Motivation!

Linking up today!

Last week I spoke about how my kiddos had our standardized testing happening.  I'm sure it was about the same for schools all over the place.  I mentioned in the post how I kind of feel bad for the kids.  They are sick of testing (at least in my school) by the time they get to the big one.

I wanted my guys to have just a little bit of extra steam to get them through the testing and to do their best so I decided to make them something special for each day of testing:

Student Motivation: Point Reward System

Linking up with Head Over Heels for Teaching to show of a student motivation technique :)

This year, my middle school team came up with an idea for positive motivation to go along with our behavior logs.  We are using a point system to allow students to earn a reward of their choice.  We started by allowing each class to choose a reward that they want to work for.  My class chose a Takis party.  The other 6th grade wants to have a chips party.  Each class is different in what they wanted.

Each class has the opportunity to earn 5 points per day in each subject.  If they are getting loud, or off task, etc they lose a point as a class.  When their class reaches the goal that we teacher set, they get to celebrate by having their reward.

It is really simple, but the students love it.  They chose the reward, so they own it.  They are working as a class to earn the reward, so they stay more on top of those 'challenge' students.

New School Year....Finally

As I had mentioned before, I started at a new school this year!  I think that is partially why I've been a bit MIA the last little while.  I finally have a moment to sit down and get caught up on some personal hobbies IE Blogging!

Here are some pictures of my classroom and some things I'm doing this year.  They are about a month old, so I promise they're bigger and better now.  Enjoy anyway :)

I have done this in the past, but decided to modify a little bit.  Whenever my students earn an 'A' on a quiz they get a post-it note to decorate and hang up.  When they earn an 'A' on a test they get a whole index card to decorate and hang up.  They love it because not only are they personalizing our classroom, they get to show off a little bit; what kid doesn't like to boast?!

This year I'm requiring all of my students to have a composition book to keep all of their math notes in.  I'm not doing a 100% interactive math journal, but I have them do quite a few things in there.  Composition books seem to be the easiest way to keep things together.  For the front of their books, I had them decorate a sheet of construction paper with their first name and numbers that have meaning in their lives.

It is important to tell the students what is going to be required for them each day.  Usually teacher will post the standards that students will be learning.  I post 'I Can' statements.  I know it's not unique nor new, but the students like it.  It helps them take ownership over their learning.

This is the start of my stations wall.  I put each student's name on a mini popsicle stick that has a magnet on the back (color coded by grade).  Each station has been numbered and the students go to whichever station they are assigned.  Now that we've been going at it a few weeks, I have it a lot more organized.  I'll post something separate on that later.

Finally, my Sumdog wall!  This is the wall all of my students LIVE to check out.  It keeps tabs of all of their ranks on Sumdog.  I've written about this program before....and I cannot reiterate how much I LOVE this site.  If you want your students to show marked improvement in their math skills, please check it out.  And it's my favorite price FREE!

Project CHILD

I am currently going through a training for Project CHILD with my new school.

I LOVE it!  I'm only on day 1/3 and I can't wait to see what this program has to offer.  I'll be back with some more info, but sure of that!

Motivating Students to Monitor Behavior

It's that time again!  I love figuring out all of the ways that people motivate their students!  It's  something that I think all teachers need continual education on because no two students are motivated by the same thing and it's our job to make sure we get to them all somehow!  So thanks Joanne!

Minimizing Chaos in My Classroom: Quick Tip

A big thanks to Angela and Jean for hosting this Linky!  I'm a first time contributor to Quick Tips, and I hope some people find it useful!

MUST HAVE-for next year :)

Sorry guys, I'm on a roll with Linkys this morning!  I thought this was a fun idea to get my mind thinking about what I'm going to require my students to have next year.  I'll admit right away that I got a smidge carried away, but I LOVE back-to-school supplies so I went with it.  I'm a nerd, I know.

I also know I'm a bit late to this Linky Party, but I saw someone else join in last night and figured, why not?!

New things for next year....

Thank you JOY in 6th Grade for hosting a linky party!  I've actually really enjoyed getting in on these.  Who knew blogging could be so much fun? ;-)

Next year is actually going to be a whole new adventure for me.  I'll be back to teaching math and it'll be at a new school!  I've taught math for the past four years, this is the first not teaching math, so I'm okay with that [though I've LOVED teaching LA].  The scary part will be that this is going to be my first time ever in a different school!  I've only been teaching for five years, but all five of them have been here.  I'll get into that, and my soppy farewell, later.

Three things popped into my head though that I am DEFINITELY going to do....

Student Motivation....Index Cards!

When I was in high school my geometry teacher had this rule set up that if you earned an 'A' on one of her tests, you got an index card to decorate however you wanted.  Then you got to hang it up on the wall for the world to see!

I never forgot how much pride I felt when I earned one of those cards and got to show off how my hard work paid off.

Water Day!

I have to say, one of the perks of being a teacher is that you get to arrange to do all of those things you wanted to do when you were a kid; but couldn't.

One of the things I would have given up a sister for (granted I'd have given them up for a speck of dust) was a bouncy house or a giant blow up slide.

This week we had our quarterly reward day for middle school.  Students who managed to keep themselves under 12 marks (I'll explain our discipline system later) got to participate.

In order to play toward my childish side, I rented a giant bouncy slip and slide!  Holy cow was it fun!

Organization at its....best?

I decided it sounded like fun to participate in a linky party!  Thank you Fun in Room 4B for hosting and giving us teachers the opportunity to share what we know and to gain new ideas from others.