Student of the Day

One of the ideas in the Tools & Toys book is called Student of the Day. In a nutshell, it's an award given out at the end of the day to a student for some notweworthy behavior. During the recognition process, the student is given both a small certificate--which goes home to the folks--and a trophy--which sits on his desk the next day.

Here's how one teacher does it in her room.

Teacher TipSycamore, the award bear

Last summer, I took my two daughters to Build A Bear Workshop at Downtown Disney. (My son got a toy from the Lego Store.) We three girls each built a bear....mine was the new Autumn Bear (my all time favorite season) complete with an autumn leaf on his paw. His fur is yellow, orange, red and white. Quite beautiful autumn colors. I named him Sycamore.

When school started, I explained to my students that I would choose one student each day to be the student of the day. In addition to receiving an award to go home to share with their parents, they would get the honor of having Sycamore sit on their desk the ENTIRE day of school! At first I thought my second grade boys might think it was a little silly, but I can honestly tell you the boys enjoy it as much, if not more, than the girls!

While the kids are lining up to go home, I announce who the student of the day will be for tomorrow and why. The current student then carefully brings over Sycamore to the new student of the day's desk. They invented that routine.

I love it!

Debra Simmons

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