Tag' Em

I hardly recognized you education universe... it's been awhile.

My ball game got rained out tonight so I am taking the time to post for the first time in forever.  Hopefully no one of the nearly 2,000 page viewers held their breath (no refunds).  Anyways, a quick new thought tonight in my constantly developing XP system.

I ordered 150 plastic dog tags the other day.  I'm using them as a way to keep track of things that tend to wander away in my room.  I'm going to give each kid a set, and if they want to borrow something or reserve their spot at the computer, they need to give me their tags.  Additionally, if they are misbehaving, I can take their tags for awhile as a way of reinforcing my expectations.  They will also be allowed to write their name and unit (group) on the tags and show them off.

Here's what they look like:

These will help to reinforce my military XP system theme as we go, and may serve as an in-class intervention for behavior prior to a referral or other corrective action.  It will also help me make sure my stuff comes back to me.  I bought like 5 million pencils last year that I never even got to use.

I'm hoping groups of kids will choose matching tags and we can begin to develop subcultures within my class with norms and expectations of their own.  With everything tied to academics, this was a good way to reinforce the behaviors.  We'll see what happens.

I plan to document my journey this year.  Between flipping, grouping, e-learning, BYOD, and the XP system, who knows what's going to happen.

Right now there's just a lot of possibilities.

Hoping for a drier tomorrow... I got a championship to defend.

Mr. J.