Organization and Management, A Little of Each

As I've been teaching for about 100 years, I've explored many different ways to manage behaviors.

These are the two things I've settled on lately:

The Scoreboard has been my savior for the last few years!  It is my main tool for management in the classroom. The best part? It's simple to use! It's part of the Whole Brain Teaching strategies, and I absolutely love it! Basically, when the kids do something well, put a tally on the happy side. When something doesn't go well, put a tally on the sad side. If Happy beats Sad at the end of the day, the kids earn 5 minutes toward a privilege, such as extra recess, arts and crafts, or a dance party. Different teachers do different things with the scoreboard, but that's how I use it. It goes all day, every day!

See more about Whole Brain Teaching HERE (Be sure to watch the videos. That's what hooked me in!)

I also use a Clip Chart. I have one with a sports theme and one with a music theme, and each uses beanie babies for incentive. Yep, there's not much more exciting than getting the privilege of having a beanie baby (or two, or more) live on your desk for the day.

There are some that see clip charts as a negative experience for the children. I believe the success lies in the execution. You can read more about that HERE.

Now here are a couple of organizational ideas :

Organizational Tip #1: Organization for base ten blocks! Aren't these caddies great? It's so easy for the kids to get the pieces they need. I used to keep them in one big tub, but all the little cubes would fall to the bottom, and it was tough for the kids to get the ones they needed! These are much easier! (Plus, these base ten blocks are made of foam... much quieter!)

If you're interested in these caddies, just explore this image!

Amazon calls them "Art Caddies", but classroom teachers know they're useful for many things other than just Art supplies!

Organizational Tip #2: Writing Folder Organization! Use 4 different colors, and have even amounts of folders for each color. There's never a question of where a folder would go, or where to put it away. After school, go through the red ones on Monday, yellow on Tuesday, green on Wednesday, and blue on Thursday. Then you get Friday off!  

I use the drawers of the cart for different kinds of paper.

  

 I put pre-stapled booklets, staplers, tape, and staple removers on an extra desk.

Organizational Tip #3: Letter guide/ number grid! I give every child one of these two-sided cards that we use ALL THE TIME! They are good tools for math as well as handwriting. (That's the Handwriting Without Tears alphabet on the back.) They are great for covering work during a test.  They make great bookmarks. They can help kids keep their place while reading. Seriously, these letter guide/ number guides are out several times a day. Plus, if you laminate them, the kids can write on them with dry-erase markers! The letter guide is copyrighted, so you'll have to get that through HWT, but you can download the color-coded number grid HERE!

Hope you appreciate these management and organizational tips!

Happy Music

Music is magical! Music  can change our moods. Music can lift your spirits, and bring you out of your doldrums. 

 

A few months ago I posted about Music for the classroom. I gave ideas for music to play for optimum learning, and why it is important for learning. You can read that post HERE.

Today I wanted to focus more on the happy music. You know, the music to have playing while the students arrive in the morning (see THIS post) or during an Open House.

Below you'll see several links for the kind of music I play in my classrooms when "happy music" is needed. As the children walk into the room in the morning, I want them feeling good, so I play happy music. I also play happy music during brain breaks, or any point in the day where children seem to need a "lift".

We also have an Open House coming up soon. The children come with their parents to meet their teacher for the first time. I usually have some fun things for the children to do when they get there, but you can be sure I'll have some fun music playing in the background! It gives a happy feel to the entire room! 

Here are a few ideas for fun music.

Music collections designed for kids!

I find "oldies" collections are great fun for all generations.  The Big Band stuff is fantastic in the classroom, and who doesn't love the Andrews Sisters?




 

Here's a list of fun stuff I have on my ipad, that I play just to put myself in a good mood.  (You know, cleaning, setting up the classroom, when you need a lift!) It works for kids, too!

Most of these are "classic rock" you can't miss playing this music!

 

 

See HERE to download my list.

What music makes you happy? What music do you play in the classroom?

Punch Out Those Facts, Thanks to Brain Research!

I read a lot of articles on the internet, most of them have something to do with how the brain learns and holds information. We are lucky to be teaching in the 21st century where research is published daily about the brain.  I find this absolutely fascinating, and follow several brain related publications.

Recently I read this article, Want to hold onto a Memory?  Make a Fist. It tells about a study about clenching fists to help the memory. First, a learner should clench the right fist for 45 seconds to activate the encoding part on the left side of the brain. (Left handed people do the opposite.)

Then, clenching the left fist will help recall the information.

Although there is a lot of research to be done on this area, I've been suggesting to my students to clench their "writing hand" fist while saying a series of facts, for example: the "plus 3s". It would sound like this:

3+0=3 3+1=4 3+2=5 3=3+6 3+4=7

3+5=8 3+6=9 3+7=10 3+8=11 3+9=12

Then, they can sit down and write them while clenching their non-writing hand.

Of course, they might need some fun help with the clenching.

The crowd pleaser collection:

For the sports fans:


For geography enthusiasts: (These are my favorite!)

 

I started using the term "punch out the facts" to remind the children to make a fist!

Even if this recent research doesn't pan out, there are plenty of brain strategies that will help the children learn their facts:

1. Talking! Saying the fact out loud helps!

2. Visuals! As they read the facts, they are using visuals to help the memory!

3. Movement! As they clench each fist, they are physically engaged! 

4. Repetition! As they repeat each fact, they are making more connections in the brain! 

Here's a freebie that lists all the addition and subtraction facts the children need to learn. 

Here's a freebie that lists all the addition and subtraction facts the children need to learn. 

Most other math skills depend upon this basic knowledge!

 

Good luck to you and your students punching out those facts!

Camping for a Week in the Classroom!

It's been another fun week in second grade!  This week was Camping Week (see THIS blog post), and boy oh boy, did we have fun!

The children read loads of camping books, listened to nature sounds,

played learning games

did loads of writing,  played "camping math" scoot, and had a wonderful week!

I'm so glad I did camping week!  Here are some pictures:

1.  I brought in the little pink tent my daughter had when she was little.  It became a great place for reading books about camping!

2.  I brought in my little travel camping table.  The kids used it for reading as well as playing games!  

3.  So many kids brought in sleeping bags, it looked like a big pajama party!

4.  After Friday afternoon's special, there was a little treat waiting for the children.

5.  Yes, that's my REAL camping tent in the classroom.  We found out we could squeeze the whole class in my tent!

The s'mores and the tent made their day!  And, honestly, the smiles on their faces made my day!

It was a great week!

It also inspired me to make a new resource, based on most of the activities we enjoyed this week.  

 

Somehow I have to make it through 8 more school days and one more teacher workshop day.  After a week at the beach and a week camping, next week's theme will be "fun at home".  

We'll be spending most of the week remembering all the fun stuff we did this year and planning fun stuff to do this summer.  

What do you do during those challenging last few weeks when the kids struggle to pay attention to anything?