Posts tagged classroom organization

Boardless Bulletin Board

August 12, 2010 · Filed under Organization · Tagged , ,

All my boxes are unpacked and almost all my “stuff” has found a new home, and now it’s time to decorate and put things up.  Remember a while back I shared about my classroom economy? Well Monday, when I was at school, I put together my Scholar Dollar bulletin board and thought you might be interested.

This zoomed picture hopefully orients you in my classroom...see those nasty spots on the wall where they took down a bulletin board to put up the SMARTBoard?

This zoomed picture orients you in my classroom. See those nasty spots on the wall where they took down a bulletin board to put up the SMARTBoard? That’s where this bulletin board is going, right next to the door for easy access. Now, I actually don’t have a bulletin board for this, so I just staple everything straight into the wall with a heavy duty stapler.

I put up some fadeless paper and a cute butterfly border to cover up that ugly wall, then stapled up this green pocket chart.

We have a school-wide discipline plan called “Color Changes”. I know many teachers use a version of this system. Basically, the kids all start out on Green, then for any behavior issues they get “Color Changes”. Yellow is the first warning, then orange, red, and blue is an office referral. I made colored cards that fit in the pocket chart and laminated them.

Each pocket gets a stack of cards.

Now come the checkbooks! Each kiddo will get their own, and we will put their name on the pocket and on the top of the checkbook.

This serves as my attendance chart and behavior management system. The kids pick up their checkbook right when they walk in the door, when it’s time for attendance I glance at the chart, if there is a checkbook still there that kid is probably absent. Throughout the day if there are any behavioral issues I can quickly flip their color cards. And at the end of the day, the kids put their checkbooks back in the chart. If there is a color change they have to bring their checkbook up to me and we write it in their checkbook (they are fined a dollar for each color change) and then they change their color back to green and put their checkbook away. I love this system. Simple. Straightforward. Effective.

Comments (3) »

Nerdiest Purchase I’ve Ever Made

July 2, 2010 · Filed under Confessions, Ideas, Organization · Tagged , ,

A few months ago when I decided that I wanted to organize and catelog my classroom library I decided I was going to need a little help. I imagined the 1000+ books that were stored in my garage and mentally calculated how long it would take me to type them all into Excel. And of course I would want to include the AR Level and Points, and while I was at it I wanted to label all the books into categories…I would probably be done by 2020, if I was lucky. So I did a little Googling and THAT is how I discovered the Intelliscanner, dun-dun, dun. Confession: One of my secret desires has always been to be a librarian. All my childhood books have numbers written in the covers, and my sister was forced to play library on more than one occasion. The Intelliscanner is basically a library scanner for the common man teacher.

This handy little scanner connects to your computer, scans the barcode on your books, and puts them into a fantastic software that looks a lot like iTunes. It loads all the information about your book, including the title, author, type of book, date, price, and even adds a cover picture (if available). It’s a nerdy teacher’s dream device.

Click the picture to see this up close

It would take me YEARS to enter all the information that this program looks up online for me. When you double click the book it gives you additional information, including a summary:

You can customize your own categories , and I created columns for the Reading Level and AR points.  You can order your books according to any of the categories by clicking on the column heading, so I can arrange them by reading level, author’s name, or type of book with just a click of a button.

I love this feature of the Intelliscanner Software, I can click the “Statistics” button and it breaks down my library for me. I have 1,325 books in my library with 845 unique titles. (I told you I have a book problem!) I also scanned in the movies I use in my classroom and the audio books I have in my listening center. It even tells me how much I spent on books if I paid sticker price,  I certainly hope I didn’t spend $6,320.89 on books, good thing I shop at Half Price books 🙂

Oh this next part just warms my nerdy, little heart:

I can lend out my books, just like in a real library. My kids will type in their name, and I’ll be able to keep track of who is reading what. I know, I know, what can’t this program do?

One more thing it can do, is that you can  share your library online with the handy little “Share” button. It publishes your library to your own website (for free!), check out mine here http://www.intelliscanner.net/aoelschlager/books/.  I love all the options and features that the Intelliscanner and software offers. Not only does it fulfill a childhood dream, but it is a great organizational tool and will help me manage my classroom full of eager readers.

Upcoming Post: An Intelliscanner alternative…LibraryThing

Comments (3) »