Noise level: Pin drop

During the portion of my lesson when I model the skill for my students, I always say that the noise level should be "pin drop," meaning the class is so quiet that we can hear a pin drop. When I was explaining the noise level to my students, I took a pin and dropped it on the floor to see if we could hear it. I actually kept the red pushpin I used on the top right corner of my bulletin board, and when my students see me start to reach for it, they know they're being too noisy and need to quiet down (otherwise, I'll take a minute from their Time Bank which they use to earn things like bathroom passes, music of their choice played during work time, 5 min. of social time at the end of the day, homework passes, etc.).

Today, for extra credit on their assignment, I asked students to suggest a name for our red pushpin and I got the cutest/wittiest/funniest suggestions:

1. lil red one
2. Bob (short for Bobby Pin)
3. Herbie the Pin
4. Pinny
5. Pinelope <---cute!!!
6. Pushy
7. Mini Me (aka Mini Ms. S.) <---kind of creepy, but cool nonetheless
8. Drake (like Sir Francis Drake) <---super clever
9. Mr. Sapida <---my favorite :D
10. SLANT (this is an inside joke with my class which I might explain in a later post)
11. Ms. S #2

So what do you think? Help me vote for a name for our new little class pet!