I just wanted to do a quick post on one of the other things I love from this week. As I mentioned on Tuesday, I overhauled my room from partner tables in my room to groups of 5 and 4. I love it, my kids love it, it's awesome. I run a very crafty classroom, in the sense that we use scissors, glue, highlighters or markers pretty much every day. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner after 4 months of passing out and collecting these items virtually every day for 4 months, but I have a system now: TA DA! I love this. I was so excited how well the preliminary items worked on Wednesday that I added more today (breakdown to follow). My kids are respectful and we went over the "uses" for each item. The ribbon is for the number of kids at the table, red ribbon bins mean the tables of 5, while the orange mean tables of 4 (I have too little space to do all 5 team tables). Here's what we have inside so far: Generic Supplies: A box of crayons, pairs of scissors, highlighters, rulers, glue, and a pack of markers. Books: These are some great, thin, grade level books that a previous school I was at was discarding from a past reading series. For filler time/students who finish early, they are great. Editing Wheels: I have three of these in here so students can self or peer edit their work. It includes very basic items to check for such as capitalization, spelling, etc. The thing is, my students, even though they are in 6th grade, simply ignore ALL OF THESE, ALL OF THE TIME! I am stressing out even more because NYS JUST announced in December that they are now grading mechanics as part of the writing state exam. Before, it was more content based. So talk about stress. Any other upper grade teachers have input on this? Am I alone in a lowercase, no spell check, punctuation-less world? Paper Stuff: The one part is just a bunch of copy paper cut up to index card sized pieces and clipped together. This is for exit slips, quick comprehension checks, bookmarks---whatever! (except no notes passing!) The second is a little invention of mine. I have paint cards from a hardware store near my house. I used the 3 sections for A-B-C. I use a gem clip for quick checks---like when we watch a Brain Pop! and they have the quick quizzes, true false questions I ask, etc. I love this. In the future, I'd like to make a nicer set with a different clip (paperclip with ribbon maybe) and laminate, but I didn't have time to put them in as a laminating order the day I needed them. These will suffice until I get my awesome system from Beyond the Question. I applied for a grant so I get one for $500 and my school was all for it! You can see the application form here to find out more. Happy Weekend! I think I am coming down with a stomach bug, I felt SO SICK in ELA today! :-( Here's to a night of movies, fuzzy warm socks, and the couch.