Five for Friday (on time)!

Good Morning!

I'm so excited to be linking up with Doodle Bugs ON TIME for Five for Friday! 

Somebody give me an M&M.

Not really. 

More about THAT below!

1

I spent Monday and Tuesday at a CHAMPS workshop. 

I've seen CHAMPS posters all over the internet and was curious about it. I knew it was about setting clear expectations--which I am all for.

This picture is a quote from the book that combines two of what I feel are my "keys" to classroom management.

My 3 Keys:

1. Build relationships with my students.

2. Set clear expectations.

3. Be consistent.

CHAMPS is an acronym for:

C - Conversation

H - Help

A - Activity

M - Movement

P - Participation

S - Success (because CHAMPS sounds better than CHAMP--Ha!)

The book was great--much more than just CHAMPS. It was about evaluating your whole management plan. While I felt the book did a good job of encouraging you to think through your system and evaluate its effectiveness, the presenter added a lot of her own beliefs about it. Hence the M&M comment above--she said give them an M&M a lot!

Don't misunderstand, I'm all for positive praise and reinforcement and love the emphasis the book put on making sure you are noticing and responding to MORE positive things than you are the negative. The ratio they suggest is 3:1.

I'm just not crazy about giving kids "stuff" when they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. 

Occasionally? 

Sure!

2

Okay, now for a few "pins" I found for CHAMPS that I like (and why). The pictures link to the pins if you want to check them out.

Voice Level - Because we teach our own specials and have each other's kids, I think it would be WONDERFUL for us to use common language. This voice level would be great! I did like the way the presenter explained a 1--have the kids feel their throat, no movement, while whispering. 

Hallway - For the same reason as above, I'd love to use CHAMPS for common areas...hallway, lunch room, bathrooms, etc.

In my classroom, I feel my expectations are VERY clear for our reading block because I go over all of these things when training the kids for Daily 5. I don't do it as much for the other activities in my classroom, just do a lot of practicing and reminding until they "get it." CHAMPing the other activities, such as teacher instruction, independent work, and my math groups makes sense. 

3

Call this a public service announcement... 

We've made an effort to limit "sugary drinks" this summer, and my kids are not buying into my idea. LOL! This poster was hanging at the workshop center, so I had to snap a shot. Of course, I promptly texted to my kids. Hee hee!

Oh, and we are just ignoring the "Creamy Coffee Drink" at the bottom. 

4

Meet my new friend, the StairMaster:

We joined the Y for the summer so Chaz could continue his knee rehab. We've been several times, and the StairMasters (new since we were members when we lived in town) are always taken. Yesterday, they were finally open and I gave it a try. 

10 minutes.

32 floors.

Sweat dripping off me.

Legs and buns burning.

Heart pumping.

I'm in love. Really.

You see, I have this thing with my heart rate. It doesn't go up enough to get in the zone unless I am really KILLING it. I mean, before the 10 minutes on the StairMaster, I was on the Elliptical for 30 minutes and no big change to the heart rate (and this was only day 2 of working out after being out of town, not able to, etc. for 2 weeks).

Doctors and nurses always ask if I'm a runner...um...no...but the heart rate thing does run in our family. Maybe that explains Chaz being a runner.

Anyway, as soon as I can walk again--LOL!--you can find me on the StairMaster.

5

Last, but not least. 

#DaretoDream for the #TPTSellerChallenge

I struggled a bit putting my "dreams" into words.

Honestly, Kristi and I started our store with very low expectations. We were making things for our classrooms and thought, "Why not?" We listed some things hoping for a little spending money, so this TPT thing has definitely exceeded our expectations and we're pretty content with that.

I have to be careful though. I'm an "all-in" kind of person. I don't do anything halfway. Sometimes I see others really "working their business" and think I need to do the same. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone or not... I have to remind myself that their goals are not my goals. That it is okay that this is just a little side business that Kristi and I enjoy. I don't want to be so busy with it that I no longer enjoy my true passion--which is TEACHING.

This is getting really long. 

I'm sorry. 

Stick around for an M&M. I'm wrapping it up!

My first two goals are constantly at war! 

We live in a fixer-upper. While we've done A LOT, there is more to be done. When we have extra money, there is a struggle of whether to pay down debt or fix something at the house. Sometimes we don't have a choice...it has to be fixed. But we'd really like to do both! Ha!

Vacation! We haven't taken the kids on a true vacation since they were 3 and 4. It doesn't bother them...but I'd like to take a family vacation before they graduate and we're running out of time. I'll have a freshman and sophomore this year! Yikes!

Thanks to Ashley at Teach Create Motivate, Jen at Sparkling in Second, Amber at Peppy Zesty Teacherista, and Emily at Third in Hollywood for putting together the #TPTSellerChallenge!

Thanks for sticking with me! #TeachMiracles

HELP! Classroom Behavior Chart

Well, I found one of our dogs playing with something out in our backyard the other day.  I couldn't tell what it was (my eyesight isn't the best-I should be wearing my glasses).  Anyways, I casually walked over to him, leaned over to see what it was.  It took me a minute and then I realized that it was a .........SNAKE!!!!!  YUCK!!  Thought, I'd share the pictures.  :-)

 

We live at the edge of town and there is a river just a little ways from our house.  So, we sometimes come across these lovely critters in our yard.  :-(

 

OK now on to school stuff.  In the past, I have had a frog theme in my classroom.  My behavior chart was frogs that hopped on leaves if they broke a rule.  Each leaf would have a consequence on it that they would have to do if they moved his/her frog.  Last year, I decided to go with the clip chart that many are now doing (in the picture below).  On this chart, students can move up for positive behaviors and move down for breaking rules.  I liked that it had a positive to it as well as the consequence.  I felt though that I wasn't as consistent with it as I was with my frogs hopping in the past.  With this chart, I also had a hard time with the moving up on it. I used it often, but I didn't like that I knew that some students may have been doing the same positive thing that I had another student move up for and I may have not seen them.  

 

 

I have seen some blogs where they were going to switch to this type of chart, but decided not to and they just added a positive to their existing behavior chart.  So, I need help from anyone who has used this type of behavior management or if you have added a positive to your behavior chart.   What have you done?  How do you use it?  If you use this type of chart, what things did you look for to have them move up on it?  How many steps do you have on it?  I would really love to have feedback on this because I'm trying to figure out if I will still use it next year and if so I need to determine how I will use it so that I am more consistent with it.   Thanks for all the ideas!