Five for Friday Flashback (total randomness!)

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and Amanda from Teaching Maddeness to share some tidbits of my week.  I had a crazy week with ONLY two full days total in the classroom, so keep reading if you don't mind the unrelated to teaching stuff:) 

1.  Daughter's Surgery

My daughter had her tonsils and adenoids removed on Thursday!  I took family sick days Thursday and Friday.  She was such a brave girl!  I was shocked by how well she did.  My husband and I were fighting back tears as she was wheeled away on that bed with the rails up:(  But, all went well except one little problem with nausea after the surgery.  She vomited 3x and they had to give her some meds in her IV which worked well.  

Today, she had a great day and has been taking in fluids like a champ!

These are some of her favorite popsicles!

 Here she is resting on the couch today:)

2.  Yummy French Toast Bake

I baked some yummy french toast bake for a staff appreciation breakfast at my daughter's school.  I used this Paula Deen recipe but accidentally cut the bread into squares instead of slices.  I'm sure it was still delicious.  How could it not be with 2 cups of cream and 8 eggs!?!

Of course, I sent some maple syrup from my uncle's farm with the dish!

3. Sad these are gone:(

Yep, I am a total sweets fanatic.  So, of course my hubbie gave me some delicious chocolate covered strawberries for Mother's Day!  They lasted quite a few days (believe it or not!) and now I wish I had more.  It was the first time he ordered from Shari's Berries and they were the best I've ever had!!!

4. Sub Plans Galore

So, I was out Thursday and Friday with my daughter.  Well, Tuesday I had IST (Instructional Support Team) meetings all afternoon and Monday I had a doctor appointment in the afternoon!  The doctor appt. was scheduled months ago so I just went with it.  Maybe it is better to be out all at once! Haha!!  One awesome part about this was that I had the SAME sub all the time I was out and she is an amazing, retired teacher!  She lives right around the corner from me and even dropped off papers yesterday all graded so I could record them in my book!  Amazing...

5. ABC's Calendar Countdown!

We started the ABC's calendar countdown for the last 26 days of school on Monday!  Yay!!  I LOVE this idea from the amazing Amanda and Stacia at Collaboration Cuties!  Check out their blog post for an editable copy to use for next year (unless you wanted to start a little late because I can't imagine many schools have 26 days or more left of school!).  

 Have a great weekend everyone!!  Three of my students are in a county wide spelling bee tomorrow!  I can't wait to see them and am keeping my fingers crossed:)

Tried It Tuesday (Class Dojo)!!

Time to share more "Tried It" ideas from your classroom or home!

What is Tried It Tuesday?  Read more about it here.
I have been waiting to share about this new strategy for a few weeks since I wanted to give it some time to see how it worked with my class.

<center> <a href="http://fourthgradeflipper.blogspot.com/"><img src=" http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/04fallingstar/3AM%20Blog%20Design/3am_triedittuesday_3_zpsd7a240d4.png" width=225 height=225 border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a></center> Awesome linky button above designed by the talented Michelle at The 3am Teacher! My Tried It: Class Dojo!

I started using Class Dojo right after spring break on April 8th.

My students were (and still are!) super excited about this program.

Many of them made their "own avatar" at home:

I decided to use Class Dojo as my behavior incentive system in lieu of my star system the rest of the year.  The change is just what the students needed.  

To summarize Class Dojo, students "earn" points for positive behaviors and "lose" points for negative behaviors throughout the day.  The teacher can customize these behaviors.  When a teacher wants to recognize a positive or negative behavior, they can click on the students name and check the behavior.  I keep Class Dojo projected on my SMART board and positive behaviors get a "ding" and negative get a "low oops sound".  It projects the behavior and student's name large on the screen like this (don't mind my retouching out the last names).

I wanted my students to be able to trade their Dojo points in for prizes and had the class brainstorm the prizes.  This has worked great!  Here is the chart we came up with:

After three weeks, each of my two classes (homeroom and ELA) are approaching 300 points total.  They have trade in day every 2-3 weeks and will be able to enjoy a "class reward" when they reach 500 points if at least 75% vote to use points for the class reward vs. individual rewards.  It will be interesting to see what they choose once the class actually has 500 points or more.  So far, no one has traded individual points in on our Dojo trade in day last Friday.  They all have an idea of what they are saving for though!

What I LOVE about Class Dojo:

1.  Students pay attention and try to earn points!  They are excited!

2.  Just by rewarding positive points, students exhibiting poor behaviors will usually stop them without me having to recognize the negative behaviors.

3.  I can keep track of a point system electronically!

4.  There is even an app for your iPad or phone so that you can use Class Dojo everywhere!

5.  When you award or take away points, there is a space each day to write a note about the behaviors.  This is great to keep track of behavior management records or parent conferences (even though I haven't invited parents to the site yet!).

6. It's FREE!

Problems I have experienced:

1.  Sometimes the site acts up.  When I start my class, no names appear and I keep on having to refresh.  Parts of the screen may freeze as well.  When a whole class is watching and waiting, this can be very frustrating.

2.  I wish there was a way to take some points away for trade in day.  Teachers can clear all the points but I only want to clear some of them.  If a student has 31 points and they want to trade in for a prize worth 20 points, I want to be able to show that and give them 11 points left.  My solution was to add a "negative behavior" called "trade in points" and I will just click that number of points for trade in until they are at the right count again.  You can only add or subtract one point at a time from each student, although you can award multiple students a point at the same time.   

3.  I need to keep up with awarding points each day to keep the student's excitement and involvement.  Some days this has been difficult and uses more class time than I would like.  

I find there is so much more value in awarding the points during class so that the students can watch:)                                                                     

If you would like to try this FREE behavior management system, please use my referral link.  

I don't think I get any recognition for it but it does have a good summary of the program.

Check out my guest post on Crofts' Classroom tomorrow!  
Also, I am working on planning a giveaway for (almost!) 500 Followers!   I hope you will check back this weekend!   Thank you so much for following and all your support!! 

Student Motivation Saturday!!

I am linking up again with Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching for her Spark Student Motivation Saturdays!  I love this linky! Everyone shared so many great ideas last weekend:)

Last Saturday I blogged about my 20 stars whole class incentive for good behavior here.

I left this teaser:)

What do you do for the few kids that are still reluctant to follow the rules?

I do have a strategy for those students that goes along with the 20 stars plan.  It has something to do with what happens when the free time day (well, 20 minutes of free time) comes!  

Check back next Saturday for more on that topic:)

Now it is "next Saturday" and I wanted to share with you the quick strategy I have for those students that still tend to break the rules and might ruin the whole class getting a star.

Instead of those students holding the whole class back from getting a star for the day, I have them make a check on our owl individual charts.  I laminated these little mini incentive charts from Carson Dellosa.  They have all kinds of styles available and have used them for many different reasons over the years.

They also take and complete an "owl slip" to indicate what their behavior was. 

It immediately stops the behavior when they have to walk over to the owl chart and make that check.  It is interesting to see what they write because sometimes they try to downplay what the actual infraction was.  

I keep these in a file and pull them out for future reference.  I also have them on hand in case I need them at a parent conference.

Click here to download a PDF of this owl slip.

When it comes time for the 20 stars incentive, anyone with checks on the "owl chart" loses some (or all) of the class free time.  They sit in the pod and, using their owl slips, write about the poor behaviors they had exhibited and how they can improve.  

If they will not do this, they don't have a chance of coming back to the room so the students really work hard getting it done.  

Each time we have made a 20 stars incentive, the number of checks on the owl chart have decreased.  It has really been effective!  

That being said, I have started a new incentive for the last 10 weeks of school using Class Dojo.  I just finished my first week using the system and it has sparked a lot of new excitement.  This might be just what I need to get through the remainder of the year:)  I will blog more about that after I have used it longer.  

Check back at Joanne's blog and see what other ideas bloggers have linked up!

Spark Student Motivation Linky (behavior management)!!

Happy Saturday!!  I have been on a relaxing "staycation" the past two weeks and am almost ready to go back to work (at least I am telling myself that!).  

I do miss those little stinkers though!  

I got quite a bit accomplished but still have a lot left that I didn't get to!  

Does anyone else feel that way after a long vacation?  

Sometimes I have to remind myself of all the things I DID get to 

instead of all the things I DIDN'T get to:)

I am so excited to link up with my sweet friend, Joanne, from Head Over Heels for Teaching for her first linky, Spark Student Motivation Saturdays!!  Isn't her linky button by Michelle at The 3am Teacher gorgeous?  It is so sparkly and just captures the style of her blog!  

Have you heard of The Tough Kid Tool Box?  I love this book and its companion, The Tough Kid Book.  Even though I would say I don't really have that many "tough kids," there are always a few that really test the limits.  

Inspired by this book, one management strategy I have used for many years 

is my 20 stars incentive.

Here are the 20 stars posted on my wall once both my ELA (green stars) 

and homeroom (blue stars) reached 20. 

How does the class earn a star?

I place a spot on the board to make tally marks when the class as whole is noisy or wasting time during transitions or if I am talking to another student or adult, etc.  Also, they may get a tally if they are walking in the hallway to specials in a line that is not straight and quiet.  Basically, anytime they are not up to my standard of behavior, I put a tally on the board.  If the homeroom earns 3 or less tallies during the entire day, they get a star on the wall (ELA is 2 tallies or less because I see them for less time).  We are now at 2 or less tallies for homeroom and 1 or less tallies for ELA at this point in the year.

What happens when the class earns 20 stars?

We draw a card from the reward options and have about 20 minutes of free time (I know it doesn't seem like much time, but for the 4th graders, it is a HUGE reward!).  The options are music and dance party, whole class games (they love charades!), individual games with computer time and small group games, movie clips time (funny videos or youtube browsing!), or outside free time (weather permitting)!

Does it work?

You bet!  All I have to do is place a tally on the board and it is like magic I tell ya!!  My lines in the hallway are beautiful and we get where we need to go quickly!  I pass out papers and can continue talking and giving instructions (I don't like to waste any time if possible!).  I tell the class that the free time they earn when they get 20 stars is worth it because they are so well behaved that more than 20 minutes of class time has been saved by less wasted time:)

What do you do for the few kids that are still reluctant to follow the rules?

I do have a strategy for those students that goes along with the 20 stars plan.  It has something to do with what happens when the free time day (well, 20 minutes of free time) comes!  

Check back next Saturday for more on that topic:)

Be sure to check back each Saturday for this great linky!  

What do you do to motivate your students?

I wanted to leave you with a couple pictures of my kiddos:)  My family had a two-day getaway at a local water park.  My own kids LOVED the water slides and, of course, staying in the hotel!  It was a fun time and my sister was able to go with her two boys too.  

Have a great weekend everyone!  

I am off to soak in all I can of the rest of my break:)