Ketchup

Who would give kids ketchup? After lunch duty with third-graders, it was everywhere. Everywhere.

Today was productive. At least, it felt productive. I saw three classes. Two of them took the diagnostic. The diagnostic looks disastrous, but there appears to be some knowledge here and there. These kids do not know how to take a test. Who leaves multiple choice blank?

Fortunately, I also introduced my system of consequences. Each student begins the day with 5 Participation Points. For each misbehavior, chatting in the back, or speaking out of turn (or unpreparedness or rude behavior, etc), a student loses a point. I keep track of them on a post-it. At the end of the week, students are graded in participation based on the number of points they have left out of 25 for the week. For some reason, students find this to be motivation to behave. Sure, why not?

The weird part is that one of the veteran teachers asked me for details about this plan. It's new to me, so I can't guarantee success, but I was proud to share this management idea that I stole from another TFA CM.

Now I've got to get back to planning.