Class Theme and Sharpened Pencils

One lesson learned teaching - not all pencils are created equal! Cheap pencils are sooo appealing. Seeing 10+ pencils disappear a day, erasers pulled off, and pencils split in half by your most "active" students makes it tempting to go out and buy those sale pencils - the ones you see for a dollar a pack.

There's nothing better, though, then the classic Dixon Ticonderoga... ask any teacher out there.  I also found a website that personalized notepads for teachers. I believe for only $12, I know have a great notepad for positive notes home.  LoveIt! Personalized Notepads (See here!) have tons of cute notepads for teachers.

Our class theme is Strong Minds and Big Hearts. I came up with ten characteristics of scholars who have a Strong Mind and Big Heart.  The yellow sentence strips are Strong Minds and the orange are Big Hearts. When students' actions reflect one of these characteristics I've asked them to draw their actions on a small card and I staple it next to the sentence strip.