This is coming a whole year late, but still, I am very proud of the beautiful classroom I created for my 11th and 12th graders in the 2021-22 school year and I want to share it with you here! Stay tuned for images of this year’s classroom…coming soon!
We are only in the classroom for a month this year, so there are so few pictures to share! These are the decorations I was able to pull together for our May of hybrid learning. I’m pretty proud of the way it turned out. I’ve got student work from my three 7th-grade classes (those are the tiled posters in pink, blue, and white.) Then, I framed Post-Its that I did during distance learning with my five 6th-grade classes. I had asked them to name one thing they were successful at during the quarantine. I think it adds a nice touch of their accomplishment to the classroom environment!
The secret agent is a student who I pick randomply at the beginning of the period to observe the classes behavior for the day (in secret.) That’s at least one student who I have behaving well that day! The rest of the class becomes almost giddy with excitement when I tell them there is a secret agent that day, and is usually eager to settle down and behave very well.
A few minutes before the bell rings, I say, “Will the secret agent please reveal themselves?” The agent raises their hand and everyone oohs and aahs at the surprise. I then ask the secret agent the three questions above. If they can answer positively to all three questions, the entire class gets a reward. This is usually either candy or a coveted yellow ticket. The yellow tickets are normally passed out only to students demonstrating exceptional behavior. They can be traded for small prizes at the end of the week, which is fun.
I would love to continue to develop this idea in my teaching practice. In the future, I will go with non-monetary prizes like 5 minute brain breaks at the end of the period. These can include things like music, mind puzzles, meditations… and other things that don’t necessarily start with the letter m. 🙂
Natalay G. Maria 