Continuing on with our lessons about RESPECT, my class moved on to Empathy.  For those of you following along, this lesson went with the "E" in Digital Divide and Conquer's RESPECT posters.  I began by showing the students this Sesame Street video defining Empathy.  Let's face it, empathy is a hard word to understand and Sesame Street has a knack for breaking hard concepts down for kids.  I will admit, when I first projected this up, there were several groans from my fifth graders.  But by the end of the video, they were laughing and fully into it.  Plus, they understood Empathy :) Once we had a good working definition of what it means to be empathetic, I walked them through the five steps towards showing empathy in any given situation.  I got these steps from this lesson here , and I thought they were just perfect for breaking down the process we go through when putting ourselves in another person's shoes. I then broke the students into ......

Nothing mindblowing today but I just wanted to share with you my end-of-the-day clean-up routine.  I know that sometimes this time of day can be completely chaotic, but I have tried my best to cut down on that and have us end with calm.  Here is what I do. I start about 25 minutes before the dismissal bell rings.  I begin by announcing that I am "looking for people who are ready to go home."  This is students' cue to sit down, clear off their desk space, and look at me.  Then, we have our 60-second clean up (I wrote in detail about that here ), our 15-second box clean and our 15-second furniture straighten. This is an old picture.  They also have POTW! Then, I ask the kids to take out their planner and we go over the homework.  I have the assignment written on the board, and used to just have them copy it down, but I have found that if I *also* say it aloud, the kids have a higher rate of writing it in their planner and not missing any homework......

I use the "Turn a Card" system.  I know, I know...some love it, some hate it.  I am in the.....like it well enough camp.  It suits its purpose, the kids understand it, and I honestly don't have to use it all that much (I rely on my Classroom Economy much more).  But for the times that my students do turn their card, I need to have a way to remember what they did to turn the card in the first place (because, let's face it, I can't remember if I put on socks some days ;) ) Can you see the clipboard right there next to the cards? So I began putting labels by my card chart. I ran these through the computer, but sometimes I just leave them blank. The labels are simple Avery Shipping Labels with TrueBlock Technology, 2x4 inches, White, 250 Labels (8163) . I put them on a clipboard and each time a student turns his card, he needs to write the infraction on the label. 10 points to the person who can guess where I made these!! At the......