Let's talk about disrespectful behaviors in the classroom. The child who talks back. The student using their cell phone, even after being told to put it away. The kid who refuses to do their work, and even loudly tells you, "no!" when you try to politely give some encouragement. The student who joke

Analyzing writing curriculums, planning writing workshop and teaching writing lessons can be overwhelming. You might think, how am I going to fit everything in and produce successful writers? Where do I start? What skills do they need? This post will share the 7 BASIC WRITING LESSONS that every teacher should teach! With this basic knowledge, students will be able to perform other writing assignments more effectively. The following skills are not only effective in upper elementary, they are often needed at the middle school level for review or the primary level for differentiation. So yes, every teacher should teach them! If you start with these 7 fundamental skills, it will set the expectations for your writing lessons and assignments throughout the year! Frequently Asked Questions What are the basic skills and what order should I teach them? Sentence Structure 1. Complete Sentences Lesson for complete sentences 2. Fragments Lesson for fragments 3. Run-ons Lesson for run-ons Paragraph Writing 4. Topic Sentences Lesson for topic sentences 5. Relevant Details Lesson for relevant details 6. Transition Words Lesson for transition words 7. Closing Sentences Lesson for closing sentences How much time should I dedicate to teaching these fundamental skills? I recommend one day for each skill. If you spend a whole writing block for each skill, students will benefit from the practice. How do I teach each skill? First: Start with an anchor chart explaining the skill. (See each lesson link above for effective anchor charts.) Second: Provide examples. Students can share examples too! Next: Students should take notes. I love using Interactive Writing Notebooks to take notes. Research supports the use of interactive notebooks through studies on multiple intelligences, the brain and note taking. Here are a few videos to Set Up Interactive Writing Notebooks. Click photo for the Upper Elementary Version. A Primary Version is also available. Then: Identify the skill. Provide practice sheets and task cards for students to practice identifying the skill in sentences and paragraphs. Last: Apply the skill. Students should have the opportunity to write their own sentence or paragraph to apply the particular skill. What if I can't fit the lesson in one writing block? If you can't extend the days to complete them, there are other ways to get the whole lesson in. You can put practice sheets or task cards in a center, or you can have students apply the skill for homework or morning work the next day. What if my students, some of my students, or absent students can't do interactive notebooks? Make a small anchor chart to put in their notebooks with the same information! If you don't have a printable poster, take a picture of the anchor chart you used in class and print them off! I hope you found this post helpful and your students become successful writers this year! Connect With Me! TPT Store Facebook Pinterest My Blog

This resource is #1 for a reason! I almost always use graphic organizers to teach reading comprehension. I find them to be highly effective because they are

The first year of teaching can be a challenge! These 15 Teaching Tips for New Teachers are proven strategies to help new teachers survie their first year!

In order to boost virtual classroom participation and reduce achievement gaps, it is essential that teachers explore different strategies to see which ones motivate their students to learn.

It's so important to have students practice solving unknown word meanings every day. Grab some ideas to implement word analysis strategies instruction in your upper elementary classroom right away!

Your students will learn and retain information more with this research based strategy that just reading it alone. Jigsaw is a fun, engaging cooperative learning strategy that requires the participation of all students and they are mutually dependent on each other for a successful outcome. In this r...

I am so excited to launch my first "series" of blog posts! It's making me feel all grown-up and blogger-like :)My first series is going to be on increasing student engagement in the classroom. Over

Discover hands-on beginning of the year science activities that will excite your students and build the foundation for future science lessons!

A new school year usually means a new teacher, new expectations, and new routines, so our students sometimes don't respond as we'd hoped when we try to get

Do you have students who rush through their work, making careless mistakes and incorrect answers? This blog post provides 10 teaching ideas to help you slow down your rushing student and get him to produce quality work!

If you want your classroom to run like a well oiled machine, you need clear procedures and routines in place for your students. Middle and High School English Language Arts discussed routines & procedures, problematic student behaviors, successful classroom management strategies, support from colleagues & administration, and valuable classroom management resources. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.

As I am looking forward to a new school year in my new school, I have already started planning and creating new resources. Since I have my classroom now and I can finally make the big decisions about the teaching materials I would love to use, I am all excited to be able to say good-bye to textbooks and use what I believe best responds to my learners’ needs. If you are looking for some engaging and valuable resources for your textbook-less ESL class or you wish to supplement your own materials,

HyperDocs have become one of my favorite tools for creating lessons that promote the 4 C’s. If you are unfamiliar with HyperDocs, I highly encourage you to visit the HyperDoc website for thei…

Let's dive into some new options to teach vocabulary, for those who have the time and energy to pursue them. In this post and podcast, I'm sharing ten ideas for making the study of vocabulary something students might even look forward to.

Hey, friends! I’m teaming up with my good friend Elyse from Proud to be Primary to bring you a whole slew of classroom management tips and tricks… plus, a bunch of classroom management freebies! This

14 Brilliant Ways to Quiet a Noisy Class! Check out these behavior management strategies for classroom management!

Photocopy limits are the pits! I once taught at a school with a ridiculously tight budget and found myself almost in tears when something copied out wrong - all those wasted copies! They can be particularly frustrating when we come across wonderful printable resources which we'd love to use with our

Quick strategies to get your kids talking about the RIGHT stuff at the RIGHT time!

At the beginning of last school year, I was excited to be teaching a new grade at a new school in a new district. I had made a big change, and it was just what I needed. To add to all of the "new", I was starting the year with 30 students. Thirty is definitely on the big size as it is, but we all know that new kids trickle in over the course of most school years...and last year was no different! By the time the school year was over, I was sharing my classroom with 34 awesome 5th graders. We all learned a lot, grew a lot, and had a pretty good time while doing it! It was definitely a learning process for me, and hopefully I can share some of what I learned to make your year better for you! 1. You've Got to Embrace It Here's the thing, your class size is your class size whether you like it or not, so you've got to embrace it. It's going to be crazy. It may get chaotic. It's going to be crowded. But your attitude will be a major determining factor in the kind of year you and your students have. Now, I'm not saying that my teammates and I didn't take time to vent about the added challenge we were facing; we're only human! But throughout the year, I'd joke "I'm mentally preparing for how I'm going to respond when [my principal] comes to tell me that I'm getting my 33rd/34th/35th student." You may have to "fake it till you make it" but having the most positive attitude you can will go a long way. 2. Room Arrangement While I'd wrapped my brain around having a big bunch of kids, I was having a harder time figuring out how all those desks were going to work in my smallish classroom. That might have been the part that was the most stressful for me. Luckily, my students were OK with all the experimenting I did while trying to figure out the best room configuration for us. I want to share with you guys some of things that worked for me. Push groups of desks together. I started the year with 8 teams of 4 since my district is a big believer in Kagan cooperative learning. That meant that there were teams and desks wall-to-wall. Then I decided to push the teams together so desks were in groups of 8-9. This made a HUGE difference. Kids were still in their teams of 4-5, but we gained a LOT of floor space which made it easier to move around. Find a way to give kids space to spread out. One thing I noticed as the year went on was that we were so packed in there that kids didn't have a lot of personal space and I could see levels of grumpiness increasing because of that. I let them work at my small group table, in a quiet spot on the floor, etc. You have to get a little creative, but your students will thank you if they have a place to momentarily "escape". Get rid of your desk. It's surprising how much extra space this will give you. Use your small group table as your "headquarters". Give flexible seating a shot. When I got my 34th student, I knew that I could either fit 34 desks into my classroom or keep my sanity. I couldn't do both. I'd used flexible seating at my old school, but was trying to not rock the boat too much at my new school. I reached out to my principal and told her I'd like to try some flexible seating. I know not everybody is ready to jump into flexible seating, but here are a few things you could try. Sweet talk you custodian like I did and see if any tables are available. They take up a lot less room than desks. Take the legs of a table and have a low table. It doesn't technically give you more space, but the room will feel more open. You can get rid of a handful of desks and provide some floor seating options like pillows, stadium chairs, or rocker seats. These all can get tucked away nicely at the end of the day. Move to community supplies and if you don't have cubbies, etc., provide bins (they can be cheap!) for your kids to keep their personal supplies in. 3. Have your students help! One thing that every teacher deals with is having about a million things at a time running through their head. Having a large class can make that even worse. There are just SO MANY moving pieces. And teachers (including me) often have a hard time delegating responsibilities. At one point, it really hit me - "There are 34 people in this room who are not me. How can they help me more?" I know that I am lucky in that I teach 5th graders who are pretty capable of having different responsibilities in the classroom, but I think that students at any age can do a lot more in the classroom than they may be doing. And I found that having students help with the little things honestly freed up some much needed space in my brain as well as making the classroom run more smoothly. Plus, kids of all ages LOVE having jobs to do! Here are some of the little "tasks" I had students help me out with: Changing the date on the board Being in charge of taking our library cards to/from the library Putting homework in student mailboxes Grabbing my walkie-talkie at recess time Turning on and/or connecting the projector when we were going to use it (I've got kind of a clunky set up) Taking tardy passes down to the office on the way to lunch or recess (without me asking!) 4. Delegate I know we're not all lucky enough to have parent or other volunteers, but if you do, USE THEM! It took me a while to get into the swing of the best ways to use volunteers, but I found that using them to both work with students and help me out with tasks was the best combination. I've always had parents who can't come in to help because of work, but say they could help at home. In the past, I never used them much, but once I realized that I could send laminating home to be cut or booklets to be stapled, those parents became a great resource. Even if students were playing a math game or something like that and were fine working on their own, I'd ask a parent volunteer to take them into the hallway or another common area to work just to free up a little space in the classroom. Let go of the perfectionism and have volunteers hang up bulletin boards or classroom displays. If it's not perfect, I promise you're the only one who will notice. Get in the habit of asking yourself, "Could somebody else do this?" and if the answer is yes, and you have someone that can do it, let them. That frees up more time for you to do the things only you can do like planning and grading. 5. Don't grade it all! It's hard to ignore the fact that you've got a big class when you have a giant stack of papers to grade sitting in front of you. Thirty plus math tests, essays, reading assessments, etc. is a LOT. One of my good friends is also a 5th grade teacher in my district and she only had 19 kids. I spent way to much time lamenting the fact that I had 15 more math tests to grade than she did! Grading those summative assessments is unavoidable, but really think about what else you need to grade. Do you need to take the time to look over 30+ homework assignments, or could you review them with the whole class? Do you need to grade every piece of classwork or can you quickly scan through it to use as a formative assessment? Can you give a short exit ticket at the end of class and not have to review entire pages of math to see if your students got the concept? This is one area where you can really save yourself some time and sanity. 6. Make time for every student One thing I found was that when you have so many kids in your class, it can be really easy to unintentionally let some kids slip through the cracks during the day. So I made a point to be at my door in the morning to greet everyone (while I let the students take on some of those beginning of the day tasks I mentioned above). All of my students have numbers, and those numbers are on popsicle sticks to make sure everyone is getting called on during the day, but I'd also write a few kids' names on sticky notes and stick them on my cart or my projector. That may make me sound like some kind of absent-minded professor, but if you've had a big class you know that it's easier than it should be for kids to "hide" when there are a lot of classmates around. I also did"lunch with the teacher" for small groups at the beginning of the year just for a chance to get to get to know all of my students a little in a smaller setting. Then it was a popular reward/incentive for the rest of the year - I think we all enjoyed spending time together with a little less chaos. Whatever system or structure you use, make sure you are intentional about making every student feel like they are seen and heard - even if you have to leave sticky notes for yourself! :) 7. Routines & Procedures I know that I'm not telling you anything new when I say it's important to have routines and procedures set up to make things run smoothly in your classroom. We all know that. But with 34 students in the room, I found that I had to run the ship a little tighter than usual. Normally turning your homework in when you come in in the morning is a simple process, but have you ever watched 3 dozen kids try to turn their homework in at once? Gets a little crazy. I added a second homework turn in location, and then gave a student the job of collecting both piles. (See Tip #3!) We ended up having to form two lines when lining up after lunch or recess because it's hard to get an orderly line when you have students waaaaaaay back at the end of the line. Each classroom is (obviously) different and those are just examples of two things I put into place last year to help me manage all my students and keep my sanity! I encourage you to think about ways you could put a routine into place where maybe things have been a little free flowing? What's making you the craziest? Can you change a procedure or make a "rule" to help out with that? It'll help you keep control of the chaos and your students will appreciate the structure, too! If there are some behaviors popping up in your students that you'd like to get a handle on before they get too out of control, click here or on the picture below to check out how I use Individual Behavior Goals in my classroom. Do you have a big class this year? Leave a comment to tell us how many students you have and any tips or tricks I haven't mentioned!

During my practicum, I was introduced to a series of three books: "Practical Ideas to Start up the Year", "Spark Up" and "Wrap Up". There is a few grade level versions. One thing discussed in the "Start Up" book is a class agreement. I know a lot of classrooms have rules (as they should), but I really liked the idea of building those with the class as a set of expectations. I do this over the first week of school. I find that building this agreement with my students helps to increase their sense of belonging and responsibility in and to the classroom. It also helps to boost their accountability for their actions. I'll lead you through the steps I take to build this agreement so that you can apply the strategy in your classroom as well! Day One First, I read "David Goes to School" by David Shannon. The kids think David is hilarious (as do I). Although this picture book could be used with a kindergarten class, it is still quite enjoyable at the higher grades. We talk about some of the things that David does that aren't the greatest of ideas. I leave it at that for the first day. Day Two The next day, I set up a "Looks Like, Sounds Like, Feels Like" chart on the Smartboard. I ask "What do you want our classroom to look like, sound like, and feel like?" The class first has table discussions and then we fill in the whole class chart. Next, we look at the items, and try to combine them into 3 big ideas. Each colour represents pieces my class thought went together: Day Three On day three, we re-evaluate the chart and add in anything else we may have forgotten the day before. We then work to turn everything into full sentences. I limit it to three sentences that include all of our ideas. That means we start talking about the terms "responsible", "respectful", "safe". These just happen to be part of our school motto. Day Four Ahead of time I write the class agreement written on chart paper. It starts with "We agree to be learners who..." I give everyone one last chance to do some editing. I feel that if they all have to agree to it for the entire year, I want the students to have a say in every step of the process. When we all agree, everyone comes up to the front and signs it. The finished chart paper hangs up in a visible area of the class. I refer to it as needed. Because students have signed their names it is very effective to remind them that they agreed to what it says. Want to know more? Read this post all about building your classroom community. Pin this post: Helping to inspire,

If you’re teaching a split class (multi-grade or combined class) and need advice on classroom management and organization, you’ve come to the right place! You’ll find practical tips from teachers who have taught in multi-level classrooms and combined classes at all different grade levels. Tips and tricks from teachers in combined class schools I’ve invited … Continued

This week I have been visiting third grade classrooms to do lessons on strategies for success on the SOLs. Third grade students will be taking the SOLs for the first time starting May 13th. Some of them shared that they are feeling scared, nervous, worried, excited, etc. The goal of this lesson is to build their confidence and give them strategies to help them do their best. The lesson is titled "You're In Control". We started by watching this video: Next, we moved on to identifying strategies that can help students be successful on the tests. There are many things students can do before, and the day of the test to help them do their best. We talked about being in control of our success. We used the buttons on a remote control as examples for things we can do to stay in control. As a class we came up with lots of ideas and then students picked their top 10 for their remote control. Here is an example of what your student might be bringing home: Here is a list of some strategies the classes came up with: Prepare and study-use your resources Take your time, you have as long as you need Relax and take deep breaths Flag questions you want to go back and review Reread Get enough sleep Eat a good breakfast Take breaks: water, walking, bathroom Circle key words Wear comfortable clothes and dress for success Cross out wrong answers Use your tools remove distractions BE CONFIDENT! You're going to rock this test!

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.

These engaging strategies to incorporate movement in the classroom are perfect for the fidgety students & kinesthetic learners in your class!

Providing students with high quality background information for Boy Overboard can be a little bit of a challenge. Many resources are older and out of date and many links are sadly broken. Here, I’ve collected a range of free resources to assist you in providing background information for Boy Overb

Hello everyone! It's Anna from Hanging with Mrs. Hulsey-- and today I'm going to discuss some tips and ideas to help you quiet a noisy classroom! Try using a traffic light in class! You can find a real one on Amazon-- which is pretty awesome-- but pricey. I created one on Smart Notebook (just insert a clipart traffic light or create one using rectangle shapes) and inserted an arrow. Then, when my kids are working around the room I project it on the screen. When they start to get noisy I move the arrow from green to yellow to red. It's a great visual for students! Try using an app or website to track noise. There is one called "Bouncy Balls" that provides another great visual for the kids to see just how noisy they are. It's simple to use-- just visit the website-- enable your microphone-- and project it where you students can see it! Worried the previous ideas won't work if you have younger kids? Some great ideas for younger kids include "quiet spray" or "quiet critters" ! I think younger kids will be willing to work hard for the magic in these ordinary objects! Teach your students some "call and response" chants! A few years ago my school learned "whole brain teaching"-- and one of the practices is to say, "Class?" and every student responds, "Yes?" Immediately the students are silent and paying attention. There are TONS of different and fun attention getters you can use in your classroom-- you don't have to stick with just one! Here is a FREEBIE I found on TPT with a lot of ideas! Use a "NOISE" chart! This one is pretty simple-- hang up the letters using magnets or clips. If students are being too noisy-- flip letters over one by one. If you end up getting down to the letters "NO" students have to work without talking. Rewards for having a full "NOISE" chart can be up to you-- Dojo points, brag tags, extra recesses, etc. The possibilities are endless! Here is a freebie so you can make your own NOISE letters (or click the picture below)! I've got 2 versions (rainbow and navy/lime) because I am using the navy & lime in my own room-- but some people may prefer a generic rainbow. Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you walked away with some good classroom management tips you can use in your classroom!

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.

Your new favorite teaching strategy: This pared-down version of learning stations keeps the movement, interactivity and variety while minimizing the prep work.

Getting students engaged in lessons dosen't have to be complicated or time consuming. I'm sharing my go-to student engagement strategies. These strategies..

You just found out you are teaching a split grade class next year. For most teachers the idea of teaching a split is overwhelming. You have twice as many

Many of us educators are keeping a little secret about differentiating instruction. We believe it’s a good idea in theory, we try to do it when we can…but we really don’t have any workable system for differentiating. No one really knows how it’s supposed to be done, and the only ideas we’ve had so far are nearly impossible … Continued

Here are 10 co-teaching tips for classroom teachers, intervention specialists, and anyone in an inclusion-type educational setting at school.

Stop taking away recess and using other punishments to control your students. Find success with 10 powerful classroom management strategies!

Analyzing character traits is a key fiction reading skill that is needed for successful comprehension. In most cases, authors do not just come out and tell readers the traits that a character possesses. By teaching

Although my blog name is "Teaching Fourth," I have not always taught fourth grade. I started my teaching career in sixth grade. The following year I had an

Order of operations can be frustrating to teach, but it doesn't have to be. Read this post by Laura Candler to discover some fun and effective strategies for teaching order of operations, and download free printables to go with the lesson.

Co-Teaching can be one of the most rewarding, yet challenging experiences. The co-teaching partnership is kind of like a marriage and usually it's an arranged one! Often, two teachers are partnered up without knowing much about each other. Administrators dealing with staffing issues may not be able to look at teaching styles and personalities before pairing teachers up. Here are some tips on how to make your co-teaching relationship a successful one! 1. Get to know your co-teaching partner. It takes time to develop a rapport. Get to know your partner over the summer, if possible. Attend trainings together. Go out for lunch and chat about your family, interests, likes, and dislikes. The trust built over the summer will make the entire year run more smoothly. 2. Discuss expectations before the situation arises. Talk about what your expectations are for the year and set boundaries. Do you expect to plan everything together? Do you expect to work before or after school? How will you address grading and report cards? Do you prefer to be contacted at home with a question or would you rather wait until returning to school? Discussing your expectations before the school year starts will make your partnership more cohesive. 3. Be open-minded to your partner's ideas. Think about the general education teacher as the curriculum specialist. Chances are, they are more familiar with the grade-level curriculum and expectations. The special education teacher is the modifications expert. They will have great ideas of how to modify the classroom environment and assignments to fit the various needs of the classroom. Each of you brings great things to the classroom. You each have different experiences and training that has gotten you to this point in your career. You may be used to doing things differently than before you started co-teaching. Just like in a marriage, your co-teaching relationship is a give and take. You will learn a lot and gain a lot if you are open-minded. 4. Share your space. Share your students too! Whether you share one space or you each have your own “home base”, it is important for both of you to truly feel at home in each space. Within the main classroom, you each should have a desk or other personal space. The classroom signs should include each of your names. My classroom signs always include the names of both teachers, all of the teaching assistants, and all of the related service providers that play an active role in our classroom. It is important for everybody to feel a part of the team. To avoid using the terms “my room” and “your room”, I named my assigned room the “Learning Lab” and refer to the co-teaching classroom as just our “Classroom”. When you split up into groups, it might be a good idea alternate which teacher leaves to use the other space. Banish the phrases “your kids” and “my kids” and replace it with our kids. Both of you are equally responsible for the students assigned to your classroom. Your students should not feel a sense of belonging to one teacher over the other. When you split into groups or assist 1:1, alternate which teacher works with the different levels of kids. The same goes for working with parents. Communication should come from both of you. 5. Stand united both in the classroom and out! Just like in a marriage, you need to appear to be united. You might not always agree with the other teacher, but it is important to put on a united front and then speak about those differences in private. You always need to back each other up and also support your paraprofessionals as well. Your students will pick up on any disconnect between you and will try to use that to their advantage. Always speak positively about your partner. You need to work together for at least the entire school year so your relationship needs to be strong. The staff lunch room is not a place to talk about your issues. If you do not have anything nice to say, do not say anything at all. A few years ago, a friend of mine was having some trouble within her classroom. Her team of paraprofessionals were disjointed and often went against each other in front of the students. She reached out for some advice and it inspired me to create a product geared towards helping classrooms with multiple adults to work together collaboratively in harmony. I have found it quite useful in my own classroom which has four paraprofessionals. Whether you are new to co-teaching, new to your partner, or have been paired up for years, I hope you find this these tips helpful. If you want more information about co-teaching, you can find just about everything you need in my Ultimate Co-Teaching Start-Up Kit. Thank you for stopping by today!

Today I'll be sharing why I think substitute binders are so important and what information you should include in your "sub tub."

If you know me, you know that a good sort is one of my favorite instructional strategies. I actually think my grade level colleagues get si...