The drought ends here.

Hello, friends!

Well, as I'm sure you can tell, 2014 is not playing around.  These 20 days have been incredibly busy; we went right from the holidays into weddings, birthdays, and apartment hunting.  Currently, I'm back home in the glorious Midwest for a family funeral.  I have to email in my sub plans for tomorrow, but I REALLY hate writing sub plans, which is why I almost always haul my butt into school if it's at all possible, but since it's not possible tomorrow I'm taking a break to revive my little blog.

I'm here today to share with you 2 quick tips, if you can call it that.  To be perfectly honest, I generally feel that I'm not a very tricky teacher, and I sort of feel that organizationally I'm not really dazzling anyone, but just in case you're looking for new ideas here are two things that have been incredibly helpful for me this year.

The first thing that has been incredibly time saving for me is our work station rotation board.  Right now I only have one for literacy work stations, because those are the work stations I use daily.  (We generally do math work stations only about 2-3 times per week.)  Unfortunately, I'm going to have to just describe this work station board to you all since I don't have any pictures.  I'll write myself a note to take a picture and share it with you later.  =)

Basically, I have 5 groups and I give each group an icon (usually it's seasonal) and those are lined across the top.  Each card has the group's icon, the group name, and the names of each student in the group.

This is a mini-sample of how our group cards looked in the fall.  So these cards line the top of the pocket chart.  We only do two work stations each day (which was hands down the hardest adjustment I had to make in my literacy block this year), and I show the students which work stations they are going to by putting two picture cards underneath their group card.  We have 6 work stations in our classroom--word work, independent reading, fluency, writing, iPad, and inquiry and investigation.  Each work station has a corresponding picture card, which looks something like this.  

I made 4 for each work station so that 2 groups can go per day, plus there are a few extras.  So I stack the two picture cards under their group to show them where they're going.  What's really nice is that now, at this point in the school year, organizing the work station board is a job that I can delegate to more responsible kids.  I can generally have a kid organize the work station board during morning meeting.   What's also really nice about using picture cards is that kids who are coming back to the classroom during our work stations can find their group/activity much more easily than they could in the past.  It's really helped those students transition back into the classroom with minimal disruption.  

My other tip, in addition to picture based work station rotation cards, is picture based anchor charts with directions.  I'm part of a fellowship this year and technology is part of it, so I was able to receive a small group set of iPads for my classroom, which has been great.  As a school, we've been using 2 programs this year that I put my kids on during iPad time--Lexia and Reading A-Z.  We took time earlier in the school year to make anchor charts together showing the step-by-step directions for students to use both Lexia and RAZ Kids.  Adding small pictures to the anchor charts really helped kids integrate those directions into the routine.  My students know that they have the first 90 seconds of a work station to get their iPad and bring it to the Question Box to have it unlocked.  After 90 seconds they have to wait until I have a break in my group instruction.  Having the anchor charts has really helped the kids understand what to do, but it's also really helped me with redirection.  When kids don't follow the routine it's easy to point to the pictures and help them understand what the routine is.  

I promise to be back more this week with some peeks into my classroom, although this will be a short week--I'll be out Tuesday, with a field trip on Thursday, and an early dismissal on Friday.  

Enjoy the holiday!  =)

xoxo

The Best Laid Plans

Friends.  I'm shaking my head at myself.  On Monday, when I was home getting myself organized I really thought to myself "Heck yes!  I am going to blog EVERY day this week as part of this Bloghoppin' linky party".  Spoiler alert:  I failed.  :(  But, I ended up being surprisingly busy outside of school this week and I didn't realize that was happening ahead of time.  Like, Wednesday one of my super besties was last minute in town for just one night and I couldn't really say "No, I can't meet you for drinks tonight because I have to blog".  I mean, I guess I could have done that, but I just never see that Libb and I really wanted to hang out with her.  So I'm sorry that I was a minor fail, but I'm going to link back up today, get back on the wagon, and share some new(ish) ideas.

This is 100% a recycled ideas, but it's one of the best ideas I've ever heard of.  Give your children numbers.  I'm going to say it again because it's so awesome:  give your children numbers.

I like this idea for several reasons.  1) Everyone only has one number, so if even kids have the same name when you call numbers it eliminates confusion.  2)  My particular school has a lot of transience, so it makes it easy to re-use materials if one kids leaves and another comes in.  It's hard to reuse a folder or notebook labeled "David", but if your pencils and folders say "18" then it's easier to recycle that for students.  3)  It gives students a space in line and eliminates all those busting/cutting arguments.  (I suppose this isn't necessarily inherent in assigning numbers, but I always tell my students to line up in "line order", which means that they line up numerically.)  I really cannot emphasize enough how positively I feel about giving children numbers in a classroom.

This is my other "new idea" that probably also qualifies as a helpful hint.  I started this last year, and to be perfectly honest with you, it was more successful last year than this year, but I think that's because my loves this year are much more DEpendent and much needier than my group from last year.  In any case, I'm going to stick with this idea because I know it will ultimately pay off for me.  And here it is:  The Question Box.  Say, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?  The Question Box is a large square that I tape off on the floor near my table using blue painter's tape and I label it "Question Box", and make sure to draw question marks on it.  The way the Question Box works is that if you have a question during any type of work station time and you ask your group members and they don't know you come to the question box.  The rules of the question box are that there can only be one kid in the box at a time, and that you  have to wait quietly in the box until I can pause my teaching to help you.  It works really well once you teach it...or at least it has for me.  It's really nice because it gives kids a way to get your attention quietly without distracting themselves and other kids.  Another really nice fringe benefit of the Question Box is that you can leave kids in there indefinitely.  What I mean by that is that if you have kids who come to the box all the time for silly or unnecessary reasons (or non-question reasons) you can make them stand in the box longer, and sometimes they will get bored and leave.  Last year I had one sweetheart who came to the Question Box every. single. day.  So I started making her wait longer than I would make other kids wait, which was also really helpful for me because I knew that if she waited it out that she really did need me.  It was a nice silent signal.  Honestly, it takes about 30 seconds to tape down a Question Box and it saves so much time.  I don't have a picture of my Question Box because I'm a terrible blogger and I always forget about pictures.

That's about it for me, friends.  Tomorrow is Smithsonian Teachers' Night (yessssssssssssssssssssss), so I hope to be back tomorrow with some more treats, but I can make no promises.
Happy Friday!
xoxo
Rachel