I’m back with my third and final post about Brag Tags or Braggin Badges…for now anyway 🙂 This time I’m talking about how I squeeze Brag Tags into an already busy schedule. We’ve already talked about how to get them started and organizing them in my two previous posts. So now that you’ve made them and organized them, how do you find the time to actually hand them o
Personally, I like to hand them out every Friday. I think daily would be too much of a hassle to fit in but if you have a time daily that you could do it, I say “Go for it!” because I do believe the sooner the better. You definitely don’t want to wait too long that the students forget what they actually did. I’ve done a few things in mys classroom to help streamline the process on Fridays so we don’t waste too much time on this. The first things I do its collect data all week.Collecting Data
I keep a pad that is dedicated to Braggin Badges on my desk for easy access. Whenever I see a students displaying a behavior that I’d like to encourage, I write down their name, which tags I’d like to give them, and a note about what they did to earn it. Then when Friday comes, I use my notes to help hand out the Braggin Badges. I also think it’s a good reminder to all students to know exactly how they and their classmates earned the tags. This will help with encouraging students to continue to earn their own tags.
Brag Tag Friday
Friday morning, I take my list and go to my organizer and grab the tags I will need later in the day. I label each tag with students numbers to make the actual time I hand them out shorter. Another reason, I like to put students’ numbers on the back of the tag just in case they drop or lose it. Also, that helps to keep them organized if they end up on the wrong hook. I have had kids lose theirs and then steal someones else’s. So, this helps with that too.
I call each student up to receive their tag and we acknowledge and recognize them. Then they must put their tags on themselves or get a friend to help. Once all tags have been handed out students either wear them or place the back on their hook.This whole process takes less than 10 minutes from our classroom time and students LOVE collecting their tags. It has helped so much with homework, attendance, behavior, academics, character education, etc. I just love Braggin Badges.
Variations
You will also see in my pictures that there are beads also on their chains. The beads can be used for any variety of things you’d like to encourage. My school has a big push for AR so my students can earn beads for 100% on an AR test. They can grab those beads throughout the week and add them to their chains as they see fit.
Some other ideas for using the beads:
- 100% on tests or quizzes
- Use the different colors for different genres of books
- You can use the different colors to represent standards the students have mastered
- Use the different colors to represent passing of each number of multiplication facts
I’d love to hear if you have any other ideas that you use the beads for! Leave a comment if you have some awesome ideas I could add about using Brag Tags in the classroom to motivate and encourage!
Thanks for stopping by! If you have read Part 1 and Part 2 about Brag Tags yet, check them out here: how to get them started and organizing them.I have many sets of Braggin Badges or Brag Tags available for purchase in my TpT store if you like the ones in my pictures.
I have them available in the following categories:
Get the close reading freebie!
How do you introduce them to the students so that they are excited about them? I am always worried they will want some kind of extra incentive for earning so many. I am in college – graduating in May. I love this idea but I need to be able to start it out the right way.