down and on the back of the binder!!  Wahhhh!

So I tore it all off, had to re-print the small corner label with my name on it again because it ripped, and turned the binder over to the proper front.  A few more pieces of tape later, and I was good to go! :)

Inside the binder, I wanted to create a homework contract to be the first page - a document with norms that my students and I can all understand as far as homework expectations go.  I browsed around Google for some inspiration, and eventually just made up my own.

It basically states that there will be homework on a regular basis (how often?  I don't know yet, since I'm starting at a new school and don't know their norms yet... so I left it intentionally vague); that the students can depend on me writing the homework in the same place every time so they know where to expect to look; that if students do not complete their homework by the due date they will have to log an entry in the No Homework Binder; and that homework is a tool that will help the students learn responsibility and practice the skills they are learning in class.  I'll discuss the contract at the beginning of the year, and the students and I will all sign that page.  That way, if a student forgets to turn in homework or chooses not to do it, that homework contract is the first thing they see when they open the binder and hopefully seeing their signature will remind the student that he/she agreed to be held accountable.

The rest of the pages in the binder are each student's no-homework log.

If a student doesn't do his/her homework, he/she will have a personal page to record the date, assignment, and reason it was not done. Sad face.

I love this idea because it provides documentation of chronic homework evaders, all in one place, and it requires little to no maintenance on my part.  WIN!