Spring Cleaning Means Spring Organization!

This year has been crazy with new teachers, new students, new ideas, RTI, Intervention, Co-Teaching, Space Night, STAAR testing, Benchmarks, SPED requirements, new professional development and so much more. I still love it, though :)

Now that it is spring, it is more important than ever to get organized. Everything is getting jammed into the school day along with testing coming up, so people are freaking out about getting it all done. I wanted to share my Daily Teacher Organizer that I use to help me get through the day. In the morning, when my head is clear, I fill out my organizer with all of the things that have to be done that day. Everything that is school related fits in one of the sections in the organizer, and I have a dedicated clipboard for it so I can find it easily and quickly as the day goes on. I am offering it as a free download on my blog and in my TPT store.

There are 3 versions, so use whichever one works best for you. I use the middle version, the one featured below. It does what I need it to do daily. I really find it helpful for me, and hopefully some of you will, too!

Have a great week!

Classroom Management for the New School Year

Every year, no matter how good it goes or how many headaches occur, I am always ready to try new things when a new year approaches. I finished my room this year in record time...5pm Friday before school :) I am going to implement a few new things in my classroom that I saw on blogs over the summer and I am keeping some that I thought worked great from last year.

*FYI - I have about 120 students in 4 science classes (one regular, 1 co-teach, and 2 pre-AP) and one hour long Intervention class where students get enrichment or intervention at the end of the day. I have one lab classroom and work on a team with 4 other teachers (Math, ELA, Soc.Studies and SPED).

1. New Volume Board -It won't flip, even if it is saved that way, so instead of fighting it, please tilt your head :) If anyone can help me with this, I would greatly appreciate it.

I have used a C.H.A.M.P.S. board, but I found it too hard to switch all sections each time we did something different in class. I saw something similar to this this summer and I decided it would work better. My whole team is using this in each of their classrooms so students get to used to it and know exactly what the expectations are for each section.

2. Old Supplies Marking

I used pickle duct tape on my class sets of supplies last year (glue, scissors, red pens, etc.,...) and I lost so many less supplies to sticky fingers than in years past. I chose a duct tape design that I didn't see many places, so another teacher probably would not have it. Dill Pickles seemed appropriate. I wrapped it around my glue, and made little flags for my scissors and pens and things. When the tape stuck to the sticky side of itself, it was much harder for a student to pry off or for it to just fall off from wear and tear. I decided this was a great thing to do again this year.

3. New Exit Tickets - Stoplight Method

I have wanted to routinely implement exit tickets in my classroom for many years. It has been hard to find a system that was not wasting paper, was easy for me to assess, and was easy for the students to remember how to do. I saw this video on Teacher Channel. It seemed really easy to make, and the students could easily slap them up on the wall as they left the room. The green one says, "Today I LEARNED...(be specific!)." The yellow one says, "A QUESTION I have is..." The red one says, "What STOPPED my learning was..." Hopefully I can easily grab stickies by color and really make sure I focus on those points. This will also help me prioritize which exit slips get the most attention when I have to leave right after class and cannot assess 120 slips in one evening.

4. Old Enter and Exit Checklists

 I used these last year, and they were a good reminder of my expectations when entering my classroom and before being able to leave the classroom. It also gave me a place to direct the students to reference when they forgot or needed redirection.

5. New/Old Finger Signs

I know a lot of teachers think 5th graders are too old for finger signs, but they make my class run a lot smoother. Students hold up certain fingers for certain needs, so you can just nod your head while you are teaching or talking to others without interruption. It is especially helpful during testing and other silent times. I just updated my posters from last year so they were easier to see from across the room (my science lab is pretty long).

6. New Absent Files

I think it age appropriate for 5th graders to be responsible for their own absent work. Last year, I had a folder on the wall per class. If a student was absent, I would write their name on the papers and put them in the right folder. This year, I made a simple stacked file pocket out of file folders and duct tape. It was another idea I saw this summer. It was really easy to make. Instructions are here. When a student is absent, I can just put all the copies from the day in the folder and they can get one out for the day they were absent. We will see if this way is easier that last year's way.

7. Old Color-Coded Classes

To make my life and the students' lives easier, each class is color-coded. The labels for their turn in boxes, journal bins, and warm up / pass back shelves all have the same color. We will also tape a piece of matching colored paper on the spine of their journals so we can easily get each journal back into the correct bin.

Hopefully all of these classroom management strategies will help make life a little easier in the classroom so we can maximize learning time. I hope you have a great year, and I will post again, soon!

C.H.A.M.P.S

This year, already as week in, I would like to implement C.H.A.M.P.S in my classroom. I had seen a few of these floating around other blogs, and I thought this would be a great idea in my classroom. It is a classroom management tool that allows you to easily set up guidelines for basics like conversation levels, how to get help, activity level, movement allowed, and participation required during different classroom activities such as labs, testing, independent work, journaling, and other activities.

I will post a picture this week once I set it up, but I made the printables for it. You print them, and laminate them stacked on top of one another. Then you can put them on the whiteboard and use magnets to show what the guidelines are or stick them to a wall leaving the left side unattached and use clothes pins to show the guidelines.

 

The top page has a spot to write the activity you are working on (use dry erase markers after laminating). I also included a grid page that had the different activities we would be using in my classroom and the guidelines for those quickly so students could have a reference in their binders to refer to, too.

There are two different versions; a bright version, and a robot version (to match my classroom, of course!). You can get the bright version on Teachers Pay Teachers and the robot version up above!

If you download it, let me know if you are able to implement it and how it goes or if you already use this system :)

First Day and Room Reveal

Today was the first day of school, and it went pretty well. I got all my signs and decorations up. I am so excited for students to get to use them! 

I have 120 kids in 4 science classes. My teammates are awesome teachers and people. I am very blessed :)

My room:

Verb wall

 

Absent board

Help wall

Scientific method

Word wall (cabinet)

Early finishers and think tanks board

Non-fiction text structures

First day activity

Did I mention I love teaching?

Partnering Up and a Freebie!

A few posts ago, I had shared some iPartners, a fun way to partner up your classroom kids. Well, since school is starting Monday, and I have a team this year, we all decided to use iPartners. So I made each of them their own set based on their class theme.

Now I have iPartners Science,

iPartners Hollywood,

iPartners America,

and iPartners Math.

I also made a special one, just for y'all for free. Introducing iPartners Roberson Family (a.k.a. Duck Dynasty)!

If you like this idea and would like to custom order an iPartners, just let me know!

Now, my classroom is done, my roster will be finished in October (J/K), and I am done with school prep for the weekend. I can focus on kids, my husband, family and friends so I can be relaxed and ready for the crazy on Monday!

How to get Parents to Get Supplies for your Lab

I know it is late, and I am about to go to bed, but I wanted to post this freebie that took my 30 minutes to write and 7 hours to complete (bless the children). This is a tip on how to get parents to help supply your classroom from the start. We do this in the science lab every year, and even do it again once we have Open House later in the year. Just make sure you give the kids some type of reward for bringing in extra supplies. We have a ticket system at our school, so each item brought in is worth 1 ticket. Click the picture to get the how to.

Enjoy and goodnight!

Instead of "I Don't Know!"

How many of us have let kids just check out with an "I Don't Know," and then we move on to someone else? We cannot do this!

In my class, students know they cannot get off the hook with IDK. They have options. They can Phone a Friend, where they get to have someone else give an answer, then they must confer with that friend and decide if they want to take that answer or if it sparked some other answer. They can Tag Out, where they get to call on a friend to answer the question completely knowing that the next question asked is coming straight back to them and then lost this option for the rest of the class. They can Buy More Time, where they can choose for you to move on to another question or whatever in class and they have to get back to you you (in 5 minutes, by the end of class, ...) with an answer. If they choose this option, it better be the right answer since they had more time to think or check resources. Their final option is to get a Classmate Clue, where a classmate can give them a clue, not the answer, and then they will be able to answer.

These have to be taught to the students when you first start classroom discussions. That way, they options come naturally to them later and everyone is one the same page when we are all talking. I made a poster set for my classroom to remind the student of their options once we have learned them all.

Click on either picture to get the posters for your class. I hope you find it helpful for getting those "I Don't Know"s out of your classroom!

Fun way to set up partners

In science, we use partners almost daily. Kids get tired of the same old same old partners. I know a lot of people have used Clock Buddies (me included) and other ways, but here is just another way to do it.

iPartners Journal Pages (click on the picture to get it)

Students use the symbols to partner up with another person. They write their names on each other's boxes with the same symbol. They only have 6 to fill out, then...they glue them in their journals! They cannot lose it unless they (heaven forbid!) lose their journals. When you are ready for new partners, do it again and add this new page to their journals.

When you are ready to partner up, just say, "Find your Recycle partner." I also like to color and laminate the large cards for each symbol. Then I can have it on the board and the students know to find their partner when they come to class without me saying anything. Then we are ready to go! Its just a fun way to do the same thing we have been doing.