And so it begins....

Well, I survived Meet the Teacher. Don't ask me to pick any of my students out of a lineup...there were way too many in way too short of a time. I have a full load...23 students. But I'm excited about the year.
    My team is fantastic. Full of ideas and all willing to do whatever it takes to have a successful year for our kids.
   My room is done. Bright color was pretty much my only theme. But I'm happy with it.
    So excuse my short post but I'm gonna enjoy my last day of freedom! More to come.

Spelling Resources

 After avoiding a calendar for the better part of June, July and this far into August, I have gone into panic mode when I realized that next week, I will be back in school full time. Next week is the week we spend countless hours fighting sleep while in Professional Development, get exposed to a plethora of ideas and changes that will be implemented this year in Professional Development. My room is ready. My room is ALMOST ready. I feel like I need one of those professional interior decorators on tv to come into my class and help me spruce things up after seeing how many new teachers we have and how many of them have apparently tried (and been successful with) EVERY cutesy project on Pinterest!
   My Word Wall is done...complete with student names, because although that technically is NOT vocabulary, they love seeing their names on the wall, even for a week or so. My ribbon thing worked well even though I did not have clothespins....I improvised with paper clips. And yes, I forgot to take pictures!
     I told you in my previous post how I would be using my word wall and the why. Now I will address what I plan to do for spelling....because if you know anything about 2nd graders, you know that spelling is usually NOT a strong point. In a world of text spelling, phonetic spelling, and people who plain out do not care about spelling, I want my 2nd graders to be able to spell well and communicate their ideas. Let's face it, when you come across someone who cannot spell, their ideas, no matter how brilliant they appear on paper, just do not come across. (Or is that just me?)
   SO, with that in mind, I have a plan for their spelling. Our district had adopted a Language Arts program a few years ago, that I was NOT happy with. For one thing, the patterns they taught and the order in which they taught them made absolutely NO sense. Not to mention when we lined up the patterns taught with the ones required by our TEKS, there were several that were below 2nd grade level (that they spent too much time on ) and some that were never addressed (that we were still responsible for). SO we sought out several different options. Last year, I piloted Words Their Way in my classroom. I loved it. The kids loved it. The parents loved it......AND the kids learned to spell from it. So, winner, winner, chicken dinner! We decided this year we were ditching the one that went with our adoption and going full force with Words Their Way. It makes sense....its hands on....its progressive!
       So, our kids will be doing word sorts in class and at home with their homework. Yes, we will be giving spelling test on Fridays. AND we will include words that have the same pattern but were not on our 'list'. The point being we want the kids to realize you can spell rhyming words with the same pattern by changing the initial sounds. We also will be keeping a personal word wall for those words we constantly spell wrong. This may be different for each student.Some need sight words on there, some will not. I also have lists of words in my room in related categories. (Baseball, School, Home, October, etc.) in addition to having commonly used sight words available for the kids to use at any time. I am including my Personal Word Wall here....I print them off and glue them on the inside and outside of a file folder. The kids love it because they can use one of my 'fancy pens' to add words to their word wall, but are expected to spell it correctly afterwards.
    Happy Spelling!

Colorful Vocabulary

Every year I drive myself CRAZY trying to figure out the best way to expand my students vocabulary. I have a variety of students every year from an array of different backgrounds, cultures and home situations. My ESL students naturally use different vocabulary, as most are taught textbook formal English by their English speaking parent. I have several students who have been read to, traveled and exposed to a variety of experiences that naturally grew their vocabulary. Then I have a handful who grew up as latch key kids, had a tv as a babysitter and probably were not given many experiences or even opportunity to engage in picking up vocabulary from interactions with their parents. ( Put down the phone people, and start TALKING to your kids rather than texting them!)
   Anywho, THOSE are the babies I worry about the most. So, every year I struggle to find a quick, efficient, and useful way to put vocabulary in front of them without bombarding them with useless words or just having a word wall that is nothing more than a pretty wall space taker upper.
   I've tried everything...personal word walls, differentiated word walls, sight word only word walls, you name it, in my over a decade of teaching, I've probably tried it.
     This year, I sat down and asked myself what the PURPOSE of my word wall is going to be. After much conversation, debate and arguing with myself (it's okay, no need to call the local mental hospital, I won the argument!) I decided that the purpose of my word wall this year is going to be to give them new vocabulary rather than a source of sight words or correctly spelled words. (I'll address those two matters in upcoming blog posts.) Nope, this year I'm strictly using it for vocabulary. Let me explain my thinking.
     Let me start off by saying I hate standardized tests....but after I burst my bubble and sink back into reality, I realize although no one loves them, it's the world we live in and it's a necessary evil. With that established, we all know that there are items on those tests that we KNOW our kids know the answer to, but they didn't understand what the test writers were asking because the vocabulary tripped them up. One of the biggest complaints I've heard voiced K-5 is that we use different vocabulary for the same things. We used to call nouns "naming words" in lower grades. After much conversation, we decided to be on the same page and use the same terminology. One problem solved.
     Another issue is that word walls become cluttered....sight words , math vocabulary, LA vocabulary, science vocabulary, social studies vocabulary, grammar terms, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So what do you put up? Do you have five different word walls? Do you keep the same words up all year or cycle them through?
     I'm not pretending to have the be all, end all answers. But I'll let you know my plan and what works for me. First of all, the first part of my plan I stole, er , I mean was inspired by a post on Pinterest. This word wall used ribbon and clothespins.(See picture)  Words are able to be added easily and alphabetized ( my inner OCD child is so happy!) without major problems. So, I put up my letters and ribbon. (And had a math lesson for the lady at Jo Anna who swore she sold me a spool of 9ft of ribbon and was proven wrong when I measured and added it for her! Ha!)
    Next, I had to decide what words to use and how to distinguish them. Have I mentioned how much my inner OCD child LOVE, LOVE, LOVEs color coding? Well, she does. She's crazy like that! So, naturally, I conclude the only way to shut her up is to color code the words by subject.
     But what is going to constitute a word to be word wall worthy? Well, since my purpose is meaning rather than spelling, it will be words they need to learn to use in context. (Again, don't freak out, I've got the spelling issue covered in upcoming posts). So, my words will be color coded by subject and only be used for meaning, not spelling.
      How many is too many? Well, that's where the ribbon idea is genius. When the words get to the end of their rope, I mean ribbon, then the first up goes into a binder....a binder of Colorful Vocabulary that is put in alphabetical order. The definition is put on the back so a variety of games (again, an upcoming post) can be played to reinforce the word. This keeps the amount of words to a manageable number but also takes care of the "out of sight, out of mind" problem.
       So, what's your plan for your word wall???
   

The Only Profession...

Well, as a few people pointed out to me, its been a while since I posted anything. Almost a year, to be exact.
Sometimes life throws us changes unexpectedly...some we are prepared to deal with, others catch us totally off guard. Last year was definitely one of those years that caught me off guard. I guess I owe my blogging audience a bit of an explanation, so here is last year in a nutshell:
   *My youngest son shipped off to Marine Corps bootcamp and I ended up spending oodles of my spare time engrossed in all things Marine Corps. I got very involved in some Marine MoM groups and ended up blogging and writing for a few of their websites.
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     *Schoolwise, it was a tough year with a very challenging class, very demanding parents and me feeling at times I was losing my sanity. Some years are just like that.
     *I unexpectedly lost my dad and spent the better part of my second semester trying to wrap my head around that new reality. Nothing can prepare you for it, and no matter how much you try to keep your school and personal life separate, there are things that change us so profoundly that it touches all aspects of our lives.
     *After a failed three year relationship and breakup, I finally met my soulmate and, as of last week, I married my best friend. I also gained a "bonus daughter" (I hate the term stepdaughter) who is 9 years old and reminding me how much energy it takes to be a parent!

 So, with all that said, I had pretty much decided the blog could go by the wayside. That is until I received the sweetest email from a new teacher asking me to consider blogging again because she used some of my ideas and advice. I am aware enough of the education blogging world to know I am a very small fish in a big pond, but if this last year has taught me anything, it has taught me that God puts people in our paths for very real, very necessary reasons. I learned this through several students I had last year, my son becoming
a United States Marine and allowing me exposure to that very different world, the passing of my dad in a way that I feel could not have been orchestrated by happenstance or coincidence but was truly a showing of God's grace, and the fulfillment of my heart and family by bringing the most amazing man and bonus daughter into my life. And so, I am committed to take up my school blog again. Bear with me....and take away from it what you will.
   And for that sweet girl who sent me the email that brought this full circle for me, Thank you. As one of my favorite teacher
 friends used to point out to me, teaching is the ONLY profession that you get a fresh start every year.For that, I am grateful.

Progress

Well, thanks to the baby boy shipping off to Marine Corps boot camp, I have THROWN myself into my job and my room is almost ready to go. Just a few finishing touches....but it's coming along.
Here's what I've done so far:

Finally finished the hall bulletin board. Went with an Olympic theme...yes, I know Olympics are over, but it went well with my giant flag,which I LOVE!

This one is a little hard to see, but I moved my banner from the top of the window to the middle. It was driving me crazy..and I planned on curtains, but am told the fire marshal says that's a no-no. I'm such a rule follower. UGH!

I improvised to block out the light in the window and door at the back of my room AND make it useful. This is where I display my monthly helpers and birthdays. Its not my fave, but it'll do.

I'm utilizing every inch of space I can! I SO wanted a Boggle board, but didn't have the space. So I'm using my magnetic letters (which I have  TON OF) and my file cabinet to make a magnetic boggle board. I can change it weekly and although this is a small one, I'm starting them off easy and looking to expand the Boggle board to full size when they get the hang of it!

Thanks to PINTEREST, I found these cute birthday balloons which I attached to birthday pencils, and this cute little "Birthday Book" where the kids will write about what they want for their birthday.  I ran the balloons off on colored cardstock...love the different colors!

We start Monday...and I'm still working, but am pretty comfortable with my room's status!! Ready to get the year started!

My 2nd Graders go to College!

Yep, you read the title correctly. My 2nd graders go to COLLEGE!!!
Some pretty prestigious colleges at that: Texas A&M (Gig'Em Aggies), Texas Tech (Guns up!)
University of Texas (Hook 'Em Horns!) and TCU (Fear the Frog!)---and our first year even Baylor (Go bears!).

That's how smart they are..
All because of their 2nd grade teachers!

Okay, let me explain. They don't really GO to college. That's what we call our focused groups
What? Need me to explain further? Okay.....

A few years ago, I was sittng in a workshop with other 2nd grade teachers and we were discussing HOW ON EARTH we were going to fit in all the things we were required to do with our new Language Arts adoption....Mc-Graw Hill Texas Treasures.

There simply WASN'T enough time in the day......everything was specialized......3 different spelling lists, 3 leveled books, 3 different stories a week. It was all TOO much! My class was all over the spectrum......low babies who barely knew the letters in their names to PACE kiddos who could read anything I stuck in front of them and everything in between! There was only ONE me and I had no idea how I was going to give them ALL my best when I am only one person!

Luckily I wasn't the only one in the district stressing about that. It lead to a very in-depth discussion and one lady told us what they did at their school and how it had served ALL the kids and improved their reading (and their scores)....but more importantly their learning!

So, I took the idea she gave me back to my (at the time different) principal and she basically told me if I believed it was going to work and help the kids to GO FOR IT! So, We came up with 'colleges'.
We each named our group after our Alma Mater.....luckily none of us went to the same college, and used testing data to divide the kids into 4(or 5 our first year) groups. That first year we had 2 'high' groups- they are the kids that can read fluently, they worked on expanding vocabulary, improving their writing and higher order thinking skills. We had an 'average' group- they worked on comprehension and some fluency as well as vocabulary. We had a "below average" group- they could decode, but needed extensive work on fluency and comprehenshion. And then we had my low baby group- we worked on decoding, accuracy and fluency.

Splitting the kids this way allowed us to tailor everything for them.....spelling lists, the pace we taught the stories and concepts, station work, EVERYTHING was targeted for just them. The kids loved it. The parents loved it. We loved it.

Last year, we got a new principal. I wasn't sure she'd love it....but she did. Our groups are very fluid...if a kid does alot of improving, he/she may 'transfer' to a different college. If they are struggling, they may do the same! We saw some really positive things come out of it. Noteably:

*The high kids were no longer the 'shining stars' in the classroom. There was an entire class of them, which prodded them to work harder, smarter and have higher quality work so they could stand out of the crowd.Many of them weren't used to this, and it greatly improved their effort ,they stretched themselves in learning. and some of them learned the hard lesson of "you can't win all the time."

\*The low babies began to participate in class. It was a safe environment. There was no Einstein to compete with...no one to outshine them....they were all in the same boat. They began to get comfortable and take chances. They supported each other. No one was 'stupid' for not knowing an answer. Their confidence increased greatly and they grew leaps and bounds.

*The average babies grew HUGELY. They were no longer falling between the cracks....low babies were not getting all the attention and the geniuses were out of their loop so they had no one to 'carry them' on their portion of the work.

It was a win/win situation for all of us.

The downsides were:
* The low baby teacher (me) had a LOT of documentation to do. However, it was easier to do the documentation because I found an easier system and could do it for everyone!
*You're letting go some of your babies......which means you have to have total trust, confidence and participation from all of your team members for this to work. It's hard letting go. It's hard not knowing what your babies are doing. But this lead us to in-depth discussions as a team about where each kiddo was. It also gave us the benefit of having more than one teacher able to give input about where we saw a kid being and what they were struggling (or excelling) in!

Thankfully, it went over so well, our principal is COUNTING on us doing it again! I'm excited because now in year 3 I think we are 'tweaking' what we can do with these kids and I expect the huge growth to continue!

So, our 2nd graders will be college bound again this year!!!

Birthdays- 2nd Grade Style!

I LOVE birthdays!
Not mine, that just means it's another year I'm going to have to lie about my age!
But in school, I LIVED for birthdays!
Mine was always one of the first since I'm a September birthday, so I couldn't WAIT for school to start as a kid.
However, when I was in school, teachers stopped making a big deal about birthdays in about the 2nd grade.
Major let-down.
I was DONE with school after that.
Not really, but it was sad!

So, I love to celebrate birthdays in my class!
Kids are allowed to bring treats for the class....which they LOVE to do.
But this year, I think I'm going to do things a little bit different!
First of all, when it's their birthday, their morning work will be a little different.
They will get a fun "Birthday" book color page to do instead of the regular morning work!
The Birthday book will then be put in the writing center for students to 'sign' and say a nice word or two about the birthday boy or girl!
It will be their keepsake at the end of the day to take home.

Secondly, they get to sit in the "rolly chair" for the day.
BIG deal in my class!
They love the rolly chair!

Next, they will get a Birthday pencil, and a "Pick a recess equipment" tag to use whenever they wish.
(Not just the day of their birthday)

And finally, we will sing the Birthday Chant (Marine Corps Drill Instructor Style ) to them
Saw this on pinterest....can't take credit for it....
But in true Marine Corps cadence style, I changed the ending......
Here's mine....

I'll throw this little gem on my not-as-smart-as-yours-board and we'll chant away while marching in place for full effect! Then I'll tell them all to drop and give me 20!

And for the final touch, I'll take their birthday picture and give them that as a keepsake too!

I've seen TONS of ideas of what other people do for birthdays! I think this is gonna work for me this year!

It's WHAT day???

Okay, I feel like I just woke up from a fog!
I realized that next week is my LAST full week off (although it's not technically a full week off because I have a team leader meeting on Thursday)....so we're getting down to the count, folks!

Good news is that since the baby boy shipped off to boot camp (and I got my scripted phone call at 12:15 a.m. Wednesday morning) I have been up to school every day and making huge progress.

Bad news is I'm not sure how I'm going to pull off a school year without getting to work around 9:30 and taking a nap at 2:00! Looks like I'm going to have to readjust my schedule!!!

Here's what I've done so far.....

Ok, I caved.....I did!

I wasn't going to use this board as a word wall this year....but I'm out of cute ideas for displaying work and out of room for a word wall anywhere else So, I combined my newly made Cowboy ABCs and word wall! It'll look better once I have some actual words on it!

This is where I'm going to be displaying my anchor posters! I reused some yellow material I had and made the 'fence' border myself.

This is my sink area.....consider this the 'before' picture as now I have cleared it of all clutter and rearranged the stuff on top of the cabinets to look a bit better!

My bookshelves and 'reading center'. I got bulbs for my lamps and when they are turned on, it looks quite 'homey'. I intend on taking the kids pics the first day and putting them on the bulletin board with  the "Good Readers" to complete this bulletin board.

My desk and 'teacher table' area Notice the colored cowboy hats on top of my cabinet? I got them for a dollar at Dollar Tree! Lots of colors! LOVE em!

My "not as smart as your board" and meeting area!

Our grade level bulletin board in the hall I plan on putting some catchy title....which I'm sure will come to me and somehow relate to our theme of " _______ kids: The next BIG thing"
I'm thinking of something like " Dream BIG!!" and die-cutting little stars where they write their 'dream' for the year on it and putting it in our 'blue' area of our flag!!!

Another Dollar Tree find.....I'm going with a Red, White and Blue theme....can you tell I had a kid ship off to boot camp on the brain when I was shopping???

Found these sticker letters at Dollar Tree also.......love the saying, " Wish it, Dream it, Do it"

Well, I'm tired and it's WAY past nap time......the school schedule is gonna KILL me!!!

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??