Valentine’s Party

Valentine’s Party

by | Activities, Make It Personal, Planning | 0 comments

It’s finally here–what is likely to be your last classroom holiday party of the school year.  Whenever you’re planning any classroom party, there are three main things that you need to take into consideration. You need to know your students, you need to know yourself, and you need to know your resources.

The first thing that is important when party planning is knowing your students. There are many factors to this–behavior, the age of your students, the interests of your students, and if you have any special needs to consider. An example of behavior you may want to consider would be if you have students who are really competitive and if they’re not first or the winner or whatever, then they get very upset–that’s something to keep in mind. You wouldn’t want to plan a party with several win/lose types of games, because that would be likely to backfire in that situation.

You may want to instead play non-competitive games or activities, so as not to set those particular students off, whereas if you have a group that can get along well and understand that there’s a time for everybody to be a winner, then you can have some of that element of competition in some of your games or activities.

Another example that you want to consider would be students who may be affected by increased noise level. Let’s face it, emotions and energy in general tends to ramp up on party days. And you may have some students who are really affected by that noise level. And therefore, their behavior is affected.

You might also have students who don’t particularly get along. So you might want to think about if you need to have activities where they’re in separate spots or where they are just not in the same group for doing stations. 

Also important to having the best classroom party possible would be taking into consideration their interests. This is one of those things that can be a little bit more difficult because oftentimes what one group is really into another group isn’t quite so fond of, but there are those rare times when student interests seem to go across the board. For example, early in my teaching career I taught fourth grade and the Harry Potter books were still fairly newish, (I know for sure the whole series hadn’t come out yet, so this was definitely many years ago) we had a Harry Potter themed party. And that was something my whole group of students that year really enjoyed.. 

The last thing to think about when it comes to knowing your students is thinking about any special needs you may have. These can vary widely, from learning or behavior challenges to food allergies to cultural differences. All of these will factor into your decision making about the party.

Since this is a Valentine party, you probably already have a couple of class parties for the year under your belt. And more than likely, unless you have some really new students, you’re probably pretty aware of these things, but it is important to be aware of their impact on the decisions you make about the class party.

The next thing to think about when you’re planning a class party, besides knowing your students, is to know yourself, and you’ve got to do what feels right for you. For example–are you a person that wants to control every single aspect of the party right down to the last detail? Or are you more laid back and perfectly fine with letting someone else come in and take over? Do you want your party to be very regimented and scheduled? Or are you fine with having it be more open and free flowing? Do you want the party to be your responsibility and parents just send things in, or do you want the parents to take it over– plan it, run it, bring in all the materials needed–that sort of thing. Do you want a big giant elaborate event or are you okay with a “Netflix and chill” kind of thing. (A little side note to that, some of you may have heard about the big brouhaha with Disney suing teachers for public performance of their movies at school events. Our media specialist has told us for years that using your personal Netflix or your personal Disney plus, or your personal DVDs, things like that, are all against copyright law, so I am using the term “Netflix and chill” strictly as a euphemism for laid back here)

We talked about students who can get upset with noise levels. Maybe you’re a teacher who gets upset with noise levels. You don’t like it really loud and boisterous and active. You want something more calm and quiet and orderly and directed.  It’s kind of like that old saying, if mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy– but in this case it is if the teacher’s not happy, nobody’s going to be happy, right? If you’re miserable doing a class party, then the kids are going to feel that, and they’re not going to have as much fun either. Everyone has to do what feels right for their personal teaching style.

The third thing that you need to take into consideration are your resources. And in this case,the resources that you are probably going to be considering are the resources of time, money and parent participation. When thinking about time as it relates to a party–think about when  the party is going to happen. Is it your choice when you have the party or does the school decide the time?

When it comes to money, do you have a budget? Is there PTA money or classroom money that you can use for your parties? Or is it whatever you have, the parents or you are bringing in. If you do have parent support, how much is going to be your responsibility and how much is going to be parent responsibility for this party.

Finally, when it comes to parents, you have to think about how much do you want them to be involved? Do you want them to just send some things in, do you want them to come in and help, but you’ve planned it or do you want them to control the whole show?

There’s no one right answer. I can’t tell you, this is the perfect formula for having the best party ever because these three factors are going to vary, not only from teacher to teacher, but classroom to classroom in year to year. Every year, you’re going to have to make this decision and decide what you have in mind for parties is going to work for this particular class.

And I’ve done it many different ways, depending what works best for the class. I’ve had years where I’ve had fantastic parents who just had these brilliant ideas that were better than anything I could have done. And the kids loved it– just absolutely loved it. And it was their chance to be able to get into the classroom and do something that was their gift or their talent. And I’ve had other years where we didn’t even have a tray of cookies sent in, so it was all completely on me. And I’ve also been a room mom where it was expected that the room moms planned, purchased, ran, cleaned up everything, sent the invitations out, everything for the party. 

When you’re thinking about having the most successful party, I hope these tips have helped. And like I said, I’ll come back and talk a little bit more about some specifics for Valentine’s day so that you can have the best party ever. If you’re looking for the best place to get all the greatest tips and ideas for your classroom, consider joining our Facebook group,  Happy Classroom Collective. We’d love to have you join if you’re not already a member! 

How to Teach Classroom Procedures – Part 3

How to Teach Classroom Procedures – Part 3

by | Classroom Tips, Planning, Start of School Year | 0 comments

Today we pick up at Step 6. If you need to review the previous steps please click here.

If you or your friends are parents, this idea would work at home too. So feel free to share this blog with anybody you know that has children at home that may benefit from this as well.

How to Teach Classroom Procedures

  1. Define what procedures need to be taught
  2. Brainstorm the steps of the procedure
  3. Break the process down into as many steps as needed by asking yourself questions 
  4. Answer the questions by thinking through how you want the procedure to go
  5. Explain the importance of the procedure
  6. Determine age-appropriate ways to teach the procedure–use the model, practice, review approach
  7. Practice until you feel comfortable with students’ understanding of the procedure

Determine age-appropriate ways to teach the procedure–use the model, practice, review approach

The sixth step is to make sure that those things are kid friendly in the way that you explain them. This is actually three steps put together, but you’re going to repeat them until you have achieved the mastery level that you expect for this particular procedure. So the three parts are model, practice and review. When I say model, that means you want to make sure that you show them exactly how you want them to do it either by modeling the procedure yourself or having another child do it. Sometimes we also use video or pictures or anchor charts, whatever the procedure may call for. It will vary, of course, depending upon the procedure that you’re teaching and the age of the child. 

With the drive-thru example, I have a picture of a drive-thru projected on my Smartboard to help bring up that prior knowledge that they have about it.  I would say something like, “You’ve been through a drive-thru, right?”  And the most common one at my school was McDonald’s because there was a McDonald’s very close to our school. Next, I would say, “How many of you like French fries?” and most kids would raise their hands. “And how many of you go to McDonald’s for French fries?” And they’d raised their hands again.  “How many of you have ever gone through the drive-through to get some?”  So I’m building that up and again accessing that prior knowledge of theirs. 

And then we talk about, “Okay, well, when you go through the drive-thru, can you just speed around someone if the line isn’t going as fast as you would like or if there is someone who maybe isn’t pulling up? Like if you’re super hungry, do you just get to go to the front of the line?” And immediately, of course, they’re like, no, no, you have to stay in your spot in the line. And I would respond by saying, “You know, that’s right–you have to pay attention to what cars are in front of you when you come in and no, you can’t just speed past them. If you did, you’d get in an accident or make them angry because you cut in line.”  And so, right then, I’m explaining to them and modeling to them, giving them a specific picture in their mind of how it is they need to think about lining up. Next, I would tie it into our classroom and explain that lining up is just the same.  We have to go from where we are to the line in an orderly way and not just push past or zoom around others.  

I would show them exactly where I would want them to walk, how I would want them to walk and what I would want them to do. And then I would have the students practice. And as they say, perfect practice makes perfect. So we would practice until I felt they had achieved the method of lining up I wanted them to do. It’s also important at this stage to be sure if they aren’t quite doing it the way you expect, that you stop right then and in a calm, respectful manner explain what was wrong and what correction is needed.  This is not to call anyone out or make them feel bad, but rather, to help students understand each specific part of the process.  We want them to understand what the wrong way looks like and what the right way looks like from the start. 

The class would work towards the mastery that I wanted them to have, and if they were even slightly off, I would say, “Nope, this is what I saw (and explain where the procedure was executed incorrectly). So let’s go back and try that again.” 

Practice until you feel comfortable with students’ understanding of the procedure

For step seven, you’ll do the model, practice and review until you get to the point that you feel like the procedure is completed the way you want it to be. Then you will just need to go back and review as needed. This will likely be each time you line up for the next several days, so plan a little extra time to line up so that you can fix any missteps right on the spot and still get to where you are going on time!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at michelle@yourteachingmentor.com or send me a DM on Instagram @yourteachingmentor. 

How to Teach Classroom Procedures – Part 3

How to Teach Classroom Procedures – Part 2

by | Classroom Tips, Planning, Start of School Year | 0 comments

Today we pick up at Step 4. If you need to review the previous steps please click here.

If you or your friends are parents, this idea would work at home too. So feel free to share this blog with anybody you know that has children at home that may benefit from this as well.

How to Teach Classroom Procedures

  1. Define what procedures need to be taught
  2. Brainstorm the steps of the procedure
  3. Break the process down into as many steps as needed by asking yourself questions 
  4. Answer the questions by thinking through how you want the procedure to go
  5. Explain the importance of the procedure
  6. Determine age-appropriate ways to teach the procedure–use the model, practice, review approach
  7. Practice until you feel comfortable with students’ understanding of the procedure

Answer the questions by thinking through how you want the procedure to go

Step four is answering the questions you just came up with, and thinking through each part of the procedure. Using the lining up example again, I knew that I wanted them to put their materials away, push their chairs in, and I knew exactly how I wanted them to walk in the line. I wanted it to be something that was very smooth, no pushing, no shoving, no racing to the front, walking very calmly and in control on a certain path to line up only after being sure their materials were picked up properly and their chair was pushed in if they were sitting in their seats. 

**Side note– Most of the ideas I share with you are not completely original to me. That’s one of the things that good teachers do – They seek out advice and help from other teachers.
Blogs and social media have really made a huge impact in this area. It’s the whole reason I am writing this post (and probably why you are reading it!) – to share ideas to make teaching easier and more efficient. Teaching how to line up is one of my favorite procedures to teach because of Leslie at the blog Kindergarten Works. She has a great idea for teaching this particular topic that I used and just tweaked and made it my own, like we all do. We get the idea from someone, but then we make the necessary changes to make it work in our own classroom. And it just worked like a charm.

And so once I had defined for myself the exact steps I wanted them to follow, I had to think about how to teach it to the kids. And this is where Leslie’s idea came in. She uses a great analogy of the drive-thru. And the best thing about using the drive-thru example is that almost every kid has experienced this. Even for those beginning kindergartners I was teaching, most of them at some point had gone through a drive-thru somewhere to be able to have some background knowledge for what you’re talking about. 

Explain the importance of the procedure

Then what you need to do for step five, (and this is key for student buy-in)  is to explain the importance of the procedure, aka why do they need to know this? So, if I’m talking about lining up, I need to let them know that it’s important that they do it this way for safety reasons and so that we all can get to where we’re going in the most timely and efficient manner possible.

This same idea holds true at home. If you’re teaching a bedtime routine, you want to tell them that it’s important for them to understand this so that they don’t forget something and then have to get up, which would interrupt their sleep. Getting a good night’s sleep is so important for children to function well the next day.

Be sure to optin to receive an email when the next post arrives: 

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at michelle@yourteachingmentor.com or send me a DM on Instagram @yourteachingmentor. 

How to Teach Classroom Procedures – Part 3

How to Teach Classroom Procedures – Part 1

by | Classroom Tips, Planning, Start of School Year | 0 comments

Today’s blog post is going to focus on one of the most important things we have to do once the kids arrive for the start of the school year – teaching procedures.  This is crucial at the beginning of the year to set the tone of the classroom, but it is also important to revisit many times throughout the school year. Having a specific method to follow will help you be consistent no matter where or when you teach or review your procedures.

Also, this is a topic that’s not just reserved for teachers. If you or your friends are parents, this idea would work at home too. So feel free to share this blog with anybody you know that has children at home that may benefit from this as well. 

I’ve got a step by step process for you that would work with pretty much anything that you may need to teach. And I’ll give you an example along the way as well. 

How to Teach Classroom Procedures

  1. Define what procedures need to be taught
  2. Brainstorm the steps of the procedure
  3. Break the process down into as many steps as needed by asking yourself questions 
  4. Answer the questions by thinking through how you want the procedure to go
  5. Explain the importance of the procedure
  6. Determine age-appropriate ways to teach the procedure–use the model, practice, review approach
  7. Practice until you feel comfortable with students’ understanding of the procedure

Define what procedures need to be taught

The very first thing that you need to do well before the students arrive is to define what procedures need to be taught both for you and for the students. You need to think about what things kids are going to be doing on a routine basis. For example, in the classroom, that might be things like arrival procedures, dismissal procedures, lining up, or turning in work. All of those are things that kids are going to do on a regular basis and something that most teachers have a certain way that they want it done in their classrooms. If you’re at home, you may have a bedtime routine or a homework routine. So any of those ideas would apply for this particular topic. 

Brainstorm the steps of the procedure

Next, brainstorm the specific steps you want children to follow for the procedure you have in mind first. You want to make sure that you know exactly what it is you want the students to be able to do. You also have to think about how you want to explain that to the students. This probably goes without saying, but explaining a procedure to a six year old kindergarten student is very different than explaining even the same procedure to a fifteen year old sophomore in high school.  It sounds crazy, but just because you know what you want them to do, doesn’t mean that you necessarily have the language for teaching them. So you want to think about your age group–your target audience, so to speak–and how you can best explain that procedure to them. 

Break the process down into as many steps as needed by asking yourself questions 

Step three is to break that procedure down into as many steps as you possibly can, not to make it a bunch of steps, but to make sure that you don’t forget anything. For example, let’s talk about lining up.  That’s something that probably every elementary classroom in the world does at some point. And it’s actually one of my favorite procedures to teach. I had to stop and think, what is it that I need them to do? Well, I had to think about how I wanted them to transition from whatever it was we were doing to where it was they were going. I had to think about these things:

  • Are they sitting on the carpet? 
  • Are they sitting in their chairs? 
  • Where will the line be?
  • Where are they going? 
  • What are they going to need to do before we can even line up? 
  • Do they need to take things with them?

Then, I had to think about how I wanted them to line up…

  • Does it matter if they’re in one line or two? 
  • Is there a line order?
  • Does it matter which way they go to get to the line? 
  • Does it matter if they walk or can they run?

I mean, I don’t know any classroom in the world that would let kids just run up to the line. But again, those are the kinds of things that you want to think through in this third step. As teachers, we realize that running would not be a plausible idea, but kids need to be specifically told that. Be sure you think of everything that you would want them to know, and then how you’re going to teach it. 

Be sure to optin to receive an email when the next post arrives: 

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at michelle@yourteachingmentor.com or send me a DM on Instagram @yourteachingmentor. 

Top 5 tips for student writing conferences

Top 5 tips for student writing conferences

by | Planning | 0 comments

In my humble opinion, student writing conferences are really the heart of a writer’s workshop. Sure, it is important to have strong, succinct mini-lessons (more on that in a future blog post!) and it is important for writers to have the opportunity to share their writing with others (yep, that’s a future blog post topic too!), but conferring is the precious time we get to have one-on-one with students to really get to know and understand their writing, but more importantly, get to know them. What a wonderful gift—for us and them! Over the years, I have learned a lot about conferring and I want to share my best tips for your student writing conferences, so you can make the most of this special time with your students.

  1. In his book, How’s It Going? A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers, (which is a must-have for any writing teacher’s professional library) Carl Anderson refers to conferences as conversations. As a first-year teacher and beyond, we often make the mistake of talking at, not with, our students. By adopting this strategy, we aren’t building those crucial relationships with students, both to understand them as people and as writers. Anderson himself even admits that he almost quit after his first year because of this very thing. I’ve said it many times—the quote that has had the most impact on me as an educator is this: “No significant learning takes place without a significant relationship.” We must take every opportunity that we have to nurture the relationship we have with our students.

  2. Conversations have a point and a structure. We have all been in conversations that we know are just going nowhere—either because we (or who we are conversing with) have no interest in the subject or don’t want to be there, or there is a communication barrier. When we have a student writing conference, both the student and the teacher have a vested interest in the conversation. Students typically are eager to share when their writing is going well, and often (not always!) appreciate help when they are experiencing difficulty. Teachers want to understand what the student is working on and help them improve.

    Conversations also have a structure. You know how every night you and your spouse have the same conversation? I bet it goes like this:
    “What do you want for dinner tonight?”
    “I don’t know; what do you want?”
    “Hmmm, I’m not sure. What are you hungry for?”

    And back and forth until somebody finally suggests something or you just call for takeout (or is that just my house?) Just like that conversation with your spouse about what’s for dinner, writing conferences with students have a predictable structure as well. We invite students into a conversation about their writing. We let them take the lead, sharing the writing work they have been doing. As they talk, we listen and look. We then share with them a strategy to help them as a writer or help them to help themselves. (My personal favorite!) When students know what to expect from the writing conference, they can be better prepared and they will, in turn, be more productive.

  3. We must remember to teach the writer and not the writing! This is such a huge point that it deserves an exclamation point, quote card and probably its own blog post! It’s exactly why I advocate for calling this time of the school day “Writer’s Workshop” instead of “Writing Workshop.” Keeping the writer, and not the writing, at the forefront is key. When we are conferring with students, we must remember that whatever teaching we do, we should ask ourselves this question: Is the point I am about to make helping the student become a better writer, or is it just fixing a random point in this piece? Like the saying goes, “Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for life,” or something like that. If we only focus on the red-pen slash and correct technique for an essay instead of teaching the student a strategy they can use in future work, we aren’t really helping them become better writers—and isn’t that the whole point of writer’s workshop in the first place? To build a community of proficient writers?
  4. We can initiate conferences formally or informally. When I was in the classroom, I had a specific schedule of when I was meeting with each student. I went so far as to color code bins so that students knew if their folder was in a certain color bin that meant I would be conferring with them on a certain day of the week. We can also informally confer with students as we are walking around the room during independent writing time. Sometimes these “pop up conferences” can be the most meaningful of all.
  5. We have to show students that we care—not just about the writing, but about them as writers and as people. We can do that by following the steps outlined above, but it is not enough. We have to really listen to what students have to say and think deeply about their perspective. If we are truly following a writer’s workshop model, then students will have choice in what they write—and sometimes they can use writing to work through some pretty powerful emotions, thoughts and circumstances. As we listen to them share their work, we have to be empathetic and at the same time recognize if they are sharing something that can easily be worked out (a conflict with a friend at recess, an annoying little brother who takes their favorite toy) or something deeper (parents going through a divorce, death of a friend or relative). As I mentioned before, we have to help the writer, not the writing. If they are using writing as an outlet to share something troubling, then we need to let them know that we will be talking to the appropriate personnel, but often they just need to work out emotions and feelings and find writing a cathartic way to do so. In those instances, we of course need to still listen but focus on helping them to use the writing as the tool it was intended for in this instance—as a tool for working through feelings, and that is ok!

I could easily talk about writer’s workshop all day, but I hope these tips are a great start for you to improve your writing conferences with students. Until next time, happy teaching!

Organization For New Teachers

Organization For New Teachers

by | Planning | 0 comments

Welcome to Week 3 of the Summer Workshop for New Teachers! This week we are talking about organization for new teachers – it is a necessary topic for all teachers! This could be the never-ending blog post if I tried to share all the organization resources, hacks, and teacher tips ever. 

Instead, I’ll go over the basics here and then continually update my Facebook and Instagram stories with new ideas and best practices.

So, what makes organization so important that I feel confident in saying this is a topic that applies to all teachers?  An organized classroom accomplishes several purposes:

  • Less distraction for your time and attention
  • Maintain a clearer focus on priorities
  • More time to teach (and for yourself!)
  • More control over your environment
  • Less stress!

It’s important to start by breaking organization into smaller categories. 

For instance, there is what I call “big picture” organization and “detail” organization.  Some examples of “big picture” organization are curriculum maps, school wide plans like MTSS, or learning systems like Google Classroom; whereas “detail” organization is how you are going to sort and contain guided reading materials or math manipulatives, individual lesson plans or a classroom reward system.

Workflow

One of the “big picture” ideas I like to advise people to think of first is their workflow. You would never come in and just wing it every day—you have lesson plans written, materials prepped, resources ready, etc.  Beyond that, though, is workflow. 

Workflow is knowing what tasks are best done when. 

For example, in my case, I usually had about an hour each day before school. I knew in that time I wanted to check email, have all my materials laid out for the day and confer with any other people (parent volunteers, student teachers, etc.) that might be working with me in the classroom that day. 

After school, I often chatted with colleagues, but was fortunate that most of the time they came to me.  During this time, I could pick up materials and put them back where they belonged, set up the schedule for the next day and clean up if needed, all while still having that important social interaction with friends.  

Since I preferred not to take work home, I stayed one night a week later than normal to copy and prep materials so that my plan time was truly used to plan or for just taking a break if I needed one—we’ve all been there, right?   

This is what worked for me in the stage of life I was in and schedule I had.  Your workflow will likely be different, and that is ok—the importance is in having one, not that it is identical to mine or anyone else’s. 

As a new teacher, this may take some time to figure out.  I would caution you, though, that just because you are new teacher, that doesn’t mean that you should be the first car in and the last car out of the parking lot every day.

Yes, you may put in more late nights or early mornings than some colleagues for awhile, but you don’t have to work all the time. We’ll talk more about that in future blog posts.

Basic Organization Tips for New Teachers

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, if I shared every hack there ever was when it comes to organization, we would be here forever! But I do want to share a few important general tips for you.

The first one is what Rachelle Smith from What The Teacher Wants calls the ABC’s of organization. Assess, bundle, and containerize. You first have to assess your classroom space and materials. Then try to bundle like items together, and then decide how you will contain them.  This is a very individual process, but I will definitely share some ideas of things that have worked for myself or other teachers on my social media.

However, organization is very personal – some people prefer to have paper copies of things while others have everything organized digitally.  Whether you prefer paper or digital, there will always be some volume of paper to contend with, so you have to decide whether you want binders or file folders or bins for the paper. 

As you can see, if we went into all of that, this would be an extremely long post! Experiment with different options and see what feels right to you.

I would also recommend having one place to jot notes of things that come up throughout the school day.  Did you know that it has been reported that the average teacher makes 1,500 educational decisions in a day? (see my Facebook Page for the research).

That is four decisions per minute assuming a six-hour instructional day, so it doesn’t even account for time outside of that window. This makes teachers quite possibly the most decision-heavy profession of all. With all of those decisions to make, it is no wonder we get to the end of the day and forget to call Johnny’s mother like we said we would or that we need a class set of copies for the next day’s math lesson. 

This is why I recommend having one place in your room close to where you spend the most time to jot down reminders as they come to you.  This could be a section of your white board, an app on your phone or computer, or a master list. 

This week’s freebie is a master list based on workflow—a place to jot your reminders in the time frame you need to do them in. You can make multiple copies or a more eco-friendly version would be to size it to fit an 8 x 10 or 5 x 7 frame and use a dry erase marker. 

Just enter your information below to get that freebie ⬇️⬇️

Hopefully, this post will help you get one step closer to being the most organized teacher you can be! Happy teaching!