Student Daily Organizational Binders

One thing that I definitely plan on changing next year is the organization of information between school and home. This year, each student had an agenda (to be used as my main method of communication and reading log, ideally it should have been checked by parents nightly) and a clear, see-through portfolio pocket (to transport all papers back and forth). This system did not work out as planned, and after doing some research I have decided that an organizational binder should do the trick!

I am still deciding between calling the binders

BEE (bring everything everyday) binders
STAR (students taking academic responsibility) binders -or-
MAGIC (managing assignments, goals, information, and communication) binders

(There is a list of 200+ names for these binders on THIS great site.)

In my organization binder I plan on including:

-Student Agendas: The school urges every 3rd grade student to purchase one, so I will probably still use it for home-school communication and as a nightly reading log. To ensure that parents are checking nightly I plan on having students show me their agendas as part of our morning routine. I will check for the parent's initials next to the nightly reading and stamp each agenda. This will keep the students, parents, and me accountable for making sure we aren't missing any important notes.

-Folder: The right side of the folder will be for things that need to be brought RIGHT back to school and the left side will be for things that can be LEFT at home.

-Weekly Homework Packet (pre-holepunched)

I plan to have plastic sheet protectors for all of the sheets below so they will last longer:

-Expectations of binder upkeep and usage

-Passwords for all of our school subscriptions: We have a lot of sites for the students to use, but many are password protected which can get confusing.

-Weekly spellings words and a list of activities for spelling homework

-Study guides for current material

I have found many great sites with examples of how teachers have adapted these books for their own classrooms.

Mrs. Meacham's BEE book

Mrs. Moore's BEE Binder

Mrs. Stamp's EAGLE Notebook

Ms. Winston's STAR Binder

Mrs. Fenwick's BEE Binder

Ms. Sanchez' DOLPHIN Binder

Ms. Lorrie's BEAR Binder

 MOOSE Folders

Mrs. Eby's FROG Binders

Consequences and Rewards

After some trial and error with my first class of students this year, I think I have found a consequence hierarchy that my students respond to and that works well when used consistently. The numbers below represent the number of times I have had to speak to a certain students about off-task or inappropriate behavior.

1. Warning

2. Sit out of a Fun Activity (usually just a couple of minutes)

3. Note for Parents (I will write a short note in a student's agenda, the parent will initial after reading, and I will check the next day at school. I usually call or email about unsigned notes.)

4. Think Sheet (Here is a think sheet from Ms. Winston's class site)

5. Sign the Red Binder (Every class in my school has a red discipline binder. It is primarily to track behavior data, but students respond to it as a consequence. Parents will be notified if a student needs to sign the binder.)

I have tried out many different reward systems this year for individual and class behavior. Next year I plan to have a Star Student Binder. At the end of each day, students who haven't received a warning at all for that day will find their page in the binder (with a 5x4 grid) and put a star in a box. When a student has 10 stars they get to choose a reward. When a student has filled their entire grid (20 spaces) I will sign the certificate on the back and it will go home with them to celebrate their success.

Some rewards that students will be able to choose for earning 10 stars might be:

-sitting at my desk for a day

-switching desks with a friends

-calling students to line up for a day

-walking on the other side, with me, in the hallway (instead of in line)

-sign up for lunch bunch (I will wait until I have 4-5 students and then have a small lunch bunch with them)

-playing a Promethean game with a friend during Daily 5

-having free computer time in the morning after unpacking or afternoon before dismissal

-picking a weekly job first

Some of the ideas I have used to promote class behavior as a whole are:

-I bought a 30 pack of hot chocolate pouches for $3.00 from Big Lots. Every time everyone is on task I add a pouch to our jar. When we get all 30 packs in the jar (I have 30 kids) we will have a hot chocolate party. My kids are super excited about this and try to elicit hot chocolate packets for everything.

-Miss Kindergarten recently posted about this great Behavior Bingo game.

I would be thrilled to hear about any ideas, consequences, or rewards that you use in your classroom.  Please leave a comment below and feel free to link to your blog post. I will be constantly editing my posts to add links to other blogs as references.

Pencil Procedures

Pencil procedures may seem like such an unnecessary topic, but this year I've learned how pencil troubles can slow down and derail a day. At the beginning of the year I collected all the pencils. Everyday I have sharp pencils in the "Sharp" can. When students grab a sharp pencil, they replace it by putting their broken pencil in the "NOT Sharp" can. In theory this works well, however, in actuality my classroom has been a disaster zone at times. For a while you could find a pencil on the floor or jammed in a crevice at every spot in my room, it was a mess. Students were taking pencils out of the sharp can, but not replacing them with broken pencils. Since they knew they could always grab a pencil, they felt no responsibility or ownership. The result was broken pencils all over the floor and a shortage in pencils to sharpen.

I know that another option would be to have my students keep their pencils from the beginning of the year in their desk and sharpen as necessary. However, I quickly realized this would not work in my classroom, since I had gone through 3 electric sharpeners and 2 mechanical wall sharpeners in the two months or so of school. I now have 2 AWESOME pencil sharpeners which the students are NOT allowed to use. The down side is that I have to sharpen all the pencils for class, but the benefit is that I have had the sharpeners since January and they are still up and running! I also added a new classroom job, Pencil Detectives. At the end of each day, my pencil detectives walk around the room, collect all abandoned pencils, and return the pencils to the NOT sharp can. These changes have worked wonderfully and I have not had any other major issues.

Next year I think I will collect all the pencils that students bring in again. I will have students pick a pencil from the "Daily Pencil" can as part of their morning routine. Students will be responsible for sharpening their pencil throughout the day (with the wall sharpener) and then will return the pencil to the can at the end of the day during the afternoon routine. I think I will put the "Daily Pencil" can on my desk in between the morning and afternoon routine so that if students need a new pencil, they have to ask me for it. My students this year had A LOT of trouble with organization and responsibility. They would lose EVERYTHING, even the pencil that they were writing with just seconds before. Requiring students to keep track of their pencil throughout the day will hopefully help with their responsibility and help them take ownership for classroom supplies.

Here are some great ideas from around the web:

This is my classroom. You can see my two GREAT round pencil sharpeners on the counter next to the Sharp and NOT Sharp cans (They are also pictured at the top of this post).

 Source

Controlling My Chaos

Miss Powers' Class

Polka Dot Patch

I would love to hear how you manage in your classroom! Please leave comments below with your wonderful ideas.