Happy classroom management Monday! I went on a much needed break to spend some time with family and celebrate my birthday. I hope you did something relaxing as well over the weekend.... lord knows we all need it! Anyway, I am BACK and I am here to tell you why you NEED an Elf on the Shelf in your classroom!! The Elf on the Shelf popped up on my Pinterest feed about 5 years ago and I am SO glad that it did. It has REALLY been a lifesaver in the behavior department and that is why I think you need on for your classroom. Let's take a quick look at what an elf can bring to your classroom: Elf inspired educational opportunities Your elf isn't ... Read More
After Lunch and Recess Routines
Happy Classroom Management Monday everyone! Today we are talking about our after lunch and recess routines! Do you have a set thing you do? I am going to make this short and sweet and tell you about my routines and why they reset us all and prepared us for the rest of the day. After Lunch and Recess Routines While you would think lunch and recess would wear kiddos out, it usually does just the opposite. They're wound up and want to keep playing. Can you blame them? The fact of the matter for us was that we needed to get back to our day and the wildness that recess and lunch brought, kind of eliminated our productivity. I knew we needed a change. I ... Read More
Classroom Management Must Haves from Amazon
I have such a fun post lined up this week. I often get questions on what teachers should buy for their classroom so today I created a list of some of my TOP Classroom Management Must Haves and all of them are from Amazon! Because it doesn't get much easier than buying from Amazon! This post contains affiliate links. Thank you so much for supporting my website! Anchor Chart Tablets and Markers Anchor Charts has always been one of my favorite learning tools. They were fun to create with the class and always were a great reference point in whatever we were learning! Large Tablet paper, especially the sticky kind, is the perfect tool to build ... Read More
Why I DON’T Do Reward Systems
It is Classroom Management Monday and I am here with a pretty short and sweet post BUT it may be a hot topic for some: Let's talk reward systems. What Are Reward Systems? It's easy, students are rewarded for doing what is expected of them. I have seen schools that all have different ways of using rewards, here are just a few: Rewards for positive behavior Rewards for being on A or AB honoroll Rewards for perfect attendance Rewards for showing up to school on time Why I DON'T Do Reward Systems and why you shouldn't either The things mentioned are basically things we should be doing. We are doing a disservice to our students by saying ... Read More
Parent Contact Made Easy!!!
This week we NEED to talk about parent contact. While student connections are oh-so important, do you ever stop and think about making connections with the parents too? Parents need the connections too I learned pretty quickly that it is essential that you communicate with parents. For me, just chatting at the pick up line seemed okay my first couple years, but after getting fed up with being bombarded with emails and phone calls made me reevaluate what I was doing. Sure, I was sending home quick notes that our school would mass produce that let parents know important events coming up but they weren't effective. Bottom line is that parents weren't ... Read More
Student Connections
Are you ready for some back to school madness? I am teaming up with some AMAZING bloggers to give you some of our top back to school tips so you can start the year off right. Oh, and make sure you keep reading – you MIGHT find a chance to win yourself a $100 TPT gift card. How it works: Each blogger is writing a tip that they think is GREAT for back to school. Make sure you head to each blog to read all of the tips! Here, we are going to talk about Student connections With building student connections, I truly believe that you need to have a talk about FAMILY. No, I am not talking about your family or your students’ family. I am talking ... Read More