Feeling Inspired and Inspiring Others!

Today was one of those feel good days.  You know those days...the days where you finally feel validated that what you are doing is actually making a difference.  Today, not once, but twice, I had people come up to tell me about students that have said they want to be science teachers so that they can be like me.  I also received lots of hugs and a sunflower!  Teaching is like fighting in the trenches when it's pouring outside and you can't see an end in sight.  But occasionally, the rain subsides and you see a rainbow.  That rainbow gives you hope for the future. I saw MY rainbow today!

Today's post is not going to be about a strategy to implement in your classroom. I've created a list of 10 things I do to inspire students, and, also, to help you get through those days where you feel like you are in torrential downpour.

1. High five, fist bump, or make up a crazy unique handshake with your students.
 
2. Compliment at least five students a day.  This does not have to be anything planned. "I like your shirt!"  "You look great today!" 
"What a neat idea!"  "That's really cool!" etc.

3.  Greet your students by name.

4.  SMILE, and not just a little bit.  I maybe take this to an extreme, but really it's a lot more fun to be in class with a teacher that seems like he/she is enjoying him/herself.

Photo from We are Teachers

5. Don't make everything about business. Teach, teach, teach, and then stop.  Work on teambuilding, collaboration, critical thinking, or just mix it up with a content related game or trivia.

6. Listen to your students....even the ones that tell you the never ending story.  You may be the only one that will listen to them.

7.  Find a system that does not criticize students individually.  Whether it be Whole Brain Teaching or another system, constantly reinforce good behavior rather than focusing on the negative behavior.


8.  Have some sort of incentive program.  Last year I used gem jars, this year I am using Whole Brain Teaching's Scoreboard.  I also give out stickers for students or teams that successfully complete a challenging activity.

9.  Find time to pray about your students.  I pray on my way to work each morning.  I ask God to give me guidance on what I should do each day in my classroom and to help me make a difference in the lives of my students.

10.  Take time for yourself.  Find something you enjoy doing and attempt to do it as often as you can.  If you are feeling overwhelmed in your classroom, take a second to breathe and think about a time when you felt you were making a difference.

BONUS:
11.  Don't give up hope.  With all of the things going on in the world, it is easy to feel down.  Know that you CAN inspire students, you CAN make a difference, and if you don't do it, who will?

I wanted to conclude this post with an inspirational video.  After seeing Rita Pierson's presentation, I hear her voice throughout my day. Good luck inspiring our future. 
I know you can do it!

What Worked and Didn't Work at Open House

Well, tonight was open house.  It went awesome!  The parents were friendly and my students were super nervous to move into middle school.  It was great to be able to encourage them and let them know they could come to me if they ever had a question.  Reflecting on tonight, there were definitely some things that went well and some things I will change for next year.

What went well? First, I had my students' seats marked with colored sticky notes depending on their period.  When students walked in, I could tell them to find where they sit so that I won't have to worry about that tomorrow. Also, I labeled each station so that parents knew where to go.  Another aspect that was received well was the graphic syllabus that I blogged about last time.  I had several parents thank me for making
it easy to read.  Lastly, my homeroom kiddos loved the little highlighter gift I placed at each of their desks.  I loved
giving out a gift so much, that I'm already
brainstorming ideas for next year!

What I do I need to change?  I, definitely, planned too much!  I printed out sheets for my parents to sign up for Remind, but many didn't look at the signs and those that did, didn't have their cell phones with them.  I also set out sample interactive notebooks, but they were in a different section so parents and students were not aware that they could look at them. 

I think that next year the focus needs to be on the basics.  If I need to send more information out, I can through email. The parents and students were already overwhelmed with entering middle school for the first time, and then to flood them with how my classroom works was just a little too much. 

Words for the future:  Less is More...unless less is chocolate, then the saying does NOT apply! :)

Draw the Eye in with a Graphic Syllabus

Each year my syllabus has morphed into something else.  I started teaching with a very basic syllabus that was missing much of the information that parents needed to know.  I then created a lengthy, multiple page syllabus that I doubt my students and parents read.  Well, it has now changed, again, and this time, I think it is for the better.  This graphic syllabus draws the eye into important information and still conveys effectively every thing I need my students and parents to know.

I saw this idea on Pinterest, and modified it to work for my class. You may look at it and think it has to be missing things, but it really isn't.  My class rules are very to the point and follow the Whole Brain Teaching model.  Remember, Rules 4 and 5 cover all of those little things that you would want to include in your syllabus about being prepared, being on time, etc. 

The one thing that is missing, in my opinion, is a list of topics to be covered throughout the year.  This year, I am at a new school and the curriculum will soon be changing.  Rather than putting in writing what is going to be covered throughout the year in advance, I plan to update my classroom website in order to keep parents informed about what we are learning.

I know many of you have already started back for the year, but I hope this gives you inspiration for next year's syllabus.  Have a relaxing Sunday. Tomorrow we hit the ground running, changing lives, and inspiring minds!

Data Collection Pt. 5 - Charting YOUR Progress

Collecting data on students is a very important aspect of establishing a system to improve student learning, but just as important is creating a system to assess yourself as a teacher! This concept was somewhat mind blowing to me because I just assumed based upon how I felt my class was going, I could determine their success.  I have come in contact with a better idea!

Charting Your Progress:
Chris Biffle states in his book Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids,

"You cannot manage student behavior if you cannot manage your own behavior."

The two features to evaluate yourself on are:
1. Controlling emotions and tone of voice.
2. Consistently following through with the classroom management plan.

On top of personal reflection, you are going to chart student behavior progress!

This information will provide you with undeniable evidence about growth in your classroom!  First, what you need to do is give yourself a score each week between 1-10 on your ability to control your emotions, then give yourself a score between 1-10 on how consistently you followed through with your expectations and procedures. Add these two scores together, be honest, this is your baseline score.  Write this down somewhere and each week you can write your new score.  Don't expect yourself to immediately score perfect.  The school year is not a sprint, but a marathon.  Reflect upon what areas you need to work on and then hit the ground running on Monday being the awesome teacher that you are!

Now for the second portion of charting progress: student behavior.  I love this idea and am eager to implement it into my room.  I have uploaded the form I am going to use for this on TeachersPayTeachers.  You can get it for FREE on my page: Click Here!

Evaluate your students on a scale of 1-5.  Be brutally honest, no one is going to see this, but you!

5 points = Leader: This score is very difficult and likely you will have NO leaders at the beginning of the year.  They can 100% self-manage themselves.

4 points = Alpha: These students follow directions and stay on task.  They do everything you would want them to do.

3 points = Go-Alongs: These students go-along with what is asked, but sometime make mistakes. They may occasionally be off task or not turn in their work.

2 points = Fence Sitter: These students could go either way and may begin talking if others are talking or get off task.

1 point = Challenging Students: These students cause disruptions in class, do not do their work, get off task, and about any other number of things that make you want to pull your hair out!

Total your entire class and find the average.  This is your baseline for student behavior.  Each week evaluate your students.  I know this may take some time, but it will be worth it to see the progress!  I think a great goal would be to move every student up one level by the end of the year.  If that is the case, you'd hope to see a .1 change each month.  Remember: a marathon NOT a sprint.  Obviously, if students jumped a full level, then you as a teacher have succeeded in helping mold those students' behavior.  You can then give yourself a pat on the back! :)

Good luck!  Remember to document, document, document. For the rest of the school year, I won't be posting as much.  I will try to post at least once a week, so be on the lookout!

Data Collection Pt. 4 - Spreadsheets

Alright, we are now to the portion of my data collection series that I have been dreading, not because I don't think it is important information for you to use, but because it's very hard to explain without showing you.  Please know that you can contact me through email, Facebook, or a comment on here for clarification or if you would like me to send you my spreadsheet format to reference.

Okay, so let's get started!  Spreadsheets are the easiest method to keep all of your data in one place.  When you need to access information to show student growth to your administrator, you can pull up one document with several pages within that document. 

Here are some examples of student data I collected last year:

To clarify, the cells that are highlighted in blue mean that the students took the opportunity to request to retest (a form from Data Collection Pt. 3 - Student Analysis) in order to improve their original score.

For those who are not strong in working spreadsheet this may seem overwhelming, but I assure you with a little playing around you can do this too!  Here are some tips to help you organize your data in spreadsheet:

1. Keep the format similar for each page. Once you have typed in all of your student information in one page, you can copy and paste to new pages.
2. You can add new pages at the bottom.  They look like little tabs.3. In order to provide meaning to the data, you will likely need to use a formula.  To get formula options you can type the "=". 
4.  Once you have your "=" you can highlight the cells you want and use the +/- signs. You can also look in the upper right corner and you have further options such as sum, average, etc.
5.  In the center of the spreadsheet formatting tools there is a symbol that is "fx" If you click this symbol you can also create your formulas and it gives you more options. 

I hope those are some small tips that can help you get started on keeping your data organized in one place.  Remember, feel free to play around with spreadsheet.  If you are completely lost, you can contact me and I will try to work you through it.  Good luck, and make today amazing! :)

Data Collection Pt. 3 - Student Analysis

While it is important for us, as teachers, to analyze the data collected during an assignment, it is just as important that students are learning to analyze their results.  In order to do this, I created standard graphing sheets.  These sheets are separated into the units that I teach.  The standards for each unit are listed and a labeled graph is below.

When I hand back tests, I have my students look at their percentage of proficiency for each standard.  They then fill in the chart with a different color for each standard. By doing this, students are taking time to see their where they did well and where they did poorly.  They can visually see what their scores really mean.

Once the students fill out the graphs, I have my students write a five sentence reflection over what they learned about their knowledge about that unit.  I give them writing prompts such as:


1. My score was _________. I believe I scored that score because _____________.
2. One of my strengths was ______________ because _____________________.
3. One of my weaknesses was _____________ because __________________.
4. One thing I could do to improve would be _______________________________.

Once the students have completed their reflections of their work, I allow them to complete a Request to Retest form. This year I have changed the form in a way, that I feel will help students process and come to a conclusion about what they need to do to improve in science.  You can download this document for FREE at TPT. Click here to download!

I hope this helps!  Let me know if you implement any of the student analysis and how it works for you.  Make it an awesome day!

 

 

Data Collection Pt. 2 - Test Formatting

A major trend in education is standard-based grading, and why not?  Why not grade students on how well they have mastered a standard?  Wouldn't that give grades meaning?  In order to create a test format that would allow me to easily see the proficiency of my students in each standard, I created a template that I use for each test.

The template is very straightforward.  Each standard is in a separate box.  That box is separated into sections.  The first section states the standard. I believe it is important to allow students to see the standard and what they are expected to know.  The second section has the standard summarized to help students understand what they need to be able to do. This also helps me really think about what needs to be addressed in that standard. The last box is where I place the questions that I want my students to answer. 

It is important when you create questions for your test that you do not only have one question for the standard because if a student misses it, then they will receive 0% proficiency which is probably not accurate.  I try to make each standard worth at least 8 points.  Then if they miss one point, I can see that they still understand a majority of what the standard addresses.

When I am grading the tests, each standard receives a score.  I write the percentage off to the left.  I then average the points to give students an overall grade for the unit.  Tomorrow I will discuss how I help students dig deeper into their own understanding and help them to analyze their data. 

Have a great day!

Meet the Teacher Linky

 

Well, now that my blogging is in full swing, I figured I should probably share who I am with many of you that have not met me.

My name is Keisha McHargue and I have taught middle school for 5 years. I have taught in several districts in the Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas area. I am currently working on my Ed.D through Liberty University in Curriculum and Instruction.  I am also a 5th grade intern for Whole Brain Teaching this year.  My goal would be to present throughout the country on Whole Brain Teaching strategies.

Anyway, this year I am starting at a new district in Iowa and am excited to get my students engaged in learning science!

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...
Favorite things include Hershey's chocolate bars and Sharpie colored flair pens. I absolutely love Eileen's sugar cookies (I know the company isn't everywhere, but if you come to Nebraska you have to get them!).

IF YOU WEREN'T A TEACHER, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO BE?
If I wasn't a teacher, I would want to be a pharmacist.  Don't ask me why, but I always contemplated it.  I guess it ties into my love for science, but I definitely wouldn't be as good of pharmacist as I am teacher, so I'm definitely where I am supposed to be!

THREE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU...
Ambitious, Upbeat, Compassionate

FINISH THE SENTENCE, "________________, SAID NO TEACHER EVER!!"
"You are right, teaching is so easy."

IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY AND YOU CAN INVITE ANYONE {DEAD OR ALIVE} TO THE PARTY WHO ARE YOU INVITING?
Hmm, I don't really become fascinated with famous people.  I'd probably just invite my current friend and family.  I know that is a lame answer.

IF SOMEONE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT YOU, WHAT WOULD BE THE TITLE?
A Beacon of Light and a Hope for the Future

YOU GET TO PICK ONE SUPERPOWER, WHAT IS IT?
The ability to heal people

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE OR SAYING?
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela

IF YOU HAD TO SING ONE SONG ON AMERICAN IDOL, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
"If I Die Young" The Band Perry

ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT OWL?
Neither.  I do best mid-morning, once I've had a chance to get up and get going.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE RESOURCE YOU HAVE CREATED ON TPT?
Parent letter to notify parents of videotaping for WBT certification

SHARE SOMETHING WE MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU.
Even though I push myself into leadership opportunities, I am terrified of public speaking.

Data Collection Pt. 1 - Grading

Today marks Day 1 of a follower requested series on data collection.  More and more data collection is becoming an integral part of the teacher workload.  Due to the teacher evaluation process, national policy, and parent expectations, it is important that teachers have techniques put in place in order to successfully manage all of the information they are taking each day. Throughout the week, I will cover five different topics that I think will be helpful for managing the data in your classroom.

Monday -1/2 Sheet Grading
Tuesday - Standard Based Test Format
Wednesday- Student Graphing and Reflection
Thursday - Excel Spreadsheets
Friday - Self Reflection and Class Behavior Growth

So, today's focus is going to be on this wonderful idea that I stumbled upon and then modified it to work in my classroom.  I have attached an example to the blog.  You can find the sample template for FREE at TPT.  Click here to download the document!

 

You will use this half sheet each time you have students turn in papers.  When a student turns in a paper, you simply mark an "x" in the turned in column.  This allows you to quickly see who has not turned in the assignment.  I, then, highlight those boxes so that they stand out.   You can also put a note on the right side of why it is missing.  For example, the student may have been absent or forgot it at home.  I use "A" for absent, "NF" for not finished, "H" for if they forgot it at home, and "CP" for call parent. 

When you have time to grade, which we all know is never, but when you do, you put the grades in the middle column.  I then clip this half sheet onto the stack of graded papers until I have time to put it in the electronic gradebook.  All half sheets are then filed in a binder just in case I need them for something else.

One thing I like about the 1/2 sheets relates to interventions and tracking behavior.  Because you can prepare these 1/2 sheets in advance you can have one for each day if you'd like. (QUICK TIP: purchase the small clipboards so that you can walk around a mark on the sheet throughout the day.)  In the notes section you can tally how many times you corrected a challenging student or mark how you used an intervention for a student you are documenting for RTI.  The half sheet can be your go to sheet for monitoring all those little requirements that are tough to remember to do and organize.

I hope this takes a little stress out of monitoring student data.  Tomorrow: Standards Based Test Format.  Have an awesome day!

The Quickest Assessment: Smart Cards

As it becomes crunch time to get things ready for school, I wanted to give you a formative assessment strategy that is cheap and easy to make, and that you will actually use to gauge student understanding: SMART CARDS!

Smart Cards are just simply cards that have a red side and a green side. I just made mine out of colored notecards.  I didn't have red so I did pink. Creating these cards should not be stressful.  I made a class set in a couple of minutes!  I simply just put the two cards together and stapled. 

How it works: Once you ask a true/false or yes/no question say "Vote!" Students will then hold up the green side for true or the red side for false. Then say "Unvote!"  The purpose of the vote and unvote is to detour students that just look to their neighbor for the answer.  Students should answer quickly. 

How is the better than just doing thumbs up/thumbs down?  When you ask a question you will see a quick flash of color.  When students have the cards up, it is easy to see how many correct versus incorrect answers you have.  Based upon the amount of students correct or incorrect, you can make decisions about whether you need to go back and explain what was covered again, or if you can move on with your lesson.

Please try this out and let me know how it goes!  Good luck this year! 

Recognizing Super Improvers!

Do you want all of your students to succeed in your classroom?  What should count as success? I'm going to share a story with you that put some things about education into perspective for me.

"Imagine if you were graded based solely on a sprint race. The person who won got an "A" and the person who lost got an "F".  You lost, so you receive the failing grade.  The next day you race again, and you lose.  The person next to you is faster than you.  Soon enough you will give up because there is no way you will catch him.  He will also stop trying as hard because he knows he is going to beat you. But what if the rules changed?  What if the person who beats his/her personal best by the most receives an A?  Then wouldn't both the slower and faster runner try even harder to improve?"

This is a scenario presented by Chris Biffle in his book, "Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids". What should our goal as teachers be?  Should it be to award the student that always scores well, or should we change our focus toward recognizing students for working to be "better than their best"?


My Super Improvers Board...NOT FINISHED YET!

After contemplating this, I decided to adopt Whole Brain Teaching's Super Improver Team.  At the
elementary level, each student has a card and gets stars on their card for improvement.  At the middle school level, teachers have too many students, so you can mark improvement based on classes.  Classes can gain stars for improvement academically or behaviorally. If the whole class improves their assessment scores, then they can receive a star.  You could give a star to the class for improving their speed at completing certain tasks.  You could even focus on a particular goal.  For example, your students may need to work on Rule 2: Raise your hand for permission to speak. If the first day you have 5 students blurt out, but on Friday you have 0 students blurt out, maybe that class earns a star.

When a class gets 10 stars, they move up a level.  The goal is to reach the top.  My board is not finished, but you could have a theme for each level.  For example, the first level could be the Rookie level and the top level could be All Star.  There are several examples on TeachersPayTeachers!

The awesome part of this motivator is that the classes can see how other classes are doing.  They don't want other classes to get ahead of them, so they will work harder to show improvement as well!

Please go to www.wholebrainteaching.com or message me about how to implement this strategy further!  Good luck making a difference in the lives of your students!

Stop Pulling Your Hair Out About Homework!

Do you want a homework model for your classroom that entices even your most reluctant students to complete their work?  I think I may have found it!  Whole Brain Teaching uses the Universal Homework Model to achieve just that.  So, let me break down this technique into a few easy steps to follow:
1. All homework should have 3 levels (Do not freak out, it isn't extra work!).  The first level is the minimum requirement, whereas the third level is going above and beyond.  For example, this is how I am going to use this model in my classroom.  Each day that we take notes I have my students complete a summary.  A five sentence summary will be worth one star.  A two star assignment would have completed the summary and went through the notes highlighting or underlining key words.  A three star assignment did all of the requirements of a two star, but also wrote in the margins their thoughts, questions, and other information THEY felt was important.

Click here to get my Homework Log Freebie!

2. I am having my students fill out a homework log this year. Each day they will fill in what their assignment is and when it is due.  Once completed, they will fill in how many stars their assignment is worth.  I, also, have a section for a parent signature.  Students cannot get three stars without a parent signature.  This will improve your parent communication!
3. When a homework assignment is due, go through and count how many stars each student completed (A great way to do this is to develop a couple student leaders that can check that students are being honest). Tally up the number of stars each day.  Set a goal of how many stars the students as a class need to achieve to get free time on Friday.  I am going to use a chart to show them how close they are to their goal each day. 
4. On Thursday, let them know how many stars they need to get by Friday. Here's a hint: tell them that it looks like the class will have to have many students complete 3 star homework in order to win their free time. Then, ask for volunteers who will step up and attempt 3 star homework.  You will have some students jumping out of their seats to get recognition.  Write their names on the board and have the class praise them for stepping up!
5. On Friday, if they have earned it, make sure to give them the amount of free time you have allocated (No longer than 5 minutes.). Then, once they have achieved their goal, boost the amount of stars they need to reach. This method encourages class unity and helps students feel accountable to others. 

I'm so excited to use this in my classroom this year.  Let me know if you adopt this into your classroom and how it works for you!  Have a great day!

School is About to Start. Are You Ready?

One thing that I haven't done much of is discussing how to set up your classroom for Whole Brain Teaching.  There are several aspects of Whole Brain Teaching that can help you format your room in a way that is most conducive to learning. In order to show you several techniques without writing a book, I have attached a video of Andre Deshotel's classroom. Mr. Deshotel is a certified Whole Brain Teacher. 

Setting Up and Introducing WBT

As you can see, there are many aspects of Whole Brain Teaching that you can implement into your classroom with ease.  I will be working on creating the Super Improvers League for my classroom this week.  If I complete a document, I will post it on TPT for you all to download!



You Can Get This Free Printable from Tara West on TPT

The SCOREBOARD: Pt. 2

Hey guys!  Last week, we discussed the Scoreboard and how it is an influential classroom management strategy.  Today I'm going to discuss a few key features and ways in which you can implement the Scoreboard into your classroom.

Reinforcing Classroom Rules: Last week I posted about the 5 classroom rules that will change your life. They cannot do that in your classroom, if you do not reinforce them and practice them often.  A great way to reinforce them is to just start your day going through the rules. You can lead them or have a student lead them.  You can also use the scoreboard throughout class.  A key part of the classroom rules is to not point out a student for negative behavior.  Rather, just say the rule that was broken and have the class respond with what the rule is.  When marking a point for the teacher on the scoreboard you can just say, "It appears that some of our classmates are not following Rule 2."  You can then mark a point for the teacher.  They will interact with you and give a "Mighty groan."  You can then say "Let's make sure everyone remembers what rule 2 is.  Rule 2" and your students will say "Raise your hand for permission to speak!"  When they all respond with the gesture that accompanies it, you can tell them that they did a great job and give the students a point.  This encourages your students to follow the rules because they associate it with the positive of receiving a point for their team.

Speed: I love increasing the pace I go in my classroom. You can give students a direction and then if they did not do it fast enough you can mark a point for the teacher.  Make sure you give them another shot at that direction, though.  By working to reinforce the right way to do it, you will increase the engagement of your students.  For example, you say "Class!" and your students respond "Yes!", but not everyone responds.  You can say, "Aw, bummer.  That was not fast enough." and give a point to the teacher side.  Then you can say "Claaasss!" and then more students will respond "Yeesss!" They will likely respond filled with energy and excitement because they want to prove to you that they can do it to earn a point.  Give it to them!  Reward them for changing their behavior and responding quickly.  You've got them!  You are teaching them to do things quickly to earn those points!

Variations: "Variety is the spice of life!" Variety is also the key to keeping the scoreboard interesting.  Once you are consistently using the scoreboard, change it up in order to keep the engagement of your students.  One way to do that is to make teams.  You could do boys versus girls or left side of the room versus the right side of the room.  For me, I'm going to do the Pirate Scoreboard.  When a point gets marked for the captain (Me!), instead of doing the Mighty Groan they will say, "McHaaaargg!"



Teaching with Style Scoreboard

The scoreboard image you see above is courtesy of Teaching with Style from Teachers Pay Teachers.  You can download it for free off of her store.  This is just demonstrating one way you can modify the scoreboard to meet the needs of your students. You can find more variations of the Scoreboard at www.wholebrainteaching.com!  Good luck with implementing the Scoreboard this year.  If you have any further questions, please feel free to comment below.

Teacher vs. Students: Who Will Reign Victorious?

Do you ever feel that way?  It's you against ALL of them. How can you reign them in and teach what you need to teach?  If you are like me, you've tried several strategies to motivate students to listen, participate, and follow your rules. Many of the strategies I have tried (writing names on the board, giving warnings, gem jars, etc.) did not work for everyone, and their effect over time wore off. 

With whole brain teaching, you have a cheap, and easy interactive game to monitor student behavior that can constantly evolve to keeping hooking your students in.  Your students want to win and will do whatever it takes to beat the teacher. It brings out the competitive side of them.  What they don't know is that whether you, as the teacher, win or lose on the scoreboard, you win because you are able to teach instead of monitor behavior.

SCOREBOARD: So, here is how it works.  On your whiteboard, or another place that is convenient for you, just write "teacher" on one side and "students" on the other, now make a line.  You have created a scoreboard!  Wow, wasn't that easy!?

Whenever students are doing a great job, you mark a point for the students.  Chris Biffle, of whole brain teaching, recommends that they get a one second celebration ("Oh Yeah!") whenever they earn a point. When they are not doing a great job, you mark a point for the teacher.  They then can make a one second mighty groan.  You see, they still get to interact whether it is a positive or negative point. This contributes to their buy in to the game.

The secret, though, to truly keeping the students engaged in this activity is the Rule of 3.  Keep the score within three points no matter what.  You do not have to mark negative for every negative thing that happens, just as you do not have to mark positive for every positive.  Mark when it is convenient for you, but make sure to stick with it!  Lastly, what are they playing for?  Why would they care if they win?  Give them a minute free time for every point they beat you by, or one less problem, or one less page to read.  In my classroom, I'm giving them one less sentence for their summaries.

I don't want to overwhelm you with this strategy, so I'll post again tomorrow about how you can use this strategy to increase speed in your classroom, reinforce the behavior that you want, and how, once your students get the hang of the scoreboard, you can vary the game to keep the interest of your students!