Another week at school done. This ween went by waaaaayyy faster and waaaayyyy easier on account of my class suddenly cooperating way more than ever before. It may have been the new toys I put in the treasure box, because everyone is obsessed with these little keychains I bought at a dollar store, and they all want to earn enough stars to get them.
By the way, I don't care what anyone says, I am all about reward systems in the classroom. My kids are awesome, and many of them are internally motivated, the majority actually. However, for the five or so kids that are definitely not motivated, stars and treasure box toys work really well. So I'll continue to use them, because we all know that it only takes one or two kids to throw the whole class off track.
We also started a new unit in Science this week on natural resources and nonrenewable resources. I've been showing them videos about our obsession with plastic, the trash islands in the Pacific, and reducing waste. I have them all super pumped for our assembly next month where we have to present a play for the school with the theme "Respect the planet". They have all sorts of excellent ideas, such as collecting all the plastic cups thrown away in a week and displaying them at the assembly so kids can see just how much is wasted in only five days. Or the fact that one of them wants create a raft made of empty water bottles to use in their pool. They also spent their free time after morning work making posters all week and hanging them in the cafeteria above the trash cans to remind people to dispose of waste properly.
I have created a class full of hippie activists, and it's pretty supermuitobom. Anyway, I'm going to post some stuff in my class that showcases the excellent mood that all my kids seem to be in lately.
