100 Chain Links

It again has been quite a long time since I have updated this. I guess being a teacher has kept me busier than I thought. ;) Believe it or not, we are about a week away from being done with the first quarter! Next week is a 4 day week so teachers can put grades in on Friday. I cannot believe how fast time flies...especially when you are having fun!

Fun is exactly what we have been doing. Don't get me wrong, there has been a whole lot of learning going on as well. After a quarter together, the relationships I have built with my students couldn't be better. I absolutely love my class and all the kids that make it up! It is so fun to see the different qualities they all bring.

I have been holding my students accountable for positive behavior. I believe that once they learn how to be respectful and responsible for their own actions the more they will learn academically. In order to do this, we began a class chain made of paper links. They had to earn links and the only rule was once they earned a link I could not take it away. They earned links by listening through a lesson, walking quietly through the hall (a HUGE challenge), when they got a compliment from the principal or from other teachers who said they were awesome. Some times they would earn one single link, other times they earned multiple. Some days would be considered "double days". If they earned 4, we would double it and they would have to do the math. :)

After a loooong month + a few days, they earned their 100th link. On Friday, October 23rd room 137 celebrated. I bought cupcakes for them which made their faces light up. And...Nate (who took the day off) came in and surprised them at the end of the day! (They had been asking me to tell him to come in for a long time so this was a fun treat and addition to their party.)

But wait...there's more...every Friday our whole school does a "gold ticket" drawing. It is almost the same concept like our chain but school-wide. An individual can earn a ticket or the class can earn one. If the individuals "gold ticket" is drawn on Friday that students gets a prize. If the class name is pulled from the class bin, the class earns a popcorn party. Well guess who's class won! Yep, our class. We added popcorn to the cupcakes and had a wonderful last 1/2 hour of our day!

We have started our chain over back at zero and as of today they already have 8. But this time, instead of chains, we are doing fall leaves. I think my kids are figuring out the better they behave, the faster their next party comes...we have had a great week...my bank account is nervous. ;)