Labels, Organization and a Little Behavior Management

In my last post, I snapped a picture of some of the supplies I received from my order I placed at the end of the school year. Almost everything has come in so now I'm stuck with the hard part, decorating and organizing my classroom. However, thanks to Ladybug's Teacher Files, I'm headed in the right direction. I downloaded her Editable Basket Labels for my Sterilite storage drawers I posted the other day. I cannot wait to get these printed, laminated and attached to the bins!!!

This aren't all of the labels, but you get the picture!

Next, I began working on my supplies price list. As part of my behavior management plan, students will receive a ticket every day when they walk in the door.

Double Roll Admission Tickets

They will keep one ticket and I will keep its twin in a bucket. Students will keep their ticket unless their behavior merits the removal of the ticket from their possession. And yes, we have previously discussed desired behaviors as well as "off limits" behaviors for students. Now, here's the tricky part and where I'm still trying to work out the kinks. I do know that I will do the following things with the tickets:

• Use tickets I keep in my bucket as a random drawing for a prize. This would be used sporadically throughout the month (at the teacher's discretion) to provide motivation for students to keep their tickets. Students who have had their ticket removed would NOT be able to receive a prize because they do not have the matching ticket. Does it make sense?  I know it does in my head! ;)
• Somehow, I want students who have kept their tickets throughout the class period to also kept that ticket (and succeeding tickets) in a safe place. They all have their own notebooks, so preferably in there. However, I have not been able to think of a "holder" for the tickets in the notebooks.
• As stated in a previous post, every two weeks on DOL Test days, we will READ (acronym explained in a previous post). I would like students to be able to cash in their collected tickets to pull from our Reward Jar. This would allow students to engage in a task of their choice. 
• Lastly, for that student who ALWAYS forgets a pen, pencil or paper. They can use their tickets to buy supplies from my "store".

That is where my supply list comes into play. 

This isn't a great picture of my poster, yet you can see that students will have to pay 1 ticket for a pencil, 2 tickets for a pen, and 3 tickets for paper. They may keep these supplies as their own. I will also have a borrow box, for students who wish to borrow a pencil for my class ONLY! The borrow pencils are strategically labeled (as you see below) so I can spot my pencil from a mile away ;) I also placed a black pencil holder on top of this supply box for students to place their "payments". You can see an picture of the unfinished area below. 

Student Supply Area (no labels, from above, yet!)
Students may borrow tie-dye pencils OR buy supplies to keep. 

I have this grand idea for using the tickets as part of my classroom management plan, as well as part of my supply costs, but sometimes I feel like I have a HUGE idea that I'm unable to get organized! I'm hoping my ticket ideas will all come together before school starts. My biggest concern, how to ensure the students keep their earned tickets each day. They need to be in a safe, non-public spot. 

ANY SUGGESTIONS?

If you wish to check out Ladybug's Teacher Files, click the link below!

--Alicia 

Excited About Office Supplies!

What teacher doesn't get excited when new supplies come in? I was in my room on Monday ALL DAY working on creating documents and resources for my first unit, which I finished! I came back into my room this morning before softball workouts (WHEW!) and there they were! Magically appeared before my desk, five boxes total.

I am lucky enough to work in a system with a lot of federal funding (with strings attached) and requested a pretty large amount of supplies this year. So far, I've gotten everything I've asked for. :)

Notebooks for my students - I still have another box!

My 3 Tier Organizers for Supplies
I plan to use a vinyl machine to make labels!

In case you were wondering, my pencils are labeled with tie-dye duck tape. Why? Because students are notorious for "borrowing" a pencil and it miraculously disappears with me having no way of knowing the next day if they are still using my pencil. Now, I know if a student has my pencil! My classroom is slowly coming together! It is going to take many more days of organizing, re-organizing and cleaning before its perfect. With that being said, I need to go work on that now ;)

More Classroom Resources

On a different note, I also made board labels to display the framework for each day! If you want to use these let me know. I have the editable version on my Google Drive. When you open the document in Word, be careful! The boxes are easily "agitated" and move all around. The text may also be different on your computer, since I downloaded this particular font.

For my high school teachers, I have found a fabulous gem! These ELA 9-10 Question Stems and Learning Targets are fabulous for "I Can" statements and ensuring you ask the right questions for each skill (standard)!

22 Days of Summer Left...

That's right, 22 days. It will be here before we know it and I can't help being a little excited. Of course, I naturally dread having to give up my summer days of pajamas, coffee on the couch and no makeup, but I really am excited to start this school year. A new year (teaching 9th and 12th grade) means new faces and new challenges. Since I spent the majority of our beach vacation cooped up in a condo room while a monsoon persisted outside, I slowly became crazy and began writing  units for the upcoming year. Although I will be teaching the same grade levels as last year, it was our first year implementing Common Core into the curriculum and there were a lot of changes I wanted to make after the first year of trial and error.

With the help of Pinterest, coffee and the inability to soak up the sun, I begin filling out our school's Unit Planning Worksheet.
Now, keep in mind that I teach resource classes. That's why I'm short two literary pieces and I have Daily Oral Language (DOL) embedded in every lesson. Since we will move at a much slower pace than other classes, I wanted to provide plenty of time for remediation as needed. I've set the bar high for my ninth grade students who typically read at a 3-5 grade level when they enter high school. Either way, I'm optimistic about the upcoming year. Obviously each text will incorporate as much scaffolding as needed.

NOW! My favorite part :)

The way my DOL is set up, we will use it as an opener each day. Two sentences that should take no more than 10 minutes to correct and review. A DOL test will be administered every two weeks to measure student progress (which they will graph in their notebooks!). On these Fridays, we will READ!

• Reward Jar- At the beginning of the year each student will develop reasonable rewards for maintaining their behavior over the two week period (I will save my behavior management plan for a later post). This may include drawing, computer time, iPad time, etc. 
• Enjoyable Reading - Students will select a book of choice from the classroom library, school library or from home (with teacher approval) and will independently read with no strings attached. This is a modified version of Silent Sustained Reading which was introduced to me by a dear colleague (Lisa Wilson). 
• Apply To Real Life- In this group, kids will use the tweets, statuses and other "real life" texts of famous people to correct the grammar, punctuation and wording as practiced during DOL time. 
• Develop Our Skills - Of course this could entail a variety of things, but I plan to use it for remediation, make-up work, and specific skill development as needed. 

Labels for Bulletin Board

Now, whether or not the kids go to one group a day (taking almost two months to complete the rotation) or rotate among groups throughout one period (allowing only 15 minutes per group) I have not decided. I'm strongly against only having 15 minutes per sessions, yet two months without receiving a "reward" for good behavior is ineffective. I'm still trying to tweek this. Any suggestions?