Teaching Thoughts: Classroom Observation

I was serving as a teaching assistant for third grade this past week. I noticed in the one classroom that the students had lamenated name tags on their desks. What was neat was that they were designed by them. They printed their names and then decorated the tags. This personalizes it form them. Also, if room is remaining they could place reward stickers on it.

As I wondered around taking in different things, I also spotted a student's picture made into a key ring. I thought it would be creative if at the beginning of a school year students could not only design their own name tags but make personalized book marks. Since sometimes there are problems with obtaining authorizations for taking pictures of students and classmates, maybe I could send out a note to parents to submit (if they wanted) a snapshot of their child so it could be used in making a bookmark. The students could cut out their faces and put them on bookmarks. Then they could decorate the front as they wished. I would have them lamentated and use the back to place reward stickers. For each book read and reported, they would receive a star or sticker. This would also be an excellent way to keep track of progress and promote reading.