New Year's Ideas, Resources and A Giveaway!


If you are looking for some New Year ideas for your Middle School classroom, then this post is for you complete with TWO linkies and a Giveaway!!

First up are 3 pins that I found to help me start my new year off at school right!



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I want to tweak my behavior system by combining it with progress towards goals.  Since behavior directly impacts learning, the idea of a "Super Improvers Wall" seems like a perfect fit!  Students earn their way up the ranks based on their progress on the standards.  At each level, students earn certain privileges.  The privileges are yet to be determined for the upper ranks as I want to include my students in that part of the decision making for "buy in".



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Since we are going to be earning our way up the ranks based on our progress on the standards, I thought this was a perfect fit!  Now students can see what they need to do to move on up!



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My New Year's resolution is to get more organized and pencils in my classroom are definitely a part of that!  This little idea is to number the pencils and assign a number to each student desk.  At the end of the week, students who still have their pencil, earn a reward.  I am so trying this when we get back!

Check out some more ideas below in the link-ups!  There are actually two this time...the first one is for the best Pinterest pins and the second one is specifically for Middle School New Year resources!

For the second linky, I'm sharing my idea for a twist on goal setting.  Having goals is sooooo important but making them "do-able" has to be part of it!  Too many times I have seen the goal "Get good grades" with no plan of action behind it despite my efforts.  Not this year!

Get your FREE copy of this resource by clicking HERE!


My students will work in pairs to sort the goal "cards" into "General" and "Specific" categories.  Then they will pair up the general goals with the matching specific goals.  



After a short discussion of the correct matches, then students will choose a goal from the activity (or from their own ideas) and record it using the same level of specificity which they just worked on a piece of "toast".  Finally I hang up the toast as a reminder to the students of what they are working for.



Get some more New Years ideas below and then enter the Giveaway too!







Lit with Lyns - Argumentative Writing Process & Task Cards
EB Academic Camps - New Year's Unit & Activities for Middle School
Caffeine and Lesson Plans - PROBE Notebook: A Creative Yearlong ELA Research Project
Just Add Students - Poetry Analysis - "A Day" by Emily Dickinson
Raising Rigor and Readers - Winter Reading and Writing Activities
Anchored in Reading - ELA Text Dependent Analysis Questions - Author's Craft Task Cards
Teach Inspire Change - Student Behavior & Parent Communications Binder
Mrs. Spangler in the Middle - The Giver Reading Comprehension Games - Four in All!
Tori Gorosave: A Middle School English Teacher's Journey - Expository Close Reading: The History of New Year's
Edison Education - Multiplying and Dividing Integers
Koch's Odds 'N Ends - Student Worksheet for Self-Review / Analysis of Test Results
The Marvelous Middle - Looking Back Looking Forward New Year's Activity

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