School doesn't start for another two weeks. Actually, it's almost THREE weeks until I meet students, but teachers report the week prior (and then we have a four-day weekend). I'm ready to go back. Not that I'm ready to deal with the day to day hassles, but it will be nice to be back in a regular routine. The Princess ate dinner at 7:30 tonight after a two-hour pool session, and I'm sure we won't leave the house again tomorrow until noon. I already know that if I don't get us back on some kind of schedule next week, we'll have big problems on my first day.
The Princess will go back to school next week, although her pre-K is still in summer mode. She'll be with the same kids and the same teacher as June (we took the summer off but almost everyone else stayed), but the following week she'll move into the REAL pre-K class. That teacher is very big into sight words, initial sounds, learning centers, real kindergarten readiness. As a teacher, I appreciate that and I'm confident she'll have the necessary skills for the following year. As a mom, I think my baby girl is too young for that kind of intensity. (And as for the Princess, she doesn't really like anyone who doesn't immediately recognize her royal status.)
Since she'll be in school, I'll have seven hours a day to myself. For a whole five days. In a row. Of course, we live 35 minutes from school so it's not practical (or economical) to come home every day and clean the house like I want to do. Maybe one day I'll do it, but not all five. I'll probably go into my classroom for a few hours each day, in the morning before it gets too hot. I already know I have to move my desk and table, as the custodians put it back in the wrong place. (My beloved custodian who cleaned my room for the past six years died suddenly last month. I'm not sure how they are handling his position, if it will be filled or not. I know that with budget cuts, my Mister's school is down four custodians this summer and everyone else has to pick up the extra; basically he's working 1.25 jobs.) I also want to print and post my new Cognates bulletin board set, and of course photocopy as much of my first unit as possible.
We get access to our class lists either tomorrow or Friday. I try to read all of the IEPs before school starts, make notes, and determine what special seating needs I'll have to make. I like to have a seating chart ready on the first day, and make adjustments as needed. I put a post it on every desk with a number, display a class list on the board with the desk number next to each student, and keep a grid of student names for when I call roll on the first day. This lets me see which students actually look at the board as soon as they come in, who my natural leaders are (the ones who reprimand students for not looking at the board for their seat assignment), and start class immediately in Spanish. My first conversation with them simply greets, exchanges names, and shakes hands; communication and culture right from the beginning.
I'm also hoping to do a few Pinterest projects next week. I want to make one of those Teacher Toolboxes I've seen floating around, I bought the box at H0me Dep0t but I haven't made it pretty yet. I also want to put felt under each of my student chairs, I have the rubber bands but not the felt yet.
What do you still have to do this summer?
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Friday, August 16, 2013
Teacher Tips
Today is the last week of Blog Hoppin's teacher appreciation week. I'm pretty excited that I posted every day! Seriously, though, can you PLEASE leave a comment today? Even one that says "this is horribly boring, give it up girl." Just write something. I know people have clicked on the page because I see my page views is no longer "1," but there are no comments. :( I'm feeling a little self conscious here.
Today's topic is Teacher Tips. Nothing earth shattering here and no pictures, but three things I tell people all the time. (The first is my biggest piece of advice for new doctoral students, too!)
Thumb drives are your friends! At least once a year my school network crashes to the point of not being able to access a single file. If the computer itself works, or even if I can borrow a school laptop, I can still do most of my planned lesson (not the Internet) since I have it saved on the thumb. Word, power point, smartboard, PDFs, everything.
2. Be nice (genuinely nice) to the custodians. They know when you're just sucking up because you need them to help move stuff for you. They don't like that, they will talk about it, and they may find more pressing things to do before helping you. If you're ALWAYS nice, learn their names and ask about their families, they will be glad to help you with things that aren't part of their job description. (And moving the new desk chair you got over the summer from your car to your third-floor classroom is NOT in their job description.) Believe me, my Mister is a school custodian and I hear it all the time. (We've never worked in the same district and didn't meet through anything associated with school.)
3. When talking with parents, remember this Sweetie is the best thing that ever happened to that parent! If the parent accuses you of mistreating Sweetie, take it from the perspective that it is their job to protect their child. (Explain what happened, be firm in your statement, but understand that their personal attack on you comes out of their intense love for their child.) And the parent who "doesn't care" might care the most but not know how to show it. Maybe they were raised being told the teacher is ALWAYS right. Maybe they never did well in school and they are afraid they'll do something to jeopardize their child's education. Maybe they just don't know how to help. (Be friendly. Be reassuring. Send home activities that require kids "teach" their parents, because that will give them an eye for HOW you teach. Offer activities they can do with their child for extending learning, like posting information about a museum exhibit or directions to a local cultural festival.) Or maybe this parent has heard seven years' worth of teachers bad-mouthing their kid and they are just tired of hearing it. (Don't bad-mouth a child! That reflects on YOU, not on the student.). And if there's a parent who truly doesn't care, and there are a few out there, realize that this student has to live with that parent, the student wants to please this parent and earn his/her love, and the student will probably seek negative attention since that's better than NO attention. (That's the kid who NEEDS you more than all the others, even though it may be hardest for you.)
I'm off for a weekend vacay (please don't call it "vaca," which I read as "weekend cow") with my family, then a few days with the Princess by the pool before I venture into my classroom to set up. Have a good weekend!
Today's topic is Teacher Tips. Nothing earth shattering here and no pictures, but three things I tell people all the time. (The first is my biggest piece of advice for new doctoral students, too!)
Thumb drives are your friends! At least once a year my school network crashes to the point of not being able to access a single file. If the computer itself works, or even if I can borrow a school laptop, I can still do most of my planned lesson (not the Internet) since I have it saved on the thumb. Word, power point, smartboard, PDFs, everything.
2. Be nice (genuinely nice) to the custodians. They know when you're just sucking up because you need them to help move stuff for you. They don't like that, they will talk about it, and they may find more pressing things to do before helping you. If you're ALWAYS nice, learn their names and ask about their families, they will be glad to help you with things that aren't part of their job description. (And moving the new desk chair you got over the summer from your car to your third-floor classroom is NOT in their job description.) Believe me, my Mister is a school custodian and I hear it all the time. (We've never worked in the same district and didn't meet through anything associated with school.)
3. When talking with parents, remember this Sweetie is the best thing that ever happened to that parent! If the parent accuses you of mistreating Sweetie, take it from the perspective that it is their job to protect their child. (Explain what happened, be firm in your statement, but understand that their personal attack on you comes out of their intense love for their child.) And the parent who "doesn't care" might care the most but not know how to show it. Maybe they were raised being told the teacher is ALWAYS right. Maybe they never did well in school and they are afraid they'll do something to jeopardize their child's education. Maybe they just don't know how to help. (Be friendly. Be reassuring. Send home activities that require kids "teach" their parents, because that will give them an eye for HOW you teach. Offer activities they can do with their child for extending learning, like posting information about a museum exhibit or directions to a local cultural festival.) Or maybe this parent has heard seven years' worth of teachers bad-mouthing their kid and they are just tired of hearing it. (Don't bad-mouth a child! That reflects on YOU, not on the student.). And if there's a parent who truly doesn't care, and there are a few out there, realize that this student has to live with that parent, the student wants to please this parent and earn his/her love, and the student will probably seek negative attention since that's better than NO attention. (That's the kid who NEEDS you more than all the others, even though it may be hardest for you.)
I'm off for a weekend vacay (please don't call it "vaca," which I read as "weekend cow") with my family, then a few days with the Princess by the pool before I venture into my classroom to set up. Have a good weekend!
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Classroom management
I'm still plugging along with Blog Hoppin's Teacher Appreciation Week. Today's topic is Classroom Management. By the way, if you stop by this blog, even if you don't read the entire thing, can you please leave a comment to let me know you were here? I've got two comments IN TOTAL so far and I'd really like to end the week with at least five. (High expectations, no?)
Twenty-two years later, I've tried a bunch of those classroom management systems. I've taugh middle school for all but three of those years (when I taught high school), and I can definitely tell the moon cycle based on student behavior! For the past few years I've been using a combination of 1-2-3 Magic and Love & Logic, but I did that old name-check-consequence public humiliation, Assertive Discipline, red card, all those trends. I'm too old for trends now, so I just adapt what I feel comfortable with.
Rewards - I teach 7th grade and I do not support the idea of a token economy at this age. (BTW, when The Princess is this age, I totally plan on continuing our token economy as an allowance. What works at home may not always work with 125 students!) my school has a P*sitive Behavi0r system(trying to throw off search engines with the symbols) where students get a ticket for doing the right thing. Categories in our school are cooperation, accountability, tolerance, and safety. For the most part, I only issue these when I notice a bunch of kids NOT doing the right thing (like too many chatty kids during the warm up or many missed homeworks on Monday), and I give the tickets to kids who were accountable for their learning. If everyone is perfect during a drill (or most kids are), I'll give a ticket.
Consequences - With 1-2-3 Magic, consequences are built into the program. One means "stop what you're doing," two means "this is your last chance," and three means "time out." Most of the time, I just have kids sit alone in the back of the room; in honesty we hardly ever get to three. It's really only when a student is continually disruptive to the point other students can't get their work done that I send students out of the room. Generally, I go by the rule of thumb that it's a bigger punishment to deal with ME than to sit in the air conditioned office and overhear the gossip. I also like that Love & Logic offers students choices, both are acceptable to you as the teacher but one is much more along what you would like them to do. For example, you can finish the work in class and not have any homework, or you can keep playing this game for five minutes and finish alone for homework (usually said when the game is clearly producing too much "excitement"). I'm not a fan of detention and only assign it when students misbehave for a substitute teacher. My reasoning is that, if a student misbehaves in my absence then I need to send a message to that student AND to the rest of the class that it is unacceptable so a harsher-than-usual consequence is applied.
On task behavior - The old adage, the best way to avoid behavior problems is to have good lessons, definitely applies! I do several activities each period and I try to order them so there is some kind of fun, engaging, interactive thing in between two more boring things. YouTube is one of my best friends, simply because I can put on a two minute content-driven video that the kids will laugh at and then we can get back to something else. There are some GREAT student-created verb conjugation videos!
Some people say Middle School is the worst age to teach because the kids are "walking hormones." Once you figure out that they are extremely self conscious because they ARE walking hormones, all you have to do is work with that knowledge. Don't embarrass them, don't call them out, acknowledge the good and sometimes overlook the not-so-good. They are still kids and the like to have fun, but they think they are adults so they think they want responsibility. They are MIDDLE kids in every sense. And I love it!
Twenty-two years later, I've tried a bunch of those classroom management systems. I've taugh middle school for all but three of those years (when I taught high school), and I can definitely tell the moon cycle based on student behavior! For the past few years I've been using a combination of 1-2-3 Magic and Love & Logic, but I did that old name-check-consequence public humiliation, Assertive Discipline, red card, all those trends. I'm too old for trends now, so I just adapt what I feel comfortable with.
Rewards - I teach 7th grade and I do not support the idea of a token economy at this age. (BTW, when The Princess is this age, I totally plan on continuing our token economy as an allowance. What works at home may not always work with 125 students!) my school has a P*sitive Behavi0r system(trying to throw off search engines with the symbols) where students get a ticket for doing the right thing. Categories in our school are cooperation, accountability, tolerance, and safety. For the most part, I only issue these when I notice a bunch of kids NOT doing the right thing (like too many chatty kids during the warm up or many missed homeworks on Monday), and I give the tickets to kids who were accountable for their learning. If everyone is perfect during a drill (or most kids are), I'll give a ticket.
Consequences - With 1-2-3 Magic, consequences are built into the program. One means "stop what you're doing," two means "this is your last chance," and three means "time out." Most of the time, I just have kids sit alone in the back of the room; in honesty we hardly ever get to three. It's really only when a student is continually disruptive to the point other students can't get their work done that I send students out of the room. Generally, I go by the rule of thumb that it's a bigger punishment to deal with ME than to sit in the air conditioned office and overhear the gossip. I also like that Love & Logic offers students choices, both are acceptable to you as the teacher but one is much more along what you would like them to do. For example, you can finish the work in class and not have any homework, or you can keep playing this game for five minutes and finish alone for homework (usually said when the game is clearly producing too much "excitement"). I'm not a fan of detention and only assign it when students misbehave for a substitute teacher. My reasoning is that, if a student misbehaves in my absence then I need to send a message to that student AND to the rest of the class that it is unacceptable so a harsher-than-usual consequence is applied.
On task behavior - The old adage, the best way to avoid behavior problems is to have good lessons, definitely applies! I do several activities each period and I try to order them so there is some kind of fun, engaging, interactive thing in between two more boring things. YouTube is one of my best friends, simply because I can put on a two minute content-driven video that the kids will laugh at and then we can get back to something else. There are some GREAT student-created verb conjugation videos!
Some people say Middle School is the worst age to teach because the kids are "walking hormones." Once you figure out that they are extremely self conscious because they ARE walking hormones, all you have to do is work with that knowledge. Don't embarrass them, don't call them out, acknowledge the good and sometimes overlook the not-so-good. They are still kids and the like to have fun, but they think they are adults so they think they want responsibility. They are MIDDLE kids in every sense. And I love it!
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Now Teach: Organizing for Instruction
Day Three of Blog Hoppin' Teacher Appreciation Week. I'm pretty proud of myself for doing it three days in a row! Today's theme is "Organizing for Instruction." Difficult to think of, since I have almost another month before I have to teach. Of course, I've already written my lesson plan for the first week and the unit plan for the first month, but that's just me. (Yes, really. I have the entire week planned out, activities and handouts and everything.)
I'm not really good at the organization thing. I have good intentions, but I lack follow through. You know how they say middle school teachers are like middle school students, right? There are a few things I do that are productive and save me time. I'm not organized, but I strive on structure. (If I could get away with having the same order of activities every day,mor even one consistent activity every week like Lectura Lunes, Translation Tuesday, Juego Jueves, I'd be really happy. Yes, I've given it that much thought.)
Among my "best" organization strategies are:
I'm not really good at the organization thing. I have good intentions, but I lack follow through. You know how they say middle school teachers are like middle school students, right? There are a few things I do that are productive and save me time. I'm not organized, but I strive on structure. (If I could get away with having the same order of activities every day,mor even one consistent activity every week like Lectura Lunes, Translation Tuesday, Juego Jueves, I'd be really happy. Yes, I've given it that much thought.)
Among my "best" organization strategies are:
- Daily agenda posts. On one side of my board I have the day, date, and weather in Spanish. On the other side I have the essential question, list of activities, homework assignment, and upcoming tests or deadlines. I'm not foolish enough to think its for the kids, it's mostly for ME, but I like having it there to point to when students ask the same questions.
- Daily record sheet - I keep all the information about each class day on a separate sheet of paper, and most of those papers eventually make it into a binder. I've adapted the template as district expectations changed (most recently added the essential question), but it's always included a record of which students were absent, who was at the nurse or music lessons, who didn't hand in homework and who made up a missed assignment. That way I have a written record that I can complete in seconds while teaching, to accompany the online grade and attendance system. I can't tell you how many times a <strike>parent</strike> student will tell me I made a mistake with homework, but I have a written record. The most popular excuse always revolves around absenteeism, which led me to...
- The absent files. I have a black stacky thing (paper sorter? See the next post for a picture) that I labeled with each class period, and I put all handouts with the absent students' names right on them. I also write out homework assignments (or on the handout I'll state the handout is the HW) and upcoming test / quiz / project reminders.
- I recently got a 6-drawer file cabinet to store all of ,y manipulatives by chapter. I had them in sandwich bags in binders, but it got too overwhelming. This year I'll go through each drawer (everything is sorted by chapter already) and see what things can be grouped together, do some better labeling, and hopefully dispose of the not-so-good things.
- I keep all of ,y computer files (word, power point, smart board, etc) in a file called Spanish, in the current year, divided by chapter. I do have the same things in multiple years, but I only go back about three years so I'll start to delete by the year on a rotation. This system makes it VERy easy to find things. I also try to write a number before each file to help determine the order of topics in each chapter.
I wish I had one of those gorgeous rooms like I see on Pinterest, but it's just. It gonna happen for me.The new file cabinet (a lucite one) will probably never have pretty paper taped to the inside of every front drawer, the old file cabinets (metal) will probably never be painted with rust oleum or mod-posted with pretty paper, and the Teacher Toolbox that I bought today (at Home Depot) probably won't get spray painted, color coded, and labeled with much more than a post it. A girl can dream, though.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
(Imaginary) Classroom Tour
I'm back to do another link on the Blog Hoppin' Teacher Appreciation Week. Today's topic is "Classroom Digs: Classroom Tour." The problem is, I can't get into my classroom and I don't have any pictures of my room to share. We don't start school until after Labor Day, two days of professional development, and then a four-day weekend. Right about now is the time in the summer when I start to plan for the year, though. I get kinda antsy after no solid plans for too long. Who's with me?
Since I don't have access to my REAL classroom, I'll give a tour of my Pinterest classroom. Granted, I'm not as artistic as some of these awesome teachers, but I'll give it my best shot.
I teach Middle School Spanish, so my theme is pretty much "teaching Spanish." Creative, no? My district has a policy to use the walls as content reinforcement, not just pretty, inspirational decorations. I have a few of those things, though. On my closet door I have an old bulletin board set with two traditionally-dressed Mexican kid cartoons. And in different spots around the room I have piñatas, some commercial and some student-made. Some years I also have a Cumpleaños (birthday) display, but I list the students' birthdays in Spanish so I guess that's content reinforcement, too.
As you enter the room, on the right side wall is the classroom computer area, four computers and a printer. Behind the computers (so barely accessible to me) is a wall of chalkboard. I use it as a permanent bulletin board, since I can't change it. I posted my National Standards there (a poster I got many years ago), some helpful websites (my Quia site, my class website, and the online textbook site), and a world map. The part of the board closest to the door is where I put the Cumpleaños display, since it's the easiest to reach. Above that is a bulletin board strip (that I can't reach, even if I stand on top of the desks) where I have the Spanish alphabet with phonetic hints. I teach the alphabet during the first week of school, but most of the time students only learn it from a song. This year I'm also going to use a new presentation I made that showcases different parts of the Spanish-speaking world, alphabetically. I'm really excited about that and hope the library color printer has enough ink! And every year I say I'm going to decorate my clock but I haven't gotten around to it, probably because there's no way I can reach it and I don't want to bother a tall friend with that much taping.
Another option is to have the custodian swap out the standard-issue clock with this gorgeous thing! It's too small for the kids to actually read, but I'd be happy knowing it's there.
On the back wall are my cabinets and the sink. I'm blessed with a sink, so when kids ask to go to the bathroom to wash their hands (that's 7th grade code for "wander around and possibly meet up with my friends to chat") I can send them back there. The water fountain on the sink doesn't work, but some years I stock the area with little Solo cups. If it's that hot that the kids NEED a drink, they can get one right in the classroom and not wander the halls. There are lots of cabinets, below and above the sink, and a great counter. The problem, though, is I'm attracted to clutter so the cabinets are so full that I can't really use them. I'm working slowly on getting rid of things I no longer use (like the board games for recess, since my school eliminated recess about eight years ago) and labeling the things I do use so I can find them easier. And the counter is only good for students to sit on during group work - if I stack things on there then they can't see the bulletin board behind it. I use that bulletin board for my teacher posters.
Next to the counters are my file cabinets. I used to have five of them, because I hoarded when friends retired. I've since gotten rid of most of my files (because honestly, almost everything is on my computer nowadays) so I've given away all but two of my cabinets. On top of the cabinets I have my student supply center - papers for students to pick up when they've been absent, extra paper and pens. I'm really loving the idea to put Justin Bieber on top of my classroom pens. There's absolutely no way those pens would "accidentally" wander out of my classroom if JB was on top of them!
Above the back wall I have a set of useful expressions for Spanish class. I downloaded them for free from Mis Cositas, an absolutely awesome site for foreign language teachers.
I printed them, colored with crayons (during final exam week a few years ago), and laminated them so the crayons melted and the pictures are nice and bright. I say it's my Word Wall (we were required to have a Word Wall for the past two years, which I personally feel is pointless in Spanish since all we DO is vocabulary and kinda requires students memorize it), but last year I caved and put up "new" words on the front chalkboard, too.
I swapped out my teacher desk and classroom table last year. My desk is now in the back of the room, which I really liked when another teacher shares my room. The classroom table is now in the front where the teacher computer is. Admittedly, I sit at the table more than my desk, but at least the table is more clear of papers. I covered the front of the table with a large Guatemalan flag, so no one realizes it's a table instead of a desk.
The next side of my room is windows. There are two sections of wall, one on either side of the window, but I had bookcases there. I gave away one of the bookcases last June (to limit my hoarding), so now I'll have the remaining bookcase in the back near my desk and use the area behind my computer table for resources that used to clutter the windowsill.
The black stacky thing on the left is similar to what I use in my student supply center, but I labeled each level with the class period (in Spanish words, of course). The Lucite sorter on the right is similar to what I bought in June to hold my growing collection of manipulatives. I have six units (and a final exam review unit, and four separate culture projects that are stand-alones each marking period) so I sorted the manipulatives by unit. This year as I go through each unit, I'll decide which ones are worth keeping and which can join the "no longer needed" collection (in the garbage, but I'm still a hoarder at heart so I don't admit I'm just throwing things away). I also got an awesome desk sorter thing a few years ago, when we were given budgets to spend on our classroom. (Now we can ask the office for things like staples and tape, but not necessarily big things like this.) I never really had room on my desk for it, so I'm excited to really use it this year in the area where the bookcase used to be.
I also want to make one of these. I think it would really come in handy now that my desk is so far from where I spend most of my teaching time. The problem is, I have so many half-finished projects at home that I don't want to start another right now. The Princess (my daughter) doesn't let me work without her "help," so I have to find time to do these kinds of things when she's not around.
Finally, to the front of my room. I have a Smartboard flanked by two chalkboards. The board near my computer table is where I put my teacher memos, calendar, things like that. Close to the Smartboard, I write the daily information like day of the week, date, and weather. On the other side of the Smartboard, I write the daily agenda including the essential question, planned activities, homework, and upcoming test/quiz/project dates. I made new signs for all of these areas (and more) that I'm really excited to use this year.
So that's about it. Oh, and there are some student desks in there, too. I usually have about 30 students max in a class. At the beginning of the year, I have them arranged in pairs. As we go through the year, I try different configurations (usually groups or a three-sized square) to see what works best with the noise level. We move around a lot so I don't worry about them staying with the same partner too long, but I do change pairs/groups at least once each unit.
Now I'm even MORE anxious to get into my room and play! I'm heading in on Thursday but just to pick up my teacher ID. Did you know that Six Flags Great Escape (in Lake George) is giving free admission to teachers and school staff? That means we'd only have to pay for The Princess (or we can afford one of those Speed Pass things so Doug can go on more rides without waiting). I think that's awesome!
Since I don't have access to my REAL classroom, I'll give a tour of my Pinterest classroom. Granted, I'm not as artistic as some of these awesome teachers, but I'll give it my best shot.
I teach Middle School Spanish, so my theme is pretty much "teaching Spanish." Creative, no? My district has a policy to use the walls as content reinforcement, not just pretty, inspirational decorations. I have a few of those things, though. On my closet door I have an old bulletin board set with two traditionally-dressed Mexican kid cartoons. And in different spots around the room I have piñatas, some commercial and some student-made. Some years I also have a Cumpleaños (birthday) display, but I list the students' birthdays in Spanish so I guess that's content reinforcement, too.
As you enter the room, on the right side wall is the classroom computer area, four computers and a printer. Behind the computers (so barely accessible to me) is a wall of chalkboard. I use it as a permanent bulletin board, since I can't change it. I posted my National Standards there (a poster I got many years ago), some helpful websites (my Quia site, my class website, and the online textbook site), and a world map. The part of the board closest to the door is where I put the Cumpleaños display, since it's the easiest to reach. Above that is a bulletin board strip (that I can't reach, even if I stand on top of the desks) where I have the Spanish alphabet with phonetic hints. I teach the alphabet during the first week of school, but most of the time students only learn it from a song. This year I'm also going to use a new presentation I made that showcases different parts of the Spanish-speaking world, alphabetically. I'm really excited about that and hope the library color printer has enough ink! And every year I say I'm going to decorate my clock but I haven't gotten around to it, probably because there's no way I can reach it and I don't want to bother a tall friend with that much taping.
Another option is to have the custodian swap out the standard-issue clock with this gorgeous thing! It's too small for the kids to actually read, but I'd be happy knowing it's there.
On the back wall are my cabinets and the sink. I'm blessed with a sink, so when kids ask to go to the bathroom to wash their hands (that's 7th grade code for "wander around and possibly meet up with my friends to chat") I can send them back there. The water fountain on the sink doesn't work, but some years I stock the area with little Solo cups. If it's that hot that the kids NEED a drink, they can get one right in the classroom and not wander the halls. There are lots of cabinets, below and above the sink, and a great counter. The problem, though, is I'm attracted to clutter so the cabinets are so full that I can't really use them. I'm working slowly on getting rid of things I no longer use (like the board games for recess, since my school eliminated recess about eight years ago) and labeling the things I do use so I can find them easier. And the counter is only good for students to sit on during group work - if I stack things on there then they can't see the bulletin board behind it. I use that bulletin board for my teacher posters.
Next to the counters are my file cabinets. I used to have five of them, because I hoarded when friends retired. I've since gotten rid of most of my files (because honestly, almost everything is on my computer nowadays) so I've given away all but two of my cabinets. On top of the cabinets I have my student supply center - papers for students to pick up when they've been absent, extra paper and pens. I'm really loving the idea to put Justin Bieber on top of my classroom pens. There's absolutely no way those pens would "accidentally" wander out of my classroom if JB was on top of them!
Above the back wall I have a set of useful expressions for Spanish class. I downloaded them for free from Mis Cositas, an absolutely awesome site for foreign language teachers.
I printed them, colored with crayons (during final exam week a few years ago), and laminated them so the crayons melted and the pictures are nice and bright. I say it's my Word Wall (we were required to have a Word Wall for the past two years, which I personally feel is pointless in Spanish since all we DO is vocabulary and kinda requires students memorize it), but last year I caved and put up "new" words on the front chalkboard, too.
I swapped out my teacher desk and classroom table last year. My desk is now in the back of the room, which I really liked when another teacher shares my room. The classroom table is now in the front where the teacher computer is. Admittedly, I sit at the table more than my desk, but at least the table is more clear of papers. I covered the front of the table with a large Guatemalan flag, so no one realizes it's a table instead of a desk.
The next side of my room is windows. There are two sections of wall, one on either side of the window, but I had bookcases there. I gave away one of the bookcases last June (to limit my hoarding), so now I'll have the remaining bookcase in the back near my desk and use the area behind my computer table for resources that used to clutter the windowsill.
The black stacky thing on the left is similar to what I use in my student supply center, but I labeled each level with the class period (in Spanish words, of course). The Lucite sorter on the right is similar to what I bought in June to hold my growing collection of manipulatives. I have six units (and a final exam review unit, and four separate culture projects that are stand-alones each marking period) so I sorted the manipulatives by unit. This year as I go through each unit, I'll decide which ones are worth keeping and which can join the "no longer needed" collection (in the garbage, but I'm still a hoarder at heart so I don't admit I'm just throwing things away). I also got an awesome desk sorter thing a few years ago, when we were given budgets to spend on our classroom. (Now we can ask the office for things like staples and tape, but not necessarily big things like this.) I never really had room on my desk for it, so I'm excited to really use it this year in the area where the bookcase used to be.
I also want to make one of these. I think it would really come in handy now that my desk is so far from where I spend most of my teaching time. The problem is, I have so many half-finished projects at home that I don't want to start another right now. The Princess (my daughter) doesn't let me work without her "help," so I have to find time to do these kinds of things when she's not around.
Finally, to the front of my room. I have a Smartboard flanked by two chalkboards. The board near my computer table is where I put my teacher memos, calendar, things like that. Close to the Smartboard, I write the daily information like day of the week, date, and weather. On the other side of the Smartboard, I write the daily agenda including the essential question, planned activities, homework, and upcoming test/quiz/project dates. I made new signs for all of these areas (and more) that I'm really excited to use this year.
So that's about it. Oh, and there are some student desks in there, too. I usually have about 30 students max in a class. At the beginning of the year, I have them arranged in pairs. As we go through the year, I try different configurations (usually groups or a three-sized square) to see what works best with the noise level. We move around a lot so I don't worry about them staying with the same partner too long, but I do change pairs/groups at least once each unit.
Now I'm even MORE anxious to get into my room and play! I'm heading in on Thursday but just to pick up my teacher ID. Did you know that Six Flags Great Escape (in Lake George) is giving free admission to teachers and school staff? That means we'd only have to pay for The Princess (or we can afford one of those Speed Pass things so Doug can go on more rides without waiting). I think that's awesome!
Monday, August 12, 2013
Let's Talk About Me: Meet the Teacher
I saw this on another blog and I decided to join. Not that my new blog is anything special, but maybe this week will give me the inspiration (and courage) to share more of my teaching things.
Today's topic is Let's Talk About Me! Ten things about me. Since this blog has had a total of seven page views before today (and I'm pretty sure I was the only one who viewed it), I can share pretty much anything about myself and it would be new to you! OK, here goes.
Today's topic is Let's Talk About Me! Ten things about me. Since this blog has had a total of seven page views before today (and I'm pretty sure I was the only one who viewed it), I can share pretty much anything about myself and it would be new to you! OK, here goes.
1. My daughter is four and a half. It took me five years, almost to the day, to become a mom. I love almost every minute of it. (She went to sleep after midnight last night. Those are among the times I don't love it.)
2. I met Doug speed dating. Really. It wasn't at all like you see on those TV shows and movies. OK, the one guy who kissed everyone at the end of the three minute "date" was a bit creepy, but otherwise it was a fun night out. Nine years later, here we are.
3. My favorite band is Rascal Flatts. I'm not really a country music fan, but their music spoke to me during a very difficult time in my life. I've seen them in concert three times, and this year was Tami's first time at a "grown up" concert.
4. I'm a total Gleek. It's the one show I absolutely HAVE to watch every week. And yes, I cried when I heard about Cory Montieth's death. Like it was a personal loss.
5. I also cried when Friends ended. Love love love that show, probably because Monica and Rachel were the same age as me (but the actors are older). It's the only show I own every season of on DVD.
6. My favorite snack is Doritos. I can't buy them too often, because a bag lasts ONE DAY in our house. I actually remember the first time I had them, in 1977 at a rest stop.
7. I can't stand the smell of cinnamon. Twenty years ago, when Big Red gum was very popular, I could always spot the gum-chewers in class. I can tell almost immediately if a recipe has cinnamon in it, even a tiny bit.
8. I tend to overdo the kids' concert thing. We've seen Yo Gabba and Fresh Beat Band twice, Max & Ruby once, and Imagination Movers three times (and almost always get the meet & greet package). The last Fresh Beat we saw was the one they filmed for those videos and the concert episode. My daughter's in the "We Got The Beat" video, and she and her BFF are both in the concert episode.
9. I have a degree in administration but I never applied for the certification. I took and passed the state tests, but after one interview I decided it wasn't for me. I'm a teacher, not an administrator. (But if I were an administrator, it would be in a position overseeing curriculum. It's the building-level disciplinarian thing that I'm totally not cut out for.)
10. I'm the world's worst housekeeper. OK, not the worst, because I've seen those Hoarders and Messiest House kind of shows. I collect clutter but I'm trying to declutter, my laundry and dishes are constantly piling up, and I never quite know how often to vacuum.
I'm trying to link up here. Please let me know if you got here from that link, just so I know it works. :)
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Post it notes
Do you love these as much as I do? Mostly I love how cost effective they are, since you get so many pages for a relatively small price. I use the for EVERYthing!
I usually stock up on post it's during my school shopping in August, so I can get pretty colors instead of the standard school-issued yellow. But I just found out about VistaPrints! Yeah, I know, where have I been? I've seen the ads before today but I didn't trust it. Quality, jacked-up shipping fees, excessive marketing emails. But all those other bloggers can't be lying, so this summer I think I'm going to bite the bullet and order.
- Bookmarks
- Hall passes
- To do lists
- Praise notes to students
- Reminders or thank yous to colleagues
- Requests to custodian
And I think I'm going to order for my colleagues, too! Holiday gifts, personalized post-it notes with holders. And have the holiday gift situation taken care of early, which is a bonus.
Don't click on that "feedback" button, it's part of the image. But look how CUTE that is! For $6 you get two packs (50 pages each) of personalized sticky notes, and for under $4 you get the holder. Adorable personalized gifts for under $10 each. Love it! The Post it notes are cheaper when you buy more, 5 packs for under $12, so I'll get that for myself because I definitely use more than 250 post it's a year.
Vista Prints has lots of other options, too, like notecards and letterhead and even shirts. I'll think about that, since I'm sure my daughter would love paper with her name already written on it. (Why do little kids love their name so much? And why do preteen girls want to change their name so much?)
BTW, this post isn't compensated. I'm not getting anything for it, I don't get a discount or anything if you click on the link. I'm just sharing because I think they are cute.
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