Dear Miss Clare,

This is the first time in my teaching career that at least one section of language arts/English has not been on my schedule.  Mostly, I am really glad.  While I enjoy teaching certain aspects of language arts, there are other things about those classes that I don't like.  One thing that I miss terribly is having student response journals where we can write back and forth.  Students (like many of us) will say and reveal things on paper that they won't tell you otherwise.  It gives me such a great glimpse into their heads and allows me to get to know them in a new way.  This year I have decided that it doesn't really matter if I teach math- once per quarter they are going to take 10 minutes or so to write to me, and I will write back.  It's not quite the same, but at least it's something.  This past week I had some of my 6th graders write to me.  Many welcome the chance to write something where spelling and grammar don't count.  Some still see it as a chore.  And some really make me laugh.

I use a reward system in my class with raffle tickets.  Students are awarded raffle tickets through the month for doing various good things- helping a classmate, asking a good question, working as a team, doing a great job in a fire drill, doing something kind, or anything else positive that strikes me as worthy of a ticket.  The idea is to catch them being good and reinforce behaviors I want to see more of.  They don't get a ticket every time they do something good- I could never catch them all- nor do they get one if they ask or point out their good deed.  When you win a ticket you write your name on it and drop it into a jar for your class. At the end of the month, I draw out x number of tickets from the jar and those students win prizes- candy, gum, pencils, late HW passes, etc.  Apparently I have been a little slack in handing out raffle tickets lately, or so thought this student in his letter to me this week:

I love the illustrations especially.You can click on the picture to enlarge it if needed.