MotivAider

I have a wonderful accommodation for everyone to check out! I have one student in particular who is constantly off task, easily distracted and rarely completes a problem in the time that he is given. I try my best to keep on him, but with 14 other students in the classroom I can't keep on him as much as he needs. The second week of school I went and talked to the 3rd grade teacher she told me all the things she tried but didn't work for this student. I decided I would give it one more try before contacting his parents. So While I was trying to rack my brain I decided I would time him and let him see how often he is off task. That woke him up a bit...but not enough to complete something in a timely manner.

On Wednesday we had a visit from the outside councilor. She visits with a different student in my class once every 2 weeks. After her visit with my student I expressed my concerns about the child who is constantly off task. She lit up and came back with something so amazing! On Thursday I gave him his own personal timer. This timer clips onto his belt, pants or pocket. I control the minutes/seconds (example 2 minutes) when the timer goes off it vibrates. With every vibration he is to ask himself a question "Am I on task?" the vibration is a constant reminder for him to spring into action and do the task he was asked to do.

On Wednesday I had to gain his attention by calling his name, tapping him, asking him questions, or tapping on his desk at LEAST 60 times! (No MotivAider)

On Thursday I only had to gain his attention by calling his name, tapping him, asking him questions, or tapping on his desk 10 times!!! (With MotivAider)

Dramatic difference! I was amazed! When I went to ask him how he thought it was going on Thursday at lunch (only been doing it for 1/2 a day) a kid who sits right beside him said, "It's working great!" I look at the kid and said how do you know? The student look at me and said well he isn't drifting off into space and he is listening! The fact that a student who sits right beside him noticed a difference that is pretty wonderful! I we are only on day 2 of using the MotivAider, but this object will always earn my praise! If you have a student who you think this would work for I would highly suggest it. It has changed how my classroom looks and how much attention I can give to the other students in my class. Here is a link to the wonderful product! Even if you don't think this would be useful for you or a student you know please pass this tool on to others! I know it will make the a world of difference for the right students!

WOW! she know what she's talking about!

If you are a 1st year teacher or even a 2nd year teacher YOU NEED to read this! This amazing teacher has made a wonderful blog post about the roll-a-coaster that a 1st year teacher goes through. It is completely 100% the truth! I only wish she would make a graph for what a RIF and 1st year of teaching looks like I am sure she would need to add a couple more inches to the lower end of the graph! haha! I hope you enjoy her post and can gain a least 1 piece of advice! :)

Library . . .

Before I started work on my library I really took a good hard look at Pintrest and other teacher's blogs. I owe much of my library success to this blog.
1) I had to decided how I wanted to organize the books. I decided to go by categories/genre. While this task sounds easy it is very time consuming.

2) How to display the categories. I bought baskets at Dollar General 2 for $1.50 I started out with 20 but ended up having to buy more. I had no idea how many I was going to need.

3) I designed a fun way to label the baskets. This was my favorite part! I love the index card labels, the ribbon and the whole look of the book basket/library display.

I hope these little tips help!

My classroom library! Planet rug is in the area to help reading take you out of this world!



 All the baskets have a clear label of genre or author and a book basket number in the bottom corner.

 

To advertise Mark Twain books the library (very nice lady) gave me an extra poster! I thought it was the perfect thing to make may library look oh so cute!

My Classroom!

I thought it was time to share some school pictures!!! I love my new classroom and I am very very very excited for student to start coming in! I will be posting later to show off my library and door to my classroom (both are very impressive if I do say so myself!)

Writing Process poster!

Classroom guidelines

My very favorite clipboard hanging by the door.

Mailboxes I think they look great!

Parts of speech posters are all ready for the first day of school

My area....it still needs some work.

 Assignment board/objective area. The mini white boards are split in 2 parts the top is for the homework assignment and the bottom is the objective. I thought this would be a great way to display the days objectives and homework. Beside the mini boards are the spelling words for the 1st full week of school (yes! I am prepared!)

 Pencil bins! Puzzles are everywhere!

Safe seat. I thought it would be a great idea to put an attitude poster by the area to encourage student to think about their actions and attitude before joining again with the group.

How cute are these?? I know you can't really see the cuteness they have but they are balloons I cut out and put the students name and birthday's on. I feel this is a cute and not too large of a way to display birthdays in my classroom. Last year I didn't display birthday anywhere. Oh and they are color coded by month...thus the lack of a color variety.

(Orange = October, purple = May, dark green = December, light green = March, red = February, dark blue = July, and light blue = August)