A Peek At My Week: Paint, Notebooks, and Points!

Another Sunday is winding down, and I still have too many things to get done around the house before going back to school!  Regardless, it is time to start making "school" lists, rather than continuing to check off the "house" list of things to do!  So, here is a little Peek At My Week for Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings!

First off, I have to brag a little about my painting.  One of my sisters and I took a painting class yesterday.  The place is called The Purple Easel.  They take you step by step through recreating a famous masterpiece.  There about fifty people there and a pretty mixed group; sisters, couples, generational family groups, and one bunch of about twenty twenty-something cousins (doing shots).  Yes, they encourage you to bring your own refreshments!  Not being a drinker, I took a bottle of water and my sister had a Diet Coke, but I have to say it was fun watching and listening to party on the other side of the room.  They have franchises around the country, so if you are looking for a fun girls night out or a date night, I would highly suggest looking them up!

 

Not being an artist and being ridiculously hard on myself, I am still pretty proud of it.  However, I think I might have found my sibling white elephant gift exchange item for Christmas, ha!

Unfortunately, the rest of my painting is not so glamorous!  I have been painting lattice work fence panels forever!  After deciding that I was going to lose my mind using a brush, I went to Home Depot and got spray paint this morning.  It is going much faster.  It has to be done today because we are expected temperatures in hundreds this next week, and I do not want to be in the garage painting!  After that is done, I have to get it up on top of the brick wall before school starts!  Hank has not shown himself to be a jumper, but I want to make sure the yard is jump proof before going back.

Next, I will be going in to school tomorrow and working on reorganizing and replenishing my Read 180 QuickWrite/Graphic Organizer notebooks.  I need to make lots of copies and move them to larger binders.  I love them in the binders, that is not going to change!  It is just that last spring, I finally admitted that maybe the 1 inch binders were just too small for the job.  It should take me a couple of hours in the lounge, and since our carpets have not been shampooed yet(!!!!!), it gives me a chance to get to at least get some prep work done.  We are not going to be allowed in the classroom until next week!  Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!  Why does the carpet shampooing team run my district?

So, for the rest of the week, I will be going in for 4-5 hours and working in the lounge.  Primarily, setting up notebooks, cutting things for bulletin boards, and running off homework and the first week of school stuff.  Hopefully, everyone else will stay away and leave the copier to me!  

Finally, someone asked me to explain how I use my point system.  It is really pretty simple; I use it anyway I want to on that day.  

First, I made these "points" and ran off copies for multiple sets.  I glued them to different colors of construction paper and laminated them.  It was a lot of work, but I plan on using them for about 5 years.  Blue points are for Table 1, and pink points are for Table 2, and so on..., because in the past, they demonstrated a frustrating habit of stealing points from other tables.  I keep them in a pencil box on my front table, and any student near it sets off an cry of tattletales.

At the beginning of the year, we used this all the time.  We found that we were running out of time to use it to its full potential.  This year, I have the lucky little darlings for the WHOLE day!  We will have time to make it work.  Essentially, one point-keeper at each table has a clipboard with this sheet.  They mark down who has their agenda signed, homework, and tardies.  During the first ten minutes of class, while the others are doing their warm-up, I come around, double-check the tally sheet and award the morning points.  

After that, I giveth and I taketh!  They can get points for anything; being the first table ready, working quietly, awesome answers, good tries, being kind, and even for their grades on quizzes and tests.  To be honest, they lose points for anything that annoys me; talking and not working, not moving fast enough during clean-up, not paying attention, and a long list of other things.  Also, they have to use their points on Monday to buy bathroom tickets for the week - which leads to hilarious conversations.  For more information, check out my prior posts on how I use points in my classroom - Points: A Tale of Bribery or Motivation, and Monday Made It!

Don't forget to go to my TPT store and check out my "I Can" Statements for 6th Grade Language Arts!  I will be putting my mini-posters into my binder tonight!

 Alas, the washer machine is calling my name and I must paint the final side of the lattice work fence panel.  Have a great week and I will keep you updated on my school prep work!

I know this is crazy, but I am thinking about having a mythical creature themed year; Bigfoot, dragons, aliens from outer space, chupacabra.  I can just see them hiding behind bulletin boards and peeking around corners in the room.  I think they would make great argumentative pieces and projects.  What do you think?   Maybe I have been watching too much TV this summer:).

Don't forget to link up over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings!