#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

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

I got a little work done. ;)

Hi, friends!  I know I've been off the radar for about a week, but I was getting some work done.  ;)  Not personally obviously, but my cute little blog.  Well, I like to think it's a cute little blog.  Maybe you disagree?  I hope not.  =)

Y'all, I'm having major holiday brain.  I had a great post planned out, and I sure can't remember what it was about.  (Reason #703,208 I should write EVERYTHING down)  So instead, I'm just going to tell you all 2 things.  One:  I did some Shared Reading this week with my literacy coach and it's been so adorable to watch my kids get into it next week.  I don't know how many of you do Shared Reading, but basically it works the way it sounds--you choose a brief passage (I generally stick with a poem) and then you teach kids how to read it.  We've been doing really cute things this week, like asking kids to read a selected word, pointing out trick words, using a flashlight to "highlight" certain words, and reading to the rhythm of the poem.  The kids have been having a good time, and they've even been into reading the poem at other times of the day, like when they're fast finishers.  It's endearing to see them so jazzed about reading.

And number two.  (Tee hee.  Permission to chuckle.)  I'd like to give some mad thanks to other bloggers tomorrow, because fellow bloggers are basically planning my partay/saving my hinney tomorrow.  We're making the "pumpkin pie" that Corinna blogs about here while making these ADORABLE turkeys.

Alright, friends--one more day.  One more day!  We can make it!  I hope everyone has a safe, happy, and relaxing Thanksgiving.  =)
xoxo

What? Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK?!

Holy moly.  I can't believe this is the last week of school before Thanksgiving.  That means November is basically over, y'all.  I can't even handle it.  I've been cooking up this post for a while, and I finally feel semi-organized before 9:00pm on a Sunday so I'm here to share some ideas with you today.

First, before I forget I wanted to let you know that I just made some table points trackers, if that's a thing you're into.  You can snag them for a measly $1.50 right here.  My littles this year are having a hard time seeing the big picture.  They keep getting caught up on fussing at each other, and if we're being completely honest it's driving me NUTS!  I'm a teacher, not a referee, yo!  So I'm hoping that this will be helpful to us.  I'll make sure to let you know how it all shakes out.

I also wanted to get in on the work station posts that everyone does.  When I started this blogging experiment I talked a lot about how I teach math in my classroom, but I wanted to take a break from that and talk about how guided reading and work stations looks in my classroom.  First, they look REALLY different from last year for several reasons.  1.) My kids last year had a crazy high stamina and were great at working together, so I frequently did 3-4 guided reading groups in one day.  And 2) my distract revamped their expectations for guided reading and literacy work stations (LWS), so I'm trying to fall in line like to good little worker bee that I envision myself to be.  =)  Basically, the way that we're doing work stations this year is that we have 5 different work stations--fluency, word work, independent reading, writing, and inquiry and investigation (otherwise known as the work station that keeps me up at night).  The activities in each work station are up to you, but you should have all 5 of them up and running and kids should cycle through them each week.  The big change that's been giving me the 1-2 punch this year is that we're only supposed to pull 2 groups each day.  That's right.  Just 2.  I've also been having a hard time balancing that because I also have a Fundations Double Dose group right now that's supposed to meet 3 times a week (M, W, F).

I will say one thing that has really helped keep us on track this year is a visual work station rotation board.  I always kind of scoffed at them and had never used one before, but I have to say that I really am on board for it now.  So helpful.  It's also really helped me shift responsibility to my little nuggets.  Plus, it's great for kids who transition back into the classroom during work stations.  They just get their folder, check the board, and then go to meet their group.  The other tool that I'm in LOVE with is our Scholastic guided reading library.  DC bought it for all their elementary schools last year and it is amaze-balls.  It has reading behaviors to teach at each level, and it has a matrix that lists each book, the level of the book, and what the book is designed to teach for word work and comprehension.  It makes planning for guided reading a snap.

How many groups do you pull in a day?  What resources do you use to plan?
Happy Football-watching!  (Who-dey!)
xoxo
Rachel

APTT & The *@!%$ Shutdown

Hey, y'all!  I hope you're as jazzed as I am that fall has finally come.  Here in DC today was the first cool, rainy fall day.  It really made me want to drink tea and spend the day curled on the couch ready.  That's pretty mutually exclusive with actual teaching, though.  =)

I wanted to share a few ideas with you, and promise you that I'm still chugging way on items for my TpT store.  The first thing I wanted to tell you about is APTT.  Say whaaat?!  APTT stands for Academic Parent Teacher Teams, and it's a really data driven version of parent teacher conferences.  (You can read an interview with the creator of this model here.  It's less lame than I just made it sound.)  It was created to be more meaningful in schools with high populations of low(er) income families to share data in a meaningful way, despite the education level of the parents involved.  If we're being 100% honest the first year I did APTT I HATED it.  (In retrospect, I think that's because I was putting a TON of time into the conferences, but not getting the return back.)  However, I'm now in my third year of using this conference model, and I absolutely L-O-V-E it.  Now, I want to be honest with you, it's the same amount of work as it was the first year, but now I'm working with other teachers to put on the meeting, so it's divided among a team, AND the turn out is so much better.  Let me tell you a few reasons I love APTT.  First, it only focuses on academic data.  (I know what you're thinking, but honestly, I find conferences to be so much more positive when we don't discuss behavior.) The basic gist of APTT is that as a teacher, you select one long term goal for the year in reading and one in math and then basically you measure each student's progress toward that goal every 60 days throughout the year.  The other thing that I really like about APTT is that these are group conferences and we share all the kids' data, with all the parents, but we share the data anonymously.  It's really powerful, because it give parents a clear idea of a) exactly where their kids are, b) where all the other kids in the class/grade are performing, and c) what the current expectation is, and if their child is above or below it.  One last thing--APTT was originally created to share data with parents in lower income schools/districts, but I don't think that's the only environment in which this model would be successful.  That's basically the quick and dirty version of APTT.  If you have any questions I'm happy to answer them.

In other news I have to take about 45 seconds of your time to rage about this stupid federal shutdown.  It's so crazy; I mean, really I can't even talk about it.  I mean, it's so ridiculous that yesterday our principal had to send an email out that we can't order any more supplies/materials until the shutdown ends/budget is passed, so we all have ONE PACK of copy paper until whenever it is that the shutdown ends. Whether that's 2 days or 2 weeks.  Also, after next Friday schools will (likely) have to shut down because DC's rainy day fund will be dry and there won't be money to run the physical buildings.  The whole thing is such a mess.  Not to mention that federal employees (like the hubs) aren't getting paid at all right now.  Okay.  I have to move on.

Last, I'm hoping to glean some knowledge from y'all.  So I have a group of about 7 boys this year who are really struggling to get on the classroom community train.  They're just garnering a lot of negative attention, and slowing down the learning of the entire class.  Two of them are currently on a behavior plan that, honestly, seems at times to be extremely helpful and at times a huge time suck.  I think I'm going to launch table points on Tuesday, but does anyone else have (relatively easy) any ideas to help them settle/simmer and successfully participate in the class?

That's it.  Thanks so much for sticking with me!

Five for Friturday

Hello, sweet friends!  I'm linking up again with Doodlebugs for Five for Friday.  On Saturday.  Again.
                                                        

This week was a crazy week!  I got a new students on Wednesday, and it really turned our class upside down, so I'm taking some time this weekend to make 2 behavior plans.  But enough about that.  Without any more rambling here are my five randoms.
1.  Every day when I sign my morning message like this it feels so weird.

I got married last November, but didn't really push the name change last year.  My AP told me I needed to use my married name this year, so I keep trying to remember to tell people that my name is Mrs. Wilser, but every time I say that I feel like it's not real.  I feel like Mrs. Wilser is really my mother in law.  And my poor little nuggets are so confused about my name--some of them still call me by my maiden name (which totally doesn't bother me), some of them have fused  my maiden and married names together---Wilsener, and I have one poor little confused nugget who thinks I'm Ms. Willis.

2.  This week we launched our place value unit and we learned about number houses and how each digit has a place on Wednesday.  They really seemed to be on the same page with me and when I was walking around during math they seemed spot on.  Clearly, I didn't make it to this little nugget.  :(

3.  This week we also did our first science lesson!  I generally start science by talking about the scientific method and I do a few experiments with them that are super cool, but not necessarily connected to first grade science standards.  I do this chromatography experiment with them every year.  Basically, you just draw a big black dot on a coffee filter and get it wet so that the marker bleeds and you show them the different colors that are inside the black. It's always a crowd pleaser.  

4.  Today, I ran a 5K with my husband, a friend, and her boyfriend.  It was super fun, and I totally PR'd!  Average 10:33/mile.  Woot, woot!!  I was really proud of myself.  And I'm also feeling so thankful for the random stranger next to me who pushed me to my PR.  There was definitely a moment where I was ready to walk it out for a minute and this guy next to me said "Keep running.  You're pushing me, and we're going to finish this race together".  That is why I love running.  It was really awesome.

5.  On our way back from the 5K we stopped at the National Book Festival and I had to buy books for my classroom.  I don't know if you've ever read I Stole This Hat, but I literally laughed out loud in the book festival tent while I was reading it.  I love the Book Festival!  I'm also really jazzed to read the book How Do Dinosaurs Say I'm Mad?  It's a really great book about expressing your feelings, and what to do when you're angry.

Thanks for stopping by for my Five for Friday!  I have to hustle up now and get ready to watch the Michigan State/Notre Dame game.  I'll be back with some more from room 125 tomorrow or Monday.

xoxo

Rachel

Whaaaaaaa?! A Blog Update and It's NOT Friday?!

I have really great intentions every week of blogging more often, but somehow it always seems that all of the sudden it's Friday and I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for Five for Friday.  But today?  Today, friends, I'm coming at you on a WEDNESDAY!!

Previously, I blogged about how we use Responsive Classroom structures is in my school.  One important aspect of RC is that you take the first 6 weeks of school to establish routines and procedures, and then after your routines, expectations, and procedures are established you can generally move forward throughout the year focusing on instruction.  We're in week 4 of the first 6 weeks right now, so we're practicing our routines and structures daily, steadily incorporating more each week, and moving towards small group instruction and independence in 2 more weeks.  So far, we're kicking independent reading's tush, and  we're dominating Fundations.  This week, we launched partner reading, and I'm really surprised with how well it's going.  They l-o-v-e it!  So much!  We've really just been practicing sitting hip to hip, knee to knee, balancing our book, and taking turns as they read each page.  If I was better at remembering to photograph my nuggets I would insert a picture of partner reading here.  We've also launched writing workshop, using our new writing curriculum.

Another structure that I've started this year is calendar math.  It's something that I've never done before.  Right now, we've been adding the date on every day and tracking the days we've been in school, but that's it.  In October we'll start keeping a tally chart of the weather and using the tally chart to make a graph.  Is that all you do during calendar math, or do you do more?  (If we're being totally honest I feel like I always hear about calendar math, but that everyone does it a little bit differently.)  I'd love to hear about the way you do calendar math.

Have a great Thursday!  =)
Rachel

Mid-Day Update

Friends!  Are you totally LOSING your mind getting ready for back to school, or is that just me??

I finally yesterday put every last stinking book into a book bin and I honestly think at this point if I find another unsorted book I might just throw it away.  That was such a never ending project! I'm 100% making that a kid's job during the school year.  Handling it from the end of the school year over the summer was plenty for me. That is one job I will happily pass off to a kid.  Now I'm just feeling nervous because my room is covered with random mess and we're in teacher meetings all week and I'm heading out of town this weekend.  Yipes!

My lunch break is over and our afternoon session is starting, so I just wanted to let you all know that I finished my guided reading planning templates.  You link directly to my store here to check them out.

Keep on keepin' on, friends!  =)

The Fear

Y'all--I have the fear.  Big time.  You can get THE FEAR here.  Basically the fear stops you from being productive, and I'm being productive, but I'm too scared to go back to my classroom.  I'm feeling like I will never be ready for school, but just to let you know that I'm not totally screwing around all the time you can check out my first week plans.

First Week Plans_Blog Version by mrs_wilser

No More Math...For a Little While

Hello, friends!

I'm quite confident that everyone thinks I only talk about math now, which is ironic because anyone who knows me in real life knows I'm a little bit of an idiot about math.  But I love teaching math way more than I ever loved learning it when I was in school myself.

There's no particular agenda here today, folks.  I did sort of wrap up my series of math products on TpT by posting a rubric to track your students' work, which you can check out here.

Is anyone else feeling the back to school heat?  Today marks 19 days until DCPS teachers go back to school, but it might as well be 19 hours.  I feel like I have so many projects to do, and I have no idea when they're all going to get done!  My numero uno job tomorrow is to finish planning for the first day...or to potentially abandon planning the first day and zoom out to the plan the whole week, and then go in to more detail for each day after I have the wider lens of the whole week.  There's just so much stuff that has to be done the first week!

Two books that I love, love, love to read during the first week of school are First Day Jitters, and Have You Filled a Bucket Today?  Obviously, I read First Day Jitters on the first day of school, and then we always do Abby's Jitter Juice activity that you can find in her packet Fun with Firsties.  Y'all, last year my sweet little firsties LOVED Jitter Juice so much that anytime we had a party they would ask if we could make it again!  It was too adorable.

What are some books that you love to read on the first day of school?  Or within the first week?