Power of Positivity

One thing that really pushed me to starting my own blog was the amazing teachers that have inspired me as a teacher so in order to get to know them better I am linking up with a variety of ladies who I have followed for a long time!   This one comes from Gina at Miss Peluso's Kindergarten!  Now that it is 2015 we are focusing on positivity!

 I have only been teaching for 2 years and this is my 3rd year so I am still, sadly, using my kids as guinea pigs and doing a bit of trial and error.  As a veteran teacher once told me....kids need novelty....so I am sure behavior systems are always changing.  Here is my reasoning.....I felt that it was a crutch.  Instead of using logical consequences and our virtues (we spend sooo much time learning/practicing) I found it was just move your clip, clip up, clip down etc.  We have been without it for one week and I am already feeling more free and reflective about how I handle behavior.

 My husband and I are coming up on our 5 year anniversary and were high school sweethearts and it is nice to know you can just laugh and have fun.

 I am a very organized and plan-a-head type of teacher.  So most lessons are well thought out and copies made well before time.  However, each year I get better and better about simply letting things go and being more flexible.  We were working on odd/even numbers and the lesson seemed a bit dry (we use Saxon Math).  There was a one-liner about how the last digit, either even or odd, will determine whether the entire number is even or odd.  So an idea came to me mid-sentence.  I gave each student an index card and told them to write a seven digit number.  Then one at a time they came up, I read the number (they loved that part), and they sorted them on even or odd.  It was great!

 Last week our topic was Shadows and we worked on Main Idea/Details.  We read this great book and predicted the title.  To go along with the set up of the book, I had each kid bring in one item that fit inside a brown lunch sack.  We used an old time overhead projector and the students guessed what their friends had brought.  They were IN LOVE with this!  It was actually amazing how quickly they guessed the items.  Here are some pictures from that lesson.

     

We also used this great organizer from Sarah at Sarah's First Grade Snippets. Click either picture to take you there to snag this freebie!  We use it all the time!

                              

  

 To reward whole class accomplishments and behavior we use a class marble jar.  Whenever they do what is expected they receive marbles - - 2, 5, or even 20 for sub days!  Well this was the second time they filled it and the first time they really wanted an electronic day but I made them wait for it.  Well here it is they finally got their special day.  It was really fun and for only 30 minutes the kids were satisfied.  And now all the marbles go back and we start over again.

And this didn't make the list because it would have been Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the weekend but who couldn't be positive with this beauty running around.  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!