If all doesn't go according to plan...

This is always fun to find when substituting, especially at the end of the year when students are ready for school to be out but end of year testing assures you that it is far from over...

Luckily I was fair warned and ready for 5th period. I have an incentive system on days such as these where the class and I have a contest. The contest is based on a point system. If the class is following directions well, participating, on task, etc. they can earn class points. On the other hand, if I am witnessing the opposite, I can earn points. I tell them that the points don't matter for me...I don't "win" anything for having more points so I am always on the lookout for awarding points to the class.

Their points definitely matter! At the end of the day, or class period, however many points I have, is subtracted from the number of class points and results in the total number of students I call for a small treat. Whether it be a starburst, jolly rancher, etc. I always use popsicle sticks to draw the name so that it is fair and unbiased.

I made one small change to this "nightmare" of a class and it certainly did the trick! As we worked through the assignments that day everyone had their popsicle stick at their desk. The same rules applied to my point system, however, they had to earn their popsicle stick in the drawing. I saw this group of THIRTY FOUR 7th graders wanting to participate, volunteer, answer questions, read aloud and, with each popsicle stick added, given praise for something positive they contributed to the class!

So, if you're having a rough day. Try switching things up a little bit! It was fun to compliment the students individually and in front of everyone as their popsicle stick clinked in the cup.

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While substituting for 4th grade, I was happy to see in the plans that there would be parents coming in to run an Art and Literacy lesson for an hour of the day! After 5, 10, 15 minutes of stalling, and no parents present, I decided to have a little art lesson of my own. It was one I found on Pinterest and am going to share with you! 

I believe this lesson and activity would be great for any objective whether it be character education or reading visualization. This original idea came from a FHE lesson and I adapted it for the classroom.  Students would listen to the story and visualize what The Zelmgld looked like, then they would sketch out a picture of Zelmgld. Below is the story and some examples...I've also included the info to the original link! 

A Jump Start For Next Year...

As the end of school approaches I know most teachers are probably thinking...

...and rightfully so! After the million reviews, multiple programs, testing, fun days and field days the last thing you want to think about is next Fall! However, I'm going to share a few ideas for the early print order planners in hopes to save you a few of those precious summer hours this year! 

First, The Welcome Brochure. When I first began teaching I shared all the information parents would need to know in a Disclosure Document. It served it's purpose well, but was black and white, three pages long and looked boring. In hopes for parents to keep all the important information on hand I spruced up my document. I turned it into a colorful brochure with a brief statement about the things I found myself repeating during the first parent teacher conferences. Here is what it looks like...

The brochure was really easy to make, in fact it was already made for me in a Microsoft Word template. There are so many designs to choose from and I didn't need to spend hours decorating my own. Most of the work came when I had to decided what I wanted it to say, so I included this example for you to browse as you adapt this idea for your own classroom specifics!

Second, and last, (I know your busy) is the SMASH Journal. This idea came from putting a Smash Book and Wreck This Journal together to create a SMASH Journal for my students. 

I absolutely love journal writing and struggled with my students lack of love for journal time. I found that they were bored with following a journal prompt and that I didn't care so much about the responses but wanted them to practice their writing skills. The SMASH Journal was the perfect answer! Not only were students practicing writing, but they were doing a lot more of it! 

How? Well, at the end of everyday we opened up to a new page in our SMASH Journal and the students knew to follow these three tasks using complete sentences and correct capitalization and punctuation...

I have 8 format pages, (like the one above) they are all different and I rotate them throughout the book. I counted the number of school days and make copies accordingly. Students get to decorate their own cover. I decided to make some special SMASH pages for holidays, first day of school, etc. Here are some examples...

After implementing the SMASH Journal into my classroom I saw my students write more than they ever had and they truly cherished their journals. 

Mr. M and Yertle the Turtle vs. The Grinch

Another game idea! This takes 15 - 20 minutes and very little equipment... another form of tag that students enjoy!

Mr. M and a New PE Game

I love learning new PE games and think they'd be a great incentive for a class reward. As the year beings, take time to have fun with your students and teach them a few of your favorite group games. Once the students learn a fun game, they will ask to play it again and again. That was the case with this game I learned yesterday..."Medic." The PE teacher I am subbing for told me this was a favorite among all students. From fifth to first, when they heard we were playing "Medic" they all cheered! Using "game time" as a classroom incentive won't cost you a penny and will get your class motivated to work together so they can play together!

Preparing for all of those End of Year Reviews!

 Spring is coming which means lots of review!
The "Kahoot" quiz, a technology based review, I'm going to share is extremely interactive and engaging while still heavily monitored and run by the teacher! Pictured below are some snapshots from the site as well as a few notes. The thought bubbles will explain the teacher side of the site (orange frames) and the student side of the site (purple frames.) I've also included some ideas on how to smoothly run this in a classroom...they are listed below the pictures!

Ideas...

• If available, each student could have their own device. However, for larger classes giving one Chromebook, I pad, etc per group works just as well!
• Instead of having students choose a Username, have them type in their computer number or their student number. This controls goofy/inappropriate usernames to be displayed as well as confidentiality. Group numbers or names would be another idea!
• When the "Score" screen comes up, cover the projector. This may seem silly, but the scores are displayed after EVERY question. When students see that they aren't in the top scores displayed they quit trying. Keep everyone engaged and display the score at the END of the review! 
• There will be some goof balls in the class who will purposely answer incorrectly to see the graphs change on the data. In order to stop this I made sure that if the question had any incorrect responses displayed in the data we had to pause and have a discussion about why "such and such" wasn't the correct answer. I also tallied how many times the class answered 100% correct and matched it with an incentive. 
• MAKE A PRACTICE QUIZ FIRST...or at least a few practice questions! Having the students, and yourself, learn to maneuver through the site is a bit tricky at first. But after a couple of questions they really get the hang of it! 

Mrs. B and the Classroom Zones

I enjoy substituting for Middle School, each teacher is so different! If I've learned anything from Junior High it's this...the more organized YOU are, the more organized your STUDENTS will be for you! It's interesting to see the same students rotate to different classrooms and how they magically "change." If the class is organized and structured, so are the students. If not, well...let's just say the kids know it and that's when the "change" happens. I found it surprising to sub for Teacher A where the students were on task and well behaved and the next day, subbing the same students for Teacher B and thinking, "You weren't like this yesterday." Routines, procedures, organization and consistency are just as important for Middle School students as it is for Elementary students, if not more!

I've shared a few ideas for organization in previous posts and I'd like to share a couple more. Mrs. B teaches 3 Block classes of 6th grade Language Arts. Her organization for students in each of those classes helped me have a very productive day while she was absent.

There was 1 clipboard for each class, each with a class photo list and seating arrangement. 

Mrs. B used this clipboard to keep track of tardy's, table points, individual points, etc.

Now for the Classroom Zones. The pictures below are pretty self explanatory, but to elaborate Mrs. B introduced classroom zones for noise level control. The zones let students know the expectation for the classroom throughout a lesson, project assignment, partner work, individual work, etc. Super easy to implement as well as remind, "Remember, we're in a yellow zone." Take a look...

Only one color would be showing at a time, of course :)

One more thing to share...Mrs. B was very generous in sharing materials, but VERY serious about making sure they were returned. (The students were as well!) They were in charge of counting Sharpies, erasers and White Out's. All had to be returned before anyone could leave. 

Mrs. F and "Danish Rounders"

While subbing for middle school PE we played a form of kick ball called "Danish Rounders." This game is definitely different, however the 7th and 8th graders really enjoyed playing. I hope your students do as well!