Just A Quickie

This week has been crazy! I did my student led conferences and will blog about that later this week. They went so great! I can't believe I haven't been doing them this whole time.
I am loving that it is Sunday and my house is quasi clean, my laundry is done, I have grocery shopped for the week, AND I still have today and tomorrow to just enjoy my days off.
Alright, now to get down to business here. I have a very wise instructional specialist who told me my first year of teaching that I only called on the kids whose hands were raised. I didn't even realize I was doing it!  I still do this accidentally, but to hold the kids accountable I have a few tips. 

Pick-a-Student Can:
I know a lot of us have these cans with the popsicle sticks in them. I had to label mine because I have two different classes.

Looks like these have seen better days! They get used a lot!

I also have a toilet paper tube in each one. I start off the day with all of the popsicle sticks in the center and as I call on the students I put them to the outside of the tube so I can control the probability a little bit. It works great!

Smart Board Spinner:
I am so fortunate to have a Smart Board and so I am able to use the spinner. The kids absolutely love this and it is so easy to create. I already have the tables numbered and then I number off the students according to their seats. If there aren't 4 to a table, then some students are assigned two numbers. This could easily be made into a spinner with the total number of students on it if you don't have tables.

Have a great rest of your 3 day weekend!