The weeks leading up to spring break were absolutely horrible with chattiness -- talk, talk, talk. I'm talking about the kind of talk when there shouldn't be talk. I know the kids were excited -- I was excited -- be we still had some learning to do!
So I came up with this very simple, yet powerful, way to control all of the talking. I call it Beat the Teacher.
It basically is a game of you versus the students, and who doesn't love a little friendly competition? The way it works is that when I need the class to quiet down, I start counting backwards from five: 5-4-3-2-1. Sometimes the count is quiet, sometimes loud. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes very slow. Either way, the students have to be listening...
If I get to "1" and there is even one student talking, I get the tally point. If the entire class is quiet, they get the point. It is awesome to watch the students try to quiet each other down. Points accumulate through the day (or week) As you can see from our score above, I lost this day. :) (But did I really???) The prize is simply bragging rights....Or it could be a simple class incentive (brain break? extra 5 minutes of recess?) Either way, we are all winners!
Before I go, I wanted to make sure that you knew about a wonderful fundraiser going on over at Tori's Teacher Tips. The blogger community has an amazing way of supporting one another, and Tori could definitely use our help right now.
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the motivational ideas over at Joanne's blog. I hope to see you there!
I also hope to see you back here tomorrow for my Sunday linky party, A Peek at My Week, and/or onThursday for Positive Thinking Thursday.
It is your chance to share an uplifting message with others who read your blog. It is an insightful quote, a kind word, or a beautiful picture. It can be motivating, thought provoking, insightful or encouraging. It can be whatever you want it to be. Chances are, if it makes you feel good, it will probably do the same for someone else.
I started the Positive Thinking Thursday tradition at my school this year by leaving a positive thought in the staff lounge every Thursday and think it's time to take it global. (You can read more about this on my post here.)
So...here's my Positive Thinking ThursdayThought for this week:
Rather appropriate for our first Positive Thinking Thursday linky party, wouldn't you say?
I am inviting you to link up and share a positive thought, story or message found via Pinterest, YouTube, other media, or on your own. Make it easy on yourself...no other writing or explanation in your blog post is necessary (unless you want to).
Just please grab my button and link to your post. Don't forget to credit your source!
Listening: I love being able to spend mornings with my good friends Robin, George, Ginger and Lara. But I do miss Sam and now I heard Josh is leaving. I fear change.
Loving: Our Puggle, Rosie, can sleep all.day.long. She makes the cutest snoring sounds. Maybe she should try sleeping more at night. I'm just sayin'.
Thinking: So much to do, so little time.
Wanting: Sometimes, I am my own worst enemy when it comes to my writing. I love to write, but it is often the first thing knocked off my to-do list when time runs short. (Of course, it would help if I could stay awake past 7:30 at night...)
Needing: I'm good with what I have -- A healthy family, a warm home, and food to eat. Hours: I am usually at school by 7:15, but I am out the door at 3:45. I'm an early bird. As for the last day? We can thank Mother Nature for five snow days that pushed us into the middle of June. Ugh...
Now for Tried it Tuesday with Holly. Today's Tried-It has nothing to do with teaching, but it might make your life easier.
I'll admit it...I am a lover of all things sparkly and colorful. I'm like a kid at a candy shop when I walk into our local Charming Charlie's. I used to store all of my necklaces in a plastic shoe bin. The problem? They got tangled and I could never find what I needed. I got this brilliant idea from my mom. (Apparently, jewelry addiction is an inherited trait...)
You just hang a wire shelf the long way on the wall and use S-hooks where ever you want. Brilliant! (Thanks, mom!)
Easy peasy organization!
I'm looking forward to checking out what everyone else has tried lately. I love that us teachers are so willing to help each other work smarter, not harder!
No, this is not a blog post about Elvis the singer. {Sorry!} It's just a quick post to let you know about the most hilarious book that I have read in a long, long time, Elvis and the Underdogs by Jenny Lee.
I first heard about this book from the (also very hilarious) Alison at Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'. She raved about how funny her kids thought the book was and even had them write book recommendations for her blog post. I was sold!
If you are a fan of the book Wonder, you will also loveElvis. Here's the review from Amazon:
From Jenny Lee, writer on the Disney Channel show Shake It Up!, the number-one-rated kids' show in the country, this feel-good middle-grade novel is about a sickly boy whose life is turned upside down when he gets a therapy dog . . . who can talk!Benji Wendell Barnsworth is a small ten-year-old boy with a big personality. Born premature, Benji is sickly, accident-prone, and at the hospital so often he even has his own punch card. So when Benji wakes up one day from a particularly bad spell, his doctors take the radical step of suggesting he get a therapy dog. But when a massive crate arrives at Benji's house, out walks a two-hundred-pound Newfoundland who can talk! And boy, is he bossy.
If you are looking for a fall-off-your-seat-laughing, heartwarming story of courage, perseverance and friendship, this is it! Elvis and the Underdogs would make a great read aloud, and it can also be used to teach literary devices such as point-of-view (the story is told in 1st person) and inferring. Each chapter begins with a really cute illustration that could be used to infer what will happen:
I can't wait to get back from spring break to share this heartwarming and hilarious story with my 4th graders. I'm linking up today with the very talented Amanda at Teaching Maddeness to share this must-read chapter book. I hope you will check it out!
Yay!! It's spring break!! Time to share what I'm going to do with all my "free" time this week.
My family is returning from their band trip to Disney tonight. I have had the WHOLE week all to myself. Yep, just me and the dogs! Loved it, but I am looking forward to having someone to talk to at home again. The dogs just don't cut it when it comes to conversational skills.
As you may remember, I did a major spring cleaning on my daughter's room after she left last week.
This has gotten me in the mood to keep on cleaning! (It's a sickness, I am sure...) Today, I am taking ALL of my winter clothes upstairs to the guest closet and bringing down some spring/summer things. Hear that Mother Nature??? Winter is OVER!!
I am also meeting some friends for lunch this week, but other than that, I have a whole bunch of nothing planned and that is just OK with me! I'm going to take the week to recharge so I am ready to return to school in a week refreshed for our final quarter. We do not have testing to prepare for because in Wisconsin, we take our state test in the fall. I wish all of you who are preparing for the dreaded tests the best over the next few weeks!
How about you? Anything exciting (or not exciting) going on this week?
Before I go, I wanted to share a little friendly blogger tip for those of you with newer blogs. You may not know this, but when people leave comments on your blog, there is this annoying "Prove You're Not a Robot" thingy that pops up where your commenter has to enter a series of numbers in order to have their comment post. This is supposedly to avoid spam.
If you would like to disable this function to make it easier for people to comment on your blog, please follow these directions. In my year of blogging, I don't think I've ever gotten any spam (knock on wood) by disabling this annoying function. (Can you tell how much I really dislike this function?)
To disable 2-step verification for commenters:
1. In the upper right corner of your Blogger page, click on the down arrow next to your name and choose "Account Settings."
2. At the top near the center of your page, click on "Security".
3. In the Passwords box, next to "2-Step Verification," click "Disable".
4. Save your changes.
Wishing you a great week! Don't forget to come back on Thursday for my new linky party, "Positive Thinking Thursday." You can read more about it here.
Ahhhhh...spring break! Although we had several (5) snow days this winter which meant unexpected days off from school, there is nothing like a solid week of rest and relaxation. This past week was a crazy one at school. I know how I was feeling -- I can only imagine how my students felt.
I saw this video this morning and it made me laugh. It kinda sums it all up...Can you relate?
Anywho...All this craziness reminded me how important it is to stay positive and try to find the bright side in everything. This can sometimes be a difficult thing to do. By nature, I feel that I am more of a "glass half empty" than a "glass half full" person, but I am working HARD to change that.
I wanted to share something I've been doing at school this year to help everyone feel a little more "positivity" in their life....Positive Thinking Thursdays! Every Thursday, I print out a positive thought that I found on Pinterest and leave a bunch on the table in the teachers' lounge. Throughout the day, teachers and staff visit the lounge and can take a positive thought with them if they'd like. Here are some of the positive thoughts from this year so far:
At first, I didn't think that Positive Thinking Thursday was a very big hit. (Yes, a few even made fun of it...Those are probably the ones who need it the most.) But now, I always hear nice comments about each week's thought, and I even hear teachers talking about the thought with their students. (I love that we can also use these to teach inferring -- bonus!) One of my fellow teachers even shared with me that she was out on Thursday at the dentist. She said that while she was having her procedure done, realized that it was Thursday and wondered what the Positive Thought was for this week. I love that!!!
I was thinking that we could take Positive Thinking Thursday global...How about if beginning this Thursday, I share my Positive Thinking Thursday thought on this blog and invite you to share yours as well? Start looking through Pinterest and see what you can find! You can visit my Inspirations Pinterest board here if you'd like to start following me. (I am addicted to pinning positive inspirations, much to the chagrin of my family who follows me! :)
With that, I am going to link up with my good blogging buddy, Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching, who fills my life with much positivity (and exclamation points!!) for her Spark Student Motivation linky party. I know this post is not necessarily for students, but we all know that happy teachers = happy students so we need to take care of us too!
I hope you will visit again tomorrow for my weekly linky party, A Peek at My Week!
Before I go...I'm having a Spring Cleaning SALE at my TPT store until Monday! Happy Shopping!!
I'm excited to link up with my sweet friend, Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper, for Tried It Tuesday. It's been awhile since I was able to join in, but I'm happy to be here this week.
I actually have two "Tried Its" for this week, one teaching related and one that isn't.
First, the "isn't"...
So my two kids left Sunday morning for the band trip to Florida. I was looking forward to spending the day relaxing and catching up on blogging.
Then I made the mistake of going into my daughter's room to find her fish food so I could feed her fish while she was gone. BIG mistake on my part. After I pushed my way through her door (she apparently told me she "cleaned" on Saturday before she left....), I was overcome by the need to do a little straightening. (Anyone with teenagers will recognize the irony in referring to any teenage mess as "little".) So....one day, six bags of garbage, two bags of clothes to donate, and 12 loads of laundry later, her room is "clean." Needless to say, my relaxing day turned out to be not-so-relaxing after all...but at least she will come home to a clean room.
I consider this experience a "tried it" because we are NOT going back to the theory that as long as the door is closed, you can choose to keep your room any way you want to. We tried it her way, but it didn't work. Sorry, honey (if you are reading)!
Now for the teaching "Tried It"...
You may remember that my students have been working hard on researching and writing their biography projects. I have received a few requests (thank you!) for more information about websites that I have used. The one website that my students enjoy using is www.factmonster.com.
There is TONS of information on this website, which makes it great for research. Here's the page we used for researching our famous American heroes. I love the search bar option too!
There is also a handy encyclopedia page.
Need help with homework? There's a page for that too.
I think it would be fun to let the kids look around the "Cool Stuff" page.
(Even the "Dating and Marriage" section has some interesting facts about dating/marriage customs around the world. Maybe a project for Valentine's Day???)
As with any website, you need to teach your students how to use it safely and responsibly. Most of the links stay on-site, but there are banner ads that may distract some kids.
What have you tried lately? Head on over to Fourth Grade Flipper to check out more ideas!
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