Classroom Management, I Was Made An Offer, and Math Drawer Labels

As a reminder today is the last day to enter my 100 Follower Giveaway… 3 prizes for 3 winners! 

You can enter for a chance to win a $25.00 gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers, $50.00 worth of items from my store, and/or a box filled with my favorite teacher/school supplies.

I will announce the winners tomorrow. 

Now, for today’s post…

I find it very hard to sit in my seat all day without talking to my neighbor during long meetings and professional development so I know my 4^th graders would struggle with sitting in one place quietly during the day, too.

For this reason, I change up the way they work several times each day.  Each and every day they work independently, with a partner and with a group. They work at their seats, on the carpet, or on a comfy spot.

Sometimes I want them to come to me for assistance and at times I want to go to them (especially when they are working as a group).

There are times when I want them to turn in their completed work into our box.  Other times I want to immediately see the completed work.  With longer assignments, I may want them to keep it in their desk to finish at a later time.

Well with so much going on throughout the day and focusing on the assignment at hand, can I really expect a nine or ten year old to remember all the extras?

Last summer I found a pin on Pinterest that gave students a visual reminder.  (I would love to credit the pin, but I can no longer locate it.)  This was a perfect solution to the never ending questions of – May we work together?  May I use a pillow? I am finished, what do I do with my assignment? I need help, may I come see you? And on and on and on!

Well I changed up the chart I saw on Pinterest to make it work for me.  This is a picture of my chart.  It hangs in my classroom near the SMART Board where everyone can clearly see it. 

 

After we have discussed my expectations for the assignment, I call students up to remind the class of “how they are going to work”.  When a student comes up he/she puts a clothes pin on the card that goes with my directions.

Here is a picture with the clothespins attached.

Ms. Foreman to you – I go to the students.  I do this with all group assignments.  It is just too difficult for them to all come to me and bring all their materials, too

see Ms. Foreman – I use this mostly when students are working independently.  They are allowed to meet me at the small group table for assistance.

work at your desk – Students must work at their assigned desk.

even in a comfy spot – I give each of my students a number the first week of school.  The number is used for many things and this is one of them.  If the day of the week is an even number then those students may move to a comfy spot (comfy chairs, stools, benches, pillows, etc.) in the classroom.

odd in a comfy spot – Works the same as “even in a comfy spot” just with odd numbers.

work with your group – I have my student’s desk in mixed ability groups.  During this time, students are to work with the members of their group.

work with a partner – Students may select a partner to work with and sometimes I select their partners.

voices off – Students are to work silently.  This is used mostly for assessments or during independent reading times.

see Ms. Foreman when work is completed – This is for the times I want to assess their understanding immediately.  I also use this to conference with students.

turn work into the box – We have a paper turn in box in my classroom.  Papers are placed in the box for grading.

place work in desk – This is for times when we will go over the assignment as a class and I need to wait for others to finish the assignment.  I also use this when it is a longer assignment and students will need more time to complete it.

At the end of the assignment, one of my students places the clothespins at the bottom of the chart until they are needed again.

I was contacted by SmileMakers with an offer to review one of their products.  This product… The DeluxeYacker Tracker…

I am hoping that this will help control the noise levels in my classroom when students are working with partners and with groups. The product descriptions states that it will help students self-monitor their noise level through the traffic lights and sounds.  I am looking forward to testing it out.

I will let you know if I receive it and let you know how well it works after a week with my new students sometime late August.   

I had a request to share my math drawer labels that were shown in this post.  I now have them available here.  There are 27 math labels with a choice of 3 fonts.  If you don’t see a label that you need email me after you have made the purchase and I will be happy to send you the extra labels within 24 hours.

What have you found on Pinterest that you now can’t imagine not having in your classroom?

Come back tomorrow to see if you are one of the winners of my 100 Follower Giveaway.

Thanks for stopping by today!