It has been one month since I started teaching full-time. I have been teaching for years, but never officially with a "teacher's license," but more informally in the business world, in workshops, seminars and other public arenas. This month it's been my lesson plans, my execution of those lesson plans, the discipline that it takes to make sure the lessons are reaching their intended targets, plus the balancing act of all of the interruptions which occur in a normal school days and normal school weeks.
I'm thoroughly thrilled with my new classroom. I love the process, the freshness that each new day brings and the new changes that my students bring with them each day they walk onto the school property, or get off the bus, and move throughout the school. They are such neat students. Each one has some level of special need - some more than others, but they all have become infected with my passion for learning.
They didn't know they wanted it until we cleared out all of the cob webs that had been created the previous semester. We had to unlearn some habits, re-learn some good things we wanted to keep, and most importantly, learn to follow the schedule and to keep everyone on a consistent level of activity. No one can be left to their own desires. No one. Everyone has to be engaged at some level... even if it's helping someone else to do what they are doing.
I find that my biggest challenge as a new teacher has been to create easy transitions. In using the "First... Then.." efforts for students with special needs, we have to create ways to make the transitions back to working easier and intriguing. I have used music, videos, singing, and other "hooks" to draw my Kindergarten students attention back to their tables or to the next area of the room according to their visual schedule that is easily viewed and workable, to get them readily re-engaged in learning.
Some transition easily and are ready for the next task, others not so much. But one thing I have noticed.... just transition and make the lesson fun, engaging and challenge their curiosity and even those that stand and shed tears, will do so for just a few seconds. They see others engaged and will become engaged in the next task of the day. It is infectious behavior!
The students have had to learn to trust the visual schedule and to trust in the "First... Then..." process. Consistency has been mt "C" word of the month.
I love my new school and my new students. I love the challenge they each bring to me every day. I'm thankful for being able to be one small, consistent, part of their daily lives.
|Don|
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Need some new resources to peruse? Here's a great list of 280 of them!
That's right, 280 from # to Z to look through and see what you can use in your classroom, for your own personal learning community or personal learning network. Check out this great compilation, HERE.
Be sure to LIKE or TWEET for Jose to know that you were there and to tell him thanks for curating the list.
|D|
Be sure to LIKE or TWEET for Jose to know that you were there and to tell him thanks for curating the list.
|D|
Have you checked out the Live Binders?
Steven W. Anderson has created his list of favorite LiveBinders and listed them on his website. Check them out HERE!
If you have not gotten hooked on LIVE BINDER as we have, then go HERE to find out more and setup your account!
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If you have not gotten hooked on LIVE BINDER as we have, then go HERE to find out more and setup your account!
|D|
Stopping boredom - Using Classroom Management
I have found this to be so true: "If the students are not engaged in meaningful, relative activities of learning, they will devise their own relative activities." So, in order for them to remain engaged, this website of 8 Thing Teachers Do To Bore Students was a great find. Check it out and be sure to leave a message on their site if it has helped you!!
8 Things Teachers Do To Cause Boredom
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8 Things Teachers Do To Cause Boredom
|D|
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
A great blog for Whiteboard enthusiasts...
Check out the WhiteBoard blog here: http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/
They have great tools and references for using Promethean boards and other white board technologies.
|D|
They have great tools and references for using Promethean boards and other white board technologies.
|D|
Monday, December 19, 2011
22 Learning Ideas from Edutopia...
Originated by Trisha Riche' who is a kindergarten inclusion teacher at R. L. Brown Elementary in Jacksonville, FL. The grade-level chair at her school, Trisha was selected as one of the top ten most innovative educators in the country for The Great American Teach Off. Written 12/14/2011 in blog from Edutopia!
Suggested Activities: The Game of Learning
For the first six activities, seat your students in a circle and introduce a ball or something else they can pass easily between them.
1. "I know a word"
You can begin this skills game by saying, "I know a word that starts with the same sound you hear at the beginning of butterfly." Students will raise their hands, and you choose one to tell you a word the starts with "B." Once they tell you the word, toss them the ball. They choose someone else to tell them another word that begins with that letter, passing the ball to the student who gets it right. As the game continues, change the letter every so often. Play until everyone has had a turn. You can use this game for beginning sounds, ending sounds, middle sounds etc.
2. Rhyme time
Say, "I need a word that rhymes with cat." Pass the ball to someone once they give you a correct rhyming word. Keep changing the starting word and continue the game until all kids have gone.
3. Practice counting
You can have your class practice counting by twos, fives and tens. Pass the ball clockwise or counterclockwise, with the student who receives it saying the number that comes next. For example, you say, "We are going to count by fives. Five!" The person next to you says "ten," the next one says "fifteen," and so on.
4. Spelling review
For older kids, you can pass the ball and go through your spelling words one letter at a time. For example, you say, "We're going to spell the word their, as in 'This is their ball.'" The first person says "T," the second person says "H," the third person says "E," and so on. If one says the wrong letter, the next person says correct letter and fixes the mistake.
5. "I need a synonym"
This is a great vocabulary building exercise. You can use the ball or a pair of flyswatters, depending on the age of your students. You say, "I need a synonym for mad." Choose someone to give you another word that means the same thing, such as angry, furious andenraged. For older kids, you can put a list of synonyms on the board and divide the class into two teams. Have one person from each team come up and compete. Whoever slaps the board with the flyswatter and says the correct synonym wins a point for their team. In the end all of your students win a better vocabulary.
6. Reinforce other skills
What other subjects are you teaching? You could adapt these games to fit pretty much anything. "I need a name of an explorer." "I need you to name one of the phases of matter." "I need to know one of the reasons for the Civil War." Be creative!
7. Roll dice to have your students answer story questions.
"What is the plot of the story?" you might ask them. "What is the setting?" You can introduce more reflective questions such as, "Why did this character do what he or she did?" and "What was the author's purpose?" You can write these questions on cards or purchase them fromreallygoodstuff.com.
8. Sight Word Slap Game
Write your sight words on the board. Separate your class into two random teams. Let one person from each team step forward and hold a fly swatter. Call out one of the sight words. The first one to slap the correct sight word gets a point for their team. Continue until everyone has gone. This is great for helping sight word recognition.
Suggested Activities: The Artsy Side of Creative
9. Use different voices or accents when reading stories to the class.
10. Dress in costumes of storybook characters to leave a lasting impression, or let students dress up as characters to retell stories.
11. Turn your room into the environment of what you are learning about. When the class is learning about fairy tales, turn your classroom into a castle. When you're learning about animals, turn your classroom into a jungle.
12. Create class songs about topics they need to know, or use the music of singers like Hap Palmer and Jack Hartman. You might also borrow songs and games from coworkers. Songs are catchy, and children learn quickly from them.
Creative Science
13. When teaching about the properties of friction, use KS2 for interactive projects you can do in small groups or as a class using a smart board. You might ask your students slide down the hallway first in their socks, then barefoot, and have them journal about the different amounts of friction.
14. When teaching phases of matter, drop some food coloring into beakers of cold and warm water and note the difference. Then pour the contents of one beaker in a bag and put it in the freezer. The next day, compare the liquid bag with the solid chunk of ice and note differences.
15. Use the ice from the above activity and talk about gravity. Stand on a chair and discuss what will happen if you drop the ice, and if it matters which way you drop it. Let your students predict the possible outcomes. Incorporate Your Students' Favorite Things
16. Survey your students at the beginning of the year. Get to know them and what they like. Then make a point of using their names, favorite foods, games, books, etc. in word problems, writing exercises, shared reading and many other activities. People do better and learn more when working with things they like. As adults we know that we don't want to do something if it's not fun. The same goes for kids.
Creative time savers
17. Have your students rely on each other as resources. For each table, pick a team leader to try answering his or her classmates' questions before they come to you for help.
18. Pair your higher achievers with lower achievers to study sight words, letters or other skills.
19. Put them into literature circles to discuss books.
20. Have them read one another's writing to check for completion or suggest ideas before they come see you.
21. Use the Leap Frog Tag reading system. You can plug it into the computer to get student scores on activities, which will provide guidelines for what you need to work on. This is a great way to collect data!
22. Have a "math problem of the day" journal to review skills in which your students scored low on assessments. Put the problem on the board and have them copy it into their journals at the beginning of the day. You can take a minute or two after they have completed it to review the problem with the class. Check notebooks later for understanding.
17. Have your students rely on each other as resources. For each table, pick a team leader to try answering his or her classmates' questions before they come to you for help.
18. Pair your higher achievers with lower achievers to study sight words, letters or other skills.
19. Put them into literature circles to discuss books.
20. Have them read one another's writing to check for completion or suggest ideas before they come see you.
21. Use the Leap Frog Tag reading system. You can plug it into the computer to get student scores on activities, which will provide guidelines for what you need to work on. This is a great way to collect data!
22. Have a "math problem of the day" journal to review skills in which your students scored low on assessments. Put the problem on the board and have them copy it into their journals at the beginning of the day. You can take a minute or two after they have completed it to review the problem with the class. Check notebooks later for understanding.
|D|
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