Mummify the Teacher!

For the last 5 years, I have centered my room around a community/family feel. I don't use a traditional colored card or clip chart for behavior. For me, the same students were always singled out and they didn't take any ownership for their behavior/consequences. So instead, my students work on teams and encourage each other to make good choices. Those good choices are rewarded with tally marks for their team. To start off the year, I model encouragement and acceptable behavior for two weeks. At that point, each student pulls a colored piece of paper out of a bag and that determines what color team they are on. They move their desks together in a group. They stay on that team for 2-3 weeks. Since they are in teams, they definitely compete against each other. But I must say, even though they want to win, it is still amazing to me when someone will come up and tell me that someone from a different team deserves a tally mark on their paper. For example, someone helped tie their shoe, someone was nice and cheered them up, etc. At the end of 2-3 weeks, the winning team gets to do a fun activity with me. Sometimes we work together and sometimes we compete against each other. Many of the activities are "Minute to Win It" games. As the winning team plays the game with me, the rest of the class still gets to watch and enjoy the fun, but they do not get to do the activity. This week, each member of the winning team got a roll of toilet paper. In about 7 minutes, they had me completely wrapped in toilet paper and I looked like a mummy. It was SOOOO much fun!

 

Everyone picked another color out of the bag and the new teams will last for another 2-3 weeks!