Ahoy There, Mateys

I've been busy

doing NOTHING!

But today I have dedicated myself to spending quality time with my nearest and dearest friends...

on the Internet. (Because you guys don't seem to mind that I'm always wearing sweats with holes in them when we get together.)

So many people out there have great ideas, and great ideas are what I'm searching for (since I am in short supply); so I've decided to spend the day combing my favorite blogs in an attempt to pillage and plunder my way to some New School Year Inspiration.

Let me ask you... When you stumble upon an idea for your classroom that you love, do you get so excited that you begin talking to yourself and planning aloud to no one in particular about how you can use that great idea in your room and how you can tweak it for your kids, and how you're gonna share it with everyone you know and which theme you can apply to it and what standards it meets?

No?

Yeh, uhhh, me neither...

So here's an idea for group behavior management posted by Ginger Snaps that most certainly did NOT cause me to begin talking to myself...

at all.

In a nutshell, design a cute bulletin board with a path. Groups of students move a colored pin along that path as they demonstrate good behavior. Prizes are earned at various points. What I love about it (but haven't discussed with anyone including me because that would be weird) is that it's a long-term positive reinforcement behavior management idea. We've all done Table Points, Dismissing Tables First, Raffle Tickets, blah, blah, blah and they are effective for a while, but good teachers have bags of tricks that are as endless as Mary Poppins' Carpet Bag.

This one is going into my carpet bag.

AND then there's the super idea I am totally snagging from Miss Teacher over at juice boxes & crayolas that involves posting positive affirmations around your room. I don't know about you, but my students spend a fair amount of time staring at pencils, each others' ears, and walls. Why not give 'em something positive and motivating to stare at since they're gonna do it anyway?

Well, I can't hang posters on pencils (too small to read) or students' ears (illegal, I think), but I can hang them on the walls!

Now, if I can only find an artistic person to make these things for me and then put them up in my room...