Teachers Care for Oklahoma

My good friend Dani at Crayonbox Learning has a heart bigger than Texas.  As soon as she heard about the destruction in OK, she immediately began to figure out ways to help the teachers there.  She has taken on a massive job of collecting and organizing files to raise money for teachers/schools.  All donations will go directly to helping teachers.  Please click on the crayon box to go directly to her blog and read all of the details.

There are a couple of ways you can help.  First, you can pray for all of the people involved. Many people lost everything they own and friends and family members.  Prayer is a powerful way that we can all help.  You can help by sharing the information and links to the bundles.  The more we spread the word, the more $$ will be sent to OK.  You can also purchase a bundle (or two or three!) There are 4 different bundles to choose from.  Each bundle is $25.

K-2 Bundle 1

K-2 Bundle 2

3-6 Clipart Bundle 1

3-6 Clipart Bundle 2

Teacher Appreciation Extravaganza Winners

I want to thank everyone for entering!  There were an amazing 11,111 entries!  These ladies are very lucky!!  Here's the news you've been waiting for!

Thanks again to everyone who participated in our blog hop!  I hope you all found several great freebies you are able to use in your classroom!

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!

Thank you Teachers!

Here's a preview of something amazing that is coming this week.  Make sure you check back tomorrow.