Awards and Certificates galore

Each month I give my Top Dogs (student's nominated for demonstrating the character education trait of the month) a certificate. At my previous school (yep previous- more info. to come) we used the Core Essentials program. One thing that makes this program great is that a lot of the work is done for you. Their program comes with outlined daily announcements, monthly scripts, newsletters for parents and teacher, lessons plans, posters and more.

Poster of the character traits for each month

Although I only used parts (for example we incorporated the character education words and not always the color and animal that they put with it) it was a great program. Probably one of my favorite things was the fact they provided us certificates ready made each month along with a local partnership with Lanes Trains and Automobiles and Chik Fil A to give these students a reward as well.

March Newsletter for Parents

So when I moved schools I was sad to see this resource go. So I started searching for my favorite FREE certificate maker online.  I haven't found the perfect maker yet, but I have found a few good ones:

Lake Shore Learning:

The award maker at this website allows you to choose from a variety of cute awards and type directly into the certificate. It's super easy, you can print right away without a download, and they have several to choose from. What I don't love it the designs, they are great for elementary school (not middle or high) and I wish there were a few more options (but beggars can't be choosers right.)


Certificate Magic: These certificates are just too funny. My first thought was oh I wish I was at my old school because I would give some of my friends the certificate for looking busy! They would have had a good laugh. I do love the Golden Lunchbox award as well. I think it would be super fun to give students who participate in Mix It Up Day, show random acts of kindness at lunch, or demonstrate amazing lunch room behavior. It's a cute award you can easily personalize.

Best Behavior Update

My foster Boss went to his first day of doggie school today. The hardest command, "stand up!"
There was even a man with a monkey, yep a monkey. He was still on his best behavior. If he were in my class he would get a 5!

So here is my update on the special area behavior plan.
I also finally put my reflections forms on my Google Drive so you can get them here.

Instead of letting each student earn individual points (we were worried this would be tooooo much work for the entire school) we decided to let the class earn points as a whole. We will still use Class Dojo for individual students and the consequences will still be a three step process.

So here's how the new system works.

Each class starts on out entering the room on a 3. They can clip up by showing respect, responsible behavior, and safety. They can also clip down if the majority is off -task, being rude, etc.
At the end of each class they get a mark on our chart (some of our more competitive classes love to see if they can beat the other grade levels.) If they get 5 five's they get a whole class reward. For example: barefoot day, watch a book trailer, play a game on the smart board, free reading/drawing for 10 mintues, read the book of their choose, etc.

So far it's off to a great start.

Using Loyalty Cards!

Last year I discussed the idea of branding your program. It has been a huge success for me. Not only do I have fun, but it's a great way to subconsciously show just how school wide my program is. One of the cheapest, easiest resources I have used is Vistaprint.  They are fast, cheap, and have lots to choose from.

I especially love their loyalty cards. You can do so much with them. See:

Each individual student I see gets a reminder card. I put them in the teacher's box so they remember too!

In the first blank box I will write the date of the first meeting. Then at the end of each session we write the date for the next time we will meet. Doing it at the end helps them remember the meeting date and helps me if there is a last minute date change. They also use it as a hall pass to see me.  

This is one of my favorite uses. I use it with all ages. My favorite way to use it is through consultation with teachers. It's fantastic for student's whose behavior isn't ideal, my ASD, ADHD students, etc. I use it as a punch card. I encourage the teachers to create by in by punching the card every time they see the students do anything great the first few weeks. Ideally they can complete an entire card in say three days. The early success helps with the buy-in as we make the goal harder and harder. They may get anything as a reward: gum, certificate, note home to parent, whatever. Then we make it harder and harder and the goal more challenging so eventually they are used weekly. You won't spend more than $20 on 250 cards so don't worry about running out.