it doesn't seem i've taken a single day 'off' this summer from school. Between preparing for tutoring, tutoring, planning for next year with Tiffany, attending meetings, creating materials, brainstorming, and losing sleep, it doesn't seem to end! I guess so long as I keep doing stuff like this over the summer I am still in the correct line of work?????!!!!!
The discovery of Pinterest is really feeding my creative appetite. It's both a blessing and a curse. My brain is going 100 miles an hour and my production of products cannot keep up with my thoughts! And with only a few more weeks before i return to work, i'm really worried i am going to be as much of a mess when i return as i was when i left :-P
I wanted to share a few things i have developed so far....
Classroom Scavenger Hunt
With everything else we are trying to cram in to the first couple of days, i figured a classroom scavenger hunt might save some time and spare us all the bore of me taking 15 minutes to explain where to find certain things in the classroom. Here's a snapshot of the document i plan to use.
Students will match the item with the location, identified by a number displayed in the classroom.
Classroom Signals
I had intentions of using signals last year but it was an epic fail. Could be again this year, but I am going to try again. I feel like I am more organized with posters this year. I also incorporated at least one 3-5 minute break in each of my classes last year, so my hope is that kids will need to signal a need to me far less often than if I did not provide a break. Again, this could be an epic fail, but I'm going to try it. I am asking each student to bring water to class each day so that signaling 'water' will not be an option. At this point, I only have 4 signals, but I'm sure another one will come to mind.Restroom Passes
One of the most brilliant things I've seen on Pinterest in the 'education' section is the use of hand sanitizer as restroom passes! I just so happened to have 3 spare bottles of the stuff the day I saw the idea, so I made girls and boys restroom passes as well as a nurse's pass. Certainly not my best penmanship, but considering where these suckers are headed, I don't think I really care!Jobs
I am not 100% convinced that I am going to be successful at incorporating jobs into the classroom, but I am going to try. I enjoyed putting the "jennie spin" on the job titles tonight at least. Maybe that will encourage me to follow through! I have created 4 jobs per group as I envision 4 students per group (although I have not seen class lists, so I'm going on a big assumption here). There is a 5th job that will rotate through the entire class. I'll start with that one. I can't wait any long to show the picture, so here goes...
You know you're jealous that you didn't think of this yourself! (just kidding) When Tiffany and I got together a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about the jobs that we thought we'd need. A time keeper was the first one we thought of, especially because we are determined to 'end' class 10-15 minutes early so that the kids can reflect on the days lesson, clean up, and so that none of us feel like we are in a panic. As we were talking about it, we thought about Flava Flav and YES, I WILL BE GOING TO THE DOLLAR STORE AND PURCHASING A WALL CLOCK AND ATTACHING IT TO A CHAIN and YES, the daily FLAVA FLAV student will WEAR THE CLOCK THROUGHOUT THE CLASS PERIOD! I can't wait. Will it be a distraction--of course. Is it fun--definitely. Do I love my job because I can do stupid stuff like this and get away with it--you doggone right! The job of FLAVA FLAV is to get our attention when it's time to stop and do the EOB (end of the block) checklist. Oh my goodness--can't wait to see their little faces on this one! Better yet, can't wait to see administration stroll by and see a mini Flava Flav in my room!
I plan to hang the Flava Flav chain on the wall near the door with a class roster for each block and we will just go alphabetically. Any student who doesn't want to be Flava Flav can pass, but why you would want to pass up that opportunity is beyond me!
Below are the other group jobs--I tried to put a description on each one. These are letter size posters I will hang in the classroom.
Well, I have more things up my sleeve, but will have to post those another night!
