ClassDojo Ambassador!

I've mentioned ClassDojo in previous posts. It's a classroom management tool that I've completely fallen in love with. It's a FREE app on Smartphones and can be accessed on PCs as well. 

I love it. My students love it. My students' parents love it. Seriously, nothing but love.

In my classroom, I use Dojo as a documentation and communication tool for parents. They love being able to see how their student is doing in class in real time. 

My students use their Dojo points every week to get to buy things out of my "store". Students with 80% positive (or better) get to spend or 'bank' their points each week. 80% also gets them the Cub Events each month (school wide incentive for good behavior), class compliment parties, and field trips. 

Students who go above and beyond 80% and earn 90% or better for a month, get to earn Dojo Belts. Using the martial arts belt levels, my students have the opportunity to earn a belt per month, ending with Double Black Belt Ninja status at the end of the year. I have students who are already on their way!

I've been the ClassDojo Mentor for my building for 2 years now and I take my job seriously. My teachers who chose to use Dojo in their classrooms are very well taken care of. I make sure they have all the tools they need in order for them to feel successful. :)

So, imagine my happiness when I was chosen to be a ClassDojo Ambassador for my region! I get to represent and share ClassDojo to those in the Southeastern Tennessee/ Northern Georgia area! Whoop!!

I look forward to sharing the Dojo love with one and all! If you're an educator looking for a classroom management tool that's fun and inclusive, look into ClassDojo. Feel free to contact me with questions, or look through their site! Also, you can follow #dojochat on Twitter every Wednesday to see what Dojo teachers are up to in their classrooms. 

Thank you, ClassDojo for creating such an awesome resource! I'm proud to be able to represent something that encourages teachers, parents, and students to be the best they can be!

PEF Foundation and General Delk in the news!

Remember when I went to the SIOP training and was interviewed? Here it is!

Thank you, Chanel 3 News and David Carroll!

Check it out {HERE}!

What a way to start 3rd grade!

This is my 300th post! It seems fitting that my 300th post should be about my new classroom in the 3rd grade hall. I'll take you on a little tour...

 Our schedule for this year. Subject to change of course, but this is how we are starting our year. Notice we have not 1, but 2 times for math. We start, get a break for related arts, then come right back to finish.

 Ok, I have a confession.... I did not make this chant up myself. Once upon a time, long ago in a magic land called Knoxville, General Delk was just a young high school student. Her best friends were members of an elite group known as ROTC. (Reserve Officer Training Corps)
General Delk would spend her afternoons watching the Drill Team work on their rifle exercises and this chant would inevitably come into play. You hear it long enough, it gets stuck in your head!
I hope my soldiers learn to love it!

 Remember this?! My soldiers last year loved the Daily Brain! They would remind me to fill it out!
This year the brain has been upgraded. Notice the title? Metacognition Moment- we are going to take regular breaks to think about our thinking.
What part of the lesson stuck out to my soldiers? What are they taking away with them at the end of the day? My soldier's thoughts are going to fill the Brain each day to show that our minds are always working. Plus, it's laminated- easily cleaned for another day of learning!

 This has become a motto of mine this summer. My daughter does something brilliant and she wants recognition, what do I say? "Get it, girl!"
So, in light of my favorite saying, we have the GET IT board, to be used when a soldier proves that he/ she GET IT. Be watching this year for some awesome GET IT pictures!

 This board is behind my small group reading table. One side is for a list of books we are reading in our groups, the other side is for new vocabulary. I love trying to find books with the most obscure vocabulary imaginable. The best feeling is knowing that by the end of the year my soldiers will have a more extensive vernacular than some high school students.

Cubbies. With books. How organized!

Not really. The desks are faced inward in groups of 4, so students won't be able to utilize their desks in the matter for which they were created. My reason- desks get cluttered, cubbies stay neat! My room is incredibly small, we don't have room for clutter!

I'm ready for my new recruits! I hope they're ready for me!

The Creation of General Delk

I get a lot of questions about where the "General Delk" came from. Well, it all started my second year of teaching second grade.
Our schedule that year was I.N.S.A.N.E. We only had related arts 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so Tuesday and Thursday were l-o-n-g days. In fact, we had no break at all from 8am- 12:30 when we went to lunch. 4.5 hours is a long time for a 7 year old to have to sit and learn, so we needed a break.

It started on a Tuesday. My students were driving me batty and I knew it was because they needed to get some of their pent-up energy out. I checked the gym, and it was empty. (Mr. Burney's break time) What started as a 'get your crazy out' time, quickly turned into Basic Training.

 We ran laps around the gym, did push-ups, sit-ups, crisscross crunches on our backs (touching elbows to their opposite knees), crisscross crunches standing, jumping jacks, etc. I got in on the action too, which was pretty amazing since I was pregnant with my firstborn.

What amazed me the most was my students' reaction- they loved it! They wanted it every day! Even my parents (the parents of my students) loved it! One parent commented that she loved that her child was becoming healthier. That was the same students that insisted that her mom buy her combat boots so she could be more authentic in her training. :)

From that day on, it was military discipline. My students enjoyed thinking of themselves as soldiers and behaved accordingly. I know other classes looked at mine and thought we were crazy, but it worked.

I need to point out- I had FULL PARENT SUPPORT this year. When my students came up with the rule- If you don't come prepared, you get 10 push-ups, I was skeptical, but no one balked. My students came with their homework done and their behavior folders signed, or faced the consequences.

We made a chart of behavior consequences, with me telling them when their consequences became a little off-the-wall. (running 50 laps for changing a color on the behavior chart seemed a little obsessive)
 By the end of the year, my students were buff. I take pride in the fact that my students could flat-out run for 5 minutes straight and not get winded.

The added bonus was that the rest of the school now thought I was nuts. No student wanted to be sent to my class because they knew they would have to follow my disciple chart as well. Some parents heard of my discipline style and requested their student be in my classroom the following year.

Ever since that year, I've started my year strong with high expectations of my students. I let them know up-front that I'm pretty-dang-tough. In fact, during registration this year I passed out Army Recruitment pencils to my students and told them, "Welcome to the Army."  Crazy? Yes. Effective? You bet!

Now, as for the 'General' part... I just liked the way it sounded. :)

p.s. It's become a little of a joke, but I take pride in being 'The Meanest Teacher in the School". All of my students, present and former, will say it, but they say it while laughing or rolling their eyes. If they don't, I'll have them in push-up position. ;)

 

General Delk

WE'RE FAMOUS!!

Yes, the Soldiers of General Delk's Army have reached stardom! It all began about a month ago... the school had a fire drill and there happened to be a reporter from the Chattanooga Times Free Press at the school interviewing Mr. Evans about our new crosswalk.

Well, the reporter needed a class to get their picture at the crosswalk, and Mr. Evans chose my class! (because all of my parents have signed permission forms to let their students be photographed) After showing the class' photogenic side, the reporter, Katie Ward, happened to ask Mr. Evans, "Is there anything else happening here at Clifton Hills that you'd like to tell me about?" To which, Mr. Evans turned to me and told her, "Delk here has a blog. Tell her about the blog, Delk!"

*gasp*

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what I said at the time. I'm pretty sure I was doing a good impression of a deer in headlights. But, whatever I said, Ms. Ward must have liked! We spoke again the Friday before fall break and she asked me a few more questions about why I started the blog, the blog's purpose, etc.

I wasn't expecting much, maybe just a little blurb on the side of another article. I mean, it's just a little blog, nothing Earth-shattering, right? NOPE!

Check us out! This is the picture that appeared next to the ARTICLE about the class blog! (Um, the sun was really bright. Sorry 'bout the squints!) My soldiers cheered when they saw their picture in the paper! My solders- Rock Stars!

So, thank you, Times Free Press for turning my students into celebrities! I hope everyone enjoys the article. Ms. Ward, you do fabulous work! :)

Read the article HERE!

Here's a picture of the class with the article. No squints here!