​One of the hardest parts of being a teacher is making sure you are providing instruction at the level of all your students in the classroom. In classes of 30+ students, it can seem daunting to modify for kids that still need help, while also increasing the rigor for kids that have already mastered the ... Read more

If you struggle with controlling excessive talking in the classroom, here is a strategy for you! Includes freebie!

Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!

Understand open syllables: what are the characteristics of an open syllable type and 5 classroom strategies to teach them to your students.

Learn some basic game design principles and how you can apply them to your classroom games to increase student engagement.

Using Elkonin boxes (also called sound boxes) in the classroom helps build the foundation of phonemic awareness for students. They are a set of boxes where each box represents a phoneme to model segmenting words into individual phonemes. While they seem so simple, they are a powerful tool!

Classroom accommodations give students with dyslexia the way to show us what they know and succeed. Here are several simple accommodations.

The educational strategies I use in my classroom are things I continuously reflect on and develop. The classroom management of my middle school classrooms is one of the things I’m most proud of with my teaching. I generally had a happy classroom that was under control and focused on learning, which wasn't always easy considering my classes each consisted of 30+ seventh graders at ALL possible academic levels working out of their seats on science experiments and activities. My biggest pieces of advice for a well-behaved class are to keep your rules and consequences simple, clear, and consistent. My Classroom Rules: I only had three rules in my classroom and they were broad enough to cover just about any out of line behavior. At the beginning of the year we went over these rules thoroughly and acted out examples and nonexamples so there was no room for confusion or purposeful misinterpretation. Find links to get these posters at the end of this blog post. Rule Number One: “Respect yourself, your peers, your teacher, and your surroundings.” This rule is meant to cover all interactions in the classroom. Students who respect themselves value their education and learning time and get their assignments completed to the best of their abilities. Students who respect their peers understand their classmates need a safe learning environment free of distractions and impolite communications. Students who respect their teacher recognize the importance of the education opportunities being presented in class and allow the teacher to facilitate lessons and help all students learn. Students who respect their surroundings acknowledge the resources, furniture, and equipment in class are used by others for the pursuit of education and need to be kept in good condition. Rule Number Two: “Raise your hand silently to speak.” Having strong student participation is important for learning, but entering chaos territory is so easy when middle school students are allowed to interject whenever and for whatever. Students need to know every voice is important; for everyone's thoughts, ideas, and questions to be heard there needs to be an order to the sharing process. Rule Number Three: “Follow all directions quickly the first time they are given.” It sounds basic (and it is) but so much educational time is saved with this rule, especially in a science classroom where there is limited time to complete time-consuming experiments. My Class Consequences: After much trial and error and some great advice from an administrator, I developed a list of consequences that worked perfectly to enforce the rules of my classroom. The key with consequences is they must be followed in order every single time for every single student. Find links to get these posters at the end of this blog post. Consequence Number One: "Warning." This was in place so I could let students know their behavior was unacceptable in the classroom and needed to be changed. I gave the warning in different ways to communicate with the offending student, depending on what worked the student’s personality. Sometimes I would approach the students discreetly and quietly tell them they had a warning. Other times I would catch the student's eye from across the room and show a number one with my finger. If I had a particularly easygoing class where the students were all comfortable with one another I'd pause in the lesson to tell the student they had a warning. Consequence Number Two: “Complete a Behavior Think Sheet and move seats.” If students continued to disregard the class rules they would get this consequence that served three purposes. First it removed the student from the situation, making it easier to revert to proper behavior. Second, it allowed them to reflect on their behavior and analyze its effect on themselves and others. Third, the BTS provided me with documentation of misbehavior that I could save and keep on file. I realized completing a BTS takes time out of learning, and so did the students. My lessons were fun, engaging, and rigorous; the students did not want to and could not afford to miss part of the lesson by acting out and completing a BTS. In addition, if the misbehavior was allowed to continue it would distract others from learning the content. Occasionally I would have a student test me by not completing the BTS. For those students I gave them a choice: They could complete it in my class and be late to their next class (without a pass), or they could leave it incomplete and move on to the third consequence. The Behavior Think Sheet (with English and Spanish copies included) is available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Consequence Number Three: “Parent or guardian contact.” If the first two consequences were not effective, consequence three often curbed the desire to misbehave. Sometimes I would have the student call home with me right after class. Sometimes I would make the contact immediately after school. Rarely, and only after exceptionally poor misbehavior, would the family be contacted during class. Consequence Number Four: “Referral.” I was lucky enough to teach in a school with a fantastic dean of discipline. The fourth consequence involved me contacting the dean about the student’s misbehavior and it would then be handled in a fair manner. In other schools a similar consequence might be used with the principal or other administrator instead. As I said earlier, the consequences should be followed in order every time for every student. There are exceptions to that, and I was always upfront and honest about the exceptions with my students. My students knew that if one student punched another student in class that a simple “warning” would not happen. That just wouldn't make any sense. The steps can be skipped for serious breaches of the classroom rules. The only other reason I would skip a consequence was for repeat offenders. If the same student had the same problem over and over again I met with that student privately to make a plan. Usually that plan involved skipping one or two steps in the list of consequences until the student was able to demonstrate appropriate behavior consistently over time. All of my classes knew skipping steps could occur in such situations, so there was never any backlash of “that’s unfair” if I went out of order. Using These Rules and Consequences in Your Classroom: As I mentioned, I created these rules and consequences for my middle school students. However, they work just as well as part of an upper elementary or early high school classroom management plan. I hope this post provided you with useful information and gave you ideas for rules and consequences in your own classroom. If you like my rules and consequences, save yourself some time by getting my rules and consequences posters from my TpT or Etsy store. The posters come in a variety of styles that are sure to brighten up your classroom while displaying important information that will make your teaching life easier. Find your favorite from the options below! And remember to check out the Behavior Think Sheet! Rules and Consequences Posters: Version 1: This is the original set with solid blocks of color and a structured layout. Version 2: It's a warm and calming set. Black and White: Perfect for printing restrictions—you can print the posters on vibrantly colored paper or grab a set of colored pencils and make them your own. Scales: They're wonderful for mermaid or dragon-themed classrooms. (Get it from Etsy instead.) Floral: My favorite! See these posters in the video below. (Get it from Etsy instead.) Lemons: Something about lemons just draws me in every time. I don't know if it's the happy yellow color or the reminder of delicious foods. (Get it from Etsy instead.)

Classroom culture and community are essential whether in a digital or in-person classroom. These 3 high-yeild, no cost strategies are effective and simple!

Do you want to be teaching social justice in ELA but you don't know where to start? Check out these tips, resources, and low-prep projects.

Once in a while I do a blog post more aimed at a music teacher audience, and this is one of those posts. This is the hello song that I sing to start every music for kindergarten and first grade. …

I’m excited to share with you an EASY PEASY way for students to see osmosis in plant cells! In the past, I always used elodea leaves for this lab. Elodea can be hard to find at pet stores and is a little temperamental to keep alive. This year I decided to use onion skin from ... Read more

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SLPs can target complex syntax with younger students. The blog post breaks down the evidence and provides practical strategies.

Try this simple tip to make the Memory Game meaningful and more than just a matching activity. Deb Hanson of Crafting Connections shares playing tips and freebies in this post!

Go to: DitchThatTextbook.com/blog PRESENTATION FILES PowerPoint presentation file: Click here (PDF) Handout file: Click here (PDF) Blogging rubric for

Check out these FREE character trait activities! This blog post contains a character traits anchor chart and an idea for a character trait lesson where students learn more challenging character trait vocabulary to create a collaborative class book! If you want students to move beyond "nice" and "mean" character trait responses, check this out!

Teamwork in the classroom is essential in order to have a high functioning and welcoming environment for students. Check out three easy ways to build teamwork with your students.

Do you know how to ask questions in English? In this blog post, we will show 50 examples of interrogative sentences. Interrogative sentences are used to

Mock trials offer a differentiated and experiential learning experience. Explore the steps of a mock trial and various mock trial roles.

In this post, I'm excited to share a collection of research-based tips and strategies for learning and remembering new words, enriched by my own experiences as a multilingual learner and a former EFL teacher. The journey of acquiring a new language or expanding one's vocabulary in their native tongue can be both challenging and rewarding. Over the years, both scholarly research and my personal journey through language learning and teaching have revealed a plethora of methods that significantly enhance the process of vocabulary acquisition.

Here's to another Sunday spent planning. The goal for next week is to get a few things planned before the weekend comes! To make this post a little shorter, I am breaking it into two parts. Tomorrow, I will share my reading and writing plans for some Minilesson Magic :) Science: This week, we have our mini-unit on genetics scheduled. Our students need to learn the following objectives: * Explain why organisms differ from or are similar to their parents based on the characterisitcs of the organism. * Give examples of likenesses that are inherited and some that are not. For my student journal pgs, click here (free and in a pdf). Monday: Set up science journals. The label shown above will be pasted into their notebook as a divider for our first unit of study. Complete the "Mice" assessment probe to see what students already think about how traits show up in organisms. After students think about their own explanations, we will use the explanations above to make a bar graph for how they think offspring's fur color is decided. (This assessment probe comes from Page Keeley, Uncovering Student Ideas in Science). Use 1st page of heredity video to explain heredity. Tuesday: Fingerprints Lab (found this gem linked for free online) Wednesday: Observing Human Traits Lab (free from Tamra Young on TPT); explain dominant and recessive traits and draw conclusions about what traits are dominant/recessive for humans based on classroom data) Thursday: Complete active sort around the room for Inherited vs Acquired traits and make flipbook (free materials from Jennifer Findley) Friday: Learn about Punnett Squares with Leprechaun Genetics (free from Making it Teacher on TPT) Other Resources that might be thrown in w/ extra time: Unit Outline from Moore County (includes a smartboard file to guide the mini-unit) Peas in a Pod (Mendelian Genetics) online freebie; Questions to go along with the reading selection included (I made these last year) Heredity (from Brainpop) DNA (from Brainpop) Animated Videos that explain DNA, genes, chromosomes, protein, heredity, and traits Math: This week in math, I will be getting to know my students better as mathematicians. I'm using some of the journal prompts/explorations from my Math Explorations that focuses on factors. (Not only will we learn about decomposing numbers, but students will be forced to use their multiplication facts). Since my Math Explorations are aligned with the mathematical practices, I thought it would be a good way to introduce concepts like communicating in math, perseverance, using multiple methods for showing work, using different strategies, etc. We are also going to continue working on our Summer Slide questions, which we started on Friday. Given time, I will also begin to introduce some of our math stations. For math stations, my team decided that we would have 4 stations this year, MATH SUPERSTARS, CONCEPT FOCUS, ALGEBRAIC, and something computer-based like Moby Max. Morning Meeting: We are going to focus on perseverance all week. We have a county-wide assessment that is designed with all tasks focusing on perseverance, so this fits in nicely with morning meeting. The kiddos may not even realize they are being assessed. Finish Strong Erik Weihenmayer on Oprah (start at 1:21) Hope you enjoyed peeking at my week! Tune in tomorrow for my reading/writing minilesson ideas for the week.

When you teach simple probability, it seems like you have to strike a balance between showing students how probability works and getting them to understand the math behind it. This topic lends itself to a

This blog post brings you tips for teaching verb tenses. It includes anchor charts, verb tense activities, and more for elementary grades.

A number of years ago, my orthopedic surgeon told me that I needed surgery on my knee to repair a structure called the plica and I asked him, “Oh, is

Visual Prompts, Visual Schedules and Visual Supports for Children with Special Needs: Classroom Adaptations for Visual Learners via RainbowsWithinReach

An informative blog and resource site all about Applied Behavior Analysis, from the perspective of a BCBA

Is Cosmic Education a bit weird? What does it have to do with Montessori education? Cosmic education is the centre of Montessori 6-12 education. A really simple definition of it would be an approach to education that helps students grow an awareness that everything in the universe is connected and interdependent so t

Ideas for helping students begin to understand the meaning of letter and number grades so that grades are a learning tool!

Teaching grammar? We've got you covered with fun grammar activities for first grade on up through middle school!

A blog full of tips, lessons, and ideas to use in the upper elementary classroom.

Project based learning is great for all learners. This post, aimed at secondary education, offers lots of ideas for various content areas.

10 simple ways to get your students moving to learn. On this blog post Room 213 shares classroom-tested strategies that are sure to engage.

Teaching patterns and patterning is not something for only young students. Patterns are a part of algebraic thinking and problem solving instruction.

I am new to teaching Writing in sixth grade. It was a subject previously taught by one of my team members, but now I am on my own. I really wanted to use something simple for my kids to use for revising and editing and it seemed like the C.U.P.S. and A.R.M.S. revising and editing was a simple enough place to start. I also wanted to make something that they could glue into their notebooks for a quick reference. Of course, I quickly hopped over to PicMonkey to create something fast and cute. So far, I am still getting my feet wet when it comes to teaching writing, but the kids liked this and seemed to catch on quickly. Thought I would share my little poster with you. UPDATE WITH FREEBIE!!! Turns out, this little poster has become very popular on Pinterest and has received quite a few hits here on my blog. So, for those of you that would like a free, printable version, I have it linked here on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Enjoy!

Part I of IV. In an effort to help schools become more reflective learning environments, I’ve developed this “Taxonomy of Reflection.” – modeled on Bloom’s approach. I…

Mock trials offer a differentiated and experiential learning experience. Explore the steps of a mock trial and various mock trial roles.

Show Don't Tell Anchor Chart! This blog post contains a complete writing lesson and the printables you'll need to create the anchor chart and replicate the activities!

This post shares useful resources on culturally responsive teaching that are helpful to all educators + TIPS on diverse teaching strategies.

Prefixes, suffixes and roots - it's such a big subject to cover! Once the kids have the concept, that's only the beginning -

The Best Anchor Charts for your ELA classroom all together in one place! You will find outlines to utilize in Reading Literature, Reading Informational, Writing and Language. Explained in this blog post is about the purpose of utilizing anchor charts in your daily instruction. Along with tips to organize your charts. Below is a collection […]