In the beginning of the year I set a lot of expectations. One of the tools I use is a picture rubric to show what I expect when it comes to drawing.
Picture Rubric
It is hard to see in this picture but the bottom drawing is a sketch of the house in pencil.
I do a mini-lesson on adding detail and color to your drawings. I ask the students to tell me the differences they notice between each level. First graders are so precious, they always tell me I am such a good artist. LOL, I wish!
Often in the beginning of the year I will refer to the chart and ask, "What can you do to make your drawing a 4?"
It isn't long before they are saying, "Look Mrs. B, I added birds flying in the sky to make my picture a 4!"
There are so many, and I have used most of them at some point in my 12 years of teaching. When I moved down to first grade I wanted something simple, visual, and that could accent the positive.
I love the clip chart.
I first saw this at Rick Morris' site. I meant to glue it in rainbow order but notice I accidentally glued the orange and yellow in the wrong order. Ugh...that is what happens when you switch grade levels, move rooms and have to go through a retired teacher's stuff in one summer!
Each student's name is written on a clothes pin. I move MANY more clips up than I do down. It is AMAZING how motivating it is. All you have to say is. "Wow, Sam is working so quietly, I am going to put his clip up." And wouldn't you know the room is suddenly silent. Or my favorite is, "John, you were such a good friend to help Ashley pick up her crayons. That deserves a clip up." Guess what I hear next? "Allison, do you need some help?"
If they reach Outstanding I put a sticker jewel on their clip. You would think I gave them an amazing prize! They drag their mom or dad in to show them! I keep track of who's clip gets moved so I can purposely look for that quiet student doing something well.
I had on child who was so motivated by this he went past Outstanding to we determined his clip would sit at the very top of the chart and he got a bigger jewel. One time he really deserved even higher so we clipped his clip on my shirt. They thought that was AWESOME!! First graders are so easy to please.
I do move clips down for things if needed. To be honest I run a tight ship so I don't have too many behavior problems but it helps me reinforce things like not blurting out constantly or making any kind of bad choice. The blue is just a warning and for most that is enough. If they correct the behavior or are good for a while I will move them back up. I think this is very important. It really helps for them to know they are in control of where their clip goes.
Teacher's Choice means I decide the consequence. Usually it means missing some of recess to talk to me about their behavior.
The thing I love best though is that it keep ME accountable. It keep me from just being that teacher that gives warning after warning without doing anything. It is also great for parents to have a good read on their kids day. I reset everyone back to green until after everyone has been picked up. That way if a parent wants to come in and see how their child did they can. I had one special sweetheart's mom check it EVERY day so we could work on his behavior together.
The Lesson Plan Diva is having a linky party so head over there to see other great behavior management ideas.
Here is a quick video to explain how to start using InLinkz.
You can register for FREE and create as many text collections (links that are only the name) as you want and 1 free thumbnail collection (link with a small picture of the blog.)
I looked into the paid subscription ($1.99/month or $19.99/year) because I much prefer the thumbnail collections. Many of our blog names are similar so I like pictures of the blogs that are participating.
Guess what I found out?
With the paidsubscription you can set the preferences to ensure polite linking! You can require the person linking to link back to you. The widget searches their blog for your url! You can also require that the link they enter is for the specific post and not just their general blog url!! (If you don't understand why these are important read my previous post of Linking Etiquette.) If the blogger doesn't follow these rules, they can't post!!!
Did you know that this widget can also run your giveaway??? No more numbering comments or taking a picture of the random number generator. The widget automatically draws the winner and notifies them!
Did you know that you can earn 65 cents commission on each paying user that comes from your links? You can even put the links on Facebook and Twitter!
Iphone users can even enter their links from their phone!
Would you like to try these cool features out for free?
Here is the GIVEAWAY!!!
Thanks to the generosity of Artis over at InLinkz, I am giving away to 3 lucky followers...
a FREE upgraded InLinkz account for 4 months!
That means you can host as many linky parties as you want using thumbnail pics as well as trying out the other great features. Don't worry, after the 4 month free upgrade ends your account will revert back to a free account and any collections you start during this 4 months will still be safe.
You can earn up to 4 entries:
1. Earn 1 entry by blogging about this giveaway on your blog.
2. Earn 1 entry by following/subscribing to both my blog andInLinkz blog.
After you complete an entry requirement (ex. Following BOTH blogs) link up!
(For newbies that means clicking the blue link button below, entering your blog url, name, and your email. Then you can add the image of your blog header. Make sure you slide the editor over the cutest part of your header. Give it a try and let me know if you need help. )
And for the first time (that I know of) in teaching blogland...we are going to let InLinkz automatically pick and notify the winners! Let's try it!
This giveaway ends next Monday, August 1st at NOON sharp!
