Centers Hack

It seems silly, but starting in a new grade level is quite similar to being a new teacher all over again.  I don't necessarily know what misconceptions my students will have, I don't have a drawer full of manipulatives or centers for review/extension activities, and there's a lot of learning curves.

One of our most recent grade level meetings focused on math planning and the upcoming unit.  One of the benefits of these meetings is that I can pick the brains of the other teachers who have taught this math unit before.

Here were the take aways:

Elapsed time and telling time apparently is extremely difficult for the kiddos. 

A pre-test for this unit is highly recommended.  (The Engage NY Module covers addition and subtraction with regrouping to the thousands, elapsed time, telling time, estimation, and rounding.)

Pre-teaching is recommended because not all the second grade teachers use Engage NY curriculum.  With computers and phones, telling time on an analog (traditional) clock is a lost skill that's not necessarily reinforced at home.  Very few of my students can read the analog clock in our classroom and often interrupt my teaching to blurt out a question asking about the time.  It's a skill we're working on.

So we're going to do some hands-on practice with telling time and reading clocks before jumping into our next math unit.

We're going to physically build clocks, courtesy of this free {TpT download}.

I also prepped these {I have Who Has} center and {What Time is it} centers for each table.  Both were freebies (my favorite) from TpT.  If my students like them and they're valuable, I'll reprint on colored cardstock and laminate.

 

To stay organized, I make each table their own set and place it in a sandwich sized bag.  I then place all the smaller bags in a gallon sized bag, along with the answer keys.  It's the little tricks that make the difference.

Disagreements

Mid-August means my Facebook newsfeed and pinterest boards are filled to capacity with back to school activities and articles on teaching.

Normally I skim these articles, but this {one} about what to not do on the first day of school. I re-read several times.  It rattled around in my brain and I struggled with some of the information presented.

I struggled because I fundamentally disagreed with some of the points being made.  That disagreement made me question if my teaching philosophy was skewed and my priorities were off.  However, after far longer than I'd care to admit, I came to the decision that those points in the article were not ones I'd accept.

So what did I have such a strong reaction to?  

These apparent "no no's" of the first day(s) of school:

"Discuss Class Rules"

It's not the first thing we do, but it is discussed.  We make our classroom norms together with a gallery walk and anchor charts.   We read some picture books on class norms and create our expectations together.  I think having defined schedules and expectations helps students feel comfortable because they know what the boundaries are.  Plus we create them together, so they feel an immediate sense of ownership.

"Assign Seats"

I make it clear to my munchkins that we will switch seats (and class jobs) often.  However, I don't want the first impression in fifth grade to be a popularity contest and students scrambling to sit by friends, leaving others out.  I'd rather everyone has an assigned seat because that helps cut down on anxiety.  Everyone belongs.  Everyone has a safe space.  Everyone is included.

"Make students introduce themselves"

I don't make students stand up and share their life stories, but they do have to introduce themselves to their table teams.  One of the activities we did at DENSI was finding things in common with our team.  We had to find 10 statements that were true for all our members of our team.  I think I'll cut it to five, but I want students to have conversations about what they have in common.  

I'll also have them do "Find Someone Who" over the first few days of school to help them bond with one another.  

"Assign homework"

Their homework on the first day is filling out their agendas correctly and having their families go over the welcome packet.  They also do silly "math about me" and "me as a reader" interest surveys so I can gain more information about them in a not so creepy way.  They've got homework, but it's fun.  They need to get back into the routine of school and that involves (meaningful) homework. 

I agree with other portions of the article (make sure you smile, greet all students) but these four "no no's" were actually must do's for me.

Fellow teachers, what are your thoughts?!

Division Day 1

As I previously blogged about, we've had some disagreements about math.  

Today was day 1 of division in my classroom and it went really well.  They really liked using manipulatives and working together.  We went over the vocabulary for the unit (dividend, divisor, quotient, remainder).  They worked on problems and generated their own strategies.  

It was nice to see them struggle and problem solve.  I did have to talk to a few students who immediately saw the connection between multiples and division. I pulled them into the hallway and shared that they need to observe, letting others make their own discoveries to take ownership.

I was pleased to hear how well the lesson went in other classrooms as well!

I think my students' favorite part was when I told them they could write on their desks with the expo marker.  

Detour

Sometimes the best teaching moments detour from the lesson plan.

We had this Engage NY activity sheet to give:

3 problems.  The time slated for this independent practice was ten minutes, then they were to go work independently in a textbook that's older than them.

That's not what we did.

I had them work collaboratively at their table teams.  I had them include written explanations of their thinking and justify their answers.  I had them show their work multiple ways.  It got a tad noisy, but they were all engaged.  It's amazing how the simple act of giving them markers and butcher paper turns an otherwise mundane activity into a lively discussion and collaborative activity.

When they were done, I had them do a gallery walk and critique the other groups' presentations, thus highlighting math practice #3.  

Did this activity take way longer than it was slated to? Yes (but it still fit within our math block).  Did they gain so much more from one another than they would have by silently working then going over the answers? Yes.  

Was it worth detouring from my lesson plan? Absolutely.

Table Solving

We like to switch things up in my classroom.  A majority of my math block is spent with students collaboratively solving problems and discussing them.  I pull a small group a few times a week during their independent work, which is usually for about ten minutes.  I give 5 problems or so and get through 2 with my small group (that's ok).  I think they should be collaborating during math time.

While not everyone agrees on my math practices, I'd rather have my students solving challenging problems together and talking about strategies as opposed to the opposite: always silently working in ancient text books.

We are in the midst of a long weekend (thank you Nevada Day followed by 2 staff development days), so I gave a math test on the Thursday before the weekend.  On Wednesday, we played jeopardy.

In the past, I noticed that some students were being passive participants, merely smiling and letting their tables do the work.  Not coincidentally, these students weren't doing so great on their tests.  So I let my students pick their own groups and limited the number of students to 4 rather than 6.   This helped with engagement and participation.  True, there were a few students who still didn't want to work but instead of me harping on them, their teams did.  Nothing like some positive peer pressure!

Instead of having them solve on white boards, I got large sheets of butcher paper for each group.  We also used markers because that always seems to make math more exciting!  

They had a great time working together to solve multiplication problems!

On a post-grading note, I had higher scores on this test than previous ones!

Getting to Know My Munchkins

Since I'm starting at a new school, I'm coming in at a disadvantage.  I don't know these kids or their families.

So I pushed myself to try to learn as much as I could about my new bunch of munchkins.  I gave them several "about me" surveys and this year, actually took the time to read them.  I mean between all their beginning of the year forms, we're looking at five hundred pages or so...good thing it was a three day weekend!

It took a few hours, but I'm glad I did it.  I learned a lot about my new students (and their families).  I can easily name off ten fun facts about each kiddo, which is impressive considering I've known them for five days.  I also made notes about what I saw during their games of 20 wins and various first week sorts.

Here's a top ten list of things I've learned:

1) I've got some pretty eclectic kids.  Some told me they love Mean Girls, others are in Tae Kwon Do, some learned the difference between debit & credit cards this summer.

2) Almost every single one said they struggle with spelling and reading multisyllabic words, which only justifies my decision to spend 10 minutes a day doing phonics during whole group reading.

3) A few of them live around the block from me.  I've never had students live so close. I will probably see them out riding their bikes or have them visit on Halloween.

4) They are pretty vocal about their feelings on reading.  Some love Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, others hate the series with a passion...and weren't afraid to show it!

5) I've got supportive families.  Some filled me in on situations at home, some voiced their concerns about where their kids fall academically, but most want to be involved which is a welcome change.

6) Some already listed me as their favorite teacher, which is adorable. It also makes me worry about their previous teachers...but we'll have a great year.

7) Quite a few want to learn how to use the dictionary.  I don't know if their third grade teachers skipped that standard, but we'll be sure to cover both traditional and electronic dictionaries this year. (Ninjawords.com is my favorite!)

8) They're really good at coaching one another.  I don't know if I should give their previous teachers credit for this (or perhaps their parents), but during our math games they were helping one another.  Yes, there was friendly competition but they were genuinely wanting one another to grasp the concept at hand.

9) They work well together.  Some of them said their best friends are in the class.  I've only had to move one child in the first week.  Very few needed a gentle nudge about participating with the group and I'm thinking it was because they already knew the answers and didn't want to give it away. I'm pleased they want to talk to one another.

10)  They are full of joy.  They're inquisitive.  They want to learn.  This is the best possible scenario I could ask for as a teacher.

It's going to be a great year. 

Day Three, the frustration continues

My day of frustrating them didn't end with math.

Later in the day, we went over sorts.  They did "no way Jose and that's a fact, Jack!" first.  In this sort, they separated statements about fifth grade into true and false statements. 

They also learned the procedures for gallery walks, where they critique the reasoning of others without touching the other team's sort.  It's a great opportunity for them to also practice using the accountable talk stems that we brainstormed together.

I color coded the stems to help my visual learners.

They also did an editing and revising sort which I used as a formative assessment.  They're still a little fuzzy on the differences between the two, so that's a teachable moment for me in the next few weeks.  We didn't provide any instruction on their writing task this week because we wanted to use it as an informal benchmark.  This week they wrote a letter to their future selves, which they'll get back the last week of school.

They were pretty good with the first two sorts, but then I gave them a syllable sort.

They were completely stumped.  Some groups used their responding cups to ask for help, one group tried to bribe me (both with food and a dollar), some made piles of what they thought they knew and what was confusing, some started sounding out the syllables, and others were on the right track.  They asked for help, but I let them struggle.  Struggle is a good thing.  When we came back together, I had a lot of grumpy students.  I told them that this activity helped me to see where I need to start phonics instruction (with what is a syllable), and showed me that they knew to ask for help, were comfortable asking for help, and could work together.  No groups quit during their struggle time (which was five minutes, I'm not that mean).  

They wanted to know the answers.  I said no, they don't get to know that yet.  We'll start instruction next week, but I'm not just giving you the answers without the practice.  

This was very irritating to many of my students, especially the higher ones.  I told them they won't always get the answers right away.  They won't know everything right away.  Learning is a process and it takes time.  They aren't used to not getting the answers right away and I told them this will be an adjustment.  They'll have to work through things.  They'll struggle. In the end, it will make them stronger thinkers.

I think some of them get it, but it doesn't mean they like it.

Best part of day 3?  This happened:

Oh yes, it happens in real life. 

Craft time!

The beginning of the year is always an expensive time for teachers. I've stocked up on supplies for six table teams, including new buckets for them.  I bought some new border and letters for bulletin boards, got burlap to make border, and various other items at the craft store(s) for new cute things in my classroom.

One of the projects I just completed is my "good effort beads":

I saw on pinterest a fellow teacher made "smart beads" for her students to wear.  I modified the idea to more mesh with my growth based teaching mindset. 

By switching from "being smart" to "great effort", this shows my students that I'm focused on them. Our goal is progress.  Our academic journey focuses on improvement.  My students are in competition with themselves.  They aren't all coming in at the same place academically, nor will they all end the same place.  I have high expectations and will continue to push each of them to do their best. I believe in praising growth and progress, not "smartness".  

In a TFA (Teach for America) flashback, I vividly recall one of our many Saturday sessions ending with this idea:

Smart is not something that you are.

Smart is something that you become.

How powerful for students to realize that being smart comes from effort, perseverance, and continued hard work.  It doesn't happen overnight.

I can't wait to encourage my students to keep trying their best.

Continuing with empowering students, I picked up some lanyards:

Which I turned into:

I'm very excited for my new brag necklaces.  Again, this emphasizes a student's progress over time rather than a numerical score.  

This year, my students will be reading...a lot.  We are utilizing AR with our "reading rangers" program that focuses on comprehension and stamina.  I'm excited that this is used consistently K-5 in every classroom, so there is a school wide support and buy-in from students.

I also am a realist and know I teach ten year-olds...

Which is why I created this:

I know I will have books get damaged. I understand small rips from wear and tear, but I think if a student completely destroys a book, the family should replace it.  I'll need to double check with my grade level and administration, but I'm thinking of putting that in the library contract I send home at the beginning of the year.  In five years of teaching, I've only had to collect from a handful of families.  One student left my copy of Hatchet on the bus.  One had a water bottle explode and flood her backpack.  A third left it out for the dog to find (comically yes, the dog ate it).  A fourth ripped the spine in half.  A few others lost the books in various places.  I think it's fair to hold families fiscally responsible.  After all, if they lose library books, they have to pay to replace the books...so why shouldn't the same be true for my classroom library?

I wanted to jazz up our information space, so I had a little fun with chalk board markers.  I bought a banner from the party supply aisle at Target:

I also borrowed a neighbor's cricut to make:

We are expected to post our calendar so it's obvious what the students are working on, so why not make it fun? 

I also want to to focus on small groups in math, which means I'll need an additional management strategy.

I decided on student math coaches, which would be designated by these:

I'm all about collaboration, so they'll soon say "math coaches".  Students will prove to me they can handle the concept, then I'll give them the lanyards and let them coach their peers while I work with a small group.

More pictures coming soon!

Staff Development Day

Yesterday, I attended my first staff development not at my current school.  After five years, I was ready to venture out and try a new school.  I'm so excited for this change but was super nervous because I don't know anyone.

I arrived early and got to check out my new classroom.  I will definitely need to find more bookcases, but I like the layout! I will definitely use table teams instead of rows, but that's the only major change I'm making.  

I hope the 12 x 12 ft carpet stays in the reading corner!

We then learned about the NEPF (Nevada Educator's Performance Framework), talked about SBAC (standards based assessment consortium, how we'll be tested next year) and went over expectations.  We had some computer based training on our new grading & attendance system but had plenty of time for a team bonding task and lunch.  I also found time to tour the school, talk with the librarian about Battle of the Books, and found stickers to level my books (since we are an AR school).  Overall, it was a very positive and productive day!

I absolutely loved the energy of my new school.  I felt so welcomed, appreciated, and valued as an educator.  I feel rejuvenated as a teacher and that's such a wonderful feeling!

I also get an entire day to shadow my new grade level tomorrow to see how they operate, which is a pretty awesome opportunity! I love learning from others and these ladies seem full of great ideas!  

Onward and upward!

Ursula Update

Before winter break, I blogged about our new class motivator Ursula:

A few weeks went by and as a class, they didn't earn any pieces.  I could tell most of my class was getting frustrated because it was always 2 or 3 students who didn't do their work and ruined it for the whole class.

Their homework is a reading log, 30 minutes of reading a night and one double sided math sheet that reviews what they learned in class the week before.  They get their homework on Friday and it's due the following Friday, so there is truly no reason it shouldn't get done.

One particularly difficult student kept arguing how the homework simply couldn't get done because of outside commitments.  Now, I've talked with the family about this and the student isn't truthful about the work.  If there's time for video games, there's time for homework.  No excuses.

So we had a class discussion of who has extra curricular activities (sports, church, music, family time, etc.)  Every student raised his or her hand, so we talked about making time for what's important...and that includes homework.  I made the connection with sports and how homework is like practice.  If you don't practice, you won't do as well as you can on game days.  That seemed to resonate with many of my students.

We voted how we wanted to change Ursula.  I suggested a table team reward and that was vetoed by the tables where students aren't doing their work.  Thirty out of my thirty one students wanted Ursula to be on an individual basis so they were only accountable for themselves.

For the next ten weeks, they have to turn in their fully completed homework eighty percent of the time.  (8/10 seems fairly generous).  If they do this, they get to join our lunch party.  One student asked what would happen if she turned in all of her homework (as she's done the entire year), so I said those students would get an extra reward.

I love that they're so motivated now!  

We added our first piece:

Isn't she lovely?

I talked with them about how everyone was still invited, just some students already used one of their two "freebie" weeks.  I hope this really turns around the homework slide we've been noticing!  

Percy-a-pooluza!

Today was focused entirely on Greek mythology and I loved it :)

First we went to the Smith Center to see Jason and the Argonauts. It was great! It was a quasi-modern retelling and Spiderman made an appearance :) I love superhero and Star Wars references!

When we got back, we reviewed character analysis and read more of the Lightning Thief, pausing to make predictions, analyze characters, and practice all sorts of great reading skills!

Naturally, I stopped at the good parts :)

They're in the middle of chapter 10.  Percy, Annabeth & Grover just realized the Fates are on the bus.  Not only are they on the bus, but headed toward the back...

Cue dun-dun-dun music!

We also analyzed different characters with our table teams:

And recorded our thoughts:

I had them refer back to the portion of the text that justified their character analysis.  It was an easy way to review the importance of using evidence. 

We also analyzed the cover differences between the novel and graphic novel:

Happy reading!

A-Z Strategy

Today we tried a new strategy for brainstorming and my students really liked it!

I'm not sure if there is an official name because I just call it my "A-Z Strategy".

I have no idea where I  found this strategy.  I don't remember reading about it on pinterest or learning it from another teacher, but who knows. I won't pretend I made it up.

Essentially, students work in partners or groups to generate ideas.

First, they letter their papers from A to Z.

Then, you present them with the topic.  Today we tried "reading strategies".

I set the timer to add an element of competition for the table teams.

They had to come up with words or phrases that fit the topic for each letter of the alphabet.  I don't make them go in order alphabetically but they had to work in whisper voices, other wise another team could (and would) steal their answers.

Here are some of their response sheets:

Which I then turned into a new anchor chart:

I like that this strategy can be adapted for any content area.

We did a "bonus round" where we tried the strategy with our novel The Lightning Thief, but the picture came out blurry.  I'll try again on Monday :)

Happy weekend!

New post it collaboration idea

At my school site, we're very big on collaboration.

I saw this idea on pinterest and I'm super excited to try it in my classroom:

Students will answer a question individually on post-its, then put the post-its on larger paper and collaborate to make the best answer while incorporating all of their ideas.

This would work well for reading, math and science :)

Class pom poms

I am fortunate enough to work next to some super creative teachers who love to share ideas. 

One of my coworkers made adorable tissue paper pom poms for her table teams and bulletin board.  

I originally wanted to buy paper lanterns to color code my tables (to match their supply buckets) but couldn't find them all in the same size.

So I asked her for help.

Here is the step by step guide to make your own using tissue paper, yarn and paper clips (to hang from the ceiling).

Step 1:

Lay the tissue paper flat.  Use at least 8 pieces of tissue paper.

Step 2:

Create a fan by folding the tissue paper back and forth.  The folds should be about an inch wide.

Step 3:

Tie a string around the middle of the tissue paper.  Make sure to leave enough to hang the pom from the ceiling (or whatever you're hanging it from).

Step 4:

Carefully begin to fluff up the tissue paper.  Do one sheet at a time so you don't rip the tissue paper.

Step 5:

Fluff up half of the sheets on both sides of the yarn.  Your pom should look like this:

Step 6:

Flip the pom over and fluff the remaining half of the pom.

Step 7: 

Hang, enjoy and admire!

Happy crafting!

1st Week Idea

I admit it, I'm guilty. I am guilty of trying to condense the entire first week's worth of ice breakers and procedures into the first day of school.  I think I do this because I'm so eager to get to the part of the school year where students are learning and eagerly sharing ideas with one another. I'm ready for the part where my classroom runs smoothly and I don't have to go over how to set up notebooks and center expectations.  However, I've also learned through trial and error that the first week(s) of school need to be spent going over procedures and expectations so the rest of the year can run smoothly.

I stumbled upon this great idea on pinterest and immediately added it to my first week lesson plans.

Essentially, students are completing a Venn Diagram about themselves and a buddy.  Pretty simple idea, but then I got to thinking about why this would be important.

1: It's a great, non-threatening review of Venn Diagrams and what it means to compare and contrast two people.  Since the comparing and contrasting of two individuals is a cornerstone of RL 5.3, it's a sneak peek formative assessment.

2: It's a non-threatening format that students are familiar with.  It doesn't involve notebooks.

3: It's a great way to establish speaking and listening norms.  I would model this with a co-teacher to show students what is expected in a conversation.  We could also model appropriate voice levels, thus reviewing another classroom expectation.

I wouldn't do this the first day of school.  Instead, I foresee this as a great Tuesday through Thursday activity.

At our school, we use Kagan grouping structures, which means I have my students in groups of four to six that change every six weeks (or so).  In each group, there is a "high flyer", a medium student, a lower student, and usually a student with an IEP (since I am inclusion).  The students work together and learn from one another.

On the first day, I would have students interview their "shoulder partner" who is the person sitting next to them.

The second day would be devoted to interviewing their "face partner" who is the person directly across from them.

The final day would be interviewing their "kiddy corner" partner.  Then they will share out with the group and make a four way Venn Diagram (I'd provide the templates) about their table teams.  

From there, we would do a gallery walk to learn more about the other table teams.

During this fifteen minutes, I would monitor for appropriate voice levels and have the opportunity to teach Kagan structures and group expectations.

I'm excited to give this new idea a try!  I also plan to repeat it within small groups once we start switching during the second week of school.

How would you make this activity even better?