Question of the Day is a fun activity to get kids learning RIGHT when they get into the classroom each morning. It is a great classroom management technique to get the school day on track right from the start.
Keeping opinion writing organized is tricky for many students. Check out this post to see how this opinion writing flipbook can help with opinion essays!
Is writing meaningful for your students? Does everyone have a choice and a voice? Read more on how to make writing with nonverbal students meaningful!
Keep your students learning and increase student engagement in your kindergarten classroom with these 3 easy tips and tricks.
Keeping opinion writing organized is tricky for many students. Check out this post to see how this opinion writing flipbook can help with opinion essays!
Keeping opinion writing organized is tricky for many students. Check out this post to see how this opinion writing flipbook can help with opinion essays!
Subitizing is the foundation for number sense and mental math. Learn about common mistakes teachers make when teaching subitizing.
Knowing what to expect can help you to be strategic in your approach to your next ACT. Using these 10 Super Savvy ACT Strategies will be more helpful than just crossing your fingers.
A lot of teachers have had their fair share of disrespectful learners in the profession. At some point in your carrier you have met a learner who...
Keeping opinion writing organized is tricky for many students. Check out this post to see how this opinion writing flipbook can help with opinion essays!
Have you wanted to get started with using Google Classroom but aren't sure where to start? Click to read my tips and tricks!
I am so excited to share some of the best hacks and advice with you for your special education classroom from our very own SSE Blogger Team!
How to plan for, modify, and implement successful Guided Reading in SPED. TIps and tricks with full lesson plan ideas at Mrs. D's Corner.
Tips and Tricks on Implementing Rules in Autism Classrooms with 5 FREE Visuals! You need is some good rules for students in your classroom to follow…
Hi friends! I have been working hard all day on this blog post and I hope it helps you in your support of GT kiddos in your classroom! As the GT teacher for my grade level, I'm expected to take 18 hours of training on supporting GT kiddos, and I just finished last weekend. It was, truly, an amazing training. It was LONG but I learned SO much. I even posted a few things on Instagram as I heard them! The trainings were led by Dr. Joyce Juntune and she is a stinking genius.Many of the things were things I knew, but needed affirmation. Some of them were things I was hearing for the first time. But it was all powerful! As I've spent the last few weeks processing what I learned, I have tried to put lots of new things into practice. Some of them can be very difficult, as each district has their own (or none at all) program for students identified as Gifted-Talented. But I hope I can give you some ideas that can work in any classroom, in any district! We all hear this often...and I think we believe it's true. It's just so easy to forget. When they're constantly saying "I'm done" it's so easy to hand them more of the same type of work. I have tried to be extra aware of this in the past few weeks, especially when I think about how fragile some of our kiddos are. We never want them to feel like they are being punished for being smart. Because the truth (I believe) is that when they start to see this, they will just start to play not as smart! They will easily make the connection...when I finish my work quickly and do great on things, I will get more work. So...in my experience, they will start making mistakes...start trying to act like they DON'T know. Just to avoid more work. This is important to remember, and I don't believe it's true of every GT student. But for some it's incredibly true. As teachers, this means that they won't do things to please us. Their major motivation is learning...that's why they come to school. Not to please teachers, or make friends, or even get good grades. Their goal is to learn new things about things that matter to them. We must remember this when they seem hard to motivate. It's possible their lack of engagement is because we haven't found that thing they want to learn more about! :) Kind of along the same lines, some GT kiddos really really struggle with the expectations of school. Of course this is true of LOTS of children...special ed, gen ed, etc. We have to TEACH them how to be kind, how to be respectful, because sometimes they truly don't know. Of course this is true of all children. :) In my experience, GT kiddos need the most help dealing with people or ideas that they think are "dumb." I am constantly reminding them "we can't say that's a stupid idea, It's hurtful." They aren't trying to be hurtful...they just see it as a stupid idea, haha!! So we must teach them how to control their words and their faces! Fortunately, we have reason on our side! Because these little ones have such high IQs and abilities, you can absolutely reason with them when you need something. You can sit them down and ask "what consequences will this have?" And they will listen! If you can reason with them, and help them see why something MATTERS, you will have a lot better luck! :) NOW this next statement...is for EVERY student. EVERY day. in EVERY situation. I believe relationships are one of (if not THE MOST) important factors to student success. If you can get these kiddos on your side, life will be a LOT easier. But you can not win a power struggle with them...you have to show them you care...and THEN you can help them. They must know you care about them, understand them, and appreciate them for all their unique talents and abilities! As you can see, our GT kiddos actually develop differently than other students. It's why we so often hear "they are SO emotional" or even "They have tantrums!" They can't help it...we have to teach them how to MANGE that. I believe all students should have choice as much as possible. But for some, choice can be overwhelming...or even take away from the learning target. But for our GT kiddos, they thrive on choice. I give it as much, and as often as possible. If you're ever unsure of how to support them, ask yourself how to involve inquiry in their learning. They will immediately be engaged because they develop their own questions! It's easy to think about the highest achievers in our class. Their work is the neatest, they probably write the most words, and they get 100 on everything. Of course they need to be served! But our GT kiddos might also look a little different. And they BOTH need our support. This is an example of 2 sweet girls in my GT group. Their work looks COMPLETELY different, but they both show amazing thinking. The top one...I should have prompted her to write more. But the vocabulary usage and thinking is top notch! We do a LOT of reading response with my GT group. Here are some things they have done after reading a book independently (that they chose) but you could also do these with a Guided Reading text and let them choose the product they would make. The top 2 are sequels and the bottom is a power-point presentation about the book. Conferring is another part of my day that allows for easy differentiation. For most my students, I meet with their Guided Reading group 4-5 times a week. But for my GT students, I meet with their groups 1-2 times and confer individually with them. Here's an example of notes I take and a task I gave this little one to work on for the week. Another fun activity that I gave to all of the Enrichment kiddos in 1st grade...they are our "high-flyers" that haven't been identified GT yet. But my GT kiddos participate too! You can click the image to grab your own copy. They chose a word (their name is usually easiest) and added up the sum. It's especially motivating when they can choose their own word. It would be overwhelming for most of my kiddos, but super fun for advanced students! And finally, here are some ideas for changing a "normal" task into something perfect for your GT students. You can also grab that by clicking the image! How do you support GT students in your classroom? Does your district identify them? I want to hear! :)
Have you used QR Codes in the classroom yet? Here are a few easy ideas that will get you started using QR Codes in your classroom.
Special Ed Data using Google Forms - check out these user-friendly tips and tricks for busy special educators to streamline IEP tracking and student progress monitoring!
The Free to Discover blog will give you strategies and tips for teaching math to middle and high school students using differentiation and discovery.
Is writing meaningful for your students? Does everyone have a choice and a voice? Read more on how to make writing with nonverbal students meaningful!
Today I’m going to talk about working with medically fragile students. I teach in a classroom with students that have various medical needs,
Microsoft's spreadsheet program can do way more than you might realize. Become an Excel guru in no time with these 40 hacks and tricks.
Throughout my years teaching middle school, I have had the experience of seeing many "work refusals". These are the situations when kids, for a variety of reasons, just refuse to start the work you give them. They might shut down and rest their head on their desk or lash out in anger, shouting about
Are you looking for tips and tricks for working with partners in the classroom classroom? Read on to learn all the hacks!
Classroom management is one of the most important things a teacher can master. Here are 2 kindergarten classroom management ideas that work!
Birthdays in the classroom can be tricky due to cost and food restrictions. Here are bonafide tips for how to celebrate student birthdays in a special way.
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tom...
Hitting and Pinching in Autism Units and Self Contained- Tips and tricks to teach students to stop hitting and pinching. The Nook podcast from Noodlenook.net
There are so many ways to celebrate birthdays in the classroom! I’ve done several different things throughout the years but this year, I found the perfect combo. Kept it easy and meaningful for the kids! Read below to see how we celebrate birthdays. Please note that this blog post includes some Amazon affiliate links. These ... Read More about Student Birthday Ideas and Tips and Tricks
I've been using the Notebook software for several years and have become somewhat of a go-to person on my staff for newer users. There are many ways to make
Use these classroom decoration ideas to plan out and create an efficient and comfortable learning environment for your students!
Check out this post on what I do before, during, and after Persona Especial Interviews! Check this out to get started with Special Person in your classroom!
Beating the Summer Slide: 7 Strategies to Keep Elementary Student Learning on Track
Long vocabulary lists can appear daunting and unlearnable at first glance, but they don’t have to be perceived in such a way. Here we have engaging and entertaining activities, games, and strategies to help your students master their vocab lists with ease. Learning is made fun with the right
I’ve been teaching art for over 15 years and have taught every grade, K-12. In those years I have made resources and handouts helpful for the art room, contained classrooms, or homeschool parents. …
Do you know how many benefits there are from having student jobs in the classroom? Providing your students with leadership roles that your students care about will work wonders for your classroom organization, classroom community, and your teacher sanity! I used to be the teacher with just 2 helpers who did EVERYTHING for me. It […]
So you have survived the first computer lesson with your Kindergarten class and now you want to teach them how to login for themselves. It will depend of course, on how usernames and passwords have been set at your school as to how you approach this. At the school where I teach computers, the Kinder classes have a class username and password. For simplicity, the username and password are the same. Before the lesson, I made some color coded login cards. While in the classroom, the little learners practiced 'typing' on their login cards. We discussed the colors and order of the letters. We talked about uppercase and lowercase letters, said the sound and the letter names. We showed our partners how we could type our username and password. The little learners even searched for the letters in their own name. Who knew there was so much learning to be had with logins? When we arrived at the computer lab, the little learners were ready to try typing their username and password on a real keyboard. After I demonstrated typing the username and password (and made a few mistakes accidentally-on purpose to introduce backspace), the little learners took their login cards to their computer. I'm going to be honest here. This color coded login card is not a miracle worker. It did take three adults 30 minutes to guide the class in this process. I did learn that next time I introduce a Kinder class to computers, I will spend more time on light and quick finger touches on the keyboard! But I will say that each little learner did login that day, and a month on the login cards continue to support the little learners as they become independent loggerinerers (that's totally a word, right?). Best of all is the smile on their faces when they have done it all by themselves for the first time! Priceless! Want to make your own color coded keyboards? Click HERE or the image above to grab your copy!
Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!
I've been using the Notebook software for several years and have become somewhat of a go-to person on my staff for newer users. There are many ways to make
Take Home Folders/Homework Folders... Let's talk about how to set up, label, organize, and manage Take Home Folders. Getting my folders set up is always a huge priority during summer break. I NEVER wait for students to bring their supplies to school on Meet the Teacher night because I want to have my folders set up and ready to go for the first week of school. I also want all students to have THE SAME FOLDER. I always choose green for my Take Home Folders because green means go. These are the only folders that go home. All the other folders stay at school. If you start shopping the Back to School sales in July, you can get a class set of folders for a couple bucks. In fact, do yourself a favor, and buy about 10-15 extra folders because undoubtedly you will get a few new students during the year or some folders will be lost or damaged. Some years I've bought the cheap folders (without the prongs) and laminated them. I used an X-Acto knife to slice open the pocket openings. This worked fine, but I would usually replace the entire class set around Christmas. Other years, I've found awesome deals on the poly/plastic/vinyl thick, sturdy folders. Those really hold up a lot better in my opinion. Maybe your principal will even splurge and buy a class set of nice folders for you?!?! ::Fingers crossed:: Once you've found a class set of awesome folders, it's time to get them labeled. I put the kiddos name (and number) on the front of the folder. If you don't have your class list yet, just skip this step. On the inside of the folder, I put two sticker labels. The left side says “Keep at Home” and the right pocket says “Return to School.” Print these on 2x4 inch standard shipping labels. On the back of the folder, I have a label with my name and room number on it incase another teacher or student finds it in the hallway or on the bus. I also put my e-mail or phone number. This part is totally optional, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to have it on there. As I mentioned before, some years I've bought the folders with the prongs so I could use a sheet protector to hold the students' reading log and behavior chart. Other years, I didn't buy the pronged folders and just slid these papers inside. :) Insert behavior chart and reading log inside the sheet protector so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle. Here is an example of the reading log and behavior log to communicate with parents. Even if you don't use a color chart in your classroom, this behavior log could still work for you. Simply jot down a quick note about the child's day: "Great effort today!" "Don't forget to raise your hand before talking out." "Had some trouble in the cafeteria but otherwise AWESOME day." "Thanks for being a leader today!" Realistically, a teacher doesn't have time to write a personalized note to 25 students every day. That's when STICKERS come to the rescue. I can pass out a sticker to every student who earned one in less than 60 seconds. I don't want anything super time consuming, but I do like a way to keep in touch with parents. I think it also holds kiddos accountable for their day. #oldschool With that being said, if there has been a bigger issue at school, I would definitely call or e-mail the parents to touch base. To learn more about the 5-Step System I use for Take Home Folders, check out Part 2 of this series. Please also check out my Take Home Folder VIDEO to get more ideas and details on setting up, organizing, and managing folders in the primary classroom. Download the labels and forms in my TpT store.
Want to hand quilt and don't know where to start? These tips and tricks will give you what you need to be hand quilting in no time!
