You Rock Awards (Classroom Management Linky Party)

Having a strong classroom management system that students are excited about is key to having your classroom run smoothly.  This can especially be hard in middle school!  In both of our 6^th grade classrooms, we try to focus on positive student behaviors as much as possible.  Last year we came up with the idea to do weekly awards in all of our classes.  We have over 130 students each, so we needed to come up with something that would be inexpensive (preferably free!) and very easy to implement.  We decided that we would award 2-3 students per class (we each have 5) on Fridays with a You Rock Award.  These awards can be given out for anything from having a positive attitude to doing well on a project or simply being a great friend to someone in class.  On Fridays we would have a quick “awards ceremony”.  Students were always excited to see who would be getting the awards for that week.  In my classroom I would announce who the award was being given to and why. The student would then come and get their You Rock Award certificate and we would give them snaps.  For example, let’s say Johnny earned an award that week.  We would cheer “Way to go Johnny, way to go”, and then snap twice. We would repeat this three times! The students LOVED it!! Once all of the students in a class earned a You Rock Award, students could then nominate their classmates for a You Rock Award.  One of my students came up with this idea and created a You Rock Award nomination box.  Students would write down who they wanted to nominate and why.  I would then pick 2-4 nominations out of the box and allow the nominators to fill out a You Rock Awards and present it on Friday to their nominee.  Our 6^th graders would get so excited about this every week!!!! Sometimes when students earned an award they would also get a piece of candy to go with it.  This system would work great with all age levels!!!

 Visit our stores in the side bar to view the You Rock Award Packet.

The first three people to both comment and follow our blog will receive the You Rock Awards Packet for free!! Be sure to leave your email address so we can email you the file!

Checking For Student Understanding (Monday Made It)

We are very excited to be linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It! We made something to make it a bit easier to check for student understanding during group work.  After having our students work in groups and having multiple hands in the air, we decided that we needed to come up with some sort of system for dealing with this. My college professors did something similar to this when we worked in groups which is where the idea started from. 

When students are working on their own or in groups, it can be difficult for a teacher to truly know if the students understand the concepts.  This system allows a teacher to quickly glance around the room and see which students/groups need teacher assistance.  This alleviates students shouting out for help and/or multiple hands waving in the air.  It also helps you figure out which groups to get to first.

Students use the red cup if they have a question that prevents them from working.  These students will need the teacher’s attention first.  Students use the yellow cup if they have a question but can keep working.  Students use the green cup when they understand the concepts and do not need the teacher’s help.

 Our sixth graders LOVE changing the cups! So much so, that they will fight over who gets to do it. Our table managers are the ones that get to change it, which cuts down on the arguing. :)

For some things it is easier not to use the cups, so we made simple tent signs that students can display on their desks. We mostly use this system for when students are working in groups, but sometimes use it with individual students as well.  

We put together a packet that includes all of the elements of this system to be easily implemented in any classroom. Included are the labels for the cups that can also be used on their own, the tent cards which can be displayed on desks instead of using cups, and the posters for reference.  We also have included two different sets with different wording.  One set uses “I” for individual student use while the other uses “We” for group work.

       

Click the picture below to view in our TPT store.

Welcome to Having Fun in Middle School!

After working together for three years and talking about starting a blog together, we've finally done it!  We've been sitting in Panera for nearly six hours making lists, learning the new technology, and receiving weird stares from people for giggling too much.  We're excited to get started and share some of the ideas that we've been working on.  Stay tuned for upcoming posts and products focused on back to school and setting up your classroom.