Returning to School in One Week!

I always have ideas to share, so here is two this week. When I get into the full swing of school I will have many more. I am technically on vacation still – 5 more days! And what am I doing – teacher stuff. It is in my blood and I can’t help it!

I never used my plan book for a whole year until I bought one from Erin Condren. For about 16 years, I always started with good intentions of filling out my plan book and after a few weeks, it started to collect dust. I am not saying you should run out and by one, but now that I have been using it for several years, I have found some great value in writing in it. First of all, I am now using last year’s as a guide and a reference to what I am teaching this year. Sometimes I forget when I did something or how long it took us to complete. Second, it helps me plan units (especially math) so that I complete a unit at the natural breaks of holidays and vacations. One of my pet peeves is I hate giving tests on Mondays – I don’t think it is fair to the students.

Anyways, I am already excited to start writing in this year’s planner – so weird how something cute and fun is a motivator for doing something! Here is a picture of my planner this year!

My next tip is Class Dojo – Love it! I have the app too. If you have not tried it – you should check it out. It is free and is a nice way to keep track of positive and negative points your students earn in class for behavior. I use mine as a currency, so students can buy privileges and rewards. I have it displayed on my Promethean Board when I am not teaching and my students are very responsive to it. I also use the app when I go pick my class up at the line-up area. They can earn points for lining-up quietly and if they don’t – well you know. The amazing thing is by the time I get back to the class the points are already there on the Promethean Board – amazing! Each year the company has been improving it – this year it went school wide. So, if you team teach or share students, more than one teacher can give or take away points. Pretty Cool!!! Anyway, check it out at classdojo.com.