Positive Behavior Support

I have for several years now spent LOADS of money on treasure chest items. I made a vow this year that I would not do that. My school is big with Positive Behavior Support (PBS) and we use a school wide system that has worked wonders! I wanted something new to use as in class reward along with the school wide PBS system. Several of my friends and I (thanks Mary Beth and Leslie) came up with using PBS coupons. The students who get their names pulled each week from our "Cat Cash" bucket will get to pick a coupon. I have started working on them and will post them when I am finished!

Projects...projects...

I have started several new projects and I am going to spend my afternoon putting most of them together. I figured I would give you a preview and then I'll upload the final products when I am finished! I do have several things that are already done - I am more than thankful for our school system's resource center, where I can do several of these projects!

These are going to be the cups I use for sharpened pencils and needs to be sharpened pencils. I generally let my students sharpen their own pencils up until morning announcements start. After that they may get a pencil from the sharpened bucket throughout the day, and if their pencils breaks or gets dull, they can put it in the needs to be sharpened cup. It seems to work well!

For the upcoming school year I wanted a centralized location for news and announcements. I found this cork board at Hobby Lobby. I think that I am going to try and spray paint it or cover it in a solid fabric. I painted a canvas for the news sign and I will add the polka dot ribbon in someway. Look out for the final product! :)

This idea I got from a few of my friends within my school system (thanks Lindsey and Mary Beth!!). I teach these "silent signals" at the beginning of the year and they work wonders! Each one stands for something different and then the bottom signals are my responses to the students. I especially love this when I am in the middle of working with a small group, it causes so many less interruptions. 

This is how I manage my classroom helpers. Each student has either a popsicle stick or a piece of laminated paper with their name on it. Their name goes in on of the library pockets and that is their job for the week.Here are my helpers:  Teacher Assistant (the students that passes out papers, etc...), Messenger (the student that runs errands for me), Librarian (the student in charge of our classroom library and checking in books), Receptionist (answers my classroom phone when it rings), Computer Tech (this student is inc charge of turning on and off the computers, assisting students if I am in a small group, and cleaning up the computer area after centers), Lunch Assistant (this students collects the forks, and gets the snack from the lunchroom), Table Washer, and Trash Manager (this student makes sure the room is not a mess, takes the trash cans by the door in the afternoons; which helps our custodians, and he or she cleans the desks with Lysol wipes before they leave for the day). The blank pocket on the bottom is where I keep their names. The kids love having jobs and being responsible for something in the room. 

Summer Break...yeah right!

If you are in the education field in any way, you know we all look forward to summer vacation, BUT...I know that I end up spending more time getting ready for the next school year, than I do relaxing! I was really bad a posting things last year, to be honest I didn't post anything at all. My year was CRAZY! I have decided that this summer is the time to get back into what I had originally planned to do: share all the cool education, craft, and organization ideas that I find and create.


So far this summer when I am not in workshops or in DOE meetings, I have been Pinterest crazy! My friends and I had a Pinterest Party several days ago and we made so many cute things! In addition to moving classrooms this year, I decided to change my room to red, black, and white polka dots ( I previously had primary colors and polka dots). I have enjoyed and relaxed while be crafty. Here are several of the things I made. Thank you, thank you to those people from Pinterest who inspired our ideas!

This is the wreath that is going on the door of my classroom. I still need to add a bow in the right  corner. 

This is a GREAT idea I got from Pinterest. It has a hardware organizer from Lowes. I added scrapbook paper and printed out labels to organize all of my odds and ends that usually take over my desk.

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