Ok, I’m frustrated. There is nothing more aggravating when kids just sit at their desks because they don’t understand a word. Nope, instead of bothering to look in their notes, they would rather do nothing. And you would they would realize that I’m not going to tell them the word. They know my response is going to by “Look in your notes.” and yet day after day it continues. Today, I typed up the following sign and enlarged it on our poster marker to hang it up in the classroom. It’s on bright pink paper…. they probably won’t even notice it, but at least now I can just point to it, rather them wasting more breath.
Click on the pictures and print your own.
SpanishPlans.org 
I think about this all the time! Especially today! “Okay, so what are we doing?” seemed to be the catchphrase of the day. I feel like I am always saying, “Everything you need is in your Spanish binder. You can also look it up in the dictionary.” [In case it’s a word]. I was thinking about a Swear Jar for next year. Haven’t really worked out all of the details.
Thank you so much for this idea! It is April and I still have students sitting with nothing on their desk but their folded hands. I have repeated this many times but now I will use the sign. Thanks again for a very useful idea!
Drives me crazy too! We create packets for each unit we cover, so their notes are all in one place. However, they have to remember to use their notes in order to make them useful. 😉
Great idea! We are working in this with our 7th graders big time. Had a student sit through half a lesson doing nothin and when my student teacher checked in with him the big problem was that he didn’t get a whiteboard pen when she passed them out. Oh buddy, solve the problem!!
Love it! One of these days students will learn to help themselves. 🙂 Although… hopefully they take good notes-maybe it is not in their notes! LOL!
Too funny! Thanks for sharing 🙂