Free Printable Daily Work For 9/8/2015 4th and 5th Grade I haven’t thought about sharing our daily work with you all but decided someone out there might find use for it as well. These are a f…
Recognizing the work efforts of employees is important to keeping them happy and motivated. A message of appreciation is a great way to do so. Here are a few ideas of what you can say.
Thousands of teachers have used these tried and true GUARANTEED tups to stop students from blurting out. Chatty Class? YOU NEED TO READ THIS!
I had done a few different centers in the past, mostly with my upper grades, and not very well thought out. This year though, one of my personal goals was to incorporate centers in a way that was well-planned, gave students lots of ways to practice a concept, and gave me more than one way to assess students. I'll have another blog post coming soon about the centers I did, or you can see a video of them on my Facebook page. Today though I want to talk about how to prepare your students for centers in the music room. Before really diving in to centers this year, I talked to some classroom teachers to learn more about how centers worked in their rooms. Each person I talked to said, take the time to go over each center with the whole group before ever dividing the class for centers. Since I don't have as much time as a classroom teacher (my classes are 30 minutes and are back to back), I decided that instead of trying to cram it into the beginning of a class period and then starting centers that day, I would take a class period to discuss all my centers. So I'm going to share with you how that day went. Since this was my first time doing centers at my new school with these students, I had no idea how long it would take to explain all of the centers and how everything would work. I figured if I have lots of extra time, we will play some singing games that I pulled patterns from for these centers, but this actually took about 25 minutes with both of my classes. I brought my classes in and had them go to their assigned seats in front of the board. I said that we would be doing something kind of new in music the next few times we have class so I wanted to share with them about it today so that we could spend all of our time in centers the next two times. Instead of having all of the centers spread out around the perimeter of the room, which is where I put them when we were actually doing centers, I lined up all my centers at the front of the room under the board. On my computer, I had the zip file that contained all of the PDFs for each file pulled up so that as I was going through them with the whole group, if I wanted them to be able to see something better, I could show them the PDF version instead of the tiny cards I was holding for some of the centers. We walked through all of the centers in order. I read through the directions and we "played" each center one or two turns. For some centers I would have a small group of students come up and be the demonstration group as the class watched. I asked if there were any questions about each center before moving on to the next one. My students knew that they needed to ask any questions they had on this day so that they wouldn't come up asking me questions on the actual center days. The students were really interested and engaged the whole time. I think there was a little bit of mystery to it, like "OOO, I wonder what is going to be at the next center" or "I wonder what those manipulatives are going to be for" and that kept them really focused on what we were doing. Students asked good clarifying questions about the individual centers. They also asked about their groups. I have about 28 kids in each class and set up 8 centers. Most of my groups had 4 students in a group, some had 3. I assigned all groups by typing up a list. I emailed the list to their teacher and asked their teacher to line them up in that order (so the four students in group 1 are first, followed by group 2 and so on....) the next time they came to music. I also had her double check my groups to see if there would be any issues that I maybe hadn't foreseen. This was a really good idea because the next time they came to music, I met them in the hallway and they were all in the right order. I had the centers so that center 1 was closest to the door and then they went in a circle around the perimeter of the music room, so as the students followed me in, I basically dropped off four at a time in the order they were in at each center as we went around the room and I was with the last 3 or 4 students at the "teacher center", center 8. I didn't have to waist any time putting kids in order or reviewing directions for any of the centers. I had directions for each center posted at each center in case they forgot or were absent when we went over the centers, but there seemed to be no issues with students knowing what to do at each center. I only had one student come up to me the entire two days of doing centers and it was because of an issue with a group member, so I think that is pretty darn good for our first time! I hope this gives you maybe a new idea about how to prepare your students for centers so that they feel set up to succeed at each one without needing to ask questions during centers. I feel like taking that day to go over them at a relaxed pace, sending the centers groups to the teacher, and having students come to music on centers day already in order really helped everything to go smoothly. Do you have other ideas that I haven't thought of? Share below! Wanting to take the guesswork out of creating centers? Here are centers sets I've created and used with my classes:
Mouse tricks? Really? Isn't that a little below our technology know-how? That's what I thought too! Until I learn some new tech tips and tricks that made my life so much easier! Who knew a few mouse tips could save me so much time on my computer!
If you’ve ever thought about going into project management, you’ve probably heard that you need to get a certification. And if you’re planning to become a project manager without experience, it can be hard to choose between all the training options available on the market. The acronyms alone can be dizzying: PRINCE2, SCRUM, CAPM, PMP,
A collection of badass quotes to help build a fearsome positive attitude and make you relentless in working towards your goals and dreams.
In relational terms, repair is less about fixing what is broken and more about getting back on track.
One of the most important elements of teaching is providing students with plenty of opportunities to actively engage in learning with their peers. This blog post covers my favorite cooperative learning strategies that I have used in my classroom. These activities can be used across all subjects and several grade levels (3-6+). Bonus: I created […]
Filler Activities for ELA (blog post) What can you do with five extra minutes in secondary ELA? Here are a few ideas to engage students until the bell.
Step into the Best Practices in your ELA Classroom: Gallery Walk. Discover a new approach to learning with hands-on activities that encourage student engagement. This gallery walk model fosters interactive learning, critical thinking, and a collaborative classroom environment. Revolutionize your teaching approach with this innovative method.
Teach your students how to be a good friend with the book Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend and this FREEBIE (anchor chart and class book)!
feature art Emotion Sensation Wheel: A new kind of feeling wheel. A therapist-designed resource designed to help make connections between our brains and bodies. Unlike a traditional feelings wheel (first published in 1982 by Gloria
Sharing with you these 10 not-so-obvious quotes for teachers. These are the ones you haven't seen a million times on Pinterest!
Through the years I have had a few students with selective mutism. When I met my first student with S.M., I thought she was just very shy. For this post, I will call her Sally but that is not her real name. But, after a couple of weeks of school, it was clear that there was more going on that a case of shyness. That is when I asked for a meeting with Sally's parents to get their insight into what was happening. Her parents told me that she would only talk to the people in her immediate family and one neighbor. She wouldn't even speak to her grandparents or cousins. After observations and meetings with her pediatrician, counselor, speech pathologist, she was officially diagnosed as having selective mutism. Luckily, Sally's parents were very open to ideas and happy to try anything that we suggested. Sally's mom would send me something to school on a weekly basis. Sometimes it was a bag of cookies that Sally and her mom had baked together. Other times Sally's mom let her pick out a packet of stickers to donate to our class. Sally's job was to hand the item(s) to me. We set the following goals: 1st: Hand the item to the teacher without mom standing beside her. I said thank you but did not ask her any questions about the item. 2nd: Hand the item to the teacher while looking at the teacher. I said thank you but did not ask her any questions about the item. 3rd: Hand the item to the teacher and say you're welcome. I said thank you but did not ask her any questions about the item. 4th: Hand the item to the teacher while looking at the teacher and say you're welcome. I said thank you but did not ask her any questions about the item. 5th: Hand the item to the teacher while looking at the teacher and say you're welcome. Answer teacher's question with one word. I said thank you and then asked her a question that could be answered with one word - usually a yes/no question. 6th: Hand the item to the teacher while looking at the teacher and say you're welcome. Answer teacher's question with 2 or more words. I said thank you and then asked her a question that required a few more details. Once again, Sally's parents provided extra support to help her build relationships with her classmates. Sally and her mom loved to bake. Usually students only brought treats for their birthday. I gave her mom permission to send in treats more frequently. When Sally passed out the treats to her classmates, she was concentrating on the actual process of passing out, and less about her anxiety about communicating with her classmates. We set goals for this too. 1st: Pass out treats without teacher support. 2nd: Pass out treat and make eye contact with classmates. 3rd: Pass out treat, make eye contact with classmates, and smile when student says thank you. 4th: Pass out treat, make eye contact with classmates, and say you're welcome when classmate says thank you. Sally received weekly support from our school counselor. Our counselor let Sally choose a buddy come with her. She and the buddy played games in the counselor's office. In the beginning, Sally would only smile and shake her head for yes or no. But, over time she slowly began to whisper to the counselor and her buddy. I think it helped that there was only one buddy and they were in a quiet office so she felt more comfortable. By the end of the year, she was able to invite 3 buddies to go with her. As you can imagine she became very popular because she got to pick her buddy(ies). Word quickly spread that if Sally chose you, you got to go play games. Students wanted to sit by her at lunch and invited her to play games with them at recess. There are different reasons why a student may have S.M. Sometimes it is an anxiety issue. Click HERE to read more about this topic. Interested in reading more posts? Click on the pictures below.
Have you ever had a class with so many difficult, disruptive students that you felt that you could barely even teach? What can you do to get past it? In this post, I am going to address this problem with my best advice, and some advice from others as well.
Mary Cassatt's work focused on mothers and children, which is why kids will love learning about her with these simple Mary Cassatt Art Projects for Kids.
Most people use the term narcissist to describe individuals with self-centered behavior and exaggerated picture of their own worth...
Wondering how to organize a notebook for work? Learn how to organize notes in your notebook with these practical organization tips.
Want to make money working from home and online in Canada and the United States? These creative side hustles offer real ways to earn extra income fast!
14 cognitive behavioral therapy activities for kids to help little ones recognize their negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones.
Have you used the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy before? I love the HUGE lists of verbs associated with each level of thinking and it helps me when writing my plans, learning targets, and activities in my class. I made these posters a while back and was struggling this year with finding a place to put them. Then, I remembered my handy-dandy PDF print tutorial about shrinking posters (find more info HERE- for this size, I chose the 2x2 and Landscape options) and voila, usable posters for easy reference: I am loving these little guys- they are 1/4 the size and perfect for kids and teachers alike! We are really starting to dig deeper in our reading groups during the Teacher Time part of Daily 5 and these have come in very handy. I have added them to my bin of Teacher Time Tools and will often have the kids flip to a certain color (the levels are in the colors of the rainbow- red, orange, yellow, green, blue & purple) and generate questions and discussions for our small group based on the verbs listed. These were so much fun as we made our way through our book, Judy Moody! We created our own "Me Collages" when we finished reading (Creating), practiced writing summaries along the way (Understanding), and compared the character of Judy Moody at the beginning of the book with the end of the book (Analyzing). So easy to keep organized and purposeful with these! This packet includes each skill (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating) on a poster. Under the skill is a question to help give you and your students a big-picture idea of that level, then you can go further with the bullet list of verbs. Cute clip art from Scrappin' Doodles helps make it catchy for your kiddos :) I hope you can use them in your class! They are available in my TpT Store now! Do you and your students use Bloom's? I'd love to hear how- leave me a comment below!
You can work full-time outside the home and homeschool. 5 moms share practical tips on making working and homeschooling work for your family.
Having trouble staying productive at home? Here are 15 tips for working from home that will help you be more productive and stay motivated as your own boss.
This article will answer the questions- What are ruminating thoughts? Additionally, 10 tips will be outlined on how to stop ruminating thoughts. I recently stumbled upon a new song being played on the radio ALOT! The song was so good I had to download it. Once it was on my playlist, I hit the repeat…
Got a talkative class? Check out these 5 ways to quiet the chatter!
Got a talkative class? Check out these 5 ways to quiet the chatter!
Behavior calendars aren't the helpful classroom management tool that you might think. Check out this post to see what you should use instead!
Get this FREE Printable with 50 Random Acts of Kindness For Kids. All ideas are free & are simple enough for children to do on their own. Spread Kindness.
FREE Call Backs and attention getters for the kindergarten classroom! Great classroom management tool!
Hi all! The big day is Tuesday! That's my first day back with my little sweeties. I'm getting excited and nervous. Yeah, can you believe after all these years of teaching I still get excited and nervous! I'm starting again this year with 30 firsties and I'm sure it will increase. I guess I should be used to it but I don't think I ever will. I thought I'd share with everyone some little tools I print to have on hand when I'm working in guided reading with my kiddos. I print several copies and have a stack of each of these by my reading table so I can quickly grab some for my lessons. Let me start by telling you that I tell my firsties they are 'smart readers under construction'. We talk about what that means and I tell them I am going to help them in every way become a smart reader. I love the word 'smart' more than 'better'. It seems more positive to me. When I think of 'better', I think well maybe I'm not very good to start with and I want my kiddos the think of themselves as good reader and I'm just going to help them be smarter reader. The first is sorting pages. I have 2, 3, 4, and 5 way sort pages. I use these a ton of ways. I might have them list short vowel words, long & short vowels, word families, inflectional endings, root word and ending, suffixes, prefixes, characters and describing words, who & what, hard & soft c or g words, the list can go on and on. Sometimes I give the words, sometimes they find the words in their reading. You can use it with the low, middle and high kids. It's open to whatever you can think of to use it with. It's a fun, quick easy practice or assessment for your kiddos. I don't make them into a booklet because I want the kids to take them home so parents can see what we are doing. The next one is the character sheet. I use this one a lot especially after I've taught describing words. I can generally use this one at the beginning of the year with my high students too. Another one I use is Did You Know. This one is great for non-fiction books. These sheets don't have to be used only in guided reading. Sometimes I'll use them with the whole class like when I read Boxcar Children. We fill out a 4-way sort on the four characters and what we know about them. There are so many possibilities, just use your creativity. If you'd like a FREE download just click HERE. Oh and some super GOOD NEWS- I have a new grandson!! This is Elijah Ray Robison. Born August 15th. He was 10 lbs. 5 ounces. My daughter has BIG boys! I just LOVE all the dark soft hair! Thanks for stopping by. I hope everyone has a terrific week!
The best inspirational and motivational teamwork quotes for employees, groups, or life in general.
I love to start the year building classroom community with Peter H. Reynold’s books like The Dot and Ish. They are great read aloud books to begin a growth mindset activity. Both books are great for teaching kids that it is okay to take risks and make mistakes. Those books also go very well […]
This post contains affiliate links. One of the most popular posts on this blog is called Fair Isn’t Equal. In it I include a wonderful graphic that helps to illustrate the difference between the concepts of fairness and equality. Most people believe that “fairness means that everyone gets the same”; whereas in reality “fairness means that everyone gets what he or she needs.” Further, fairness is one of the most commonly used arguments against inclusion. “Teaching students of different abilities in the same class isn’t fair to those who can move at a quicker pace,” or “It’s not fair to hold back some students to prevent others from falling behind.” The best way to accommodate students of varying abilities in the same learning environment is through differentiated instruction; a methodology which enables students to progress at their own pace via activities that are developmentally appropriate. I also firmly believe in transparency. I think that the methodology and the premise behind it should be shared with students, enabling them to understand and support one another more fully. "The Band-Aid Activity" is not something that I created; but it is a successful way to help students understand the concept of fairness (versus equality) in a differentiated classroom. The Band-Aid Activity Distribute “injury cards” to students (index cards with various injuries listed one per card). Ask students, one at a time, to share their injury, giving each student a band-aid (regardless of the injury). If anyone complains or questions the band-aid, simply say that it would not be fair if everyone did not get the same thing. Questions for discussion: Was it equal that everyone got a Band-Aid? Was it fair that everyone got a Band-Aid? Why or why not? (Everyone getting the same thing wasn’t fair because it didn’t help most of the students. Sometimes students will do different things in class, but everyone is learning and getting what they need. It is important not to make anyone feel bad about doing something different.) Depending upon the age of the students: What other things in the classroom are our “injuries” like? What else can the Band-Aids be compared to? (The Band-Aids are like getting the help you need in class. When a teacher is working with a small group or individual student, interrupting or distracting them is like taking away the student’s Band-Aid.) **Variation: Give all but the last student a band-aid. Add in a discussion of how it felt to be the only one without a band aid. There can be other variations of the activity depending upon the age of the students, but this can certainly be used in a discussion format with middle school students and teens. And here is a terrific link to a blog explaining this lesson in action with young children. Do you have any great activities for teaching fairness? Sign up here to be sure you never miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
Looking to make big changes in your life and don't know where to start? In this article, I will give you a full breakdown tutorial on how to do a life audit. We'll go over the benefits and how it can completely transform your life for the better! First.... what is an audit? An audit
If you’re a Google Slides newbie, this is the post for you! As soon as I discovered Google Slides, I started creating with Google Slides. I loved the versatility of creating my resources right on the internet, and the quick and easy ability to share those resources with my students in Google Classroom. I also […]
Last week we talked about how to be consistent with your classroom management plan. Which is especially important to begin the school year. This alone will go a long way toward creating the learning environment you really want. Once you’ve conquered this challenge, however, ... Read more
Learn how to discover your inner child and start your inner child healing process. You'll also find 3 powerful inner child work exercises!
If you're a teacher and you've ever taught writing, I need not insert the thoughts that run through your head as you read a piece that you've worked on for 2 weeks only to get something that looks lik
Narcissists tend to get extremely angry and volatile, especially toward those they’re fighting with. Many people who are arguing with a narcissist cope by simply leaving the conversation or avoiding them. For others, they try to stick around and deescalate the argument. This can be extremely challenging but with time and
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a form of psychotherapy to help patients better identify and reframe negative thinking patterns.
