Teacher Tricks!
We have thousands of them! Let's Share!!
We all have our own little tricks that work to gain students' attention, organize, motivate, inspire, the list goes on and on.
Did you ever walk into a colleague's classroom and notice one tiny little thing and think..."What a great IDEA!"
Let's share those Little Teacher Tricks that have made a difference in our classroom world!
Comment and visit pages when you see a trick that will work for you. The Tricks with the most comments will be labeled....
TEACHER TRICK OF THE WEEK!
I will highlight this one at the top on facebook and my blog.
(I will choose the Teacher Trick of the Week every Friday Night)
If your Trick has a Freebie or Product to go with it, feel free to post the link so that we can all check it out!
My fb page is still a baby, so please feel free to invite friends to come on over and share. The More the Merrier!!
I will start us off with 2 Tricks that I love in my First Grade Classroom!
#1: This one I learned when attending a Retirement Dinner for a wonderful colleague. She had taught 3rd Grade, 1st Grade and retired as a 2nd Grade Teacher. She was especially known for her incredible Organization specialties, but I came to learn that she had her own language of prompts for her students.
CARS IN THE GARAGE
means... Tuck in Your Chairs!!
Love it!!
#2 TOY JAIL
This one was inspired by a Pin on Pinterest. The Pinterest pin was for a Phone Prison in the upper grades.
In Elementary Classrooms anything can become a toy. We talk about how a bracelet, barrette, headband, watch, eraser, p...encil sharpener, etc. can be worn or used in school. However, if that item comes off or is out when not being used as a tool or jewelry, and it is being tapped, dropped, bumped, watched, tossed, (you get the idea), then it has become a TOY!!
Toys go into Toy Jail for the rest of the day. At the end of the day it is the student's responsibility to come and ask for it back. That gives us a quick moment to discuss the appropriate use. If it can not be worn or used appropriately, then it needs to go home and never come back.
This program has been very effective this year, and I have not needed to go any further than that. In fact, as I think of it, we hardly ever need to use the Toy Jail, just a reference to it every once in a while.
If a student is constantly bringing or wearing items that interfere with their learning, I would definitely have a conversation with their parent or guardian and possibly with our Guidance Counselor, if this may be a sign of other more serious issues.
I hope that the Toy Jail Trick will work for some of you!
This one was inspired by a Pin on Pinterest. The Pinterest pin was for a Phone Prison in the upper grades.
In Elementary Classrooms anything can become a toy. We talk about how a bracelet, barrette, headband, watch, eraser, p...encil sharpener, etc. can be worn or used in school. However, if that item comes off or is out when not being used as a tool or jewelry, and it is being tapped, dropped, bumped, watched, tossed, (you get the idea), then it has become a TOY!!
Toys go into Toy Jail for the rest of the day. At the end of the day it is the student's responsibility to come and ask for it back. That gives us a quick moment to discuss the appropriate use. If it can not be worn or used appropriately, then it needs to go home and never come back.
This program has been very effective this year, and I have not needed to go any further than that. In fact, as I think of it, we hardly ever need to use the Toy Jail, just a reference to it every once in a while.
If a student is constantly bringing or wearing items that interfere with their learning, I would definitely have a conversation with their parent or guardian and possibly with our Guidance Counselor, if this may be a sign of other more serious issues.
I hope that the Toy Jail Trick will work for some of you!
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