Oh my word...it's been one of THOSE days...

Holy cow!  Today was INSANE.  I swear, half of my class had to have been possessed by robots set on destruction!  It's absolutely jaw-dropping how nasty this group was to each other!  I heard a third grade boy using a word that completely appalled me.  Just the thought of them even knowing that word made my skin crawl, and they can't be kind to one another to save their lives right now...hence the creation of my Caught Being Kind incentive program.  I was at my wits end today, and that really takes A LOT.  One of the things that I am most proud of myself for is the patience that I have for the more challenging students that come my way.  I try to always be a glass half full person and look at it as the children that are the hardest to love are the ones that need it the most.  Today it was really difficult to keep that perspective.  I'm hoping that this will do just the trick.  I included an introduction for students and how getting caught for being kind works.  In a nutshell, students will be watching one another for acts of kindness.  When a student is spotted being kind, the spotter will fill out a form including the name of the person being kind, and what they were doing.  These forms will go into an envelope labeled "Out Class is Full of Kindness!"  I will go through the envelope each day and students who were spotted being kind will get an adorable birdie cut-out to put their name on and include on our classroom kindness bulletin board.  I'm hoping that they will jump on board the kindness train very quickly, and once they are back in the kindness groove we'll use it as an additional incentive.  Each Friday I will select two forms from the envelope and reward both the students who were being kind as well as the students who spotted them with a small prize like a pencil, sticker, notepad, etc. or a different reward like lunch with the teacher, additional computer time, or time to play their favorite game.  If this sounds like something you might be interested in you can check it out here.  Thank goodness vacation is right around the corner! =)