Great Things are Happening! (November Currently, too)

It has been a great week! :)  Tuesday, we had a Math Parent Night.  We had an average turn out, but it was fun!  A few of the teachers dressed up, and some students dressed up, as well.

Friendship Bracelet Update:

When I introduced the bracelet to my class, I decided to call it a "friendship band."  It has been amazing.  I can see and hear a noticeable difference with the way my students have been interacting.  They are saying nice things and really giving words of encouragement.  It's great!  I don't remember if I put this in the initial post about it, but I've decided to graph our progress (the number of students who wear it), so I'll be able to hit on graphing/charting skills.  Woot!  

Matter Unit:

I am so proud of myself!  I made it through the matter unit I planned.  My class tested yesterday, and I graded the tests last night.  THEY WERE GREAT!!  Wooooot!  I'm proud of them, too! :)

Importance of Fun:

I feel that when you have good classroom management and your students know your expectations, it's really easy to have fun with your class.  Yesterday was one of those days for me.  Thursday night, I went around and put "Go Tigers!  Beat Duke" posters on several teachers' doors.  (Clemson is playing Duke tonight.)  One of those teachers decided to put the Duke mascot in my room yesterday morning.  Some of the kids and I were going back and forth about who would win.  It was fun and funny. :)

I also decided to put my tiger tail and ears on my TV and told the kids that the Tiger was watching them and would pounce on any inappropriate behaviors.  They ate that up! :)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  We're getting close to Thanksgiving!! :)

November Currently!

Giveaway Alert! :)

Go over to Amanda's Blog (Teaching Maddeness) and enter her giveaway for a CUTE "Maggie Tote".  I would actually prefer you don't, but if you're interested you definitely should! :)

Class Friendship Bracelet

After speaking with my guidance counselor, we've decided to keep going with encouraging my students to say kind words and be a good friend.  She gave me the idea of having a class friendship bracelet.  (I don't remember where she got the idea.)  Basically, I will start out the day wearing the friendship bracelet, and when I see a student being a good friend or saying kind words, I will give the bracelet to that student to wear.  When that students sees someone being kind, etc, they will pass the bracelet to another student.  I'm hoping this will continue to improve my classroom climate.  The constant awareness of what it means to be a good classmate and friend has seemed to help a little bit.  Cross your fingers, y'all! :)

You're probably wondering about why I chose to make the bracelet out of elastic...  Well, if you haven't heard about them, Birchbox sells these great hair ties called Twistbands.  I received one in my Birchbox about 6 months ago and wear it on my wrist every day incase I need to pull my hair up.  All the kids are interested in it and have asked about it, so I figured it would be a great bracelet for them.  So, I went to Hobby Lobby and found some elastic that was very close to my hair tie.  I decided to put the orange glass charm on there to dress it up a bit.  AND to add a bit of CLEMSON to the bracelet. :)  (PS I think it's about time I order some new hair ties... that one is looking ratty!)

I will update on its effectiveness! :)

October Update

Yep... I'm still kicking.  I feel completely separated from blog world.  Those of you that are able to blog and teach deserve an award!  21st Century tutoring, clubs, planning, and cleaning keep me absolutely exhausted.

Overall, things are going pretty well.  Right now, my main challenge is trying to get my class to stop fighting with each other.  THAT'S really exhausting.  We are taking baby steps in the right direction, but sometimes it feels like we take giant steps backward.  If you have any suggestions for improving my classroom climate, my ears are open.  I'm reading The Best Halloween Ever right now, but I'm thinking of reading The Hundred Dresses next.  Have any of you read it?  Good choice?  I just ordered The Name Jar... it looks good, but I'm not sure it will have the effect I want.  Suggestions?

We just finished our Forces and Motion unit, and started Matter today.  We began with a cool experiment showing the changing states of matter.  The kids thought it was great!  We have several experiments as we briefly touch on the Water Cycle (more in depth once we get to weather).

Thursday, we are going on a field trip to see the Slim Goodbody Bodyology Show.  It's supposed to be pretty neat!  Since we are adding Human Body to the curriculum this year, we thought this would be a perfect field trip... even though we won't hit human body until the spring.  At least they will have some background knowledge at that point.  I'm going to add a video below if you're interested.

I hope everyone is well!