Yay! It's a New School Year!

I'm so excited to be back at school. This year, I start the wonderful challenge of teaching a 5th grade Language and Literacies class at Kentucky Country Day School. As always, I like to get to know the students and make the classroom a welcoming place for us to share.

I decided to use the All About Me Pennants that I used last school year to get to know students and decorate the classroom. It's a great formative because I learned a lot from favorite colors to spelling and reading abilities. It's an instant way to connect and assess. The pennants also add some color and vibrance to our classroom.

Daily Expectations

At The Pinnacle Schools in Huntsville, AL there is a school-wide behavior management system. Students earn points in each class and the points result in moving up levels and earning various rewards. In the Middle School, we try to keep all of our expectations for points the same across classes for consistency. One of the ways we found to remind students of these expectations, is by keeping them permanently posted on the board. Students know how they earn points, how they lose points, and how they earn a bonus point for each class.

Must Do: what students must do in class to earn their two points.
May Do: what students can do extra to earn bonus points.
May Not Do: what students may not do will result in loss of points, even if they complete the Must Do activities.

 The Must Do activities are usually "complete required assignment" and "stay quietly seated." May Do sometimes varies, but most of the time it is "have no redirections." The May Not Do includes things like "sleeping," "getting out of your seat without permission," "talking in class," and "playing computer games without permission." Basically, all negative behaviors can result in loss of points and positive behaviors result in gain of points. The posted reminder helps me to enforce the expectations without too much push back from the students.