ANDREA RUNNELS
So as the school year winds down, it’s all about survival of the fittest! It’s time to pull out every last tool in that classroom management tool box! I’ve got several creative ideas that you can add to yours to help you end that school year a little more smoothly. And the best part? They will work for any part of the school year! Let’s talk about my Golden Ticket Plan, Sticky Quotes, and more!
GOLDEN TICKET
The GOLDEN TICKET system is a behavior plan in which students earn points for work completion and behavior. It makes it fun to copy the ticket sheet double-sided on yellow paper. I made each item worth 1 point and I made students tally up their daily points and then keep a running total on the right side where it says “Total Points.” Hold students accountable for keeping up with it and getting it signed by you daily.
At the end of the two week period students who earn enough points will be invited to attend a GOLDEN Get-Together. I required 26/30 points. You can modify points for absences, too. Make the plan work for you! You could just make the Get-Together a quick class meeting where you give students who earned enough points a small reward. You could also use this as a 1 week system so I left the point sheet more generic. Feel free to just use the idea!! Whatever it takes at the end of school! I explained more in the Periscope broadcast below.
SPUR OF THE MOMENT GAMES
Having a creative brain lends itself to think quickly and come up with out of the box ideas on the spot. This is one that I made up out of necessity during my last year in the classroom! And it worked well because of the competition aspect. At the time I was departmentalized and taught Science and Social Studies to 3 different classes. I called it the “Backwards Behavior Game” because negative was positive and positive is negative! Every time there was an interruption in instruction I did a tally. If there is exceptional behavior, I did a negative tally. The class with the least amount of tallies out of the three earned a reward. Would totally work with a self-contained class. You could reward them for having less than 3 interruptions or for less than 10 for a week, etc. Easiest game ever. Only involves a marker and anything that maximizes instructional time is a win-win!
THEY’LL DO IT ALL FOR THE STICKY…QUOTES…
So for anyone that doesn’t know I am obsessed with all things Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary is my entrepreneurial guru because he believes in legacy over currency and capitalizing on your strengths by doing things with integrity and lots of hard work. Well you probably do know that I’m a teacher gone rogue. I spent 16+years in the public school classroom and in my garage I have enough school supplies to open a store. However, when the opportunity presented itself to have those two worlds collide I was instantly all-in. I found out about the limited edition “Gary Vee” My Sticky Quotes via Gary’s Hustler Digest emails and went from 0-Checkout in less than 60 seconds.
The amazing part of this purchase ended up being the customer experience and service though. When they found out it had just recently been my birthday they sent extra!! Some creative ways I have used them are for Periscope broadcasts, Instagram posts, and bookmarks. But wait, there’s more…what’s amazing is most of the designs are for classroom use!! I think these would make for great positive reinforcement for kiddos in the classroom. Perfect for desks as a reminder and a great way to gently remind kids with ADHD to stay on task. You can learn more in this replay and then check them out at http://mystickyquotes.com!
MIX UP YOUR ROUTINE A LITTLE
After testing is over, it seems that kiddos think the entire school year is over. Well, sorry kids that is not the case. To keep them engaged sometimes it’s ok to mix up your routine starting with morning work. Check out this post, which includes a link to a freebie, about how I had themed days for Morning Work! Click on the post image to check it out!
I hope these ideas spark a little something that gives you hope to last through the end of the school year! And guess what? I have some exciting things coming out for teachers this summer, including courses for setting up your E.S.O.L. students for success based on my book! I also have a course coming out for kids with ADHD and parents to do together to build that communication gap and have the best summer ever! Sign up here to learn more: http://bit.ly/UNITEDASAFAMILYNEWSLETTER