August Currently

WOW! I cannot believe it's already AUGUST! The summer has flown by and it's time to kick back into school mode! I'm linking up with Farley at Oh Boy! 4th Grade for her August Currently!
Here's mine:

My 3 B2S "Must Haves" are 1. Lamps!- I posted a few days ago about a workshop I went to where I learned the only thing that decreases (dissolves is the word they used) melatonin in the brain is LIGHT! And I HATE overhead lights! SO, it looks like I need to go lamp shopping!
2. Curtains! My room sticks out of the footprint of the building so my windows have nothing shading them from the blinding morning sun! And my poor babies that sit by my window are blinded if I don't have curtains.....so, when I'm out grabbing lamps this week, I need to pick up some cheap-o curtains!!!
3. Shelves and organizers- I have 2 small bookshselves from Ikea....now I would like about 3 more and some organizers for my books for those shelves!!!
Did I mention I needed to win the lottery????

Farley's Rules are:
1. Rule of 3----look at the 2 blogs in front of yours and the 1 behind yours and comment!!! Spreads the love!
2. On the B2S, you can promote your TPT products, just promote someone else's too!

That's it!!
Fun fun fun!!!
Okay, gotta break down and have that cake and Diet Coke! I mean, it's  DIET coke.....it'll cancel all the calories out right???

Displaying student work

Yay! Today I went up to school and my carpets were DONE!!! Which meant I got to move my desks around and arrange my room! Until I get that done, it feels like I can do NOTHING!

SO, I got a LOT accomplished today....and may go back tomorrow and do more!!!

One of the things I did was tear down the ratty old number line (I'm looking to purchase a new one) that was under my whiteboard, and sat and thought and thought and thought about how to use that space!

THEN I remembered seeing several ideas of how other teachers display student work in their classroom. I NEVER have enough wallspace, so I thought the best use of this space would be to display student work.

I'm already planning on having 23ish kids. Maybe 24. At least until our numbers solidify and we get to hire a 5th teacher......SO, I figured I may as well go ahead and count on it!

I had several ideas about how to display work....and all of them would have required me purchasing stuff....which I am trying to avoid right now. Did I mention I'm a teacher and I'm broke all the time?!?

I figure if I can use what I have, then why buy something?
So, what do I have??? TONS of construction paper....almost every color.
I thought about using different colors....but I want to stick with my cowboy theme....and the bulletin board on that wall uses cow hide print and red. SO, I went with red.
I put up 24 pieces of red construction paper, used brown construction paper to haphazardly cut strips to make "frames". Then I made some badges on my handy dandy computer and put student numbers in them and then printed them, laminated them and put them up!
Its a lot of red.....and I'm debating if its TOO much red, but as I sat and stared at the complete project, it kinda grew on me........what do you think???

Brain overload!!!!

I know, I know....I was supposed to post more on my student binders.....well, I'm saving that for another day because I am EXCITED about what I learned today.

Let me explain:

I get voluntold a lot......you know, "VOLUNTOLD".....as in Boss Lady walks in and says, " I need someone to do this train-the-trainer on technology.....any takers??" and everyone looks at me and she says " Thanks, Kim." even though I never volunteer.....that's voluntold....when you're TOLD you volunteer for something!!!

Anywho, I get voluntold a lot....and I got voluntold to do this summer train-the-trainer class.....for those of you who's district doesn't have that, we are a BIG district, so they get 1 or 2 representatives for each campus, train us on what they want the entire staff trained on....and then we go back and train our campuses. Can't complain....starts me back in school mode AND they pay me for it, so I guess I'm a lucky duck!!!

Okay...now to the excited part.....the training today was on technology ( I know....either you love it or you don't...and I'm a geek, I LOVE it)...but that's not what I'm excited about....that's old hat....been using it for years! There is a website/application/program (whatever you want to call it) called PD 360. I know a lot of schools use it because it talks about common core a lot and Texas doesn't DO common core....well, we do, we just don't call it that!

Gosh at the squirrels......

Anywho....we were on PD360 today and did a PLC (Professional Learning Community) demonstration on how we could use that technology......that part is not important....we got to choose the subject. And I chose (along with about 45% of the group )Brain Research by David Sousa.
If you've never heard of him (okay, his name SOUNDED familiar, but wasn't ringing all the bells)...he's like the brain guru often cited by Marcia Tate and Eric Jensen (SURELY you've heard of them).

Well, THIS is what I learned (or got reminded of the fact that I was supposed to already know this, I mean, I'm a teacher for crying out loud!) :
* Your brain makes melatonin which is the chemical that makes you sleep (or not if you lack it). The ONLY thing that gets rid of melatonin is .........
LIGHT. Yep, light.Not Diet Coke. Not chocolate. (Although that secret is safe with me because I swear the combination of chocolate and Diet Coke are melatonin dissolvers!)

I HATE the flourescent overhead lights of school. Its not appealing. It does something to my body chemistry. It puts me in a foul mood....so often I will open all the shades and turn off the overhead lights. According to this, I'm not a boring teacher putting my kiddos to sleep....its the stinkin' melatonin!!! SO.....I'm gonna have to go lamp shopping....because I still can't deal with overhead lights!!!

*You should never teach two simliar concepts the same day (or sometimes even the same week depending on how complex it is). The example he used was .....latitude and longitude. Yeppers.
Tons of generations damaged by yours truly. They will now grow up with their little dendrites not having solidified the mastery of latitude and longitude...thanks to me! Who knew!?!
According to Sousa, you should wait until you feel that they have mastery (or at least a true understanding) of the first concept before you introduce a similiar concept and you should NOT draw on their knowledge of the first concept to teach the 2nd one.....save that for the culminating activity because.....

*Your brain saves things based on their similiarities....and retrieves it by differences. Yep. That's why great culminating activities are Venn Diagrams.....to show both similiarities and differences!!!

* Your brain can only hold so much info at once.....and according to the theory of Primacy-Recency, you will remember the first and the last thing (or your kiddos will) of the thing being taught.
The longer the lesson length, the greater the downtime (where your brain goes all fuzzy and you start thinking of what you're going to do this weekend, and what you need to pick up from Wal Mart, and what color you should pick the next time you go for a mani-pedi) Kids ( and probably adults too) learn best (and most) when lessons are kept to 20 minutes.
During a 20 minute lesson, there is only about 2-3 minutes of downtime.
During a 80 minute lesson, there is 30 minutes of downtime. That's a lot of color picking and Wal Mart list making!!!
So, in short, you get more bang for your buck by chunking your lessons into mini-lessons. Keeping them short...and making them ACTIVE.
Also, you get more bang for your buck when you incorporate music and art.

SEE??
The learning gods have smiled on me and blessed my idea of incorporating the Daily 5, brain breaks, mini-lessons, math workshops AND my craftivity!!!! OH happy day!

okay.....I know......these people (Jensen, Tate, Sousa, the Two Sisters) had this stuff figured out way before me.....but I'm excited in implementing it and seeing things click with my kids faster..even though I may slow down the pace a bit because I'm going for quality of things I get to stick rather than quantity of things I throw at them and half of them are lost!!!

Off to eat my fruit, drink my water, and have a brain break myself!!

Student Binders- Intro and Home/School connection section

It's the one thing I have to RETHINK every year.
If it's not done right, it drives me BONKERS!!!
And I've YET to find a perfect system......
I'm talking about ways to help students organize their work.

I've tried different things.
I've tried hanging files...and letting the kids file their own work.....NOT a great idea.There are not a lot of 2nd graders that have promising secretarial skills....I know..I've tried to use them!
I've tried regular folders with brads....2nd graders aren't the best at working the brads...plus they tend to break after a while and upside down/backwards paper drives me INSANE!
I've tried pocketed folders.....turns into a hot mess with my little messy marvins.

This year, I elected to put poly binders (the floppy kind) on the supply list instead of the traditional braded folders.

3rd grade used them last year and LOVED them.
I'm hoping to have the same result.
This is going to be their ONE and only folder...( I hope)!!!

I've been reading about different 'binders' teachers use for their students......and settled on this--my version of the STAR binder. (Students Taking Academic Responsibility). I've seen several people use this (or some form of this but maybe a different acronym)

I'm having different sections in their binders to take the place of different folders:
*Home/School Connection
*Language Arts
*Math
*Integrated
*Homework

Each section is separated by a different colored cover page (for lack of a better word) that is tabbed so they can find it easily.
The first section, Home/School connection is going to contain the STAR binder contract:

This serves two purposes: first, it holds the kids accountable for their binder and puts some 'ownership' of it by having them sign a contract AND
second, it lets the parents know my expectation so when they email or call me with an excuse of how little Phillip Johnny Bob forgot his STAR binder today, but it wasn't really his fault because mom forgot to put it in his backpack for him, I can refer to this little gem and tell them how it is so sad that little PJB isn't living up to his end of the agreement of responsibility for his STAR binder......maybe in subtler terms...but you get the gist!!!

The next thing in the STAR binder will be the divider page for the Home/School Connection, which looks like this:

I ran these on bright colored cardstock (this one is bright yellow) so we could distinguish them easily. We bought tabs to put on them and will label the tabs with printable labels.

Next, we put in the Communication log. This has two parts. Let me explain: Last year we had ready made (bought) planners with a section for the students to write in daily, and (if need be) for the teacher to write, the parent to inital and even a spot for the students to write their spelling words in.
This year, out of responsibility to spending our budgets wisely, we elected in K-2 to NOT purchase the planners (they were quite costly) and find other means to communicate. (Kinder never used them, some firsties did, and second was using them but I had this in mind!)
I still want a way to communicate with parents if I need to AND do want the parents to check their binder daily....so my dilemma was do I make something like the planner...and expect the kids to write every day, or not?
THEN , my bff (who is also 1st grade team leader at my school.....SHOUT OUT JJ!!!) told me that the PTA committee had talked of finding some way to inform the parents frequently (weekly, bi-weekly or every six weeks....its still in the works) what the kids were studying so when asked the age-old question "What did you do at school today?" the response won't be " NOTHING".
THAT got me to thinking....what if we had the kids write in the communication piece a little objective or area of study we are doing....then we would have " TABLE TALK" subjects the parents can bring up with the kiddos (i.e " So, I saw in your STAR binder this week you were learning about freshwater and saltwater fish.....what did you learn about them?") For those involved parents it gives them specifics to ask about and feel like they are connected with their school life!
SO, this communication log has a double sided page per week. One side for the students to write on (their learning goals/areas of focus/ what we're doing that interests them) and the other side for the parents and/or teachers to write.

The next thing I include in this section will be some ready-made excuses for :
*PE/Recess - if they miss one, they WILL miss the other..and more than 3 days requires a doctor's note.
*Change in Transportation- we go through this EVERY year...if they change the way they go home, it is school policy they MUST let us know....and EVERY year I have parents "just tell the kid" to change the way they go home, then we have the " Oh, you WILL get on the bus" conversation because your mom didn't tell me you were going home with so-and-so.....
*Absence excuses- these are for the 'missed a day' absences, not " went to the doctor/dentist" occasions.
I will include several of these in their STAR binder so they only need to fill it out and send it in....and there is my documentation for any of those occasions!!

This is the Home/School connection part of our student binders. Tomorrow we'll talk about the other sections in our STAR binders

Student Recognition

2nd graders LOVE attention! Most of them, anyway!
I've found over the years that if I can give them recognition on a routine basis, the better they respond!
A couple of years ago, I started recognizing a student a week as our " Star Student".
The kids ate it up!
Last year I read what several teachers did with their "Star Students" and I went a little on the overboard side. The kids loved it...the parents loved it....it got a little wearing on me!
SO, this year I am trying to find a happy medium.
I've already told you about these cutesy little Stars I'm going to use instead of the good ol' standby
Student of the Week poster I used last year.

We like to have a grade level ceremony every Friday afternoon where each teacher "Recognizes" a "Star of the week".

There is clapping.

There is fanfare.

There is cheering!

It's a lot of fun!

They will be given one of those stars and this paper which will explain to the parents what fanfare will take place during the week. (I've adjusted it a bit to 'tone it down' from last year and hopefully take some of it off of me!)

There are also other student recognitions I am doing:

*Knocked my socks off- I mentioned before I got this idea from Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade- she has cutesy little tags to attach to dollar store socks...I made my own. I'm going to give one a week to a student (Who is NOT my star that week) that has done a really good job of improving or just did something fantastic.

*Desk Fairy- I'm a neat fanatic....well, okay, don't look at my teacher desk and think that, but the kids desks being a hot mess just drives me UP the wall!! So, I tip over their desks when they're messy so they have to clean them up   encourage them at every opportunity to keep their desk clean and organized. The Desk Fairy is a trick a LOT of teachers use to do this....and I love it! I found this little poem at Mrs McCumbee's blog ....and although she calls hers "The Queen of Clean" , I'm sticking with the Desk Fairy.

I'm not yet sure what 'treat' I am going to attach to it...I have several students with SEVERE food allergies, so I am hesitant to do something food-related. It may end up being a "Pick a piece of Recess Equipment" tag or "Free Computer Time" tag....will figure that out in the next few weeks.

At the end of the year last year, I bought some cute  awards from Erin Stephan on TPT. I ran each one off on different colored cardstock and we had a little 'ceremony' to give them out. My students absolutely LOVED it. They would try to guess WHO got each award before I called out the name....and it was funny to me how they categorized each other ("He's a great artist", "She is always smiling", etc). So, this year, I think I am going to do this every 6 weeks. Here is the link if you are interested in the awards.

I think this is plenty for me as far as student recognition goes, but I am always opened to new ideas. So, how do YOU recognize your students?

Dead Air

We've all had it happen.
The lesson that SHOULD have taken you 30 minutes to teach only took 20. You have 10 minutes to kill before you line your little darlings up to march them to specials (and then there is a Diet Coke calling your name from the teachers lounge!)
But you can't let them sit there and twiddle their thumbs for 10 minutes....you can't let them ' talk amongst themselves' because then in 3 seconds it will sound like a riot is being held in your room.
SO, what do you do?? You have to fill, what is known in the radio world as "Dead Air", and although we as teachers don't get fined for it like radio stations do, the consequences can be just as painful if we don't come up with something creative to fill it.

I don't know about you, but when I was in school "Dead Air" was filled with impromptu games of " 7 Up" and "Hangman". While these were 'fun' they were not necessarily educational, and with the pressures to cram every bit of information possible into their brains, help students succeed, I like to fill every minute with something USEFUL.

I found these VERY useful! They are from Jodi at Fun in First. (A freebie from her!!) and my class LOVED them last year!

Here are some other suggestions I've tried:

* A spelling game on the whiteboard (not as smart as your board) from Spelling City.com

* Read an interactive book from Tumblebooks-

*Try a riddle from this website (time fillers for subs)-

  *Online Mad Libs from Wacky Web Tales- this was a FAVORITE of my class last year and a wonderful parts of speech review!!! 

* An activity from BrainPop Jr. - another big favorite of my class last year!

I'm sure I'll put all of these to good use this year as well! (And probably add to them!) So, what kinds of things do YOU do to fill in dead air time???

Word Work

Sorry I've been out of the picture for a while! Things have been CUH-RAY-ZEE lately! My son is getting ready to ship out to Camp Pendleton, California in 3 weeks (sniff, sniff).SO, mom is making sure she gets all the time she can with her future jarhead before he leaves! PLUS he is turning 18 this week! (WHERE did the time go?)
On top of that a NASTY stomach bug has been going around the house lately. I haven't gotten it full-blown, but I had enough of it to appreciate NOT getting it!

In the meantime, I made 'cards' for my first Unit's spelling words for the Word Work center of my Daily 5. Feel free to grab them up if you are doing McGraw Hill Texas Treasures.

I think the one thing I am going to do differently is this year, I am going to make the words cumulative each week. Meaning, I am not going to take last week's spelling pattern out of that center when new words are introduced because I want them to continue to work with them and KNOW them rather than just memorize them for a weekly spelling test.

I will use a variety of materials in my Word Work center:

Including....using letter tiles

 marbles, rocks, and beans.....

Rainbow spelling with markers (including SMELLY markers)

Using craft sticks, pipe cleaners and any other materials I can get my hands on for word work manipulatives!

I'm also hoarding gathering up more materials to stick in my Word Work center.

What kinds of things do you use for Word Work??