Classroom Management Part Five: Class Contributors

In my opinion, it is so important for students to learn responsibility at as early an age as possible. 

In my classroom, I make sure I help students understand what it means to be responsible and to make a commitment. To implement this, I decided to take my classroom jobs and make them more meaningful. I wanted my students to take ownership of their job and to do their very best. How did I do that? I'm glad you asked!

I took my job system and added in higher expectations. I also decided that in order to do a better job in the classroom with their responsibilities, they needed to hold the jobs for longer than a week. So, I switched to monthly job rotations. This allowed them to learn the job and develop it over the course of a month, rather than just a week. It also gave us more time in the classroom every Monday morning. Rather then randomly selecting the jobs with them each week, students were introduced and explained each job once at the beginning of the school year. Then, they applied for jobs. This was done as an early finisher activity and took little instruction time out of the day. I then took the applications home or used my planning period to assign the jobs. On the first day of the month (or first day we were in school at the beginning of the month) I would change the numbers before the students arrived. They knew that jobs would be changing, so they would find their new job and start it right away. It has saved a lot of time!

During the application process, students could use the following description cards to remind themselves the expectations of our jobs to help them apply for the best job for them. Here's a look at a few of those cards. I had them printed and laminated, and kept them on a binder ring. Students could go up and look at any time while they were applying. They also worked well for me to use to remind students of their job if they were failing to do it properly.

I kept the rings with the applications so I had everything in one convenient place. This is on the side of a tall shelf that is right next to my job posters wall. 

I noticed the year previous to implementing this new system, that students were often forgetting to do their jobs and I would have to remind them. The point of the jobs was to learn responsibility, but they also helped ME.. if I was having to remind them of their job, how was that actually helping? It wasn't! So, I decided that I needed a way to provide them of that reminder. So, I decided on using student lanyards. They would serve as a visual and tactile reminder. They could see on the bright card the job they had, and could also feel the lanyard around their neck and be reminded in that regard as well.

I also added the orange card you see. I knew I would be having 12 boys in my class and wanted them to come to school and "put on" an attitude of being ready to learn. When they put on the lanyard, they were ready to work and do their best. When they took it off for lunch and recess, they were free to have fun and relax a bit. When they returned to the classroom and put them back on, they were ready to work again.

We store them on a command hook next to the door so students can grab them as soon as they come in to the classroom and hang them up on the way out.

I added the small numbers so that we knew who the lanyard belonged to and to help students learn their numbers at the beginning of the year. 

I purchased the lanyards from Oriental Trading Company [only $6.99 a dozen] and the plastic card holders from Staples.

Then, at the beginning of the month when jobs changed, my paper passers would collect the job cards and we would redistribute them as we got settled in to the morning. It took little time and my students did it. It also helped them learn their friends jobs and they would help remind each other to complete them rather than me having to do so! They became quite helpful.

If you like this system, you can check it out on TpT here! you'll get everything you see above, with editable versions of the description cards and lanyard cards, with 25 different jobs included!

Or, if you want to just implement the application process to the job system you are already using, you can check that out here! 

Clean Desk Award

It was becoming apparent over the last couple of weeks that my students needed a little motivation to work on keeping their desks clean and organized. I mean, some of them were just AWFUL. The worst I'd ever seen. It was time for action!

I've seen "Desk Fairy" notes floating around on blogs & TpT, but my 3rd graders wouldn't buy into that, as most of their parents don't refer to the Tooth Fairy or anything. So, instead, I whipped up my own version really quick Wednesday afternoon. I had some Starbursts, and inspiration just struck!

I simply printed them onto colored cardstock, attached a Starburst with some tape, and wrote an encouraging little note to them!

You can CLICK HERE and grab them for FREE to motivate and reward your students too!

Sticky Note Lesson Plans & Erin Condren

Hey friends!

I am so excited about this post because that picture above just makes my {teacher} heart SO HAPPY! I absolutely love lesson planning and looking at my lesson planner because, well.. just LOOK AT THAT! Those colors, those fonts, and that organization. It's too much! GAHH!

SOOOO... anyhow.. enough of my gushing... I guess I should start telling you WHY it's there!

If you've been on my Facebook page, Instagram, or Pinterest at all, it might look a tad familiar.

There's a post & YouTube video floating around that I've already done telling all about how I create my Erin Condren Teacher Planner with sticky notes.

However, I have been able to take this gorgeous masterpiece of a plan book... and improve upon it EVEN MORE! say whaaat!? I know! I didn't think this was at all possible either.. but it is!

So... if you first need to read the original post about how I did that... do that RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW.

Then come on back and read what's NEW AND IMPROVED!


So...let's play a game and see if you can SPOT THE DIFFERENCE:

Did you find it?

Here's what's new.... MY SUBJECT LABELS! noooww take a look!:

It may seem silly... but can I just say how WONDERFUL it is to not have to hand write almost anything in my planner these days!?!

Thanks to the genius of my friend Lisa over at Fourth and Ten and her beautiful Instagram post, I no longer have to write in my subject headers and times! Using Avery Return Address Labels [and all of the patience I can muster!] I created these subject and time labels for my planner! Now, I spend even LESS TIME setting up my planner week to week. I simply put in the labels, washi tape for our snack & lunch breaks, and I'm good to go.

Here's what a bunch of them printed out looks like:

I think I am even going to try doing my dates on them too so literally nothing is written in anymore. Another plus? If I mess up or decide to change something I can just cover it up with another and be none the wiser!

So, I know you might be asking "how do you make the labels in color?" Well, this is where that patience I mentioned [and don't have much of!] comes in. When you download and open the template [which you can get here for free from Avery] in Microsoft Word. I select the box in the template and go to "Format" >> "Shape Fill." Then, select the color you want the background to be. Of course, you can leave it white. But I went ahead and gave mine a rainbow pattern. Then, I overlay a text box [which I make translucent] and format my text. I copy and paste the text boxes to fill one column with the same label format. So, the first column is my red "Morning Work" label, the second is the orange "Bible" label, the third alternates "Science," "Health," & "History" in yellow since that's how I will be teaching it this year [rotating through each content over the course of the whole year] and then the last column on the page is the green "Math" label. Then, once I save the file, I close it and copy the entire file itself and paste it onto my desktop. I rename it (something I'll remember that corresponds) and change the text boxes to the times for each of those same subjects. That way the colors are already done and I just have to change the text and formatting.

I say it takes patience because Microsoft Word is finicky when it comes to layering and I spent a lot of time adjusting the text boxes so they would line up well. But, now that it's done it looks great and was well worth the frustration!

>>> If you click here, you can download one of my label files and give them a try to see what I mean. You'll need the font CartonSix so it looks right and go from there so some of the formatting is done for you! Remember..it's in WORD. I'm sorry!

PRINTING TIP >>> once you create those labels, you will need to save them as a PDF in order to print. The first time I went to print I didn't do that.. and they didn't bring with the color fill. So I have some pages of just plain white labels. Anybody want them!?

I bought the Avery Return Address Labels on Amazon... you can get a box of 2000 here and have them for at least 2 years, if not more.. it just depends how many you use a week. Right now, I use 19 a week, but if I print the dates like I think I will that will be 24 a week x at least 34 weeks of planning for 816 labels a year. 2000 divided by 816 is 2.45 years... not bad for about $7!

For your enjoyment, here's another look at the goodness of all the supplies I use when I am putting it all together...

You can see in the top right that I used labels to insert when I do our daily Read Aloud under other plans because I didn't have room elsewhere. It works great! I love that the post-it allows for TWICE the planning room. You can lift them up and jot notes, ideas, and changes underneath for future reference [and hide them with the post-it!]

Happy Planning!

Erin Condren Teacher Planner: lesson planning with post-it notes!

Hey there everyone!

So several months ago I shared with you a blog tutorial on how to print onto post-it notes to transform your lesson plans in an Erin Condren Teacher Planner. Well, I know that giving (and taking) directions, is easiest to SEE what is happening, so I thought I would create a VIDEO to show you! A tad crazy (at least for me) because taping myself and talking to a webcam is a bit unnerving, but it was so much fun! Check out the video by clicking on the picture below!
 and PLEASE let me know your thoughts!

Then, you can grab the template I use from my TpT store (just click on the cover photo below)... I went ahead and it turned it into a permanent {FREEBIE!}

I hope you give it a shot if you have (and love!) an EC Teacher Planner and let me know how it works for you! I hope you absolutely LOVE it as much as I do! I find that it actually makes planning a *little* less daunting, sooo...HAPPY PLANNING! :)

Erin Condren + post-its = LOVE!

So the other day I was handwriting my lessons on my gorgeous new Erin Condren teacher planner....

isn't it lovely!? {sigh}

when I became frustrated! I wrote something wrong and couldn't fix it! Plus... I am not a big fan of my handwriting and writing them out (seems to) take longer than typing them on the computer. Last year I used post-its and a daily At-A-Glance planner that I loved....

....but it just wasn't enough.

The Erin Condren planner (everyone on IG seems to have one!) is great because it is my calendar, lesson planner, attendance, and grade book all in one! But I still disliked writing my lessons.... until an idea hit me. I opened my desk drawer and found my mini post-its. I laid the stack on top of one of the spaces for a lesson in the week, and low & behold... IT WAS THE PERFECT SIZE! 

So I quickly got to work as soon as I could. I opened a file I have on my computer that has boxes already the size of the mini post-its for another use (I make my students reminders for different things to put in their binder... but I digress...)

 I copied the file and started moving everything around to see what I could fit on one page.

Since there are 7 blocks per day in the teacher planner, I put 7 of the boxes at the top of the page and 7 more at the bottom with a gap between the two to delineate the days. I duplicated the slide (I use Power Point) and added in text boxes. To help myself in the future so I don't get confused while typing, printing, and transferring it into my planner, I put titles by the post-it boxes for the subject they will go on, and labels for the day. I also wrote in (very small) the color that the post-its for that day are, just to help me remember. None of those will print onto the post-its themselves. They will be on the paper. They are just a good reference for me.

Here's what it looked like at first:

then, in those gray boxes, I put my transparent text boxes with my lesson info for that day. You can format the font (any font you want!) to be bold, italic, shadowed, outlined, and any size you need! I continually duplicate my slides so everything is in the same format and I only have to change the lesson info.

Here's what a two-day page looks like all typed up:

So...once everything is typed for the week, I can start printing. First, I print the blank template, which is slide 1 in the file I shared below (you didn't think I wouldn't share the love, did you!?!)

It looks like this:

It is just light gray boxes the size of the mini post-its in the same place as the above slides. I print a few copies of those (so I can print faster) and put the post-its where the boxes are. As mentioned, I use different colors to delineate the days. The top 7 are one color, the bottom 7 another. I use 5 different colors for the 5 days of the school week.

Once all the post-its are on the papers, I insert the paper into the printer and all of my lesson plan info will print right onto the post-its! Then, I transfer them onto my planner, add some washi tape to show where snack & lunch are in our day, and that's it! The whole week is done! Then, when you don't get to something or need to switch it around, just move your post-its! You can also flip them up and write underneath of them, too, if you want additional notes/details, or want to write notes after you teach the lesson for future reference. It's that simple!

You could also use post-it flags for writing the date so your lesson planner is more reusable if you like. I use them under the date for notes specific to that day. and write the date in because I know I will probably use a whole new planner next school year. I use a pack I got at the Dollar Tree that come in a bunch of sizes, are transparent, and are only $1!  

So... here it is, all finished!

I just love the colors and the neatness of the fonts! What do you think?!

You can get the template for this here! It is a Power Point file :)

You can also view my YouTube video tutorial to see it in action!

I hope you find it as useful as I do and find that the instructions are clear. Feel free to comment or email me at mrstamilynnmo@aol.com if you have any questions!

Classroom Jobs & The S.O.S Binder!

It's back to school time!! Have you started yet??
I started this Monday, but only went for two days. We close because of the local county fair that is right across the street from our school. So I go back after Labor Day! It seems strange to some people to go for just those two days, but it works very nicely - we get the kids and all of their supplies in, we discuss and practice routines/procedures, our rooms are ready, and when we go back we can jump right into the curriculum!

Well, a midst all of this crazy back to school preparation I made some changes to how I manage things in my classroom and thought I would show and share those with you!

The first thing I changed was my "theme." I have an overall colorful, chevron theme going on (with mostly gray and white chevron) but last year I used robots from CTP, the previous year I had owls, and the year before (my first year) I had stars. I wanted to do a nautical theme along with the chevron, but it just seemed like an overwhelming undertaking when I realized I needed to change all of my black accent items to navy. Just tooo much right now. Then I started working on my student take home binders, and out came a Superhero Kid theme (also thanks to Krista Wallden at Creative Clips, because her aDoRabLe superhero kids clipart helped too!)

When I got to the point that I wanted to work on my classroom jobs, I was a bit stuck. I couldn't figure out exactly what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to use the superhero kids for "Super Helpers" and wanted to have enough jobs for each child (since I would only have 15 to 16 in my class -- I know, I know, I'm lucky blessed!) Finally, inspiration struck when I saw what The Tattooed Teacher created with her new classroom jobs! She added in circles where faces should go on some super cute clip art and the effect is awesome! In the circles, you could put student faces or numbers, and BOOM! adorable job system!
So, while we were in the car heading to Michigan a few weeks ago and I saw this creation on her Instagram, I got to work!

Here's how they turned out, once I printed and laminated them!

SOOO CUTE, right!? I am so glad I found her amazing idea, because I JUST LOVE IT! I took my students' pictures on the first day. I printed an extra circle the same size as what I used to cover their faces and traced on the pictures so it was the exact same size. I cut them out, laminated them, and I will use sticky tack to put them up and change them! I can't wait to put the pictures in on Tuesday to see the final product!

Now, to manage the jobs I created something else to go along with them. I decided that I wasn't very satisfied with a weekly job selection anymore. It just wasn't wowing me. So I switched it up and went with a monthly system. I also have wanted to do a "job application" system but I knew I needed to be in the older grades for it to work. Since I get to stay in 3rd grade this year, I am going for it! I worked on a job application one night, and then to help students stay accountable to their duties, I created job descriptions for each job. I no longer have to repeat what every job is responsible for when we apply for jobs or remind students what their responsibilities are. If they forget or aren't sure, they can look through the descriptions before applying! God really gave me inspiration one night and I worked until about 2am so I didn't lose my train of thought!

Here's how it all turned out!

I laminated the descriptions and hole punched them to put them on a binder ring. I hung them on a shelf that is right next to the wall the jobs are on, and under them I added a pocket where the job applications are kept. Everything is in one space-saving spot!
I also made a disclaimer (above) that says that if at any time a student is not fulfilling his/her duties, I can remove him/her from the assigned position! I couldn't resist that little paragraph of enforcement that they are agreeing to when they sign their application! ;)

I also made a poster to remind them to do their jobs and to do their best (so hopefully I won't have to and they will get in the habit of doing them at the end of the day) and also connected it to my classroom verse: Colossians 3:23. In this verse, Paul instructs us to do our best in everything we do so as to honor the Lord, not to please men.

On Tuesday afternoon I was going over the jobs with my new kiddos and told them we would be applying when we came back from our little break. They were so excited they convinced me to let them apply then so I could assign jobs over break. I was excited about having them apply too, so I went with it! I am so glad I did, because their applications are JUST ADORABLE!

This application wants to be hired because she loves me and "wants to help"..... AHH! This group melts my heart! Several couldn't pick, so they applied for anything! Their reasons were well-written and I was so thrilled as I went through the stack. It's going to be so fun, I will be looking forward to this every month!

Now, I also mentioned above The S.O.S. Binder. It's a revamp of my Take Home Binder system I blogged about several months ago in my post "O-H So Organized." It's a way I keep my students organized and I have wanted to post the pack on TpT for a while, but just never got around to putting it all together. One day this summer the term S.O.S. came to me for Super Organized Student and I finally got to work! I was struggling with more inspiration once I had the name and title down, until I thought of using superhero kids for being "super organized." Originally I had wanted to connect into my nautical theme because of "SOS" being a rescue term, but I couldn't find clip art I liked so I stuck with superhero kids, and I am so glad I did!

Slowly, it all started to come together and I worked and worked....and worked until I had the finished product! Here's a peek of how it looks assembled for my students!

 the cover:

a clear pouch for notes/money, my welcome packet for the year,

and S.O.S. Dos and Don'ts for the students:

 descriptions and instructions for the parents and the communication log:

I just used loose leaf notebook paper for the communication log, but the pack includes contact log forms.
Next is the homework log:

I copied my homework log sheets to be double-sided, and because I don't assign homework on Fridays

one page should last about a week and a half!

Then I added in a page for my behavior logs:

my behavior log calendars. I always print them in color on cardstock to remind parents

of the color choice so they aren't confused if their child is always on red.. that's GOOD!

I then have clear page protectors in which I put our weekly spelling lists & Bible memory verse.

This is where I put other homework helpers, project information, and other items students will need.

last but not least, the take home folder! I bought plastic ones this year, in the hopes

they they won't rip out and will hold up all year!

Because I had looped with my last group of students for 3 years, most of my parents knew and understood this system; they were used to it. This group of parents had never seen a system like this before, so I made sure to lay it out in a simple, organized way and walked my students through the entire thing on the very first day. I had RAVE reviews in several communication logs the next day which warmed my heart! 

You can check out the whole pack here on TpT. Everything you see above comes in color and B&W versions and is entirely editable! I inserted text boxes on the cover pages and put my students' names on top of the burst. Cover pages have multiple options and there are monthly calendars included for the whole year (similar to the behavior logs, but those specifically are not included). Once you purchase it you will be able to redownload the updated calendars every year - so you only need to buy it once!

There are several other items also included that I don't use but that I put in by request. So there are lots of options for you and your students!

What do you think!? Do you use a binder system like this? Tell me about it below - I love to hear others' ideas and how they make it work for them in their classroom :)

My 7 Grading Paper Must-Haves!

Preparing report cards this week got me thinking a lot about my must-have items for when I grade papers. I have some things I really need to have on hand in order for grading to go smoothly and to work efficiently (for me, anyway) ....so I thought I'd share them! I mean, grading stacks of papers at night isn't always fun, right!? We gotta do what we gotta do to make it {a tad bit} more enjoyable!

1. Grading Sheets

My first and ULTIMATE grading necessity is this handy little piece of paper. I swear, if I don't have one or two of these on me at all times, I feel completely lost and unorganized!
It is a table I create within Microsoft Word that lists my students names, with as many blank columns as I can fit. I also have the four blank rows at the top for the subject, assignment description, total points, and date of assignment. Then, I list the grades as I go. When I go to the computer later to enter them, it is SO much easier! Everything is already in order as I keep in my Excel spreadsheet.. I just go straight down the line entering the numbers!

I can fit about 8 columns per table and 2 tables per page. About 30 copies of them at the beginning of the year is usually enough to last me all year. I use them for more than just grading too. They work for keeping track of just about anything and I seriously don't think I could function without them!

Wanna give them a try?!  >>>CLICK HERE! to download them for free. Beware, it is a WORD document.. I know, I'm sorry! ... just type your students' names into the boxes on the left. There is room for up to 20 students. If you don't need that many, just delete rows from the bottom. You'll need the fonts KG Eyes Wide Open & CartonSix so it looks right. But, of course, you can change them to whatever you want! :)

{disclaimer: old photo!}

2. EZ Grader

I think every teacher would agree than an EZ Grader is a MUST HAVE! My newest one was given to me by a friend who was retiring {it was brand new!} and is a Breast Cancer Awareness one. I love it, because my mom is a survivor, and so was her mom. It's a cause near & dear to my heart. Whenever I see it, I thank God she is healed!

Do I really need to add any further explanation of why it's a must-have for grading, though?!?! [if you feel I do, please leave and a comment and I'd be happy to!! :)] I will say this - whoever invented it is a genius!

3. a good set of pens

I absolutely LOVE this felt pens! They have a super fine point and come in a large rainbow of beautiful colors! My cousin was a graphic design major at U of Cincy and had some a few summers ago. I was drooling over them for this exact purpose and she told me she found them on Amazon. So, of course, I ordered them! I have since found a smaller ten pack at Staples. I have several packs now ... they don't last me too long ;)

of course, these Papermate Flair pens will always suffice if you don't have the Staedtler Fineliners.

I love them too... I especially love how they look on my desk in this Target alphabet toothbrush holder :)

4. STICKERS!

For a not-so-fun activity... you definitely need to fancy up them papers with fun stickers! Students love them, teachers love them.... well, who DOESN'T love them!?! :) Creative Teaching Press makes lots of fun ones!

5. a Repertoire of Encouraging Comments

I have gotten really positive feedback from parents over the last couple of years about the comments I leave on students' papers. I know it's not possible to do all the time, but I find on certain papers, especially tests, meaningful writing, or pages where they really excel, it is not overlooked. My students inspect every page they get in their mailbox every day. I think they like to see what I have to say about their work, so I make sure that what I say counts... because it does to them!

This is my favorite comment to write :) I have a parent write it occasionally when she looks over her daughter's Spelling Notebook before she hands in her homework - so sweet!



I love responding to their sentences! What they come up with sometimes is just tooo much!

6. Grading Folder & paper clips

I HAVE to be organized. It's a MUST. So, to keep everything in order, I paper clip each set of papers together with little paper clips. I also keep a folder in my Erin Condren Teacher Planner that is ONLY for papers I need to grade or check over. I keep them in there whenever I take them out of the turn-in station and take them home in the folder with some grading sheets & stickers {though usually my entire plan book goes home with me nightly!} Once a group of papers is graded, it goes back in the folder. If anything is turned in incomplete, those papers stay on the top of the pile in the folder. The next morning, when I go back in, I take the incomplete papers off of the top and set them aside for students to complete, and the rest go on top of the turn-in station to go home as mail!

I got a set of personalized file folders from Erin Condren and made one a "Papers to Grade" folder. SO cute :)

Every morning I check my students' Take Home Binders for their homework and check off if it was completed or not so they can stay in the Homework Club. I made this checklist real quick to keep track. You can get that for free >>>HERE! too :)  {it is editable in Power Point.. just type into the text boxes and choose a font! I use KG Eyes Wide Open here, too}

7. Turn-in Station

I'll say it again, I HAVE to be organized. In order for me to be organized, my students have to be as well. When they begin to work on an assignment independently, especially something like a quiz or a test or will for sure be assigned a "grade" or set of points, I have them turn it in. When I worked with a teacher friend of mine, she used a system like this and it was genius. So, I took it and began using it too!

I have a station on top of my student mailbox organizers [it's really a ClosetMaid Shoe Organizer!] I have a stack of 4 metal letter trays on top. The three on the bottom each have a paper folder: one red, one yellow, and one green. Those are the colors my friend used, but you could whatever you want! Whenever I give the directions, right before I let my students begin working I tell them where they will turn it in. I used to write on the board a big R or Y {R for red & Y for yellow} so they knew where to put it, but it wasn't enough, someone always asked where to put it when they finished! Especially if there were other thing written on the board already, it seemed to get a little lost. So, instead I made these visual prompt cards that are on the board. I just check next to which folder it goes in. Sometimes I even add a page number or abbreviation/description such as "Lang. 27" or "Math Test" if they have multiple things to turn in. Then, when they finish they just walk over to the station and slip into the correct colored folder. They don't have to take the folder and put it in the pocket or anything, just slide it in to the folder, like a file folder. So, of course, colored or even plain file folders would work too!

The top letter tray is empty and that is where I put papers I have finished grading or other items that need to go home. When there are papers there, my classroom mail people work on putting them into the mailboxes in their free time. So, like I was describing above, when I come in the next morning, any papers that are completely graded go right there and I'm done!

As you can see in the picture, the station also has a basket of highlighters and a sign. I added the sign last year to help combat the No-Name Paper Epidemic. A teacher across the hall printed it from TpT and decided not to use it, so I did! I laminated it and have it taped over the turn-in folders, so they HAVE to lift it in order to turn in their work. This way, they are guaranteed to see that sign and be prompted to check if their name is on their paper or not. I rarely have no-name papers now :) it's a lovely thing! I scoured TpT for the creator of the one I have {to give credit where credit is due!} but failed in finding it. But, there are a bunch for free to download on TpT.. just search "highlight your name." I'm sure you'll find one you like!

If you like the visual prompt cards, you can pick them up here in my TpT store!

Well, those are my go to items for grading papers! Do you have any more, or others? I especially love seeing good pens/office supplies that other teachers have discovered! I'm pretty sure school supplies my Love Language! ;)