The School Supply Addict: classroom management

Showing posts with label classroom management. Show all posts

Adaptable Labels... Giveaway!

I've posted a few sets of adaptable labels over the past few days. I use these guys for everything!

Labeling...

supplies
student cubbies
notebooks
word wall words
card games
little mini vocabulary lists for students
little notes
center signs
steps in a series of directions
library tub labels
... and more.

Here's an example of what you can do with them. (This is just one of the styles)

You open the document, customize the labels, and print. There's none of that 'shifting box' mess that I hate. The boxes stay the same size and you can edit whatever is inside of them. Pretty easy and quick. You can 'Save As' each set you make to use again if you need to.

Here are the ones I've posted so far. Click the picture to get them on TPT for $1.50 each.

Style A: 6 per page, 2x4.5 inches

Style A: 6 per page, 3.1x3.3 inches

Style A: 12 per page, 2.3x2.3 inches

Style B: 6 per page, 2x4.5 inches

Style B: 6 per page, 3x3 inches

Style B: 12 per page, 2x2 inches

Style C: 6 per page, 2x4.5 inches

Style C: 6 per page, 3x3 inches

Style C: 12 per page, 2x2 inches

Style C: 3 per page, 2x9.5 inches

Style C: 4 per page, 3.5x4.5 inches

Current Followers are included in this already.

Click 'Follow' before 5pm EST.

February 3, 2012

Did you like how I did that? Used my own labels? So tricky.

Ok. That is all.

Also, if your interested in winning a Build-A-Board-Game set... click here. That ends tomorrow too.

Ok. This is the end. Seriously. Happy Thursday!

Update: Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner... Melissa!!! Woohoo!

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

Hello Edmodo

Nope. Not Quasimodo. You thought about this creepy Disney character at first didn't you? If not, you are now. I recently came across another awesome technology find. It's UHHHHMAZING!

It's called Edmodo and it's basically like a G rated, non weird, useful version of Facebook... for your classroom. You can create a little online community and control everything from it! It has some really cool features:

calendar - post activities, assignments, etc.
class creation - create a different group for each class you have
wall - post on the 'wall' kind of like fb...announcements, questions, engaging discussions for students, videos, links, assignments, etc.
parent notification
assignments - create, post, accept, and grade assignments from one spot
quizzes - create a quiz, post, and grade all internally.
badges - create and award special 'badges' for when students complete a project/unit
... and more!

This site is ideal for middle and high school teachers, but it may also work for intermediate elementary too. I'm not so sure it would work well for any younger students, but maybe?

Signing up is FREE and easy. You enter very little information... took me about 2 minutes! I've signed up and created a profile, but haven't had the chance to use it yet. Looks easy though! Instead of me trying to explain what it is, how about you watch their video... Enjoy. Click to go to their site. You might just love this!

Let me know if you start using this!

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

Calendar Crazy

So, I'm sort of a calendar nut. I love having a large one (whether printed or in a book form) that I can write all over. I love my iPad calendar, but after recently losing it in Chicago (at the airport) and waiting an agonizing 14 days to retrieve it, I've decided to just do the paper one and add to the iPad if needed. I think I'll eventually be in the 21st century again. I used to do everything by Outlook, but I don't have it anymore with this new computer... too cheap to spend $100 on just Outlook.

Here are some calendars I've had on my computer for a while... I didn't just decide to make a bunch of calendars. That's been done before... but I do love the cute colors. :) I use this one pictured below (picture of June because the months prior are already written all over and you don't need to know my birthday or travel plans). I love Monday start calendars because it makes the weekend more exciting for some reason... gray boxes together give the illusion of a longer break? I don't know.

Anyway, I've tweaked the calendar a bit to offer six different versions. Click the pictures to download (for Free) in my TPT store!

1. Blank, Color, Sunday Start

2. Blank, Color, Monday Start

3. 2012, Color, Monday Start

4. Blank, BW, Sunday Start

5. Blank, BW, Monday start

6. 2012, BW, Monday Start

Hopefully they come in handy! Happy Monday! Or is it?

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

Procedure Picture Rubrics

Happy New Year!!! Can you believe it's 2012?! Crazy. I've been on hiatus from this blog for a few weeks. We traveled back to the US for almost three weeks (for Christmas shenanigans) and there have been some other small trips and distractions. Sorry to my two followers. Haha. I know it will take time to get this thing going and I have a long list of blog topics ready to go. So here goes the first one in weeks. :)

I was recently going through some old photos of my class and came across these procedure picture rubrics. Say that five times fast. Call them what you want, but that's basically what they are... rubrics... created with pictures... for classroom procedures. I learned about this in a professional development series our district provided. The instructor showed us an example and I decided to try it out on my class. They LOVED making them and it made a couple of our routines run like clockwork.

Below are the two my kiddos used. "Ready to Go" was for anytime we lined up to go somewhere and "Ready to Learn" was for anytime we transitioned to our tables. Sorry for the poor quality pictures.

How to make them:

Pick a procedure (lining up, recess clean up, transitions, end of day, etc.). Only do a few 'big' procedures.... not everything.
Decide on a rating system (I did 1-5; 1=chaos, 5=perfect); I've seen some with 1,2,3 too
Talk with students about what each step would look like (1 was a hot mess in our class, 3 was about half the class following directions, and a 5 was perfection)
Take pictures of each of the 'ratings.' The kids loved doing the #1 because they could be wild and do silly things in the photo (notice a couple kids laying on tables).
Print the pictures and mount them on a poster (include the rating #s on each picture and the title)
Put the poster wherever the procedure takes place. I put my "Ready to Go" poster on the door.
Implement and use hand signals (hold up number of fingers for their 'score') until they get to 5. I didn't have to say a word... just held up fingers. They got it. "Shhhhh! Sit down! We're only at a 3... look at Mrs. Hughes! She's waiting." :)

I did this in the middle of the year, but had I known about it sooner we would have done it the first week.

Let me know if you make some! They're great. Bon weekend! (means have a good weekend in French... my favorite phrase here in Swiz-land).

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

Clip Chart Love

Ok. I L.O.V.E the clip chart. I've tried several other behavior management systems and none compare. Seriously. I was first introduced to it by a good friend (and colleague) a couple years ago. She got it from a mentor teacher, who got it from... who knows. Anyway, it spread through our school like wildfire. Why? Because it works and reinforces positive behavior.

The real source of the clip chart is Rick Morris. I want to kiss him for it. Click here for the eBook which gives you lots of details.

For those of you new to the clip chart concept, here's a run down:

Make a chart (see the various examples below)
Students start out on Green each day (ready to learn)
Good choice = clip up one color
Bad choice = clip down one color
Another bad choice? clip down
Another good choice? clip up
They can go up and down throughout the day. "What's that you say Ashley?" They can move up AND down. They aren't stuck on a stupid yellow or red light once they make a poor choice (don't get me started on the red, yellow, green light / 123 magic system). They also don't get three warnings before I actually make them clip down. They know the rules. If they break them, then they know the consequence. However, they have a chance to redeem themselves if they had a bad morning. I'd be towards the bottom too if I came in without my coffee.
Non-verbal signals work easily with this. No more interrupting class or making a public scene. Thumbs up = clip up; Thumbs down = clip down
Easy to understand and you don't have to even touch the chart. The kids can move the clips on their own and a student can have the job of moving everyone back to green at the end of the day.
Parents get it and LOVE it. They appreciate that their child's day isn't ruined by being stuck on yellow at 8am and not being able to turn the day around.
Easy to communicate daily behavior (you need 7 markers and some sort of recording sheet... see below).
It promotes POSITIVE behavior.
It's awesome.

More proof of it's awesomeness:

I am teaching here in Switzerland and all of my international students 'get it'. I have Swiss, Russian, Italian, French, German, Dutch, and Austrian kids. It took one day to get the hang of it. They love it and they HATE clipping down. I rarely have any behavior problems and when I do it's something minor.

Want to make your own? Great!

Step 1: Make a chart There are endless ways to do it. Just make sure it will be durable and the kids can easily use it. My two versions are below. The first was in my kindergarten classroom (stool next to it) and I made it from page protectors stapled/taped to the wall (so they could get the clips on) and regular sheets of paper.

Here's my mobile clip chart below. It's about 2' tall and I have two different sets of names (for each class). I bought a piece of white plastic/board from the hardware store (not sure what it was for) and painted it, let it dry, then wrote the words with permanent marker (tried painting words, but it looked like I'd been drinking all day so I stuck with black marker). The clips are painted white because I'm a type A person and wanted white. I can paint over them for my next class. I'm pretty proud of myself for accomplishing this in Switzerland because everything seems like a challenge.

More examples...

What Happens in 2nd Grade

Behavior Chart using kids' pictures instead of clothespins

Miss Lak's 2nd Grade

Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten

Finally in First

Teach-A-Roo

Mrs. Grant's Kinder Gators

Reflections from Within

Tales of a 3rd Grade

Seriously cannot figure out where I found this one. Let me know if you know the source.

Babbling Abby

First Grade Fever

Mrs. Bukovan's Class

Step 2: Introduce it to your students (AND parents). They'll get it. Parents might not at first because they're not the ones using it, but they will because their kids will talk about it. Have students practice moving their clips up and down. Make a chart of good and poor choices. Use the rules you already have in class. Don't make up new ones. It's easy to integrate!

Step 3: Let it be awesome You will quickly fall in love with it and you'll hardly touch the thing. It will do what it's supposed to do... as long as you're not a crazy and horrible teacher who delights in kids clipping down.

Improvements & Adaptations:

If a student gets to the top and they're just having an outstanding, super, amazing day, then let them clip up even more. Clip up to the teacher's shirt? What about clipping it to your hair? I know my kids went insane when one of them got to clip up to my pony tail or shirt. Crazy.
If my kids got to the top (purple in my room) then they got to spin a wheel. The wheel had special 'prizes' on it: computer time, sitting at teacher's desk, reading to another class, eating lunch with a friend from another class, etc.... not candy and toys. I don't believe in rewarding good behavior with diabetes. Halloween is enough.
Make one of your class jobs the "clip manager." The clip manager gets to reset all of the clips to green at the end of the day.
Top of the chart = a jewel (you know those sparkly ones at craft stores?) OR you could give them a different color each time they reach the top (which is supposed to be rare).

Things to be aware of:

Clips will break/come apart.... at the. most. inconvenient. times. Be prepared. Have new ones handy or be ready to fix them.
Really young ones (< 5) might have trouble using the clothespin. Give them a week. They'll get it.
Kids will start asking you to clip up. All. the. time. Tell them "asking doesn't work." You have to catch them in the act.
Once you tell one kid to clip up then you'll have 20 other students copying the behavior. It's great, but be prepared to respond to this: "You let Katie clip up and I did the same thing. That's not fair. Why can't I do it?"
Some students might need their own mini clip chart at their desk. You know the ones who have severe control issues. Giving them a mini version serves as a constant reminder. They can even take it to their specials classes (art, PE, music, etc.).
You know that sneaky student? They will try to clip up double spots. Beware. I made a rule that if they got caught clipping up double, then they clipped down double. It never happened again.
"Piggy-back clipping" - the act of clipping your clip on the end of another clip, thus making a long ridiculous chain of clips. This WILL happen. You know what? Who cares?! Let them piggy-back clip... unless it becomes a distraction.

Here's the form I sent home each day. Click it to download! This form was in each student's folder. The circle is to be filled with whatever color the student ends the day on. You need 7 colors and maybe a pen to write an explanation for 'parent contact' students. So easy. I made a ton of copies of this at the beginning of the year and replaced it at the beginning of each month. It's very visual and I even let the kids color in their circles the last quarter of the year (with supervision).... they loved it.

SOOO thankful that my friend S introduced me to the clip chart. Thanks S!!!

Go make a clip chart. Now. Do it.

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

Ribbon Organization

Oh my gosh! This is genius. Ribbon and string were impossible to keep organized in my room (and in my scrapbooking box). There aren't many words needed for this post. I love this.