A different kind of "report card" came home with my students last week: their brag tags. The kids in my class were SO excited to finally be able to take their collection of well-earned tags home.
Brag tags tell a story...a really positive one. When a child looks at his or her collection of tags, they can literally see the progress they've made, the great things they've done and the many goals they've accomplished right before their eyes.
Like the report card that comes home on Tuesday, there's work involved in preparing the brag tags. You'll need LOTS of ink, a laminator, some good scissors and a few other supplies. Oh, and you'll also need to be organized (it's no fun to get the same brag tag twice because your teacher didn't realize you already had it!).
I love watching my students flip through their tag collection and read their own story. At the beginning of the year, tags are given out daily to really build our community and bring everyone to a fairly consistent and common level of self-regulation. As the year progresses, they're given out a little less frequently and they're little harder to earn as expectations increase. But when you can celebrate virtually anything with a brag tag, and you have all your supplies in place, you can turn small victories for a child into really special moments that can change their life.
As parents read through their child's report card on Tuesday night, my hope is that they'll also flip through that massive collection of tags that came home last week. Both are a labor of love on my my end, and my hope is that the brag tags will always be a reminder of what a unique and incredible people my students are.
