Tools for the Wise Teacher
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As veteran teachers, we know that Back to School often means countless meetings, endless hours of preparation and a great deal of stress. Combat the chaos of the classroom with these quick, easy, low cost tips! Read more
Welcome to my second grade classroom, my home away from home. Each year, I refine my classroom with special finds from Target and Hobby Lobby (my favorite!) to make it comfortable and inviting. I love to think outside of the box, using plastic table cloths for curtains and bath mats for classroom rugs. My goal is to make the room a safe, creative space that promotes engagement and exploration.
As a traditional academy teacher, I use Spalding spelling, HMH Journeys reading, and Saxon math to teach highly-performing students at an accelerated pace. I use the district-prescribed curricula along with our reading and math strategy animals to help students learn, apply, and transfer critical strategies across settings. My classroom décor centers around Hazel Hoot, an adorable green screech owl, and her special strategy friends. See how I integrate Hazel’s Reading Roost and Problem-Solving Pond along with our hands-on tools to support and enhance required curricula in this blog series.
In our charming book, Hazel Meets the Reading Strategy Friends, Hazel stumbles upon a magical tree in the forest. Out of the tree appear 10 colorful woodland animals that each introduce a research-based, standards-aligned reading strategy. These animals guide Hazel to become a proficient reader.
Each day students attend Hazel’s Reading Roost, my guided reading group, as one of their four reading rotations. During guided reading time, I use the woodland animals to teach specific strategies and concepts through the context of authentic literature.
I use our animal puppets and reference our Decoding and Comprehension Banners throughout the lessons. Students use our accompanying graphic organizers and our hands-on tools to practice and reinforce the strategies.
To replicate the magical tree, I purchased an inexpensive faux tree from Goodwill and gave it a dusting of gold glitter spray paint. I glued glitter foam leaves to give it an enchanted gleam and used Velcro to attach the animals. This allows for easy removal during reading group time. Read more about creating a Reading Roost here.
During guided reading group time, students sit in a circle on our Astute Hoot’s Numbers and Letters Rug. I post a specific learning goal for each group and reference it throughout the lesson using our Learning Scale Banner. Students enjoy monitoring and reflecting upon their thinking and learning. They understand that honest ratings help me as a teacher because I can see what they understand and areas in which they need more help.
Read tomorrow’s blog to see my Problem-Solving Pond and accompanying math tools.
Back to School time is right around the corner and one of my favorite parts is picking out a few outfits for the first week of school. Here are 5 key pieces to start your year off with a bang:
1. Bold, Bright Color: Everyone looks better in color. Wearing the right color next to your skin can have a rejuvenating, uplifting and brightening impact on your complexion and overall appearance. Pale skin and dark hair look best in jewel tones such as ruby red, sapphire blue and emerald green. Skin tones with beige or pink undertones look great in muted colors. Yellow or peachy undertones look best in bright colors. However, there are no absolutes; wearing what makes you feel good when you put it on should be the general rule.
2. Versatile blazer: A well-cut, tailored blazer is a wardrobe essential because it adds polish to any outfit. Pair it with your favorite dress or pencil skirt for work; add jeans and a crisp button-down for weekend wear.
3. Mixed prints: Stripes & florals, leopards & polka dots or plaid and a graphic T are a few bold combos to spice up your style. Here I paired two different stripes to create a nautical weekend look. Pair this with jeans and you have a chic, casual Friday outfit.
4. Crop Tops: Crop tops are the latest trend; they are all over stores in a variety of shapes and cuts. While they look fantastic on celebrities, most of us shutter at the mere thought of wearing one. However, crop tops look great over button-down blouses, which can be very formal and stiff. Crop tops are the perfect way to add color or pattern to any outfit.
5. Peplums: Peplums instantly narrow your waist and give you an hourglass shape, making it flattering on all shapes and sizes.
Savvy Shopping: Many stores like Ann Taylor and NYC & Co. offer teacher discounts. Nordstrom Rack, Target and Marshalls are great places to find inexpensive, trendy pieces. My favorite find? EBay! I try on dresses and shoes at the mall and then search for them on EBay. Most are available at a fraction of the price. Be sure to buy from sellers who offer returns and have great feedback.
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a great start to your new school year. Be sure to download our FREE Top 10 Tools for Back to School. Happy New Year!
Yesterday as part of my blog series, Set Up Your Best Classroom Yet, I gave you a sneak peek into my second grade classroom with a focus on my math area. I use the district prescribed curricula along with our reading, writing, and math strategy animals to help my students learn, apply, and transfer critical strategies across settings. My classroom décor centers around Hazel Hoot, an adorable green screech owl, and her special strategy friends. See how I integrate the Writing in the Wild West along with our hands-on tools to support and enhance the required writing curricula.
In our charming book, Hazel Meets the Writing Strategy Animals, students meet Hazel the owl, a struggling writer, who takes a vacation to the desert to visit Grandma Hoot. Grandma suggests that Hazel take a hike for writing inspiration and along the way she meets 10 animals; 5 that teach the writing process and 5 that teach writing mechanics.
In order to recreate the desert scene for the Writing in the Wild West space, I covered a bulletin board with vinyl western background from Party City (similar items are available at most craft stores and on Amazon). I added faux cactus from Hobby Lobby to give it a 3D effect. I placed the Strategy Banners on the side of the bulletin board; I reference them throughout each lesson. I printed our Writing Bulletin Board Set added Velcro to the back of each strategy animal allowing me to detach to use during lessons.
I also made a space to display student work. I took pictures of my students faces, printed and cut them out, and then added these adorable cowboy hats to each one. Finally I glued each picture onto a clothespin and glued the clothespins to thick ribbon that I stapled to the board. I use these cowboy clips to easily change writing samples frequently.
As the other blogs in this series mentioned, I love to display our hands-on tools in cute, inexpensive jars with printable animal labels. Students have easy access to Stella’s Spacers, Cal’s Capitalizers, and Preston’s Punctuation Prongs, all which they enjoy using during writing time.
Have a cute classroom décor idea? I’d love to hear it! Be sure to check back on Sunday to read our latest Back to School blog.
Yesterday as part of my blog series, Set Up Your Best Classroom Yet, I gave you a sneak peek into my second grade classroom with a focus on my guided reading area. I use the district prescribed curricula along with our reading, writing, and math strategy animals to help my students learn, apply, and transfer critical strategies across settings. My classroom décor centers around Hazel Hoot, an adorable green screech owl, and her special strategy friends. See how I integrate the Problem-Solving Pond along with our hands-on tools to support and enhance the required Saxon math curricula.
In our sequel, Hazel Meets the Math Strategy Friends, Hazel swoops down to catch her dinner at the local pond when she grabs Upton, an enchanted fish. Upton oversees Problem-Solving Pond and promises to introduce Hazel to his animal friends, all who teach a special problem-solving strategy. Using these strategies and Upton’s guidance, Hazel blossoms into an accomplished mathematician who is able to tackle problems with ease.
In order to recreate the Problem-Solving Pond, I covered a bulletin board with fadeless blue water paper and added green tulle and silk pond stems to border the pond. Upton’s Solving Word Problems Poster and Strategies Banners are prominent features of Problem-Solving Pond; I reference them throughout each lesson. I printed our Problem-Solving Pond Bulletin Board Set added Velcro to the back of each strategy animal allowing me to detach to use during lessons.
I found this stuffed animal on Ebay that looks just like Upton and hung it with fishing wire and a plastic hook. During guided practice, I toss Upton to students and he helps us complete the problem-solving steps. Students LOVE solving problems with him!
I also found inexpensive jars at Hobby Lobby to hold our hands-on tools such as Max’s Counters, Brian’s Slide and Learns, and Fiona’s Fact-Fluency Pencils and added these adorable labels.
During center time, students solve their Saxon story problems using the strategy animals and our Problem-Solving Journals. They also use our hands-on tools such as Problem-Solving Mats, Brian’s Slide and Learns and Fiona’s Fact-Fluency Flashcards to reinforce learned strategies and concepts.
Students enjoy using the Astute Hoot rug to discuss their journal samples. They stand on the strategy animal that they used to solve the story problem and then discuss the strategies, process, and thinking they used.
Read tomorrow’s blog to see my Writing in the Wild West classroom space and accompanying hands-on tools.
The Morning Meeting should be the most meaningful 10 minutes of your day. Morning Meetings are at their best when they are the perfect blend of social, emotional, and academic activities. It is a time to reflect on yesterday’s success, set goals and focus for the day, and build classroom community all while practicing vital ELA skills. Despite the many benefits, the Morning Meeting is often the first item cut when teachers are crunched for time. Here are some tips to implement a meaningful Morning Meeting all year long:
Flash FREEBIE Friday: Beginning of the School Year Ice Breakers and Community Building Activities
You know the horrible feeling when you walk into a room and you don’t recognize a single soul? Even worse, everyone else already knows each other, happily mingling together. Most adults shudder at the thought, yet as teachers, we fail to consider how these situations make our students feel. Many students come to school on the first day without knowing anyone, much less bathroom and cafeteria locations. We fill the first days with procedures, rules, and other endless explanations without taking any time to help students feel comfortable and safe, two basic conditions required for learning.
Here are my top 3 icebreaker activities:
Like these ideas? Download our Beginning of the School Year Ice Breakers and Community Building Activities on Teachers Pay Teachers for 85 pages of engaging plans and exercises. Please follow us on TPT! We appreciate your ratings and feedback. Thanks!!
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We hope you have an amazing start to your school year!
Do these questions run through your mind frequently? I found I was repeating myself over and over like a broken record and ready to bang my head against the wall. I finally realized that I was making a costly oversight that was hindering academic achievement and testing my sanity.
Listening is such a critical skill, yet I never took the time to truly teach it. I expected that my students would walk into my classroom with the understanding and ability required for active listening. When they didn’t listen, I would punish them for something that hasn’t been taught.
Listening, like any other concept or skill, must be explained, modeled, practiced and reinforced, especially the first few weeks of school. Students must know what listening looks like, sounds like and feels like.
Now I introduce active listening on the first day of school in 3 easy steps:
1. Create a common definition: I give each student 3 colored Post-Its. On the first Post-It, I ask them to write down what active listening looks like. I call students up to the board and each student shares while I sort and label students’ responses. After all have shared, we come up with a consensus and repeat the process for the sounds like and feels like indicators. I record these on my Good Listening Poster.
2. Practice active listening indicators: Next I share my Alert Listening Position (ALP) poem that teaches specific active listening behaviors and we practice these behaviors several times. Students are actively engaged in learning as they chant the second line of each stanza and model the listening behaviors with their bodies. We also practice non-ALP behaviors such as slumping in seat, head on desk, no eye contact so students can understand non-examples. While we are practicing, I rove the room and take pictures of excellent ALP examples and post to my ALP poem to use as visual reminders of expected behaviors. Students also get a copy of the ALP poem and add visual cues to help them remember active listening expectations.
3. Reinforce and provide regular feedback: During the first few weeks of school, we say the poem together before each lesson to ensure that all students are active listeners. As students become proficient, we recite poem in the morning only and I will give active listening reminders before each lesson by saying, “Let’s do an ALP check,” and provide feedback as necessary. I also share this with specials’ teachers as well as cafeteria aides so that students understand that I expect active listening throughout campus, not just in my classroom.
Need suggestions for teaching other routines, procedures and transitions? Download our Back to School Teacher Toolbox: Routines, Procedures and Transitions that has engaging activities and lessons to teach 10 critical classroom routines.
Happy New Year!
It’s our Flash Friday Freebie! Download the free Golden Keys to Success Classroom Management Plan and purchase the accompanying Golden Keys to Success Lesson Plans to start your year off on a golden note.
Do you every feel as if you are a glorified manager, simply trying to control the herd and maintain peace? Your classroom management plan is to blame. Most of the current, trendy behavior plans focus solely on teacher-based management. In these systems, the teacher directs and tries to control students’ behavior with little student involvement or ownership.
The clip system is the perfect example. Each student has a clothespin labeled with his/her name on it and begins the day in the middle of the chart on green “ready to learn.” During the course of the day students have the opportunity to move their clothespin up and down the chart according to their behavior choices. Positive behavior choices allow the student to move up a level and inappropriate behavior choices cause the clothespin to move down a level.
This system is extremely laborious as it requires constant teacher monitoring and feedback. What happens if the students didn’t move the clip when asked? What happens if you forgot to tell the student to clip up or down? What do you tell the concerned parent when you forgot why her son clipped down? How do you handle the student who “lost” his clip? Everyone who’s used the clip system has experienced these scenarios, probably more than once as in my case. These issues occur because we are trying to dominate students’ behavior rather than make them accountable.
The Golden Keys to Success Classroom Management Plan and accompanying lesson plans are your answer! This program teaches five critical life skills: be respectful, take care of self, be prepared, be prompt and participate. Students learn how to apply them to the classroom and transfer them to new settings and situations.
In this program students learn the definition of each key and practice the specific, accompanying behavior indicators. Furthermore, it provides daily home-school communication as students are required to get parental signature on the Keys to Success chart nightly. If an infraction occurs, parents can easily read the marked indicator to understand what happened.
The Golden Keys Success also provides weekly reflection; on Fridays, students write a Glow, an achievement, and a Grow, a short-term goal for upcoming week. A colorful, parent brochure explains the system, positive and negative consequences and essential questions about classroom behavior.
The best part? It’s our Flash Friday Freebie! Download the free Golden Keys to Success Classroom Management Plan and purchase the accompanying Golden Keys to Success Lesson Plans to start your year off on a golden note.
The first week of school is a time to focus on establishing procedures, explaining expectations and building classroom community. Infuse some fun into these lessons with our FLASH FRIDAY FREEBIE! Back to School Character Education Classroom Cooking Unit.
First Day Jitter Jumble: Students often feel nervous and anxious on the first day of school and it is important to address to help them feel more comfortable in the classroom. Read First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg and discuss Sarah’s feelings and compare to students’ initial feelings. Then follow recipe to make Jitter Jumble together, discussing and recording what each ingredient represents. Students can then complete First Day Jitters recording sheet as you serve Jitter Jumble snack to class.
Apple Mouth Snacks: Teach students the appropriate times to talk in class with this easy snack recipe. Discuss the importance of talking times and quiet times at school; reinforce that both are needed throughout the day. Complete Venn diagram together to compare appropriate and inappropriate talking times. Students can then follow recipe to make the apple mouth snack.
Friendship Salad: Help students define key qualities of friendship with Friendship Salad.
Read Horace, Morris but Mostly Delores by James Howe, stopping when Horace and Morris kick Delores out of the Mega Mice Club. Ask students if they’ve been in a similar situation and then brainstorm a list of strategies Delores could use to solve this problem. Read to the end, stopping to discuss as needed. Make Friendship Salad afterwards, discussing what each ingredient represents. Walk Friendship Salad around the room, allowing students to see and smell it (they will be very anxious to eat it). Then pull out the final ingredient…..a rotten banana. Start to peel the banana and move towards bowl; students will scream in disgust. Explain that the rotten banana ruins the salad, just like cruel behavior can ruin a friendship. Remind them to treat others with kindness and respect….don’t ever be the rotten banana. I post a picture of the rotten banana on our classroom door as a reminder.
Unit details: Detailed lesson plans are included with essential questions, materials list along with suggestions for teacher modeling, guided practice and independent practice. Each lesson includes accompanying worksheets and graphic organizers to help students understand and reflect on these important character traits and life skills.
Start your year off right with our comprehensive line of Back to School products! Be sure to check out our Best of Back to School Lesson Plans & Activities, Golden Keys to Success Behavior Management Planand Back to School Teacher Toolbox: Routines, Procedures & Transitions.
Happy New Year!
As veteran teachers, we know that the beginning of year often means countless meetings, endless hours of preparation and a great deal of stress. Let us alleviate some of your stress with our tried and true back to school resources guaranteed to help you work smarter, not harder. Plus, everything’s ON SALE!!!!
Best of Back to School Lesson Plans & Activities: This unit focuses on establishing procedures, explaining expectations and building classroom community while creating an organized, efficient schedule with minimal preparation. Our comprehensive first week lesson plans include 50+ interactive, engaging activities with objectives & detailed instructions, homework ideas,daily math lessons and art projects.
Golden Keys to Success Classroom Management Plan: Golden Keys to Success is an efficient behavior management program that builds character, promotes self-monitoring and ensures high behavioral expectations. This program has made a huge difference in my students’ behavior because it teaches them to be responsible for daily choices. Golden Keys to Success focuses on 5 important life skills and qualities that students need to become successful citizens. This 90 page unit includes 21 detailed lessons with essential questions and quality literature, 34 engaging activities and projects, a Weekly Responsibility Chart (for students) and a parent brochure with overview of program, consequences and helpful parent tips.
Common Core Math Problem-Solving Essentials Bundle: This ultimate bundle provides an entire year’s worth of differentiated Common Core problem-solving activities to give students the strategies they need to solve word problems. Perfect for general education, special education, RTI and math intervention! This 636 page file has all of the lessons, activities, worksheets and printables you need for comprehensive problem-solving instruction. It is the perfect supplement to any existing curriculum or can be used as a stand alone resource.
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Happy New Year!
Just the mention of Meet the Teacher or Curriculum Night makes most teachers break out into a cold sweat. Why is this? We speak in front of people all day, every day, but the difference is their age. Children will still love us if we make a mistake, get nervous or act silly (they especially love when this happens). Adults by nature are more judgmental and harder to win over. Stop the dread and take back control with these easy tips:
1. Prepare, prepare, prepare: Plan your handouts and student activities at least 2 days before the big event. Don’t wait until last minute–that’s when the copier breaks or the computer runs out of ink. Not sure what to say at Meet the Teacher and Curriculum Night? Download our Welcome Back to School Parent Packet for several important customizable letters and forms.
2. Post directions & agenda for the night: Write specific directions for parents to read as they come into the classroom. Make sure they know they must fill out transportation form, room parent slip and student information card. Plus it gives them something to do (other than staring at you) while waiting for the presentation to start. Many parents must attend more than one Meet the Teacher on the same night. Help these parents by posting an agenda (with times) for the night so they can determine the best time to quietly exit and go to next session.
3. Serve refreshments: It is polite to serve refreshments for guests in your home and the same etiquette applies in the classroom. I purchase inexpensive cookies (from Target or Walmart) and place on serving trays. Add decorative napkins and flowers as a finishing touch.
4. Provide engaging activities for students: At the beginning of the night, I need to address just the parents and don’t want students talking or running around the room. While parents are completing necessary paperwork, I gather students (and their siblings) and bring them to the carpet area where I give them a word search, pencil and white board. I explain directions and set expectations for their behavior. I also pass out lollipops to eat–this keeps their mouths busy while I am addressing parents. Be sure to put a garbage can there as well or you will have wrappers and sticks all over the room.
After I speak to parents, I give the kids a scavenger hunt with 9 boxes of items to find in class. I glue small, round stickers to each scavenger sheet; students place a sticker on the box after the item is found. When students are finished, they get to help themselves to refreshments (I set a limit on number of cookies or you will have a couple that will try to take the whole tray–trust me, I’ve learned from experience)
5. Create suggested supplies visual: Each year students come in with random bags of supplies and rarely want to share them with the rest of the classroom. To alleviate this problem this year, I listed specific supplies I wanted to students to bring and then created a visual of what the supplies should look like. I simply purchased a medium-sized pencil case and glued the requested supplies inside and showed it during the presentation, reminding parents to unwrap items and place inside case as shown. This year all the students brought their prepared pencil cases just as I had shown and it was a HUGE time-saver! They simply put inside their desks and we were able to move on to other procedures.
6. Make a Giving Tree: Parents love to donate supplies at the beginning of the year, so write down each item on an apple and post on a Giving Tree. Remind parents to pick an apple or two before they leave for the night. They return the apple with donations during the first week of school.
Most importantly, remember to smile, breathe and believe in yourself! You’ve got this!
With the implementation of Common Core standards and performance-based pay, teachers are under more pressure to perform than ever. Every minute must be devoted to instruction, causing teachers to cut any activity not directly aligned to standards.
This intense pressure starts at the beginning of the year, a vital time to set expectations and establish procedures and routines, or tight transitions. The costliest mistake teachers make is to introduce academics too early without laying the foundation for tight transitions. Many think they are saving time or getting a jump-start on the year; but in reality, this is costing them their most valuable resource—time. Sounds contradictory doesn’t it? Time wasted in poor transitions equates to a great loss of instructional time. It’s the difference between finishing a lesson effectively and running out of time without recapping or closing the lesson, a critical component of effective lessons. Furthermore, messy transitions often invite misbehavior and other disruptions that require teacher redirection, a loss of time. Tightening transitions saves up to 10 minutes daily, which equates to hours of instructional time throughout the year.
It took me years to perfect the art of teaching tight transitions. At first, I couldn’t understand how students didn’t know how to line up—it’s such a simple concept. Why couldn’t they quietly put their materials away or quickly meet at the carpet? After a great deal of professional reading and help from fellow teachers, I realized that I need to explicitly model and teach these transitions starting from day one.
I’ve created the Back to School Teacher Toolbox: Routines, Procedures and Transitions to help all teachers with the critical process. This Toolbox contains engaging, colorful resources and activities that explain how to teach, model, practice, and reinforce important systems and routines throughout the year.
Check out our next week’s Back to School blog: The Do’s & Don’ts of Classroom Management.