I'm a V.I.P {classroom management strategy}

Hello friends! I hope you have had a great weekend! It's been a pretty relaxing one over here! It is super hot, sticky, humid, and just plain nasty outside...so I am keeping myself inside and busy! I might take a trip to the beach and relax later today though! 

Back to school time is approaching...blah! One thing I really wanted to try last year was a V.I.P table but I was unable to. Well, this year I am trying it and I couldn't be more excited!

What is a V.I.P table you may ask? Well, after seeing some blog post from other bloggers I knew I had to do this! I wish I had my area to show you and blog about, but I don't.

A V.I.P table is a special place you can have students sit. Some teachers pick two or three students per day to sit at the table. At the table there are special goodies for them to use throughout the day. Some teachers move students during the day!

I am going to show you three blogs where you can find some awesome V.I.P ideas! Please check out these fabulous teachers by clicking on their button!

I am so excited to get into my room and set this up! I really hope the big kids {5th graders} like this! 

I created a freebie unit with some button printables, table signs, brainstorm notes and a rules poster.

24 different button combinations

10 V.I.P table poster colors to choose from

You can grab this for FREE in my TpT shop!

Enjoy your Sunday!

Table Shelves {organization & classroom management}

I KNOW all of you have seen this picture before...I just know it!

Am I right??? I first saw this picture 3 years ago and fell.in.love! Dandelions and Dragonflies set up her classroom so perfect...I was officially jealous! I wanted to have those table shelves sooooo bad! 

I have never had enough shelves to do something like this, or the space, or the money to buy everything. 

When I first started teaching in Hawaii last year I was fortunate to have 10 metal bookshelves. I used them to store all sorts of things...math games, book boxes, binders, paper towel, and so on. 

At the end of the year I was playing around with the room arrangement and decided to finally try giving each table group a shelf. I didn't do much with it since I only had a week left, but I wanted to see what it would look like as far as space.

Here they are from last year

Nasty, old, rusted metal shelves. 

I did LOVE how they looked as far as the room arrangement went...but if I was to have something like this next school year, they needed to be remodeled, updated, and pretty:)

So this year I moved to a new classroom at the same school and it was a remodeled room. Instead of having 10 shelves, I now have 6. They got rid of a ton of them because the rust was so bad. So every classroom now has 6.

Anyways, I got busy thinking how I wanted to update them and what I wanted to put on them. I really like how they turned out! The shelves also help with part of my classroom management strategy. 

Take a look!

SO easy to use, and the kids just love it. If I forget to move the magnet, the kids make sure to tell me:)

How do you manage your classroom supplies and jobs?

Have a great weekend! I am going to do my best and stay safe inside my house! The hurricanes are coming to Oahu in just a few hours! CRAZY!

Talkative Class Part 2 and a WINNER

Thanks for all the great comments from my post yesterday about my classroom management tool for a talkative class! 

I would like to answer a few questions some of you asked!

Have I had any negative comments from parents?

I just started this Thursday! So nothing so far! I have explained to my parents it is not just their child, it is about 75% of my class! They are all SO sweet! But very talkative. I have a hard time getting through a lesson without being interrupted. Sometimes I have to repeat directions 4 or 5 times because they are not paying attention. This is why I added on the form "talking or not paying attention."

I find that it's usually the same kids that need the reminders. Do you think it will work for them? 

I think so! I reward the students who don't get any warnings to tally marks. I forgot this part yesterday! See I knew I would forget something:)

On top of picking an "EGG"cellent student, any student who doesn't get on my sheet-that is no warnings or tallies, gets a token at the end of the day! These are their tokens for the Super Improvers Wall (Whole Brain Teaching).

I blogged about my Super Improvers Wall a few weeks ago! You can see this post HERE. I am telling you...my kids eat up these tokens! They will do ANYTHING for a token!

I also have been using a weekly behavior sheet for each kid at the end of the day! My kids love it and so do my parents! it really only takes 5 minutes at the end of each day for the kids to fill it out and for me to sign! 

Thanks to Kim over at Finding the Joy in 6th Grade for making the original behavior sheet!

Here is my post on that from a few weeks ago.

I decided to change up this form to match the tally marks. I also added a teacher comments box in case I need to write something down.

I haven't started this yet, but will when we come back from fall break. If you would like this form for free, just click HERE!

I also want to give out my tally sheet! So many of you said they wanted to try it! Well, Here it is!

Just click on the picture! 

I hope you can use it!

 

I have a winner of my one item from my store and a $15 Target gift card!

 

I asked my husband to pick a number and he picked number 1

 

The winner is...

Liz from Teaching in the Valley

I will be sending you an email shortly! 

 

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend! My husband and I went to a Hawaii Home Buyers Convention today! I can't wait to get our first home!!!

Talkative class??? I think I have the simple solution!

It's fall break over here in Hawaii! No leaves to jump in or to rake, but I have plenty of beaches and I plan on taking advantage of the time with my hubby!

I wanted to talk about a new strategy I started Thursday. I have a sweet bunch of kiddos, but they are still SO talkative! I had to try something new again! And this time, I think it worked!

First, I made a tally sheet with their names on it. Each time they talked or I had to ask them to pay attention they got a tally mark. 

This was a picture of the first day

 Some kids got the hint after they knew I was giving them a tally or two. Each tally is also a minute off their recess. Then at the end of the day, I sent this little note home!

The blue highlighting from the tally sheet above are the few that turned this note back into me. I sent home a second notice for those who didn't turn theirs in. 

This was today's tally sheet.

Less talking for sure! I made the addition of adding a warning column. I gave out a ton of warnings today! Many of my kiddos had a rough time in PE:( But overall, this went GREAT. 

 After two days of using this, I broke the form up into warning, morning and afternoon.

I carry this tally sheet around on a clipboard that opens up!

 Inside I keep extra tally sheets, the behavior form, and an award certificate

At the beginning of each day, I tell my kids I am looking for an "EGG"cellent student! I made this poster to have in my room.

At the end of the day I give out this certificate.

Yesterday and today the kids LOVED this! 

I wanted to make it one step better! I found this adorable stuffed animal on ETSY.

This is from Plushoff and I ordered TWO! I ordered one for me and another for ONE OF YOU:)

I plan on letting the "EGG"cellent student of the day keep it on their desk the following day!

Overall, I think this is a very simple, easy to use management system. 

If you would like to WIN the unit I am working on and an EGG, leave a comment below! I will pick a winner Sunday! 

If you have any questions about this management tool, please ask. I feel like I left something out!

I do have a giveaway ending tomorrow evening, Hawaii time! 

A weekly Behavior form that WORKS!

Happy Labor Day weekend friends! I hope you are all enjoying this extra time off:) I know I sure am!  From going out to breakfast, a pedicure, naps, take out, cookouts, and a BBQ I say I am pretty relaxed! Now, if I can just get to the beach;)

I want to share something I give a try at from Kim over at Finding the JOY in 6th Grade. She blogged about her best classroom management strategy ever. It was this weekly behavior sheet she made

 

What I REALLY loved is she has it for free AND it is in word so you can change it to meet your needs. 

I haven't used a behavior sheet like this in years because I never had to. This year, I need to! At least for now. They just are so talkative and disruptive I couldn't take it any more. So starting Tuesday They had a new weekly behavior sheet. I used Kim's and made it to fit the needs of my class! 

I just added the teacher initial, parent initial, and changed the wording on the behavior choices to fit what I do in my class! Here is a student example!

I tell you what...the rest of my week ran SO smooth! Parents liked it, I like it and the kids actually like it! If they get a great day, they get a token from me! I plan on explaining my tokens with my Super Improver Wall here this week!

I would highly recommend heading over to Kim's blog and downloading this freebie! It might help out your classroom management!

Enjoy your weekend!

A tip on Tuesday!

Hey all! Are you having a good week? I know most of us are back to work now with just the small few that go back after Labor Day! I WISH! 

Things have been super busy over here! I wanted to share a few things with you that I have been finding useful these past 4 weeks of school! 

1. Table Numbers

Yes, it seems silly and many of you use table numbers, table names, or colors, or something! I have always assigned groups to a number but never really did anything with it. This year I do quite a few things with my table numbers! I only have 4 groups of desks so tables 1-4. Each table has a job for the week. It keeps the 6, 5 or 4 kids sitting at that table working together to complete their daily job!

But I feature one table each day on the board. This featured table gets to do a few things:

1.first to pack up at the end of the day

 2. be the first to leave at the end of the day

3. it is their day to book shop

4.They have the recess tags to play on the playground for the day. 

5. They get to help with the class rules each morning

I think I am leaving something out...But anyways, I think having a featured table of the day has been so helpful.

Homework Club

Thanks to Christina from Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge and her FANTASTIC Homework Club unit, my kids are really turning in their homework...or so it seems

Some kids are out:( They used their oops pass, which I created and you can get HERE for free at my TpT shop

Students place their homework in their pocket. It has been SO EASY to just see who has their homework and who doesn't!

If they don't have their homework, I collect their oops pass and write the date, their name, and what assignment they forgot in a small binder! 
Of course I had to make a cute cover:)

 This way, I have a record of who didn't turn in their homework! Today, I had a kid make up such a lie! She said she couldn't do her homework because her brother had a big accident. He fell off his bike, hit is head, and had to go to the emergency room! 

I said, "Oh my gosh, is he ok? I better call mom and make sure that he is ok!" She got such a "oh no, I lied" look on her face. I asked her what mom would say, and then she told me she lied! Needless to say, I already had her oops pass and she was spending recess doing her homework! HAHA!

I hope these two tips have helped you out in some way! Have a great week!!!

What do we have to do again????

My new class, bless their hearts, doesn't listen! At all:( I have to repeat directions over and over, again and again! Sometimes it's like 6 or 7 times! Yes, I know...crazy!!! Most of the time it's because they are talking...nonstop! What has started to help are the tokens I am giving out for the Super Improver Wall:)

Another thing I tried really quickly today was typing up step by step directions on a PowerPoint and projecting it. 

I don't think the wording is right on the title, but I did this really quick...and guess what...it cut back on the asking questions by 90%...I swear;) I think I will be doing this for awhile!

 

On another note, I will be taking class pics of my room to share soon! I am getting other things unpacked and put where I want them! I also am unpacking our room at the house...it's a mess. I just want to get settled so I can start making and creating! 

I am SO glad it is Friday tomorrow! I am meeting up with 2 other Hawaii Bloggers for some evening fun! I can't wait! Oh, and our hubbies are coming too;)

The winner of ANYTHING from my store is...

CRYSTAL from Teaching Little Miracles

Please send me an email of what you would like!

Have you bought your bundle yet??? Only a few more days to snag this bad larry up!!!

  

I am running out of ink with all the printing I have been doing:)

Well, I am off to bed! I hope you all have an awesome Friday!

Sneak Peak at my New Classroom Management Plan and some Scratch off Revisions

The packing has not ended...tomorrow my husband and I have one more day to pack up our townhouse because on Monday we are loading the pod! 

Today we both said goodbye to some dear friends. First was our hairdresser. We both got our last haircut today! Good thing my hair grows slow so I can get settled and find someone new to cut my hair! Then we went out to lunch with our neighbors! I am going to miss them!

We ran some errands after that then came home! I took some time to work on a few things! And I want to share them with you!

I have had a few requests to make my scratch off reward tickets editable! I was able to start on those!

I started on my Hawaii set first:) HAHA!

So what you will find inside are the different rewards I've made

Then I added the same images but blank, so you can use them to make your own rewards!

I will be doing this for each of my scratch off reward tickets!

Here are the ones I have made!

I will work on making the editable files a little each day! 

On another note, I have been putting a lot of thought into my classroom management for next year. I will explain more later, but I wanted to give you a sneak peak!

Happy Saturday!