How to Get Students to Do Homework

Do you have students that don't do their homework? 

Do you have students who forget to turn in their math homework?

Do you have students that need a reminder to complete their math work?

Grades were turned in for the second quarter last week. Do your students turn in all their assignments? Getting students to complete all of their assignments before grades are due is a challenge.

How to get students to do homework

To encourage students to turn in math assignments I send home a parent letter. This is a great motivation for 100% assignment completion. Involving parents in the process works well. They are eager to help and have their student complete the work.

The parent letter is an excellent reminder for students. We all need a reminder about important events. Reminders help us remember what we need to accomplish. Reminders keep us on the path to success. As teachers, we don’t always have to be the reminder. A reminder can be a sticker, a bracelet, a text message, an email or a piece of paper.

There are other incentives to turning in math homework on time. Students who turn it in on time receive an award certificate of all completed assignments, the feeling of achievement, the relief of being "done" with homework for the quarter, and they don't have to serve a lunch detention to complete the missing assignments. 

Do you have students that haven't completed assignments and know they will not do them? The best solution to getting students to finish missing work that matters is to have them complete a missing work lunch detention. Before you assign the lunch detention make it clear that this is for academic purposes. Students must complete the missing assignment to be released from the lunch detention and they must attend the lunch detention until they have finished the missing assignment(s). Some schools call this "lunch buddy" program. Having students finish important assignments for academic value and a grade can improve their mindset that getting assignments completed will help them in the future. 

Do you still have students that will not complete the assignments? Let's look at what you've assigned over the quarter. Read this blog post about grading assignments and review the quarterly assigned assignments. You have the power as a teacher to give and take away assignments to help a student achieve success. You can help them become a better student that turns in their assignments.

I’m sharing this grading reminder with you. It’s helped students make a connection between work effort and grades. Students develop a growth mindset with this process. They learn that turning in all of their assignments improves their grades. Yes! This progression helps illustrate that they should always use their best effort first rather than wait until grades are due.

​I've included an award certificate for you too! You've made it through the first quarter and deserve recognition for your efforts. 👏👏👏 Click HERE to download it today!

Happy Teaching!

How to get ALL students to turn in their math homework

Do you have students who forget to turn in their math homework?

Do you have students that need a reminder to complete their math work?

Grades are due soon for the first quarter. Do your students turn in all their assignments? Getting students to complete all of their assignments before grades are due is a challenge.

How to get all students to turn in their math homework

To encourage students to turn in math assignments I send home a parent letter. This is a great motivation for 100% assignment completion. Involving parents in the process works well. They are eager to help and have their student complete the work.

The parent letter is an excellent reminder for students. We all need a reminder about important events. Reminders help us remember what we need to accomplish. Reminders keep us on the path to success. As teachers, we don’t always have to be the reminder. A reminder can be a sticker, a bracelet, a text message, an email or a piece of paper.

I’m sharing this grading reminder with you. It’s helped students make a connection between work effort and grades. Students develop a growth mindset with this process. They learn that turning in all of their assignments improves their grades. Yes! This progression helps illustrate that they should always use their best effort first rather than wait until grades are due.

​I've included an award certificate for you too! You've made it through the first quarter and deserve recognition for your efforts. 👏👏👏 Click HERE to download it today!

Happy Teaching!

Student Work and Math Goals NO PREP Bulletin Board

Do you set Math Goals for your students to achieve?

Do you display student work that demonstrates hard work?

Do you want your students to achieve more?

Did you know that setting goals for your students increases their motivation?

"Giving people specific goals to achieve rather than telling them to do  their best increases their motivation." -Harvard

You can inspire your students with their own work displayed, and set goals for working hard toward achieving future goals.

Click HERE to download

This packet contains NO PREP Bulletin Board materials for you to display in your classroom or hallway at school that promote the Mathematical Mindset theme with the words "#Math Goals" and graphics that promote student work being displayed.

Included in this packet are:

-Examples of Bulletin Boards

-Pennant Style "#Math Goals" Sign

-3 different Versions of the Student Work Coming Soon Signs {plain, arrows, and dots}

-9 different Colors of the Student Work Coming Soon Signs {white, black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink}

-HIGH QUALITY graphics are included

Click HERE to download

Remember that goal setting is important at the beginning of the school year. Set the tone for achievement HIGH and your students will soar! Make sure to give them opportunities for being successful and displaying their hard work when it is appropriate. These are keys to developing a Mathematical Mindset and growing your students in becoming high achievers!

Happy Teaching!

3 Steps To Continue Student Growth

Congratulations you've made it half way through the school year!

Do you ever get to this point and think, oh my goodness how am I going to finish?

I do every year. It's a great time to reflect on the first half of the school year and compare what worked and what did not work well with the students. One thing I've always noticed is the students' attitudes and work habits towards completing assignments. Why do I have more students completing less assignments? How do you get students to complete assignments in time for report cards? I don't like the end of quarter crunch for grades to be submitted. There needs to be a better solution for students turning in assignments in a timely manner.

Creating a system for the students to succeed within the classroom and the structure for grading doesn't have to be difficult. Implementing these 3 steps will improve your students' work habits and growth mindset. Try one or all three, and tap into your students' potential for academic growth and creating lifelong learners in and out of your classroom.

Step 1: Plan for grading 

Once I acknowledged that there was a problem with the process of grading, changing it to meet the students' needs was key. There are many variables that go into completion of work for a grade. The first is changing the amount of expected graded homework assignments. The easiest change was to go from the staggering 24 assignments to 9. That's 24 grades x 150 students = 3,600 grades just for homework. Your number may look different or the same, but it was key in setting an ACHIEVEABLE GOAL. Setting the standard helps students' GROWTH MINDSET. Once they can achieve a small goal, then they can achieve larger goals later.

Setting up the expectation at the beginning of the quarter was key. I created a calendar and set up the students to know when homework was due at the beginning of the quarter. Any other assignments that normally would have been "homework", now became a "notebook" grade under the "classwork" section of my syllabus.  Showing the calendar to the students, modeling how to turn in assignments to receive 100% credit, and checking grades was key. They bought into the new process and were on board with "less work".

Step 2: Plan for students to grow

Students all buy in to the plan of "less work". It's getting them to do the "less work" that can be the problem. Always have a Plan B for students. The easiest way to help students grow is creating a scaffolded approach. Students need structure and scaffolding the process of completing assignments is just as important as scaffolding the learning process. The Plan B for students who still didn't turn in work was to complete it during lunch in my classroom. No music. No friends. Just complete your work during lunch. Some saw it as a punishment and other saw it for what it was, an OPPORTUNITY to complete an assignment and RAISE their grade. After completing two lunches in the classroom students amazingly did not want to do that again. They would turn in their work ON TIME or before having to come in for lunch. This helped keep them accountable and they worked hard to complete it. Their growth mindset was encouraged to grow and develop as they worked hard to attain more knowledge.  Another opportunity offered to students to grow was through their test scores. Given a scaffolded approach, they completed a plan, retook the chapter test, and improved their grade. Sometimes just giving the OPPORTUNITY allows students to SHINE like never before. 

Step 3: Celebrate Growth

Lastly, plan to celebrate students' growth and accomplishments. At the end of each quarter giving out an award to every student gave them encouragement and helped them continue on their own growth mindset journeys. There are many different types of awards you can give out to your students. You can use phrases, goals, grades, or whatever will inspire your students to continue to do their best!

CLICK HERE to download award certificates to encourage your students growth mindset. 

Awards let your students know you care about them, their growth, and their success. One of the best growth mindset strategies that I did for my students that worked. To earn the top scores your students need to know you care and you want them to do their best work. This strategy is just one simple way to show you care and want to CELEBRATE with them to continue their growth mindset journey.

Challenge

I challenge you to use these certificates this week, this month, or this quarter. Giving them feedback on what they do right, helps them to continue to progress and grow. Maybe it's a certificate for homework completion, or just completing their classwork on time. You can make the certificates as personal as you want, but remember it is a process, commit to awarding certificates every quarter, month, or end of the year.


All the best,

New Years Resolutions for the Classroom

Same Students. 

Same Problems.

New Year.

New Resolutions. 

How do you ENRICH your students and classroom? 

Engage your students with these New Years Teacher resolutions. Try one or all three to get your students actively working towards being their BEST in 2018! 

1) Tell your students to TRY their best and WORK hard. 

Working on your students' mindsets is key to helping them build confidence and character. When students know you are their cheerleader, they will be inspired to DO BETTER. Creating this classroom atmosphere is critical to student growth and success.

One of the ways to incorporate this is by using the "Power of Yet". Have your students practice saying "I don't know yet" instead of the standard response of "I don't know". Adding this word is powerful to any statement and can help your students grow!

This packet contains a Growth Mindset Bulletin Board set, Growth Mindset Pencil Topper Labels, The Power of Yet Posters, and The Power of Yet Bulletin Board set. The NO PREP Bulletin Board materials for you to display in your classroom or hallway at school that promote the Growth Mindset theme with the words "#Growth Mindset" and graphics that promote students' growth mindset statements. The NO PREP Bulletin Board Power of Yet materials include interactive post-its for your students to engage in growth mindset thinking. This display encourages students to expand their learning and grow their minds. The pencil toppers are a fun way to encourage students everyday with a growth mindset message on their pencil.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD=> GROW MINDSET BULLETIN BOARD SET 

2) Implement or continue to PRAISE the positive things they do. 

Did you know that you need to praise a person 7 times to undo one insult you've said to them? It's true. Even if your students' love languages are not all words of affirmation, telling them that you believe in them and that they are going to do their best has a lasting effect on them. In this video, I talk about how I use Specific Praise in the classroom to grow my students' mathematical mindsets. 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD=> Growing a Mathematical Mindset "Specific Praise" Video

3) Let students TRY AGAIN to achieve personal success

Do all your students earn a 100% the first time they take a quiz or test in your classroom? No? Neither do mine. The easiest way for students to achieve 100% is to allow them to get there and guide them along the way. In this video, I talk about how to let your students retake quizzes and tests to achieve higher test grades and grow their mathematical mindsets. You can implement this in your classroom today and download the test retake guide CLICK HERE. 

It's a New Year. There are 365 more days that you can change. There are 365 more chances to help your students succeed. There are 365 more reasons to be your students' best teacher. Cheers to 2018!

Happy New Years!

Growth Mindset Bulletin Board, Pencil Toppers, & Posters

Do you want your students to have a growth mindset?

Are you looking for an easy way to introduce growth mindset?

This packet contains a Growth Mindset Bulletin Board set, Growth Mindset Pencil Topper Labels, The Power of Yet Posters, and The Power of Yet Bulletin Board set. The NO PREP Bulletin Board materials for you to display in your classroom or hallway at school that promote the Growth Mindset theme with the words "#Growth Mindset" and graphics that promote students' growth mindset statements. The NO PREP Bulletin Board Power of Yet materials include interactive post-its for your students to engage in growth mindset thinking. This display encourages students to expand their learning and grow their minds. The pencil toppers are a fun way to encourage students everyday with a growth mindset message on their pencil.

Click HERE to DOWNLOAD

Included in this packet are:
-Examples & Directions for 2 Bulletin Boards {Growth Mindset & Power of Yet}
-Pennant Style "#Growth Mindset" Sign
-3 different Growth Mindset phrases & 3 different Fixed Mindset phrases
-Interactive Post-it notes for students to make the Power of Yet Bulletin Board
-6 different Versions of the Power of Yet Posters
-7 different pencil topper phrases to promote Growth Mindset and encourage students to do their best!
-HIGH QUALITY graphics are included

Click HERE to DOWNLOAD

Click HERE to DOWNLOAD

Help your students develop their growth mindset early this school year. Use phrases that promote and encourage students to try their best. Watch your students rise to your expectations and do their best effort!

Happy Teaching!

Math Goals NO PREP Bulletin Board

Do you set Math Goals for your students to achieve?

Do you display student work that demonstrates hard work?

Do you want your students to achieve more?

Did you know that setting goals for your students increases their motivation?
"Giving people specific goals to achieve rather than telling them to do  their best increases their motivation." -Harvard
You can inspire your students with their own work displayed, and set goals for working hard toward achieving future goals.

Click HERE to download

This packet contains NO PREP Bulletin Board materials for you to display in your classroom or hallway at school that promote the Mathematical Mindset theme with the words "#Math Goals" and graphics that promote student work being displayed.

Included in this packet are:
-Examples of Bulletin Boards
-Pennant Style "#Math Goals" Sign
-3 different Versions of the Student Work Coming Soon Signs {plain, arrows, and dots}
-9 different Colors of the Student Work Coming Soon Signs {white, black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and pink}
-HIGH QUALITY graphics are included

Click HERE to download

Remember that goal setting is important at the beginning of the school year. Set the tone for achievement HIGH and your students will soar! Make sure to give them opportunities for being successful and displaying their hard work when it is appropriate. These are keys to developing a Mathematical Mindset and growing your students in becoming high achievers!

Happy Teaching!