Are you new to interactive note taking? This post shares everything you need to know about how to use interactive notebooks.

Get your students to respect you with these 4 strategies that can be used for teachers at all levels and ranges. This keep you teaching in your classroom.

What’s one thing I can do for student behavior that I can see almost an immediate response? Incorporating quick and easy preventive strategies into your

Learn the systems I use to make organizing project based learning (PBL) simple and effective. This includes my awesome learning wall!

So I think that this year I am going to use music for transitions in my classroom. I have found several online alarm clocks that use Youtube videos, so the possibilities are endless! Online Alarm Clock #1 Online Alarm Clock #2 To begin class I figure that I will set one alarm when we begin our bell ringer. Students will know that once the song ends, there bell ringer better be done! I've decided that I am going to use my last name to my advantage and use the Harry Potter score as my bell ringer music because it is approximately five minutes long. I also think that since it is a film score without lyrics it will not be distracting as the students work. (Added bonus it will get the kids feeling like hers before class starts!) A few other good options for an opening class song: Pirates of the Caribbean Jurassic Park Harry Potter My Heart Will go on Instrumental Moving groups Because I have the students break out into learning groups so often and/or switch desks to different stations, I needed some short songs for transition. I figure that theme songs would be a great tool for this time! Some options for short theme songs for transitions: Bill Nye the Science Guy Fuller House The Real Ghostbusters Cartoon Duck Tales Alvin and the Chipmunks Exit Tickets During exit ticket time I would like to have another instrumental piece to play so students know how long they have. I found these great violinists on Youtube that cover current popular songs and I think they would be perfect for this time! Rhett Price Daniel Jung Ending Class During the last 2 or so minutes of class when students are picking up or packing up, I thought this would be a good time to have some educational songs so that the time is not wasted. Flocabulary Songs Tour the United States The 44 Presidents Tour the world (this would take two days) School House Rock Videos! I am super excited about using music transitions in my classroom this year. Have any of you used music as a transition piece before? If so, what did you use and how did it go?

Time to get APPy friends! Today I am sharing a technology tool that is not quite an app. However, you can press the sharrow and add to home screen to create an app for it. The tool of choice is called, PADLET. Think of an online bulletin board. Instead of students posting sticky notes on a wall, they can post on a virtual wall. At this time, my students are writing expository pieces. I wanted to make sure the kids truly understood what an expository piece was. The class was asked to post what they wanted their topic to be, and after the OK from me, they could begin. This was great for the kids that didn’t understand because it allowed me to provide a refresher for them. This Padlet asked a STAAR-based question from a former STAAR passage. Kids input their responses as if it were an open-ended question. We then analyzed our answers with the answer choices provided. Teaching grammar? Grammar lessons can tie in very nicely with a Padlet. You could integrate this into a KWL chart for not just grammar, but famous people in social studies, science concepts, and much more. We recently ended out geometry unit, and this […]

Learn how to set yearlong plans, plan for a unit and daily topics, and create lessons plans.

How is school already around the corner? Summer has seriously flown by. I love having the kids at home, having no type of schedule and hanging out at the water park all week. However, I'm ready for a little more consistency in our life. I think my kids are ready for it as well. I

Check out these great lab organization tips written by another great science teacher-author, Liezel Pienaar! I have spent most of my 16 years in the classroom as the only Science teacher at a school. Yes, me, myself and I being the whole Biology, Chemistry and Physics departments! Throw in some Maths and Geography […]

Inside: A peek into dozens of Spanish classrooms, of all kinds, shapes, and sizes! A well-designed room won’t make or break your teaching. Oh, but it can make a difference in how you and your students feel. Some of you have very limited options, and very tight budgets. There’s some serious classroom eye-candy here, but the

Note: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links, I will receive a small compensation at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support! My district adopted Wonders reading curriculum this year. There are so many components! Leveled readers, decodable readers, vocabulary cards, high frequency cards, interactive readaloud cards...as I opened box after box, I quickly became overwhelmed with the idea of keeping it all organized and easily accessible. Now that we are a quarter of the way into the school year, I have perfected an organizational system that really works for me, and makes my weekly prep a breeze. I'm sharing it here in hopes that it will help someone else who is overwhelmed with the task of organizing all of these materials. Since there are six units, I went with a rainbow color-coded system. This goes well with my classroom decor, and, if you've read my blog before, you know I'm a bit of a nerd with my color coding (see my first grade classroom reveal post and my Pre-K organizational post). You can easily use this system without color-coding, however! It would work just as well with a uniform color scheme, as long as everything is labeled. EDITABLE binder covers and spines found here! I purchased three-ring binders and cubby bins in the six colors I was using. I found the binders at Target, and the cubby bins (with the exception of orange) here on Amazon. Confession: I really, really wanted orange cubby bins that matched the rest of my set, and the only ones I could find on Amazon were transparent. I finally ordered these directly from the Storex website. They were super pricey compared to the others, but I haven't regretted it. In fact, it makes my teacher-heart happy every time I look at my shelves. I told you, I'm a nerd when it comes to color coding. I divided up all of the leveled readers and decodable readers by unit, and then put them into the cubby bins in order by week. I used these EDITABLE blank labels to make them pretty! It took a bit of time initially, but now they are ready to go for small groups for the entire school year. Bonus: the ESOL teacher who comes in to support some of my kids knows exactly where to find them, and I don't have to remember to set them out for her each day. The real time-saver is my binder system. It took quite a while to set up, but now it's done--forever! I have one binder for each unit, which has tabs inside for each of the five weeks in the unit. Behind each tabbed page is a page protector. I divided all of the materials by week--the high frequency word cards, the visual high frequency word cards, the vocabulary and oral vocabulary cards, the small group cards--and placed them inside the page protector. Now, when I'm planning, I just flip to the tab that has the upcoming week's materials, pull everything out, and put it in my rainbow drawer unit, with the exception of the small group cards. Those go into the bin with the readers so my small groups are literally grab and go. I put the interactive readaloud cards for the week on top of the unit, as they are too large for the drawers. So fast and easy! When the week is over, I slide everything back into the page protector and then flip to the next page. I love not having to dig through cards every week! My only problem is that the interactive readaloud cards are so big, they don't fit in my drawers or my binders. It's not a big deal, however, as I keep them in a box with a few of the other resources, such as the large letter-sound cards. I keep the interactive readalouds in order by week, so at the end of the week I put the ones I'm finished with in the back, and then the current week is always at the front. So there's no digging through anything for those, either. The other resources are stored neatly in boxes or crates and are also readily accessible. These little crayon boxes are perfect for those tiny word building cards! I could easily have added the photo cards and letter-sound cards to the unit binders, which may be a great suggestion if you use them frequently. Personally, I utilize a lot of the online resources for those things. However, it still only takes me a minute to find these in the event that I need them. I love having so many resources to use, as long as I don't have to waste hours every week trying to put it all together. This organizational system has been very helpful to me, and I hope it is to you, too! Do you have any tips for organizing Wonders? Let me know in the comments!

Half-Day Kindergarten. Is there really such a thing anymore? Even with Common Core standards being implemented across the country and talks of rigor in the classroom I can assure you, it still happens. I live it every day and I am here today to help you organize your half-day schedule! I am thrilled to share what has worked for my today as a guest blogger at Education to the Core. Emily is a wonderful host, and I hope you enjoy my post!

Have a chatty class? Do your talkative students get louder and louder during small groups until it feels like chaos? Do they talk when you'r...

Google Slides Did you know that Google Slides can be used for much more than just presentations? Google Slides is one of the most flexible learning tools in the G Suite. In fact, I used

We understand it's hard to organize your thoughts and time. The answer is to train yourself and your brain to do work in chunks by using the Pomodoro Technique.,We understand it's hard to organize your thoughts and time. The answer is to train yourself an

How to create an attractive Teacher's Technology Station in a kindergarten classroom

Oh. My. Goodness. We had the MOST fun ever with this cranking device challenge! My test class loved being the guinea pigs for this challenge and helping decide on the rules of the task! The basic premise is that a team member has fallen over a drop-off and must be rescued. The remaining teammates

Use these google slides templates for your classroom whether you are teaching online or in your actual classroom! Display your schedules and routines in style!

A simple way to teach your students classroom procedures and expectations at the beginning of the school year

Many kids and young adults would benefit academically and socially by improving their executive functioning skills. These skills include: planning, organization, time management, task initation, working memory, metacognition, self-control, sustained attention, flexibility, and perseverance. If you n

Blended Learning will transform the way you teach, and the way your students learn. And the best part? It is easy to start doing it!

Art Teachers, in your Art Classroom you’re always going to have students finish before the rest, fast finishers, so let’s take a look at some ideas or routines that you can build into your classroom so that students know what to do when they’re done so they don’t have to ask you and so that you don’t have to instruct them on what to do EVERY time.

There are many thought-provoking Ted talks out there just waiting to inspire our students. Click through to read about nine thought-provoking TED talks that you can use to inspire your students today, along with ways you might use them in your classroom.

Since learning in now almost completely remote, it is time that we get our Google Drive and Google Classroom organized. Here are 5 google classroom tips!

Take a behind the scenes look at my Google Sites setup for the school year. I’ll share with you how I use it differently than Google Classroom and give you an exclusive tour!

Whether your students are lethargic or super-charged, adding movement to your lesson plans will help to solve both issues. Not only is it healthy to move throughout the day, but it can also help students focus and become more engaged with the content they are trying to master. Due to the nature of English classes, ELA ... Read More about 10 Ways to Add Movement in the ELA Classroom

Are you struggling to meet the needs of all your learners? Learn how to differentiate for EVERY student without spending hours prepping!

Use these templates to create a small, yet super effective classroom job chart that's easy to manage. Templates are included for: - 5 jobs - 6 jobs - 7 jobs - 8 jobs - 9 jobs - 10 jobs - 16 jobs - 18 jobs - 20 jobs - 25 jobs To Use: - Edit (editable with PowerPoint) - Print (I used white card stock, but colored card stock would be fun too) - Laminate - Use clothespins with your students' names on them and rotate

Looking for a new and engaging classroom management system for your classroom? I love Secret Student because all of my students buy into this system...

This a printable to create your classroom Noise-O-Meter. Just cut each piece out and attach it to some construction paper and laminate. ...

It has taken me a while to put together a classroom tour but I am thrilled to have a week of school under my belt and my classroom set up and humming along! The most exciting part of my classroom setup this year is being able to get back to many of the things I haven't been able to do during the pandemic, but I have also added a few new tweaks to my room from my pre-pandemic setup too, so I'm excited to share those as well. First to give you a lay of the land, here's a quick video around the entire space: Now let's talk about this year's updates! First of all the biggest change is going back to pre-pandemic seating arrangements. Oh how I have missed my circle! This year I used these carpet spots, which have a darker green color than the ones I used last year (my old ones were hard to distinguish between yellow and green), and so far they're holding up well. I've also got my chairs back in rows by color team instead of having each chair spread out: Last year because I had to set up the chairs spaced out 3 feet each, I wasn't able to use my normal job of line leader (I had a job for hand sanitizer instead). This year my line leaders are back! One of those, "Why didn't I think of this sooner?" tiny upgrades this year was on that same magnetic board where I have the color team jobs- the magnets for each class going up the piano keys are now horizontal and much easier to read: A procedural change I made this year was to designate my own hand signals for students to use in music class when they need to use the bathroom or a tissue- I made posters showing those hand signals next to the board. I also made new letters for my "MUSIC" letter system, which you can see in the same photo (those were long overdue for an upgrade!): The final update is one that I'm probably more excited about than I should be... I got new clipboards! I added these to my Amazon wishlist this summer and was thrilled to get them. The clips are much smaller, and they are plastic and of course in my 6 rainbow colors. So much to love about these compared to my old ones! I also decided this year to give students the choice between regular pencils, which I wrapped in a small piece of duct tape, or mechanical pencils. It has been a great start to the year to far and I do have a couple more updates to the classroom I'm hoping to get to throughout the year... we'll see! But for now I'm very happy with our space. Rather than rehashing all of the details on where I got things or why I have things set up the way I do, I'll direct you to my classroom tour post from 2018 where I have a lot more details on most of what you see here. And of course please leave a comment with any questions!

Get this FREE Google Classroom Assignment Tracker to help organize your digital assignments!

Here are 12 glue sponges tutorials with photos and step by step instructions so you'll know exactly how to make glue sponges.

Google Form Escape Rooms are a fantastic paperless way to do math and reading skill review while building critical thinking skills! Distance Learning

8 Steps for Organizing the Ultimate Fine Arts Night Physical Space % %

Organizing your life, school, work and so much more using Microsoft Onenote!

Bloom's Taxonomy can help move your students through the learning process. Learn how to use it in your courses and classroom with this simple guide.

Week one of using Google Classroom has come to a close for me, and it's been the biggest game-changer already (for me) since interactive notebooks. Case in

What Makes a Parent Love a Teacher ... and it's not what you might think! Read this terrific post by Jennifer Gonzalez to find out what really matters to parents. Be sure to download her free "deep data" chart for organizing your student data!