Bathroom Management.

Managing bathroom use during the day can be tough in middle school... 

For me, bathroom management is never a problem for Blocks 1,2, or 3. 

But Block 4? (1:05 − 2:30)

Suddenly what feels like every. single. student. needs to use the bathroom. immediately. urgently. and right. now.

Here's how I've tackled the issues: 

ISSUE #1: THE ASKING

With my 6th graders this year, I presented the bathroom sign language symbol as a quiet way to ask.

It has and continues to work perfectly.  I see the symbol and just quietly respond to them non-verbally with a head nod or wave to the door.

Unfortunately, the 7th graders never caught on...so I vow that next year I will make a better effort at enforcing it.

ISSUE #2: BATHROOM SIGN OUT

Well, I made a change to a new bathroom sign out routine (see chart above)...
 and this new bathroom chart is doing the trick.  

They just write an "X" when they used the bathroom that day.

It makes the students accountable for how many times a week they are using the bathroom during class.

(I found they kind of keep themselves in check now, knowing there is a log of their usage.)

If anything, it is easier for me to keep tabs on than the traditional sign out sheet.

Plus it cuts down on the time it takes to sign their name and time!

No time in/out you say? 
1. Didn't feel the need...my problem hasn't been with how long they are out of the room, but with how frequently they are out of the room.  2. With school video cameras targeted on my classroom door from the hallway, I know there is the ability to timestamp their bathroom visit if absolutely needed.


Do YOU do anything non-traditional as a bathroom sign out?

I'd love to hear more ideas...

Happy Birthday Doc.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

I hope you all have fabulous and fancy parties this week... like the ones popping up all over the blog world!

This week we had a door decorating contest to celebrate

Read Across America/the big guy's birthday.

Here's my homeroom's door (co-winner for the 7th grade!):

Below are clips of the other doors....how cool are they?

If you look close...

You can see that many door are 3-D.

One even had a bowl of live goldfish taped to it.

(I thought the Dr.Seuss facebook one (above) should have won. It was really creative and had all his characters as facebook friendss writing on his wall saying happy birthday.)

Sorry if the pics are poor quality....they are from my iPhone and spliced together with the Collage app.

What are YOU doing for Read Across America Week?

In the words of NEA, "Whether it's planting a Truffala tree forest, reading garden, or having the Lorax lead your reading parade, don't forget to share your plans..."!!

Share your activities in the linky party!

Baseball Math: Statistics and Data

This set by Lakeshore Learning is da' bomb.

[I've always wanted to make my own statistics stations based on baseball cards and  box scores from the newspaper ... but to be honest, this set was totally worth the $19.95.]

The set comes with 4 newspapers, 8 baseball cards, and 8 activity cards.

The given materials can create 4 stations...each station including:

 2 activity cards to be completed by looking at the 2 baseball cards and 1 newspaper.

The product works great as stations in the classroom...

I think the product would also work great as a classroom center....

OR photocopied for independent work / to accommodate more students.

{The questions ask for mean, median, mode, and range....but I found that the most difficult part is interpreting data from a table and problem solving.}

{It claims the set is for 3rd - 6th grade.  

I found it to be the perfect level of challenge for my 7th grade resource class.}

For the record, I also bought Mall Math and Party Math AND Restaurant Math...but this one is my favorite!

Birthdays in middle school?

This year when my 7th grade students threw me a surprise birthday party of cookies and cream cupcakes (yum!), capri suns, and streamers...

[Can we just talk about how sweet they are?]

I got thinking... Maybe I need to do more for THEIR birthdays.

(Except full-blown-parties are out of the question 

since middle school teachers teach about 90 kids 

and the kids rotate through about 5 classrooms a day...)

It's something I just never considered... And something I previously thought of as being very elementary-school-ish. But I guess maybe it isn't.

So here I am....Looking for ideas for all ages.....

What do YOU do to celebrate birthdays in your classroom?