It's starting. Another summer almost gone. Tomorrow morning, I'll wake up and head to my classroom to prepare for the 2017-2018 school year. My 13th year in the teacher's chair. And my first year without either of my girls in the same building as me. I am usually completely ready to go back to work when August rolls around. This year, with the house sale & purchase, a three-year-old who doesn't sleep much, and lots of changes coming at school in the fall... I've haven't felt as prepared to head back. I haven't felt ready. I haven't even really felt excited (so unlike me!). Until this weekend. Yesterday, the Lord gave us the gift of a cool, rainy Saturday. Mr. Farmhouse was stuck at home with no farming tasks to complete in the rain. The girls were stuck inside. And I had a list. I had made a list of every single thing in the farmhouse that I wanted to complete before I went back to work Monday.. We blared some old country music and everybody jumped in. By the late afternoon, the house was looking so good. With every task marked off that list, I could breathe a little easier.
0 Comments
Yesterday, my bestie and I went out to do some shopping for our classrooms. She teachers fourth. I teach third. We both are heading back to school soon and decided to hit the teacher sale at Mardel. I believe that I'm heading into the school year that has snuck up on me faster than any year before. This summer, through the home selling and buying process and the moving situation, we just haven't felt very "settled" in the farmhouse until the last few weeks. And now that we FINALLY feel like this is home, BOOM...it's time to go back to school.
I meandered around and found some great items for the farmhouse. My three favorite purchases were a clearance "you & me" sign for the master bedroom, a sign that says "Be Kind...it's that easy.", and a sign for my classroom that said "It's a good day to have a good day." I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in our circumstances that we struggle to find the positive side of life. I see it every day on social media. There are some people on my Facebook Newsfeed who seem to struggle to find anything good to say about their day...every single day. My heart is filled with sadness for these people, as they can't find any good in their circumstances. I also see the opposite side of the spectrum on my Facebook and Instagram feed. People who are struggling through really big life hurdles...chronic illness, a cancer diagnosis, the loss of a close family member. And yet, their words are encouraging and inspiring and uplifting. I want my students to know when they walk into our classroom that EVERY day is a good day to have a good day. Yes, we will have struggles. A house sale or purchase doesn't go as planned. The air conditioning goes out in your Yukon. The car you purchased to save you money is having transmission problems. Your three-year-old has decided that she doesn't like sleep anymore. (These are all hypothetical situations, of course.) But even when life seems to hit, we have a choice in how we deal with it all. We can smile and persevere. Or we can frown and complain. We can show kindness to family, friends, and strangers. Or we can be cranky and negative. Let's just try over the next few weeks, no matter what road we are walking on right now in our personal lives...to have a good day. To find the good in the world. To BE the good in the world. Happy Weekend, friends. Make it a good one. ❤️🏡❤️ There's a Hobby Lobby right beside Mardel, so of course we had to run in there to see what we could find. I can't believe I found more items to buy, but this great "Gather Together" sign was in the new fall line. The "Fresh Eggs" sign and the beef cuts plate were in the new farmhouse line and fit perfectly in our kitchen, as we eat our own farm fresh eggs and butcher our own beef. The farmhouse rug looks great in front of our kitchen sink...even though I didn't think about how dirty a white rug would get on the farm. I also got a new-to-me window that my mom purchased for our dining room. I had another window on the piano that I decided would fit better in our bedroom, so I needed to fill the spot. Mom delivered, as usual!
In our school, we use the School-Side Positive Behavior Support model.
We have a behavior matrix with all of the expectations we have for our kiddos in each setting in our building. The matrix includes positive behaviors that we expect to see. All behaviors on the matrix fall under the umbrella of our school-wide expectations: be respectful, be responsible, and be safe. Because our elementary school uses the same language from kindergarten to sixth grade when it comes to behavior, we have a head-start on coming up with classroom expectations. Beyond the SW-PBS matrix, I also use the five classroom rules found in the Whole Brain Teaching curriculum to help my classroom run smoothly.
I teach these the first day of school and we work hard to practice them several times throughout the first few weeks. I display them on the walls, we recite them out loud, and we come up with examples and non-examples of each expected behavior. It takes a lot of time in the first days of school, but it is worth it to have a classroom in which students know what is expected at certain times. My room often has "controlled chaos" going on, where kids are visiting with each other about their books or working together on a collaborative project. Because of my guidance and practice with the classroom rules at the beginning of the year, they know that "Rule Number 2" doesn't apply during a group project. It all comes back to clear explanations, practice, practice, and more practice. Whatever you do, define & model your expectations, let them practice, and follow-through with whatever needs to happen should they not follow the expectations appropriately. They will rise to what you expect. I promise. 5. Think about Parent Communication. Parent Communication is kind of intimidating for a new teacher...at least it was for me. The biggest thing that I can suggest is to OVER-communicate. The parents of your students know them better than anyone else. They are (usually) your student's biggest advocate and should be your most helpful teammate. I stress at the beginning of the year to parents that I want us to work together to give their kids the best year possible. And guess what? It works. There are sometimes hard conversations that have to take place. Going to a parent about a difficult situation is much easier when you have been keeping them up-to-date in their students' day-to-day classroom life before making that phone call. A few things that I like to do to share information with parents are:
6. Think about your Classroom Library. After all of that, I usually start putting together my classroom library. I have had it organized in so many different ways through the years. Last year, I think I figured out the way that works best for my room. I have large plastic tubs for nonfiction picture books. They are labeled by subject area or by author, depending on what types of text they are. My fiction picture books are housed on an awesome Hallmark card shelf that I bought for $30 several years ago when a store in our town went out of business (teacher score!). My chapter books are all on a spinning shelf that I bought at the same sale for $45 (again, score!), except for my series chapter books, which are in tubs labeled by series or author. I do have the reading level and/or lexile level written in the back of each book. I don't limit students to that number all the time, because I know that students can push themselves to read books higher than their expected reading level. I also know that some kids want to have a "fun read" that is way lower than their reading level. And I am GREAT with that! I want to create good readers who love to read! So for the most part, I let them choose their own books. I have leveled the books because some students need some assistance in choosing a book that is reasonable for them. These are good conversation pieces for us during reading conferences. Some students use them as a guide and some don't...I am okay with either. If a student is reading something that is far too hard for them or far too easy, I will find out during our reading conferences and I can help to get them into a book that is a better "fit". 7. Finally...think about your Classroom Layout. Last, but not least...I think about my classroom layout. Like I said at the beginning of my first post about school year prep, I used to do this first. I would get my room how I thought I wanted it and then when I started to think about curriculum, grading, data, parents, and my classroom library, I would change it all around! Now I'm trying hard to begin with the end in mind and make my classroom vision a reality by saving this step until last. There will always be changes and adjustments that take place after we meet our students...and then again after we spend a week with them, and a quarter, and I even make changes over Christmas break! But at least when I focus on these seven things, I can feel like I've got a pretty good handle on how I want my classroom to run and what I want to accomplish with my new sweet darlings. Three weeks and counting, teacher friends. Three weeks and counting. P.S. Turns out we're not closing on the farmhouse today. I know it's all in God's timing, but if you could pray with us that it happens tomorrow, that would be great. ❤️🏡❤️ This will be my 11th year walking into the same school district's doors in August. And every year, I feel overwhelmed when I step back into my classroom for the first time. I have had several new teachers ask me what I start with on that first day back in my room. I decided I would share the process of how I begin my school year, in hopes that it might help some first-year teachers...and maybe even some tips that would help veteran teachers to think about something a little bit differently!
So to get to the point of this post...here are the first three of seven tips to start the school year (for teachers). Parents...I'll get to a post for you soon! 1. Begin with the end in mind. I think so many new teachers try to take beginning of the year preparation day-by-day and hope that they end up at the result they are wanting by the time "Meet the Teacher Night" rolls around. I did this too, in my first few years. When you are overwhelmed by where and how to start, doing SOMEthing feels better than standing in the middle of your classroom looking around aimlessly at the mess you have created. The biggest thing that has helped me is to really think about your vision for your classroom before you start unpacking even one box. I have several thoughts & beliefs that really drive what I do in my classroom every day. Some of them include:
When I have these written out and in the back of my mind, I know that there are going specific places in my classroom that are very important to help make this vision a reality. For example, to create readers who love to read, my classroom library will need to be organized and inviting. It will need to have a place where students feel comfortable exploring the texts, reading for fun, and sharing book recommendations with their friends. My students will need to have time built in to our daily schedule to choose books, discuss books, and of course...read! To create young authors who feel comfortable sharing their stories, I will need to have writing supplies readily available, a way for them to track their story ideas, and a classroom community in which students encourage one another to share their stories and grow as writers. To meet individualized needs of the whole child, I will need to have my data binder organized and ready BEFORE I meet students. I need to know what I will track, how I will track it, and what I will do with the information I find. There are so many things that will need to be done before the first day of school, and writing my classroom vision out on paper always helps me to stay focused and to make sure I am staying true to why I became a teacher in the first place. 2. Think about Curriculum. After I know what I desire for my classroom to look like and to feel like, I always move on to curriculum. What we are asked to teach in a given school year is really the skeleton of the rest of our classroom life. I always used to put this step off until my classroom was mostly organized, then I would work on curricular goals the last few days before school started. Now I realize the huge mistake that was. Knowing what content needs to be taught in your classroom will help you to organize your space in a way that is conducive to sharing that content. So, when thinking about curriculum, here is what I do. Gather all standards for all subject areas. Here in Missouri, we use the Missouri Learning Standards. Start with one subject area. Math seems to be the easiest for me to start with, because it is very skill-driven. Go through the standards and begin to divide them up into what I want to teach during the first three quarters of the school year. I want to have all new content taught to my kiddos by the end of third quarter so we can use fourth quarter to review third grade content, prepare for state assessments, and begin to do some fourth grade prep work. Take each standard that you are covering during first quarter and turn them into specific measurable learning targets.
3. Think about Grading & Data.
Speaking of targets and tracking data, this is something else that I have learned to spend more time on at the beginning of my school year. Make sure you know what is expected of you, as far as reporting grades to parents, in your district. To be honest, our online grading system is great for tracking data on standards, but I often feel like there is more I want to share with parents. Because of this, I also keep a data notebook for my class to track other information. Some of the items that are included in my data notebook are:
I set this information up at the beginning of the year and have blank copies of each form in the notebook available for students who move into our district. I will share more about my data notebook forms in a few weeks, as I set up my own data notebook for the new school year. I hope that as you begin to think about the new school year, you can get just a few ideas from the way I start thinking about my school year. Later this week, I will talk about the last four tips for starting the school year. 4. Think about Classroom Management & Expectations. 5. Think about Parent Communication. 6. Think about your Classroom Library. 7. Finally...think about your Classroom Layout. I hope your Monday was a good one. Teachers, I hope that in the few weeks before the school year starts you'll be able to take time to picture the classroom of your dreams and use that vision to think about everything you can do to make that vision a reality. I can't believe it's already time to be thinking about the new school year. Time really does fly when you're having fun (or when you're moving...whichever phrase happens to fit in your life!). ❤️🏡❤️ |
Archives
December 2023
Categories
All
|