Shuffling Those Small Groups

Y'all.  Can I just first say that I get abnormally impressed with myself when I blog twice in one day?  Like it's probably a little ridiculous.

From my excellent IG and Twitter creeping, I can tell that many teachers are preparing for their first round of Parent/Teacher Conferences (PTCs), or just recently made it through.  If you just made it through, way to go!  Self-five!  You did it!  Conferences can be hard, but you nailed it!  If you're still preparing, you've totally got this and you're going to do a great job!

I know that when I was in the classroom, PTCs generally occurred around the same time as a data cycle, which means that generally when we were prepping for conferences we were also assessing like mad(wo)men.  And generally, when we have new data we use it to make sure that we're still grouping students appropriately and meeting the needs of all our kids.  I'm here today to briefly talk to you about how you go about creating your small groups.

Now, when I first started teaching I felt really strongly that students needed to be ability grouped and that the groups students used for work stations (LWS) had to be the same groups they used to come to my table.  If that's how you feel comfortable, great.  However, I want to tell you about how I group kids now that has totally changed the way I manage LWS.  The short version is this:  I put students into rotation groups but those rotation groups DO NOT match the groups of students who come to my table.  When I started as a teacher, I thought this was stupid because I was doubling the work of group making.  However, as an older and wiser (ha) teacher I am 100% in favor of having rotation groups and teacher table groups not match.  Let me tell you why.  First, when you ability group your rotations you're essentially putting your highs, lows, and mediums in the same group, so all the lows are together, all the highs are together, etc.  What I LOVE about having unique rotation groups is that you can mix up the levels of students within the groups, which is great because you can split any potential talkers/misbehavers, and you can also make sure to have some kids that others can ask if they forget what the activity is.  Second, having different rotation groups means that there's never a work station that's totally empty.  It also makes it more likely that students are getting to every work station in a week.  Lastly, the thing that's great about having rotation groups and teacher table groups is that you can call an audible and flex group students if the need arises.  So if you notice that there are 4 students who need work on answering two-part questions, but who might not be on the same level, you can call them to your teacher table without really disrupting the flow of your rotation groups.

When I ran work stations with different rotation groups and teacher table groups, I used pocket charts to indicate rotations.  I had cards with group names and members on it, as well as cards that showed the work station.  Here's an example of what the rotation group cards looked like.

And underneath the group card would be the 3 cards showing their work stations for that day.  So, for example, underneath pumpkins it might show word work, read to others, work on writing.  Here's an example of the work station cards.

I planned for this to be more concise than this actually was, but I just really feel strongly about having different rotation and teacher table groups.  :/  If you try it let me know if you love it, too.  And if you don't maybe I can help you regroup your students so you do love it.

Happy Novvember!
xoxo

#TeacherWeek15: Sanity Savers

Hi, friends

So, I skipped yesterday's classroom tour link up because I don't have a classroom this year, and I never took enough pictures of my classroom to do a tour of an old classroom.  But I am back in business for today's Sanity Savers conversation.


I think as teachers one thing that is INCREDIBLY important is working smarter, not harder.  I mean, teachers definitely work hard.  But it's also important to work smart, or you'll never get anything done.  So I'm going to share a few of my work smarter/stay organized strategies that helped me stay organized and calm when I was teaching.

Number those nuggets.
Every year, I numbered my kids.  Generally, our list followed ABC order, but invariably we'd gain and lose some kids throughout the school year so it wasn't always 100% true, but close.  Here are reasons why numbering kids is a sanity saver.
1.  It allowed me to reuse materials when students came and left class, so I could get more bang for my buck.  Students could use the same folders, pencils, scissors, and crayons as the student who just left.
2.  It eliminated line up issues.  Students always lined up numerically, so there was no arguments about who was busting, or how someone cut in front of someone else.  (Line leader was a job in my class; that person would just line up in front of number one for that day.)
3.  It gave students a certain sense of anonymity.  While students did know each other's number as the school year went on, it let me organize data, conference notes, and assessments in binders by number and they didn't necessarily know whose it was.

Use pictures whenever possible.
Now, I realize that this is mainly an early elementary tip, but using graphics in my classroom was key.  Especially early in the year, and especially with my lowest nuggets.  For example, our work station rotation board always had pictures as well as group names and pictures as well as the written name of the work station.

This was part of our fall work station board.  Each group is clearly named, but also has an icon/graphic to go with it so that if you can't read the word pumpkin you still know your group.  

And here's just a quick example of rotation cards.  Station name underneath, with a picture on top.  

Organize your student data.

Okay, so I realize this is a terrible tip because obviously you want to stay organized.  I don't have pictures to go with this, but I am planning a Periscope in the next few days about this same topic.  (You can follow me at Whale_Tails_DC.)  I'm going to give you the highlights of how I organized student data.  First, and most crucial, was a grid that I created and printed weekly.  In the header, it had the week (Week of August 31) and then below was a grid.  It would have each of my students' name in a square, and beneath their name it would say "math, reading, writing".  When I conferred with that student, I would highlight the subject so that as the week went on I could see at a glance who I had met with and who I had not.  When I met with students, I would quickly jot notes on address labels.  Address labels come in lots of sizes, but I have big handwriting so I always liked to get the biggest address labels, but you can get them in any size.  I would just jot their number or initials, the date, and the subject (which I usually abbreviated--M, R, W) and then at the end of the day I would stick their label on their page in the binder for that subject.  I realize that pictures would be really helpful to this; hopefully, it will make a little more sense after you see the 'Scope, but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about this method.  

Thanks for sticking with me to the end!  Those are my top 3 Sanity Savers.  And don't forget to check out Blog Hoppin' to catch other teachers' brilliant ideas.  You're almost to the weekend, teachers!  You can do it!

xoxo

Five for...Sunday?!

Friends.

This weekend REALLY got away from me.  And even though I'm yawning like crazy I refuse to accept defeat and go to bed without linking up with Doodlebug's for Five for Friday.

 

This week really whipped my butt, which is extremely ridiculous because we only had 1.5 days of school.  So without any further babbling here are my Sunday five.  

Even though we were off on Monday for the holiday, and we didn't have school Tuesday or Wednesday, we definitely had an Arts for Every Student field trip to see a play of Miss Nelson is Missing.  I'd be lying to your face if I told you I was excited for this trip before we went.  Honestly, I thought the play would be campy and just kind of an unenjoyable field trip, but it was fantastic!  The play was so adorable, and really funny.  The kids loved it; they remembered having read the book earlier this year, and they were so into how they knew that Miss Swamp is Miss Nelson.  This picture is the worst (ugh; stupid cell phone pics), but it was adorable how excited all the kids were.  

It really worked out that we had two days off of school because that's how long it took me to get home from a family funeral on Monday.  I literally felt like I stuck in some bizarre, real life version of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.  Here is a sampling of the melange of tickets, boarding passes, and receipts from those 48 hours.  It was certainly not the ideal travel experience.  

Is anyone else watching the Grammys?  Sara Bareilles and Carole King totally just killed it.  I'm so into funky duets, and I really loved Brave.  To be fair, though, I generally just really like that song, so it's possible that I'm biased.  =)  What was your favorite Grammy performance?

 Last week we had an early dismissal on Friday for records keeping, but I wasn't really read to do grades yet, so I used that time to plan for this week.  It was so nice--I planned almost my entire week in those few hours, and I really was able to enjoy this weekend.  In fact, I got so much done on Friday that the hubs and I spontaneously stopped by to play with the twinnies on Saturday afternoon.  It was great.  I wish we could have an early dismissal like that every Friday!

I'm hoping to try and figure out how to put this on my Facebook page in the next few days, but I wanted to share this with you via picture now.  This is how I track my conferences during the week; I know that a lot of people plan their conferences by day, but I just basically cycle through and hit kids where I can.  This generally means that I hit the kids at the beginning of the alphabet with writing conferences on Monday, and progress through.  I generally try to change highlighter colors daily so that I can try to keep track of when I hit kids, but like I said, I'll start at the beginning and go through the alphabet.  If I'm having an insanely efficient week and get through all the kids before Thursday I'll start back with the end of the alphabet kids, so that I might have two different conference with one kid in one day.  But really that doesn't happen very often.  I've tried scheduling kids for days, but the reason I prefer this way is that I feel like it gives me freedom to conference flexibly and if something comes up where I can't conference on one day for whatever reason those kids aren't lost for the week.  I usually keep my notes from conferences on address labels and then stick them into the appropriate binder later.  I do keep a few notes on my conference sheet, as you can see, but the bulk of them go onto sticky labels.  Just an idea, if you're having a hard time tracking conferences.  =)

Okay, friends.  I'm sure that alarm is going to go off waaaaaaaaaay too early.  Have a great night!

xoxo