Change is always a good thing

I'm excited to participate in a 2nd linky party.  This one is about how I organize my desks and students.

I'm only in my 3rd year of teaching, so I haven't quite gotten the hang of taking pictures of everything I do, but I do have one GREAT TIP in changing desks.

I use plastic sleeves to contain the name tags, and EVERY Friday my students completely clean out their desks and turn their name tag into me.  If you have been behaving on a certain level throughout the week then on Monday you get the privilege of  drawing a playing card out of a deck and finding the matching card on your new desk.  I use old maid cards from Walgreens because they were cheap and cute.

I have a friend (she used to be my trailer mate when I had a classroom in a single-wide) who uses normal playing cards and does a team reward system based on the cards.  For example, one group is the hearts, another is the diamonds.  The Ace card is the group leader and gathers the supplies for the group when needed.  Points are earned for expected behavior.

The best thing about the entire system is that it WAY cuts down on the desk that is vomiting out supplies every-time anyone breathes on it and if a student is not making good choices, he or she does not get the privilege of "choosing" their own desk.

P.S.  Rarely I have to act on the island threat...if you can't sit with the group, then you have to become an island.  But that only happens until the end of the week...unless you were "Marcus" who got to the point where he was not allowed to leave the 6 foot square area of tile right inside the door, but that is a whole 'nother blog post!