Friday, January 24, 2014

Friday, 1/24/14

As I wrote the date for today, I found myself shocked that this month is nearly over. It certainly has not been a kind January, but I guess it's been a little bit fast, for me at least. What has not been fast: this week! It never fails that days when we have a Monday off seem to stretch on forever. My alarm went off this morning and I had to work hard to convince myself that it wasn't Saturday yet (I was arguing with myself in my head LOL!). 

I've been feeling the need to spice things up around here, so earlier this week I pulled out my gigantic roll of tickets---you know, the kind that you get at a raffle, where you keep one side and the raffle people get the other. I just left them out to let the kids see them, think about them and speculate what I might be using them for. After some serious critical thinking and some creative guesses, I finally revealed my plan. The kids each got a set of tickets. One says "Keep this Ticket" and the other says "Drop this Ticket." I instructed them that their whole entire goal would be to keep the "Keep" ticket, but I warned them of how it could be taken: disrespect, dishonesty, no name on paper (still a challenge around here), failure to heed warnings given, the regular classroom management stuff. Then I had them put the "Drop" ticket into a container. At the end of each day, I'll pick one ticket from the container. If the person who I've picked hasn't had to lose his/her ticket for any reason throughout the day, then he/she will have earned a prize. Then I pulled out my classroom suggestion box. I gave the kids some ideas I had about what their prize could be, but I then asked for them to add any suggestions they may have to the box. I read them last night and they had some great ones. I added theirs to mine and they now have 'menu' to choose from when their ticket is picked. It's only been one day, but I think it's going pretty well so far. ;)

I started this writing this morning and then forgot all about it. Now I'm running late for dinner plans! So--please forgive the type-os, stay safe and warm this weekend and have some fun!!


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