REWARDS!

Please note that the following post is just my opinion only!

I am a firm believer in rewarding my students....behaviorally & academically. I love rewarding students who always follow rules and procedures, students who FINALLY do something correct for the first time then make a habit out of it, students who make A+s, and students who finally make a D after having made Fs for so long. I guess you can say that I reward achievements: individually and whole class. I love to celebrate, period! 

This year, I have a few incentives in mind. here is a breakdown:

Academically for individual students I plan to use the cards I posted a few days ago [Drops of Science Success]. Every student will receive a card. Every test, quiz, and interactive Science notebook check will earn them punches. A = 3, B = 2, and C =1. For every 10-12 punches, they will choose a prize. Prizes will range from small items like cool pens/pencils, erasers, and school supply-type items to bigger items if they "bank" their punches. The bigger items will be for things like earbuds, snack shop tickets, etc. 

Academically for classes I plan to use class thermometers as seen here: [not my room...found on the net....THANK YOU Mrs. Potter...click on the pic and it will take you to her blog!].

The way this works is I will add up a class' test scores [percentages] then shade up to the correct mark on the thermometer. I will do this for each class. At every 5,000 points reached, that particular class earns a reward [popcorn, nachos, cupcakes, etc... food ALWAYS works!]. This way, each class earns a reward for reaching the goal. The kicker is the first class to reach each 5,000 point increment wins an added bonus [drinks or something else that goes with the reward]. This allows each student to contribute even if it is a small percentage! I am hoping to encourage study buddies!

You can download my version of the thermometers here. If you want to edit them, download this one...it's free!

Also academically, I have a few other things up my sleeve. I created Facebook Like stamps/stickers to immediately reward students for various reasons.

Also I created stickers and stamps to reward students who have awesome ISN response pages. My friend Toni came up with and shared with me a H.O.T. ticket to reward higher order thinking and sharing of ideas. They will receive this randomly and redeem it for a prize. Mine looks like this:

As far as behavior is concerned, we are a PBiS school, so I have to follow our PBiS plan. Our plan rewards students with a Cougar Cash Card. If they receive no conduct marks in class, they receive my stamp on their card for that period. I do, however, reward good behavior with little things...sugar free candy, healthy snacks. etc...

Well, this is just some of what I am doing in my room this year as far as rewards are concerned. I'm sure I will post my reflections on how they are working out as the year progresses.

Go ahead and use these ideas if you like! They are, after all, SCIENCE DIVA CERTIFIED!

The Teacher's Toolbox....

Thanks to this pin on Pinterest, two good friends/coworkers and I, along with many, many summer-pinning teachers, took a rather dull, garage-oriented tool organizer and created a FABULOUS toolbox to use in our classrooms!  I know I am safe in estimating MANY teachers because when I went to purchase my tool box from Home Depot, there were NONE on the shelves! A floor guy had to pull some down from the tip top shelf for me to buy 2. When one of my friends went to buy hers, there was only one left!  The remaining boxes that were there when I bought mine were sold within DAYS! Glad I bought two....another friend couldn't find any...anywhere in our town! Here is what I bought:

So, we got together yesterday and had a little "decorate our toolboxes" party. We had a GREAT time! I contemplated painting mine but didn't want the hassle. The gray actually looks good with the colors I chose! Here is how mine came out:

Here is all three of ours together:

Didn't they come out great?!?

A great BIG SHOUT OUT goes to the first one of us FABULOUS teachers that created this and pinned it for us all! If you read my blog please know that I really appreciate your idea and THANK YOU for giving me a cool project to make with my girls! This is truly SCIENCE DIVA CERTIFIED! Heck....I think I might make another one for my student teacher...if I can find some! How awesome would that be?!?

ISN...Interactive Science Notebooks!

Well....my good friend and coworker Toni Polkey and I have really been working a lot this summer coming up with what we hope is a FABULOUS system for using the ISN...Interactive Science Notebook for me and ISSN....Interactive Social Studies Notebook for her. After scouring the internet....reading blogs, pinning ideas, and streamlining the various power points, flip charts, and SMART resources we found....we finally have a system that, when we both implement it in each of our classes, is sure to bring some organizational serenity to our 150+ 6th graders...and us, too!


We really had a time with deciphering the whole RIGHT BRIAN/LEFT BRAIN theory. Some teachers use the notebooks OPPOSITE of what the theory says. So, after researching Roger Sperry and other psychological explanations we decided to go with what was outlined here: 

How Right-Brain vs. Left-Brain Thinking Impacts Learning. 

Our notebooks will focus on the LEFT side being the teacher or LEARNING side and the RIGHT side being the student or REFLECTION side. Of course, the REFLECTION side will be all student created...I really can't wait to see what they do! Toni and I are both SUPER DUPER excited about doing this! 

This POWER POINT outlines how they will use it in my Science class. 

Go ahead and check it out....after all it is SCIENCE DIVA CERTIFIED!


PS....Toni and I realized that she is more LEFT BRAIN and I am more RIGHT BRAIN...Guess we make up a WHOLE BRAIN when we THINK together! :)