Sparking Student Motivation- 1 minute recaps

Greetings from a snowy and cold New York!  I am tucked away in my warm house thinking about spring and warm things!  I was blessed with a snow day yesterday!  It was so nice to be able to stay home, catch up on some blog reading, take down Christmas decorations and watch some TV.  It was wonderful!  We did go back to school on Thursday, which made for a one day work week!  It was hard going back, but nice to get into the rhythm of school again!

Today, I am linking up with the fabulous blogger Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching for her Sparking Student Motivation.

Whenever we come back from a long break, my students always want to tell me everything they did.  I decided a few years ago to give my students time to tell the whole class what they did!  I call it One-Minute Recaps!  I give each student one minute to tell the class anything they want!  I usually choose a stick with their name on it and then set the timer.  Sometimes we will do it during morning meetings or we will do it when we have a few minutes throughout the day.  Most students will take the whole time, but some do not.  I don't pressure the kids to do it, but most of the time they want to talk!  I make sure the other students are sitting quietly and they are not aloud to interrupt whoever is speaking.  I also give a one-minute recap, which the students find exciting!  They even told me I could go over the minute when the timer rang!

I am also part of an awesome giveaway with Erin at Learning to Be Awesome!  She has three different giveaways going on through January 13th!  Check it out and enter!

You should also check out Joanne & Holly's  awesome giveaway!  They have new prizes each day!

Have a great rest of your day!