B.E.A.R.S. Behavior Expectations

My school's mascot is the bear. About two years ago, we created school wide behavior expectations to go along with the letters in the word bears:
Be respectful
Eager to Learn
Always Ready
Responsible
Safe Students

Most teachers at my school introduce these but then create their own classroom rules/expectations. This year, I am going to use the BEARS. (Why recreate the wheel?). On the first day of school, my scholars will discuss how each of the five expectations should look in our classroom and then record their findings on the charts. Students will be held accountable for everything they decided to add to the chart. These posters will be laminated and displayed in the room.

Here are the charts. There is lots of space waiting to be filled in by my scholars.

I always have my scholars participate in creating our class expectations so that they can take ownership. By giving them the opportunity to interpret the expectations and write what each looks like will provide them with the opportunity to better understand each expectation.

I have a behavior chart that I fill out with each scholar at the end of each day. I will share that later.

How do you set up your classroom procedures?

Brain Break and Tax Free Weekend

Every Wednesday night about 40-50 young professionals gather at an establishment to participate in what I believe is the greatest game on earth. It's a game that we first played when we were kids and were awarded with little red tickets that could redeemed for prizes. The place was Chuck E. Cheese and the game is SKEEBALL!!

Yes, every Wednesday night I participate on a skeeball league. It's my way of taking time for a brain break, which I recommend for all teachers. This amazing league combines two things I love: great friends and competition. I am the most competitive person I know besides my mother.

Check out our website at skeenation.com for more information. There are various skeeball leagues popping up all over the country. There are Skeenation leagues in Charlotte, Raleigh, Louisville, Boston, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. Skeeball is a huge part of my life. It is my way of stepping away from school for a few hours in the middle of the week and have some fun. My BRAIN BREAK. I've met hundreds of amazing people and have awesome memories. If you have a chance, your should check it out. It will definitely be worth your while.

In other news, my mom has come down to visit me from Cincinnati. I'm so excited to spend time with her because I only see her a few times a year. I'm not completely sure about all we will be doing this weekend, but we will definitely do some shopping. I HATE shopping, but I can't resist this weekend. It's Tax Free Weekend here in Charlotte. Every year we have this amazing weekend and it is the perfect time to stock up on school supplies. So I will be starting my back to school shopping this weekend and try to find some great deals.

Shopping list includes:
Binders for data notebooks. They are on sale at Walmart so I will buy a class set and hope they last for a couple of years.

Notebooks - I like to stock up so that I have extras in case some students fail to being their own.

Book boxes - I'm using daily 5 for the first time this year and need something for my students to keep their books.

Markers - My students last year depleted my supply so I must replenish.

Storage bins - I have a goal this year to be better organized so I'm getting different types of storage bins will help in that effort.

Anything else I see that works in my classroom.

I rarely get excited about shopping, but I am excited about this weekend, mostly because my mom is here to shop with me.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I know I will.

Classroom Theme Song

I found this YouTube video in the middle of last school year. I wanted to use it as my class theme song, but really didn't have the time to teach it to my students and didn't want to start any new classroom procedures. So I am going to begin this upcoming school year by teaching this song to my students and of course discussing the importance of the message.

I'm not sure how my fifth graders will react to it being from Sesame Street, but I want to us it anyway. I want to focus on the message rather than the messenger. How do you think they will react?

Do you have any songs that you use regularly in your class?

Update:

My scholars love this song and they don't care that it is from Sesame Street. In fact I have caught several of them singing it at random times and they are even starting to attach movements to the lyrics. I play the song when the tardy bell rings as a transition to the carpet for our first mini lesson. It's the perfect amount of time for them to put away their morning work, grab their book baskets, and get to the carpet.

On the first day of school, I played the lyrics for my scholars. We sat on the carpet and listened to the song twice without watching the video. After listening to it, I had them list the important messages they could get from the song. This is what they came up with.

Jealous

Yes!! I'm jealous. I have spent the last few days on pinterest and reading blogs and I am so jealous of all the teachers who have already been able to work in their classrooms. I wish my school allowed our teachers to get into our classrooms anytime during the summer. My classroom has been clean for weeks but we can't go back until all rooms are ready. Who knows when that will be? We are down to 17 days before teachers have to report and I like to have my room pretty much finished when everyone else comes back. If I'm not, I start to panic because there is always an impromptu meeting or someone else needs help and I like to be available to assist with school wide needs as well.

Now this doesn't mean I haven't been working this summer. In fact, I never really stopped working. I've been to 6 days of workshops (I still have 6 more days to attend in the next two weeks). I spent almost 2 weeks helping with curriculum planning for the upcoming school year. I spent several days helping with interviewing potential teachers. I've helped to reorganize our bookroom to help make it more user friendly. I have spent countless hours reading teacher books. The count is now 6, including The Daily 5 and The Cafe Book. (I'm looking forward to implementing this new strategy this school year.) And I can't forget about the numerous hours that I've spent on pinterest.

Now after all of these efforts toward this upcoming school year, I am ready to get into my classroom to start implementing all of the things that I've learned this summer. I am so excited about this upcoming school year. If only I could get some work done in my room, I would feel much better.

First Time Blogger

I have spent a good amount of my summer on pinterest which led me to many blogs. I have read about a lot of amazing ideas that I could use in my classroom. This led to the decision for me to start my own blog. I'm not exactly sure about how I will use it, but I do know that I love sharing ideas and I love getting feedback from others.

Let me start by discussing the title of my blog, Teacher of Scholars. Last summer I read the book Teach Like A Champion: 49 Ways That Put Students on the Path to College by Doug Lemov. One of the overriding ideas in the book is to teach students how to be scholars. My goal this year is to get my fifth grade students looking towards college and knowing what will be expected of them when they get there. Therefore, I will be calling them Scholars from day one. They will be treated like scholars and will hopefully head to middle school with the understanding of exactly what it will take to get to college as well as what it will take to be successful when they get to a college campus.

Well, that's all I have for my very first blog. Thanks for reading my very first blog. I welcome any blogging suggestions.