Board for Ninjas

*note* a large part of this have been removed due to potential student "googlers."

Last week, about 2 days before class began, I read about this cool "Ninja Board" idea from Jeff Brenneman over at "Trust Me - I'm a Math Teacher"

As you can see from my comments on his post, I was excited.

What I initially envisioned it could be used for:

• Building positive class culture
• Instill some fun into the class

What happened so far:
Great.  Awesome.  I went on to set it up.  The only tricky part was formatting.  I grabbed 2 chart papers, stuck this on top:

And so the first day went on without a hitch (I will try to make another blog post about what happened in the first week... too much to blog about!!!)

During the first period noone really asked about it.  No big deal -- their names aren't on there yet, and they barely know me.  The second class in my third period came, and 2 - 3 kids noticed right away and asked me about it.

"What is the Ninja Board?"

"Good question."  I said, and promptly walked away.

"What is the Ninja Board, sir?"

"That's a very good question."  I repeated, feeling a bit like a robot now, and smiled at the student who asked the question.

"You're not going to say anything, are you."

"Probably not."

Second day came, and I put up some names from each class on their respective Ninja Boards.

The font was actually a bit difficult to find.  I needed something that looks great, but still readable.  I settled on "Brushed," "brushtip-c," and "Levibrush."  (I don't have the specific link that I got them from anymore)

Finally some people from the first class asked about it.  I gave them the non-answer once again.

My second class started getting really curious towards the end of last week.

During a group work activity, one student came to me and asked:

"omg just tell me what it is, I'll give you anything you want."

"Anything?"

"yeah!"

"ok..." and everyone went silent in the room.

"It's a Ninja Board."

Some groans and giggles, and they went back to work.

What is yet to come:
On Monday, they will see that some students have these instead:

Along with the following "unlocked achievements"

And this is where I deviate a bit from what Jeff's doing in his class.  I think mine are a bit more geared towards positive classroom behaviour (didn't award points for asking about the ninja board, calling me evil...etc).  I also have the same unlocked achievement list in both classrooms.

**Content removed due to potential spoiling of Ninja Board for awesome student "googlers"*

Right now I have been taping these names onto the ninja board every day.  I think I am going to go out to construct something will be easier for replacement.  I will probably blog about that evolution later on.

*click here to see an update on the board*