Show & Tell Tuesday-Spring is Coming!

It's time once again for Show & Tell Tuesday!

Thank goodness spring is almost here!  We had four surprise snow days in the last couple weeks, and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  

It's so nice getting some extra time at home to get things done.  This was the view from my office...

But now I'm ready for spring, and I don't want any more snow days.  To be honest, we have used up all of our weather days that we can have and not have to make them up in June.  I love it when Mother Nature cooperates and gives us just the right amount of snow days, don't you? How many snow days can you have in your state before you have to add them on at the end of the year?

Those snow days did give me the opportunity to start a new exercise routine.  I walk at least three days a week, but I decided I needed to add some strength training.  I do not like going to a gym though, and I didn't want to have to buy a bunch of equipment.  I found a great free app that I downloaded on my ipad called Sworkit.

You choose what kind of work out you want to do and for how long.  I have been doing fifteen minutes of strength training before my 45 minute walks.  What I like about it is I can do the exercises in the living room in front of the tv.  Though I wouldn't recommend watching Cupcake Wars like I did the other day...that was torture!  Sometimes I have to get the dogs to scoot over and give me more room too!

Do you need a way to keep track of your students' late assignments at school?  I thought I would share with you how I manage to stay on top of this daily chore.  The first thing my students do when they come in the classroom in the morning, is come up and turn in their work.  They also bring up their planner to show me whether or not they had a parent sign the previous day's page.  If they are missing an assignment, I turn to the next page in their planner (which we will be using for today's work) and write down the late assignment.  That way, when the parent looks at the page tonight, he/she will see that an assignment was not turned in on time.

Then I write the late assignment on a little sticky note with the student's name and put it on the late work board.  

This board is on my desk and is a good reminder for both the students and myself.  If a student is done with other work, I encourage them to check the late work board to see if there is anything else they need to get caught up on.  I also check it each day right before recess.  Students do not go out to recess if they have any late work.  Once a student turns their work in to me, I remove the sticky note.

After putting the sticky note on the late work board, I make a check mark on a class list if they had their planner signed.  If the student has their planner signed and they have all their work ready to turn in on time, I stamp their planner page so parents can see that they are on top of their game!  

It may sound like a lot of steps, but once you get the hang of it, it goes pretty fast.  After I have checked everyone in, I take a minute to highlight on my clipboard all the students who had late work. I also write a number for how many late assignments that makes for them.  I do this because in my school, students get a discipline slip if they have five late assignments in a marking period. Numbering them like this makes it easy for me to give kids a heads up if they are getting close to that five mark.  

Best of luck keeping track of your students' work!