With the beginning of the school year literally right around the corner, I've been combing through my Pinterest boards for a little beginning of the year inspiration. As I was scrolling through my PBIS board, I came across a pin about using a Mystery Walker. Ironically, one of my colleagues had mentioned this idea at our beginning of the year meeting as well and I thought about trying the idea again. If you're not familiar with Mystery Walker you can read about it here on What Happens in First Grade's blog. I've had varied success with the idea but my biggest issues are:
- remembering to pulling a chip,
- remembering where I set it down,
- or worse... leaving it in my pocket only to find it in the lint trap of my dryer on the weekend and then having to remember to bring it back to school. Ugh!
Then it dawned on me... I have an app that would work perfectly- Decide Now I downloaded this a couple of years ago just for fun but had since deleted it off my phone but VIOLA it's the perfect fit for this idea so I re-downloaded it. The app is basically a large Wheel of Fortune wheel complete with sound effects.
All I had to do was give my newly created wheel a title and insert my students' names. To pick a student I just need to touch or spin the wheel. You can also share your wheel via email or Twitter. I thought this would be a great motivator for my students as well. If they are the Mystery Walker and earn the bragging rights of having done a great job, they can tweet out the wheel with a message to their parents!
You could easily use this to randomly pick students for other things as well or program it with rewards or bonus points if you use Class DoJo. The ideas or limitless. Best part though... I don't usually make it a habit to put my iPhone through the wash, so no more chips in the lint trap!!
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