Sunday, May 5, 2013

Teacher Appreciation Extravaganza





Welcome to stop #7 in the Teacher Appreciation Blog Hop. I hope you are enjoying all of the freebies. It's just our little way of saying thank you for all that you do for your students everyday.  I also hope you have found the rafflecoptors and entered to win the amazing prize packs.  Here's what you can win:







Aren't these amazing prize packs?!  I am so excited.  I wish I could win these amazing prizes!!




I have a great freebie for you. My class has turned into a bunch of non-stopped talkers.  I can barely get a word in edgewise so I came up with the "Yakker Tracker"  It is super easy to use and has greatly reduced the amount of talking in my classroom.  

The day starts with everyone with 3 plain sticks in their pocket.  When a student talks out, he loses a stick.  If the student loses all 3 sticks, he earns a dreaded red stick.  Each red stick costs the student 5 minutes of their recess.  (Of course, you can adapt this to any number of sticks/consequences that are appropriate for your class.)

The first day, about half of the class lost all 3 of their sticks.  By the second day only about a fourth of the class had lost all of their sticks.  By the end of the week, only a few kids had lost a stick.  No one had earned a red stick.  The best part, I'm not fussing or complaining.  The kids are catching themselves talking out and stopping themselves.  It is changing the end of my school year!


The Yakker Tracker is super easy to make and you probably have all of the materials already in your classroom.  Print the pockets onto card stock or other heavy paper.  Fold and glue together.  I found it worked best to glue the flaps on the back like this.




After I had folded and glued all of the pockets, I glued them onto a poster board.  I laminated the whole thing.  Next, I used a craft knife to cut open the slits for each pocket.  And that's it.  Super easy.  You can pick up your copy of the Yakker Tracker HERE.


Make sure you visit Wendy at Teacher's Toolkit for the next freebie!

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19 comments

  1. Yakker Tracker---SOOOO hilarious! Thanks for sharing :) I just found you through the blog hop…yay!
    -Julie
    The Techie Teacher

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  2. That is such a great idea!!! Thanks for sharing! :)

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  3. LOVE this! I have such a great class this year but many of them talk so much. Almost all of them get along really well and while they aren't friends outside of the classroom they are very friendly and helpful to each other. Definitely trying this for the rest of the year. Thanks for an awesome freebie!
    ~Colleen http://talesfrom3rdgrade.blogspot.com/

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  4. "Yakkity Yak....Don't talk back... lol" Love it!!! Thank you!

    Dani
    Crayonbox Learning

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  5. Oh man, do my yakkers (I mean students) ever need this! Thanks for the freebie and blog hop adventure!

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  6. I can't wait to use this next year! What an adorable idea! Thank you so much for sharing!

    Wendy :)

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  7. Karla this is sooooo cute! Thank you so much.
    Kathy and Susan
    The Fun Factory

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  8. Yacker Tracker! PERFECT! Thanks for sharing!

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  9. I love that they are monitoring themselves. :)

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  10. I sooooo needed this right now!! The kids are done testing and ready for summer........Thanks so much...:)

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  11. HILARIOUS!! I am so making this tomorrow!! Can't wait! Thanks for sharing!

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  12. This is by FAR, one of the cutest ideas I've EVER seen!!!

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  13. So I went to school and did this today with my students! WOW! I already had the set up for our SPLASH cash so this worked perfect. Only 2 of my students had all three sticks at the end of the day. Thank you! for sharing. Can't wait to do it again tomorrow. They caught on really quick.

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  14. Here is my pin from pinterest. kairosos@gmail.com

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  15. http://pinterest.com/pin/202380576977704667/

    Gay

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  16. Such a great idea! Thanks for sharing.
    Jennifer
    Love Teaching Kids

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