Mystery Motivator

The Mystery Motivator is a strategy that I got from the teacher next door to me!
Pick a student to be the mystery motivator but do not tell that student or any other students (so the teacher is the only one who knows)  if the student that was picked to be the mystery motivator is good then at the end of the day then the whole class gets a treat. Everyone thinks they may be the mystery motivator so they act better just in case they are it! 

Efficient Mornings

I strongly believe in routine and building efficiency in the classroom. With 21 students there has to be a form of routine as they enter the room or nothing would ever get accomplished. I love the morning routine my mentor teacher has established and I am continuing in her classroom. Students come in, hang their jackets on their hooks and place book bags in the laundry baskets (let's be real... those hooks are not enough space for backpacks and jackets so I love the laundry basket idea!). Next, they place their snack and homework folders in the labeled baskets. After this, they use the restroom or make a lunch choice (either can be first). They each have a clothes pin with their name to clip their lunch choice. She printed pictures of all the lunches so they can see and read the choices. After all of these tasks are complete students get busy on morning work/ unfinished work/ work that needs to be corrected from the day before. They are very efficient and I love having the routine!

Changing Strips

We have a wonderful  color strip system that works in our classroom. Each student has a pocket with five different colored strips inside. Green is where students start. Students have the chance to go up or down all day long. If a student is misbehaving the student will receive a verbal warning or will be asked to sit out of the activity. If that student is still misbehaving the result will be changing their strip to yellow and a a note will go home to the parents and the child will stand out for five minutes of recess. If the child continues to misbehave it will result in the teacher asking the child to move their strip to red. If a child is on red then a note will go home and the child will miss ten minutes of recess. Students can also move up in their behavior pocket. If a child is doing the right thing and setting a good example for the rest of the class the child will be asked to move their strip to purple. If that child continues to set a great example then the child will move their strip to blue. At the end of the day the students all get paid based on their color strip. Blue is 25 cents, purple is 10 cents, green is 5 cents, and yellow/ red worth nothing. On Fridays the kids all get to go shopping at the school store.