There are simple ways we can create a welcoming environment for ELs, and when ELs feel safe, they are more likely to learn and participate.
“READ WITH A PENCIL - Nice anchor chart to annotate and make sense of text http://t.co/fiq7NhcKQQ #edchat #plaea”
| Visual*~*Revolution
Tonight I'm enjoying the sound of wind chimes through the window as the winds shift and winter blows back in. It's cold outside, so I'm staying bundled up inside and checking in just long enough to share a bulletin board I made today, to complement a lesson I'll be starting tomorrow on friendship. And, before I unplug again, some reflections on friendship: Making and keeping friends is an important skill for children to learn. Not only are friends fun to have around, but healthy attachments are an important part of a child's experience in school. Children that can form friendships tend to adjust to the school experience better because they're more likely to develop self-esteem and build important social skills, like getting along, cooperating and problem-solving. Since students don't come to school with these skills neatly tucked away in their backpack, we must be modeling, teaching, and practicing them in our day-to-day interactions right alongside of and, dare I say it, woven into academic content. How do you help your children find friends that fit? Here are some goals that friends can work on as new relationship opportunities present themselves: *Cooperate and be kind to others. *Be willing to play fairly, take turns, and share. *Listen to others' ideas. *Apologize and forgive one another. *Express feelings appropriately. Use "I" statements to share how you're feeling and what you need from your friends. *Practice empathy to respond to friends' feelings in an understanding, helpful way. *Be honest and loyal to your friends. *Keep a positive attitude and hang out with friends who uplift you. *Show respect. Be the kind of friend that you would want to have. *Express gratitude and appreciation. Encourage your children to choose one of these goals at a time to work on as they learn how each one looks, sounds, and feels in their world at their age. Remember that how these goals play out will change slightly through the ages and stages. Talk with your child(ren) about the qualities that they look for in a friend. Ask questions like these: *How did you decide on those qualities? *What do you usually do to make a new friend? *What advice would you give a classmate who is having a hard time making friends? *Would you want to be your friend? Why or why not? *What qualities do you have to offer to someone that might make you a good-fit friend? To enrich the discussion, have students trace their hands onto a paper, left on one side, right on the other. On the right hand, have them write five strengths that they bring to a friendship. On the other hand, have them write five areas for growth, things that they could do better in their friendships. If you don't have access to paper-pen supplies, partners can put their hands together as if they're giving a high-five and take the Five Finger Friendship Challenge aloud. Finally, check out these resources for additional friendship tips: 1. Do Kids Need Friends? 2. The Art of Boosting Your Child's Friendship Skills 3. Fostering Friendships
Anger is probably the #1 issue the kids I work with deal with. In this post you will find many great links, worksheets, and resources for addressing anger in children of all ages. One of my favorit…
Looking for 3rd grade anchor charts? We put together some of our favorites to use in your third grade classroom this year!
Every English language arts teacher needs a variety of successful, student led discussion strategies that will provide opportunities for student learning.
We use tools in our classroom that help encourage our students' thinking -- but are you making their thinking visible? We use anchor charts and other strategies, but are you doing all of these? There's one way to find out!
Here you learn how to use German Slang correctly…
Book Clapingo trial and get INR 4000 worth courses on leadership and cracking job interviews.
This is the second sheet in our series of matchstick puzzles. These are a bit more challenging so we qualify them as intermediate. Great for stiumulating lateral thinking.
This THINK acronym and infographic helps us communicate more kindly with others. Originally the THINK acronym was created to help reduce online bullying
English Classroom Language For Students: +100 Classroom Phrases Classroom Language In our daily lives, there are speech languages that are formed according to the place and the people. For example, you cannot talk to a teacher as you do to a friend, and you cannot talk to a friend as you do to a teacher. There is also a stereotyped class language. For classroom objects and classroom phrases examples; Here are some phrases about classroom language; Good morning Good morning, everybody. Good afternoon, everybody. Hello, everyone. How are you? How are you today? How are you getting on? How’s
“We hear the terms ‘formative’ and ‘summative’ assessments all the time in schools. As educators, we learned about the differences while in college in our educati…
I want to share a template that we use for performing user testing sessions. And also an example of the template being used in a project.
I'm so glad to be linking up with my friends Ashley and Angie to share what our schedule looks like and how our day runs. I try to keep our schedule pretty consistent because it helps our class run smoothly. Every morning, students come in take out their journal and answer the prompt on the […]
It seems like every day there is an endless stream of students reporting behaviors or incidents that happen in the classroom. On one hand, we want to help our students feel heard and validated so they know we are a safe person for them to talk to. On the other hand, we certainly don't want to feed into the tattle machine. It's a fine line to walk. So how do we handle tattling in our classrooms?
After publishing my landforms interactive pack this past week, many of you have said you weren't sure which of the landforms are which. So, I took a moment to
In our classroom we have been learning all about prepositions. I usually hate teaching grammar, but these hands-on reading units have made it so much more fun! Pinterest I started off by introducing prepositions with a song… These songs were PERFECT!! If you play them, be prepared for a classroom of little singers that will […]
My 15-Minute Music Lesson Freebies are some of the most popular here at Music in Our Homeschool. See links to all of them here.
These are my favorite activities for French class - Practice French vocabulary, verb conjugation, and grammar with these engaging activities.
Back when I was a student, there is only one vocabulary activity I can ever remember doing in class or for homework. It was looking up the word in the dictionary, writing the definition, and using the word in a sentence. I can recall this assignment itself (probably because of the sheer number of times I had to do it), but ask me how many of those actual words I am able to remember. Couldn’t tell you a single one, to be honest!
This blog post contains a growing list of a variety of resources French Immersion and Core French teachers can use in their classrooms. The purpose of this blog post is to ensure that we have a variety of resources that put francophone black voices, experiences and perspectives at the front and center.
I am not a scientist. I'm a regular teacher who does regular teacher-y things. Like taking classes to learn to be a better teacher, and reading articles, books and blogs. The only thing that I am an expert on is what works in my own classroom. That's it. I've spent years figuring this out. No one knows this better than I do. This is because: I have made it my goal to try to teach the way kids learn. This means taking the time to figure our how their brains work! So here is my list of 11 Rules for Engaging Students' Brains. I'm printing it out and keeping it close while I teach, because I need constant reminding! (That's the way MY brain works.) I hope it can help you, as well. You can download these FREE posters from TpT by clicking HERE. Happy Teaching,
I have a daughter who does not have what Carol Dweck calls growth mindset. So I'm implementing specific parenting strategies to help her develop it.
Science gets REALLY interesting in 4th grade. Bones, cells, digestion, animals and more are featured here in our 4th Grade Science Worksheets. Are you ready to learn? There’s no more fun way than with worksheets. Print them all for free. 4th Grade Science Worksheets
Are your Algebra 2 students struggling with polynomials and polynomial long division? There is a free PDF cheat sheet in this post that can be downloaded, printed and given to students for their notebooks. The sheet can also be enlarged for a math word wall.
As the table below illustrates, a person who is highly emotionally intelligent will tend to exhibit more of the strengths commonly associated with that DISC style, whereas as person low in emotional intelligence will tend to exhibit more of the shortcomings.
Our guest blogger shares her tips about how to make time for vocabulary instruction and how to make vocabulary instruction engaging for your students!
Students are expected to come to every art class with a PENCIL & ERASER. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR ART PROGRAM Even though we do not have an art studio this claymation…
Summarizing is one of the hardest strategies to teach and for students to learn. Many students will retell the text ... almost word for word when asked to give a summary. In order for students to learn the difference between a retelling and a summary, teachers must model, model, model summarizing often. According to Dr. Jan Richardson, when we ask our students to summarize they ... write too much or not enough do not capture the most important ideas copy word for word from the text do not understand the vocabulary "brief" do not know the difference between a retelling and a summary A summary is a higher level response than a retelling ... in a retell, students retell as much as they can recall from the text but in a summary they have to synthesize the text and condense it so that they only highlight the key points using key words and phrases from the text. The Somebody-Wanted-But-So (SWBS) format is a great scaffold for guiding students to give a summary NOT a retell. In K-2 classrooms we can help our young readers learn how to summarize by using the SBWS strategy. Since I am not "in the classroom" anymore ... I decided to check out what other teachers are doing to teach summarizing ...particularly with using the Somebody-Wanted-But-So strategy. The key to success for young readers to grasp summarizing and the SWBS strategy is modeling how to use this strategy. Do this during whole group read aloud lessons and modeled, shared or interactive writing events. Here is an example of how The First Grade Buddies built a chart over several days during read aloud time. Here is another example of charting during read aloud time to teach the SBWS strategy from Life in First Grade. Here is a chart that is ready made and can be used over and over from The Pinspired Teacher. Here is a chart ready for whole group modeling... the teacher has it all planned out on the little sheet on top of the book and ready to fill it in with the students. She switched the position of the So and Then ... (this is ok if it fits with a particular book) and she added the word Summary at the bottom so that the students could learn the next layer ... writing their thoughts into complete sentences. I would take of the part that says "retell". This pic was grabbed from Pinterest and there was not a link to the original creator. Another key to success is making the strategy your own... it is ok to change it up to meet the needs of your students. Some teachers have added the T... "Then" to the framework. I have also seen where the B stood for because ... Somebody-Wanted-Because-So. This pic was grabbed from Fabulous Fourth Grade This pic was grabbed from The Brown Bag Teacher The chart below is a great anchor chart however, I would take off the right hand corner that says to "retell" this is where some confusions may occur when teaching summarizing. Students need to know the difference between the two. This pic was grabbed from Pinterest and there was not a link to the original creator. Once we have taken the time to model how to use the strategy during our whole class lessons, we can support our readers by having them apply what they have learned with our support during guided reading and then on their own during work station/center time or independent reading time. Model-Support-Independent = gradual release of responsibility!!! Here is a foldable activity from A Teacher's Treasure that students can use during centers ... this could be the model ... they can take the precut paper and label it themselves. I like to use a variety of sheets during guided reading and literacy stations. Click on the picture below to find differentiated SWBS foldables and organizers. This resource includes other organizers too! Happy Reading,
Subscribe to the Teach 4 the Heart Podcast.Cheating seems to be such a prevalent problem in our schools today. And it doesn't matter what type of school it is - public, private, Christian - it's something that's happening. And it's probably happening in your classroom.Don't think anyone's cheating
The words and language that we use as both educators and parents to talk about the children in our lives, be it our own children or students, has an impact on how we relate to them, care for them, and even the interventions we choose to use with them...We can use choose to use language that is probl...
I love review games in my US History class! Who doesn't enjoy their students reviewing content? Here's how you can play Jenga in your history classroom.
Are your Algebra 2 students struggling with polynomials and polynomial long division? There is a free PDF cheat sheet in this post that can be downloaded, printed and given to students for their notebooks. The sheet can also be enlarged for a math word wall.
I have really enjoyed chatting with teachers on Twitter lately about DOK (Depth of Knowledge) levels. Part of what I teach in my college class to
“Hey kids, it’s time to practice our new vocabulary words.” Can you hear the moans and groans?Practicing vocabulary is boring (according to kids) but when you add in dice, it becomes a game! I call it Roll a Word! It’s easy peasy to implement! For each vocabulary students roll a die. The number they […]
As the arts lose more and more of a hold in education, it becomes increasingly important for teachers to find ways to integrate the arts in their classes.
