#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 Friday--I'm back at it!

Hey, y'all!  Two blog posts in just under 12 hours!  I'm practically patting myself on the back over here.  The things that I can accomplish when the hubs has the day off and the twins are down for their morning nap.  So, here are my five random things from this previous week.

Are y'all following any teachers in Vegas?  I've never been to the conference in Vegas; it hasn't worked out for a variety of reasons.  This year, it's obviously the twinnies.  I'm hoping that next year I'll be able to make it, but I'm having major Vegas FOMO.  I mean, I get FOMO pretty bad anyway, but now that my IG feed is blowing up with pictures and people are using Periscope all the time it's some pretty aggressive FOMO.  Which brings me to number 2.

Are y'all doing this Periscope thing?!  It's so cool!  I haven't done any broadcasts myself yet; I kind of feel like I'm not sure what to say, but I'm really into checking out the broadcasts that others are doing.  Shroeder's Shenanignas in Second and Lucky Little Learners are doing AWESOME broadcasts.  If you aren't on Periscope you can learn about it here, but basically you download the app to your phone and then you can use it to broadcast yourself.  The broadcast is stored for 24 hours and then deleted.  It's owned by Twitter, but I'm pretty sure you don't have to have the twitters to use Periscope.  Like I said, I haven't 'scoped myself yet, but I'm so into the broadcasts I've seen.  I think my personal goal is to do a broadcast before next Friday.  I can update y'all next week in the Five for Friday.  =)  

                                                       

This is totally gratuitous, but here's a picture of how I've been spending my days lately.  With these two gentlemen.  

Next up in the TpT store is more Fundations units.  It's all very slow going, because as lovely as these gentlemen are, they don't really care so much about Mama's plans.  They just want to eat, sleep, and play.  Mostly eat and sleep.  

Next up on the blog, I'm thinking a series on organizing.  Parent form and communication, lesson/unit plans, calendars and to-do lists.  Is this something potentially helpful, or redundant?  Is there something else you'd like to see here?  I aim to please.  =)  

Okay, team.  That's it for me.  Nap time is almost over, and I can hear the gents starting to wake, so that's my cue.  Have a great weekend!

xoxo

Sunday Round-Up

Well, I don't know about you all, but that first week back felt like about 100 years.  Especially Wednesday when I was at school for 11 hours.  That day was not a joke.

I mentioned in my January Currently that I'm really working hard to find balance in 2015.  It's really important to me to get better at working smarter, not harder, this year and, for me, part of working smarter is being organized.  I also mentioned in my January Currently that I finally finished reading the book The Together Teacher, which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone looking for tangible organization strategies.  The author goes through literally every single imaginable aspect of organization--calendar, checking emails, managing papers, managing projects, tracking to-dos and projects.  I mean, there was honestly a point where I thought to myself, "what else can we REALLY talk about organizing?!", but it really was a super helpful book.

I'm here today to share with you one of the most central tenets of The Together Teacher, which they call Weekly Round-Up.  (I call it Getting My Act Together So I Can Actually Spend Time with The Hubs and The Pup time.)  When I do my Weekly Round-Up, I make sure to have my planner, my phone, and my laptop.  It's likely you'll want similar things, but maybe you don't share my affinity for physical planners and you'll only need electronic items.  I generally sit on my couch to do this, but maybe you're a table or desk sitter?  In any case, it's likely to take you probably 20 or so minutes when you start.  That's what I'm currently averaging, but it's really worth it in the time I make up throughout the week.  So once I have all my materials here's what I do.

1. Cross check my calendar app on my phone with my physical planner and make sure that everything I have on one calendar is on the other.  (Sometimes when I'm on the go I add events/meetings/commitments via my calendar app and I forget to write it on my actual calendar.  Hence, the round up.)  I'll also take this time to take a quick glance through my email to make sure that I'm not missing any one time events that should be on my calendar.  
2. After my calendar app and my physical calendar match, I start typing into my week at a glance.  There are lots of different formats that this can take; I've included a picture of how mine looks below, but really whatever works for you.  Your week at a glance should show the time you're teaching and when you're not, as well as any meetings you have and commitments outside of school--even something as mundane as going to the gym should be on your week at a glance.  
   
3. Add in any upcoming events (from the next 7-10 days) that you'll need to keep at the top of your mind this week.  For me, I wanted to remember to plan my husband's birthday shenanigans and an alumnae board meeting I had this coming week.  My personal favorite feature of this week at a glance format is that the top few boxes are for your priorities of the week and there's a section for classroom, school, and personal priorities.  

The idea is that after you finish this round up you'll have a really clear picture of what time you have free this week, and what your obligations are.  And then you add this sheet to your clipboard/binder/organizer and you keep it with you everywhere you go.  In the book, they say you should even take it when you walk to the bathroom in case you run into someone who wants to talk to you.  Personally, that's a little much for me.  And if I'm going to the bathroom during the school day I'm generally running like a madwoman there and back.  Like I said, this takes a bit of time (20-30 minutes), but I have to say that so far it's been really helpful and I'm definitely into it.

What do you do to stay organized?

Have a great week!  Stay warm!
xoxo

#teachertalktuesday

Yes, I know that's technically the hash tag that everyone is using on Instagram on Tuesdays, but I just feel like that's the most connected thread of this little blog post.  I'm just sharing 2 quick things, then I'm going to work on (FINALLY) creating a new product for the ol' store.

First, this happened today.

We were working on modeling word problems using pictures, and the small group at my table literally couldn't solve this problem because they did not buy into this "save the cookies for later" idea in the problem.  Finally, I asked them what they thought happened to the cookies.  They said I ate them all!  What?!  So that's how our picture ended up like this.  Not really the picture I was planning to draw, but hey.  That happens sometimes in the first.  

Secondly, I've been meaning to do this for a while, and I finally did it.  (victory fist pump here)  

It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but this is a graph of my student's current Lexia levels.  Honestly, I had never heard of Lexia until this year, when my school started piloting Lexia for our district.  Basically, Lexia is a research based reading program that hits all areas of reading (except writing).  What I really LOVE about Lexia is that it auto-places kids automatically the first time they log in, so they're automatically placed at the level appropriate for them, regardless of grade level, so it's inherently differentiating for each student.  It also highlights kids who need a specific lesson, and it gives you the exact lesson that they should be taught.  I would say the one thing that I love the least about Lexia is that sometimes my students have a hard time with the vocabulary activities, mostly due to exposure.  For example, Lexia will say something like "find the picture that matches 'enormous'", and they might choose the wrong picture, but if it had said "choose the picture that shows 'huge/large/very big" they would immediately know it.  In any case, I'm planning to add this to my Facebook Fan freebie page, in case you use Lexia, too.  (I figure I can't be the only one, right?)

Okay, friends.  My next goal is to show you how we're using math binders this year, but that means I have to remember to actually take pictures of said math binders.  Don't hold your breath, friends.  =)  

Enjoy your night!

xoxo

Home Visits & Parent Volunteers

I canNOT believe that there is only one more week of summer break!  In DC, teachers go back on August 19th, and our new little loves come to us on August 26th.  Literally two weeks from Monday I will be greeting 27 brand new first graders.  Yikes!  I don't know if it's been how busy my personal life has been this summer, or if the space/time continuum has really started to move forward at a faster pace, but this summer has really flown by.  Really, it feels like I just packed up my classroom last week.

Over the past few years, my school has tried out several different parent engagement initiatives.  One of the ones that has been pushed the most intensely is the home visit program.  (If you're interested you can check out their website here.)  We partner with the Flamboyan Foundation to support this initiative, but the basic idea is this:  before the school year, or early in the school year, teachers go to visit the homes of all their students to build a relationship with the family.  There's obviously more nuances involved than that (you're supposed to take a partner with you; you schedule the visit, and call to confirm, etc.), but that's the basic core.  It's a very interesting program, and I feel like sometimes it really pays off and sometimes it doesn't as much.  I usually do my home visits with my grade level special ed teacher, since she's in my classroom often and all of my students will interact with her on some level.  I will say the one thing I like the most about the program is that it's really nice to already know and recognize kids before the school year starts.

One thing that I'm really working on this year is to have a small base of parents who will volunteer/support our classroom throughout the year.  I'm thinking that I'll start them out with preparation tasks, like prepping materials and work stations, maybe organizing the library?  But what I'm wondering is:  how do you get parents into your classroom?  What do you ask them to do?