Brag Tag Display

I'm starting my fourth week with students tomorrow, and this year has been so different from years past. As I've said before, I've gone from teaching two years of general ed. third grade, to two years of co-teaching third grade, to this year teaching accelerated third grade.

My students are SO eager to learn. They eat up every bit of information I give. Behavior has been on point, aside from a few small instances. I tell everyone who will listen in my building that I am truly blessed this year.

They are most likely annoyed with me.

But anyway, like many of you, I use brag tags in my room. I actually have to use them, as we adopted them last year as a part of PBS. The school purchased a few tags that we can all use, like honor roll, student of the month, and perfect attendance. It is up to use how we display and use the tags.

Here is how I display my brag tags. The PBS team loved it so much last year, they took pictures and showed it to others in my building, so many others have a similar display. I do not let the students wear their tags because I don't want anyone to lose their necklace. Last year, I hung my necklaces with tiny command hooks. This year, I purchased Pin Hooks.

image from pinhooks.com

I like them much better than the command hooks because I can reposition them without ripping my background paper. This year, I have a career high (and building high) 25 students. This way, if my numbers go down next year, I can adjust accordingly. You can purchase them in primary colors, bright colors, clear, or black and white. I clearly went for the brights! The only issue is that the pins stick out a little bit because my cork boards are shallow. (For the record, I was not compensated for telling you all about PinHooks. I just wanted to share a cute product!) The small labels were a freebie that I sized down considerably. The creator's name is not in the download, so if it belongs to you, leave a comment and I will link! I love my chevron border, and I use it on every board in my room with a black background!

I do not love my photography skills. Sorry.

I started everyone out with a "First Day of School" brag tag, which I downloaded for free from TPT from Teaching Rock Stars. As the year goes on, I will add brag tags that the school supplies, as well as some of my own. Throughout the year, I introduce new ways to fill your necklace, mostly using pony beads. For example, I declare February "Fe'blue'ary. Blue is the highest color you can get on our clip chart, school wide. Any time a students reaches blue in February, they will get a blue pony bead on their necklace. Once I introduce different pony beads, I will add a key/legend in the blank space on the bulletin board that will explain the meaning for the different colors.

I'm currently nursing what feels like a budding sinus infection, so I'm kind of in a sudafed-daze. Looking forward to a good night's sleep so that I can be ready for a full week of school and open house on Thursday night!

Subject Poster Freebie

I wanted to let you know that I uploaded a new freebie to my TPT store! 

I'm toying around with ways that I'd like to display my essential questions in my classroom. Last year, I dedicated a whole bulletin board to them. I would write the EQs on sentence strips and change them out by stapling them. It was in the front of the classroom, and the sentence strips were large, so they were easily viewed by everyone. 

This year, I'm not sure I want to use that bulletin board for that purpose. So I'm trying to think of ways to display this mandatory element in my classroom so that everyone can see it, and also in a way that is easy to maintain.

I made these pages as an option. I was thinking I could maybe enlarge them a bit and laminate so I can erase/rewrite?

[What I reaaaaally wanted to do was get them made on Vistaprint as large car magnets, but that would be a little waaay more than I want to spend. Especially since I've spent so much already!]

So anyway, click the image to see and download the freebie! The PDF includes a sign for Reading, Writing, Math, Science, and Social Studies. If you need something else, shoot me and email, and I'll whip it up for ya!

How do you display essential questions/standards/objectives so that they are easily seen and maintained?

/////////Reminder that my giveaway will end tomorrow at midnight! If I have 250 followers by then [only need 7 more], I will pick a third winner from the comments! Please spread the word if you have a second!/////////

Also-- I'm currently watching E! Investigates: Bullying: Celebs Speak Out. Wow, what a powerful program. If I were already a school counselor in a middle to high school setting, I would use this special as a tool.