Teacher Week '13: Taming the Wild, Classroom Management

Four Ways that I Create a Positive Learning Environment

{It's all about building relationships!} 

 1. Greet the Students

Every morning I stand at the door, which is actually an expectation for all the teachers to do at my school. When each student arrives at my door we exchange "good mornings" and give a hug to each other. My students and I do this at the end of the day when they are leaving too. My students have said this is one of their favorite parts of the day...being greeted with a hug and a smile sets a positive tone for the day. If for some reason I'm not right at the door that morning or moment, the first thing they will do is remind me that they did not get their hug that morning or they will walk to where I'm at in the room to make sure we exchange our morning hug and greeting. You could also exchange high-5s. Students love to be welcomed into the classroom!



2. Porter Patriot of the Week

Each student is scheduled by alphabetical order for a week where they are Porter Patriot of the Week. I send this schedule home at the beginning of the year so the parents can plan accordingly. Each day of the week a special task or activity is planned (see document above). The students LOVE being Porter Patriot of the Week. They take the honor very seriously. I LOVE having a Porter Patriot of the Week because it makes each student feel extra-special.




3. Morning Meeting

Not my class but a perfect picture to illustrate Morning Meeting

After announcements, lunch count, etc. the students and I gather at the carpet around the perimeter of the rug. Each day a different student starts a greeting that the students pass around the class. I heard all sorts of greeting this year from hellos in foreign languages to a southern "Howdy" and classic "Good Morning". Sometimes they even incorporate a hug or handshake. This a great opportunity to practice social skills and build a sense of community. They love the Morning Meeting and are very insistent on making it happen every morning (it takes about ten minutes). This is also where I tell them about what our day has in store for us and then we transition to a mini-lesson for Writers' Workshop. Morning Meeting can be more extensive and The Morning Meeting Book has tons of great ideas!




4. Class Meetings

Class Meetings are an expectation my principal has for every classroom in our school. I'm so grateful to have been introduced to the concept of Class Meetings because of this expectation. They have such a positive impact on the classroom community! The students and I hold Class Meetings twice a week and on an as-needed basis. During Class Meetings the students and I solve problems/issues they're having related to anything that may be impacting our classroom environment, such as, using kind words, gossiping, helping others, etc. We also discuss celebrations if they are excited about a problem they solved on the playground, etc.

Throughout the week the students can write a problem/issue or a celebration on an index card and put it in our Celebrations and Concerns Pot. I use the cards in the pot to drive our Class Meetings. Students can also voice their celebration or concern aloud without having put a card in the pot. Sometimes I read the cards aloud and sometimes the student who wrote the concern or celebration reads it aloud. The students do most of the work in our Class Meeting, and I guide them on how to respond to each other. I also make a point to let them know even if they're not involved with the concern being addressed, they can learn from others' experience.

It's amazing to see the students grow and improve with making better choices during our class meetings and outside of our class meetings! Class meetings help make our classroom a happier and more enjoyable place to be. If you'd like to learn more about Class Meetings, [here] is a great article. :)

Extra Management Tips

Managing the Literacy Block (Part 1)

I recently discovered this amazing blog:

It's a collaborative blog on best practices for differentiating instruction (based off Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson's work). The four teachers behind this effort just created this blog in July, and I can already tell great info and ideas are going to come from them!

I was in the midst of figuring out how to structure my literacy block with the CAFE and Writers' Workshop when I started feeling SUPER OVERWHELMED...reading conferences, writing conferences, small group (or strategy groups) instruction, whole group instruction, assessments, mini-lessons... my brain was overloaded. So I took a break and stumbled upon a post on flexible groupings from The Differentiation Destination. This post really spoke to me. After reading it, I got the inspiration I needed to put the pieces of the puzzle together. And now I'm ready (and a little afraid) to share it with you. :)

First of all, two of my biggest questions this summer have been:
1. How am I going to manage reading and writing (and math but I'm still working on that one)?
2. How am I going to meet the needs of 27 second graders?

I know many of you have been reading the Two Sisters' CAFE and Daily 5. Both books are such a great resource! I am also a fan of the books below too.

 


During student teaching I had a binder, like the Two Sisters suggest, and I used elaborate charts and graphs from The Next Step in Guided Reading (I should have read The CAFE Book more carefully because they warned about elaborate charts). I found that I had trouble managing a binder (it just got too crowded) so I have taken the bare necessities and parts from each of these resources to create a system of individual, small, and whole group instruction that will hopefully work for me and my students. As for centers, I'm not going to do the exact model of Daily 5 but I'll post more about that at a later time (you can view my center board here though). It might be too much or not enough but I won't know for sure until I actually meet my students and get in the classroom! Nonetheless, I like to be prepared and would like to share my plans with you anyway. :)



Here is my tentative weekly literacy schedule:

note: to the right of any slashes is what I'm doing with selected students and to the left of any slashes is what the rest of the students are doing

The Meek Moose was recently talking about baby steps and that's what I need to take when introducing all the components of the literacy block to my students.The CAFE Book and Launching the Writers' Workshop give great suggestions on how to get started...the Two Sisters recommend not even starting strategy groups (groups based on need not ability/level) until mid-October. A lot depends on my students too, who I am anxious to meet!




Here is how I will stay organized:

I am going to use magazine boxes (Ikea) and file folders (Target). The pictures above are my reading files and the boxes they are kept in (I have my writing documents set-up the same way). Like I mentioned earlier, the binder didn't work for me but if it works for you, you can easily adapt these files into sections of a binder.

Box 1, Individual Instruction: will house the conference schedule file with (1) reading conference appointments and (2) keeping track form. Each students' reading conference file will also be in this box. I'd also like to put some kind of helpful conferencing resource on the left side (the side that is currently blank) of the student conference form.

Box 2, Strategy Group Instruction: will house file with (1) reading strategy group appointments and (2) reading strategy group lessons. Materials for strategy group lessons will also be placed in this box.

Box 3, Whole Group Instruction: will house file with (1) weekly overview of whole group reading mini-lessons and (2) plans for mini-lessons.  Materials needed for whole group lessons will also be placed in the box.

You can download all the labels and documents (both reading and writing) in my TpT store for free.


If you are interested in learning more about each of these documents, stay tuned for Managing the Literacy Block (Part 2) where I will go into more detail about how I am going to use them, etc. If you have any questions, leave me a comment, and I will try to answer it in my post. :)

Feelin' Crafty

Hello, All!
I know many of you have recently wrapped up the school year and so I hope you are enjoying the start of summer! I CAN'T. STOP. thinking about school. I am SOOO excited about setting up my classroom and preparing for my second graders.

In addition to reading some great books (the ones I named in my previous post) as well as Guided Reading: Making It Work by Mary Browning Schulman and Carleen DaCruz Payne (excellent text written by two teachers), I have been feeling crafty. Here are the projects I have completed:

Tissue Paper Wreath Inspired by School Girl Style. I have a vision for this hanging in the hallway next to my classroom door as a easy way for my students to spot our classroom.

Flag Garland (school colors): made from scrapbook paper and card stock, strung together with ribbon and glue. I have a vision of this hanging from the ceiling inspired by a post from the Clutter-Free Classroom.

Mini Flag Garland: made from scraps of above garland. I envision this on a bulletin board.

Dear Student Poster (made with Sharpies) Inspired by Better After and Tupelo Honey.

Pete the Cat!!!!! I made him out of colored copy paper. I have a vision for this on my classroom door with Pete's motto: "It's all good."

Hope you feel inspired to be crafty!!

Great News

Hello, Friends!!
I've been MIA but for good reasons. I graduated with my master's degree last week! In the meantime, I'd been in the whole job search process and was recently offered a second grade teaching position!! I can now say I am a second grade teacher!!!!!!! I am SO excited.

I don't have much else to share except I have been reading two books:

The Well-Managed Classroom from the Boys Town Educational Model

 The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong

 Definitely recommend both, especially for new teachers.

As I plan and create things throughout the summer, I'll be sure to post.

I'd love to hear any advice from veteran teachers as to how to start the school year off!

Take care!

Fantasy and Realism

Happy Friday, Friends!

Did you catch any leprechauns today? We didn't but the leprechaun did visit our room...chairs and desks were turned over, toilet paper was thrown about, gold coins were dispersed across the room, and the toilet water was green!

I want to share about the comprehension strategy we focused on this week- classifying fantasy and realism. To introduce the topic, I brought out my magic wand and asked the students if magic wands are make believe or real. Then we went into a discussion about fantasy and realism with an anchor chart I created :

I did a few read-alouds (Duck for President, Grace for President, My Teacher for President, Scaredy Squirrel) where we had discussions about the fantasy and realistic details in the story. We also played Fantasy Realism BINGO where I read a story detail and the students chose a fantasy or realism square to cover on their BINGO board. I created the following fantasy realism assessment for the students:

I always consult Bloom's Taxonomy when creating lessons and assessments for the students. I love that Bloom's Taxonomy has a combination of lower level and higher level thinking tasks. For this particular assessment the students: analysis (identify), application (illlustrate), and evaluation (justify). In the first section the students identify whether the story detail is fantasy or realism. I included story details from the stories we read as well as details from stories we did not read to make sure they could apply their understanding to other contexts. In the second section the students illustrate an example of realism or fantasy. They could illustrate one of the details above or from another story they had read. The last section (where "Teacher Check" is written) is where I asked each student how their illustration depicted fantasy or realism...this gave them the opportunity to prove that their illustrations correctly showed fantasy and realism. If their justification was reasonable, I made a check mark.

Hope you find this helpful for your classroom!

p.s. I read an informative article called The Six T's of Effective Elementary Literacy Instruction. The article was published in 2002 but I think the information presented is still relevant. Check it out!