Stop Talking with Beat the Teacher

It's Saturday, so it's time to link up with my BBB Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching for Spark Student Motivation!

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.

Happy Saturday!!

Tried It Tuesday -- No More Repeating

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Time to link up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for her always fun and informational Tried It Tuesday linky party.

I don't know about you, but I feel like a broken record lately...

I give a direction and no sooner are the words out of my mouth (and still hanging in the air like in a speech bubble in a comic strip), someone asks me "What am I supposed to do?" or "Where do I put this?" or "How many sentences do I have to write?"

You get the idea.

This is especially frustrating because we use the "Ask three then me" routine in our room.  But apparently some kids want to cut right to the chase...

So I have now come up with a system to help cut down on these dreaded "repeats".

When a student asks me to repeat something, their number goes on the board and I begin making hash marks for how many times I have to repeat a direction to them.

It is AMAZING how much repeats have been reduced since I started this!  It serves as a visual reminder to students that they need to listen the first time I give a direction.  After all, when they grow up, I don't think their boss is going to like repeating a direction four times before it gets done, right?

I hope you'll head on over to Holly's blog to read about more Tried Its!  I'm on my way there now!

Tried It Tuesday - Clock Buddies

I'm so excited that it is Tuesday so I can link up with the amazing Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday!

This week I'm sharing about something that has really saved me lots of time in the classroom...Clock Buddies.

The concept is pretty simple.  Students are given a clock template.  They walk around and "schedule" a classmate for each hour that they both have open on their clocks.  (If a classmate is already scheduled at that time, you have to move on to someone else.)

Then when it is time to work with a partner, I will say something like "Please work with your 3:00 partner" and change it up every time. 

 

This avoids students always working with the same person when they work in partners and gives everyone a chance to get to know each other.  I also specifically gave the direction that half of your buddies had to be girls and half had to be boys to avoid the problem of always wanting to work only with your besties.  :)

 

I found this template online and you can grab one for yourself here.

 

I love Clock Buddies!  They save time, energy, and hurt feelings!  :)

 

Head on over to Fourth Grade Flipper to see what else everyone has tried this week!

Cutting Down on Bathroom Trips

I'm so excited to be able to link up with my buddy Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching for Spark Student Motivation today!  If you haven't gotten to know Joanne, you should!  She has amazing ideas and is one of the sweetest people I've "met" in blog land!  :)

As I am about to embark on a new school year with new students, I am looking for ways to help motivate my students to do their best learning.  However, if the kiddos are making tons of trips to the bathroom, they aren't in our classroom learning. 

 

We take bathroom breaks throughout the day, usually when we are on our way back from specials, recess or at snack time.  Students have lots of opportunities to "go."  However, there are always a few who decide it's better to go in the middle of an in-depth math lesson or during our read aloud than at a common time.  Do you have any students like that?

 

So last year, I decided to use a Bathroom Pass system.

All students are given a new pass at the beginning of a new quarter.  They have six opportunities to leave the room to use the restroom simply by giving me their card and I paper punch a number.  (However, the rule remains that you can only leave during a work time, not a teaching time.)

What happens when students run out of punches?  Easy...they have to buy a new Pass using our Collegiate Cash.  Passes cost $10.  Pricey, I know. (Students earn $10 a day for showing up and doing their "job" as a student so it really costs a whole day's pay.)   But it really "motivates" students to use the restroom when given the opportunity and to think about when they are using up their punches or not keeping their cards in a safe place.  (Replacement cost is $10 as well.)

Bathroom Passes also help me keep track of students who are leaving the room, as well as using the restroom excessively.  (This could be an indicator of a health issue as well.)

Now, if I could only invent a Bathroom Pass for myself....

Head on over to Head Over Heels for Teaching to check out other ways to motivate your kiddos!

I hope you will stop back tomorrow to link up your plans for next week with my new "A Peek at My Week" linky party!