My Students Have a Bad Case of Spring Fever and the Only Prescription is More Cowbell, Bells and Whistles!

      So today I thought I'd show you this substitute's best friend in the classroom . . . . .my cowbell! First off I wanted to let you know that I did not list this bell as important because of my Nebraskan roots! Contrary to popular belief, not all Nebraskans live on farms or grow corn. I would be lying to you if I said I wasn't tempted by the clever pun and SNL theme idea. However, this teacher loves her cowbell because it is a great attention getter! Every elementary classroom seems to have it's own class chants and cheers to focus the class. I think I'm preaching to the choir when I say that I, like many subs, have been known to get a little sick of the age old comment, "But my teacher says _______" or he or she does _________. If you are a substitute you are a substitute you probably find yourself struggling with the fact that you don't know how Mr. Super Teacher or Ms. Wonder Teacher does it! Instead, you know that you want to do things your own way!

      In my opinion, the answer to your problems is indeed the cowbell! I have found the cowbell to be a fantastic classroom management tool for a substitute. The best part about it is its versatility! 

      First off, the cowbell is great because as soon as you ring it, human nature is to turn your head and look to see where that annoying noise is coming from. The beauty of it is that ringing it gives you the kids' immediate attention without you having to learn a class chant, turn off the lights or teach the kids your own.
      Other times I use my cowbell to signal that the noise level is way to loud. When I use it that way, I typically mark what noise level I think our class needs to be at on the "Noise-O-Meter I created (featured below). I walk into any classroom I'm in and tape it up on the board right away as a sub. I talk about my expectations for the volume level before each activity on the board. I then mark where I think we as a class need to be throughout the day with a magnet. I move the magnet up if it is getting louder as a warning to the kids. If they don't cause it to go back down I ring my cowbell symbolizing that they need to try it again. I take one of the brownie points I talked about earlier in my blog down if I have to ring my bell or in some cases I take a point for me in my teacher versus class tally on the board.
       Now that I have been using my bell for a while, I've modified my system a bit. A friend of mine gave me this wonderful apple teacher bell that has a much more discrete ding if you will. If I have high expectation for no noise or something I'll ring that for transitions and so forth. I tell them that if you can't hear my bell, you are too loud! By now you have probably realized that I often times sub in open classrooms that make you much more aware of noise. You never want to be the sub with the loud wild class that the teacher next door could hear.
        Finally, I know you are all anxiously wondering what on earth I do with a train whistle. Honestly, I do whatever I feel like I want to do with it. You can never have to many bells! I have used it to signal transitions from centers, lining up or signaling time is up. Most importantly, it catches the kids off guard and makes them stop what they are doing and turn their eyes to me in emergency situations when a big disruption occurs or something. No one expects a sub to carry a train whistle. Also, it blows at different volumes so I don't have to blast it haha. Anyway, whatever you do, I encourage you to get some bells and whistles to jazz up your classroom. You always need more bells, whistles, drums and most importantly cowbell in my opinion! ( :

The products I mentioned are featured below!