The House Cup

Today I worked on a Classroom Management project...The House Cup. Everyone who knows me knows what a huge Harry Potter nerd I am. However, I know that not all my students will be fans...and if my students are anything like my daughter, they may detest Harry Potter (or at least the fantasy genre). I had read something about how Ron Clark sorts his students at the Ron Clark Academy into houses. This is a great way to establish teams, complete team building assignments and work towards a common goal (winning the House Cup!). If you're doing Cooperative Learning - it is VITAL you are doing Team Building. Otherwise, kids are going to fall through the cracks.

What I decided to do for the House Cup was create some house names based on Latin phrases. I created the following table to flesh out the house concepts:

House Name	Latin Phrase	Meaning	House Information
Fortuna	Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat	Fortune favors the bold	Colors: Yellow and Black Animal: Lion Symbol: Star Qualities: Labor, Protection, Victory
Magistra	Historia Vitae Magistra	History, the teacher of life	Colors: Blue and Gold Animal: Eagle Symbol: Chalice Qualities:Intelligence, Peace and Prudence
Paratus	In Omnia Paratus	Ready for anything	Colors: Purple and Black Animal: Dragon Symbol: Horn Qualities:Enthusiasm, Vigilance, Merit
Omnia	Labor Omnia Vincit	Hard work conquers all	Colors: Green, Silver and Orange Animal: Griffon Symbol: Scroll Qualities: Valiant, Hopeful, Hardworking
Tenaci	Nulla Tenaci Invia Est Via	For the tenacious, no road is impassible	Colors: Red, Silver and Black Animal: Ram Symbol: Rose Qualities: Bravery, Perserverance, Fair

Each house has it's own Coat-of-Arms that I created for free here.

When I implement the system, I will choose heterogeneous groups ahead of time - but the kids will think it is a random process. I am planning to use a Powerpoint with voice overs that create the experience of the hat "talking" out loud during the sorting ceremony. I don't want to do a witch hat as I'm trying to distance the process a bit from the Harry Potter world. I was trying to find a good scholarly cap. I'm considering a graduation cap OR trying to find an epic Guinan Hat (Whoopi Goldberg's character on Star Trek: the Next Generation).

Wouldn't THAT be amazing? My second choice for a sorting hat is my uber-fabulous Jayne hat from Firefly. I've knitted a few of these...

And yes, that is my adorable husband modeling his Jayne hat. Maybe I could make one with stripes in all the house colors? Hmmmm.....

I'm pretty excited about the sorting ceremony! I plan to decorate, serve treats, and make it a special occasion. Initially, I will also assign one prefect to each house. The prefect will be the group representative and have certain jobs. Each week another student will get to be the prefect. I've read that some teachers have the students vote on the prefects but I don't know if I love that. I'll have to think it over based on my kiddos, I guess.

The prefect for each house will be announced first and will be given some supplies and treats that are themed for each house as additional students get sorted in. This way the prefect can welcome the new students in, give them something tangible, and in general make the experience more exciting (think Sorority Bid Day). I will encourage cheering and high fives, etc. by modeling this behavior.

Maybe we can play some Pharrell tunes, too. :)

The Behavior Management piece is that once the kids are sorted, House Points will be awarded throughout the day when students are producing positive behaviors. Points can also be taken away. My plan is to award weekly prizes for class points but then also have a bigger House Cup prize quarterly and for the overall semester. I'm thinking about doing jars for each house and using marbles in the jars to represent the points.

Once I implement the system I will post it in my store on Teachers Pay Teachers. I want to work out the kinks first. I can't wait to get my classroom and begin my House Cup contest!