10 Must Have Classroom Essentials- Part 6

Problem: Students raising their hand

I know many teachers have their students line up if they need help or their work checked, but that never really worked for me, I found there was too much misbehaviour and wasted class time as a result. I also know that kids will sit at their desk with their hand up for a long time, also wasting time and having a sore arm as well!

I decided to try the cup system, and it works pretty well. Students have three cups stacked on their desk, a green, yellow and red one. It is on green most of the time, as they are working and not needing any help. I had them change their cup to yellow if they needed help with something, and red if they were completed their work. This way they could keep working, read a book or do something while they were waiting for me to come and see them. I also found it an easy visual to check in with. 

I found the cups at Walmart for a reasonable price. My only issue was eventually the kids decided to poke holes or colour them, but I think this depends on the class you have how well they take care of them. Overall I found the system to be quite effective.

10 Must Have Classroom Essentials- Part 5

Problem: Using the SMARTboard as a listening centre. I have tried all different ways of doing a listening centre. I had the big earphones for a while connected to a cd player, but a parent was super concerned about the kids sharing earphones and I found it difficult to find books on cd and storing them all was tricky. Then I started using my SMART board to show the kids a story and listen, but it was distracting when they all could hear. So, each student now has earphones on their supply list, but I was still trying to figure out a way to connect it all to the computer.  Enter this green star of amazement!!!!   Voila, I can connect all of the kids individual earphones to the laptop (I have a long cable to connect it). It works great.