#MTBoSYuleBlog - A Success Story

 

A Success Story from 2021...

It only took me 23 years of teaching, but I have FINALLY found a way to recognize student birthdays that isn't really difficult for me!

For years, I've been secretly jealous of those teachers who could keep up with a birthday bulletin board or some other method to recognize student birthdays, but I've just never been that person - until now!

This summer, I had found these "positive affirmation" pencils in the Target Dollar Spot and bought 15 packs with the idea of hopefully doing birthday pencils (and hopefully not failing like every previous time I had tried to do birthday things!)

As part of one of this summer's #Made4Math posts, I made these little flags with some free clipart and a cute font and printed them on colored paper.  

Then, I set about to make this user friendly - I printed off enough flags to make it through the semester and cut them out.  I put the supplies in a "Birthday Pencil" tub right inside my closet and I printed off a monthly calendar.  Just before school started, I went through and wrote every student's name on the calendar on their birthday.  This calendar is on my desk in a clear folder so I can see the current month at all times.  Having everything ready to go was key to making this work for me.

Each Friday afternoon, I get my birthday pencil tub out of my closet where I have all of the pencils and pre-cut flags stored and I make the following week's pencils (and right now, the half-birthday pencils too for my summer birthdays).  On the back of the flag, I write the student's name, a Happy Birthday greeting, the date of their birthday / half-birthday, and the hour they are in and stack them on top of the calendar in order of the week.  That way, they are always on my desk as a visual reminder to give them out.

Overall, the kids have loved getting a little gift on their birthday and it's been a super easy way to show the kiddos that I care about them.