With all the readings, advice and papers we've been accumulating, I feel many great ideas are getting lost in the shuffle. I'm desperate to get organized! I fear I'll leave all my school work in a pile and won't know what's what as we start our teaching. Plus we'll be given articles, staff readings and policies and all of the new curriculum thrown at us, so I think it would be wiser to organize now and get a game plan. So here's what I could really use: a list of best ideas from each subject that we can add to and edit as continue our studies and look back on previous classes. This would be a team effort and could be done little by little, but I know it would help me to have a go to list of activities and essentials for when we're setting up our classroom and class structure. What do you guys think?
Always, for everything, keep in mind the Big IDEA
Identify what needs to be done
Decide
how it will be done
who will do it
when it needs to be done
Execute your plan
Assess what went well and what didn't go well
BEGINNING OF THE YEAR:
home visits and parent packets (for more information see classroom mgmt text p. 164)
bingo
guess who (p. 133 c. mgmt. book)
multiple intelligences quiz
multiple intelligences quiz
Overall classroom structure:
- computers
- bean bag chairs
- mailboxes
- word wall
- carpet space big enough for two classes
- carpet space for small group to meet
- space for individualized instruction
- don't NEED a teacher desk, could place things around the room
- large work table with exploration opportunities (could be a station that changes with the changing units) with topical texts and realia for kids to touch and talk about on their own
- ELMO
- lamps and an overall environment that encourages focus and relaxation which will encourage stamina.
- turn in bin: include "in progress" and "completed"
- bins for parent work, and place designated for completed work
- tray marked with "notes for (your name)" for parents, kids with notes, and places for other teachers or admin to put things if you're busy; keep them all together so you don't lose them and sort through them am and pm and prioritize.
- keep things out that you use everyday! make them accessible, it saves time.
- think about how much you want to use desks. it might be easier to use magazine holders for every kid for their materials, and color coded bins that match the subject folder (eg. math journals are yellow, bin is yellow).
- put student number on folders, then have captains put their table's in numerical order so you can pick them up in order and pass them out easily next time
- if it doesn't require a master's degree, delegate to kids or parents--think montessori.
- KID JOBS make a chart you can use each year with pockets labeled with jobs not kids' names.
- have one job be "substitute" so you have someone to fill in for absentees.
- also, train the students to be responsible for their own space, and have daily inspection (day 1: clean under table for inspection, day 2: under table and on top of table for inspection, by end should have overlapping circles of 3 foot radius) have 5 points/table. if they lose a point, take it from class table so its collaborative, and if they reach a total, can get popcorn on a friday or something.
- PARENT JOBS have a pile ready that can always be worked on without instruction
- Have sign up list where parents who can't commit to a regular time or want to help on field trips/special days can sign up -- get contact info!
- Have calendar with slots for someone to fill in name, #, email (can send instructions before hand)
- To get work done regularly and get parents involved, host a half hour after school party. Just bring cookies and juice, invite siblings and have older kid do read aloud, have task work all laid out and parents can just dive in.
- Have parents make posters of vocab lists etc.
- Lesson plans are mapped out on the following, and visible to the whole class:
-Have a smaller replica to carry to meetings/take home and keep them exactly the same.
-Dry erase calendar that students can see which you bump up every few weeks so kids can see ahead.
-Daily schedule with time slots; kids can erase this every day, or you can laminate velcro-able or magnetized strips that are color coded and can be moved around.
-Daily lesson plans (Make sure you have lessons planned out for 2 weeks time!) Have a written schedule with time slots that is replicable and can be easily formatted for subs. Also have several emergency sub lessons. Overall--need 30 weeks of planned lessons, vocab lists and assessments.
- Observational Formative Assessment: Come up with your own observation chart, mark goals and completion. Slash could mean completed, box not yet done, and box with slash means late. Have one on a clipboard for each subject with room for individual student observations, can hang clipboards on wall and fold over names for discretion.
- Homework: Keep it relevant and make sure you differentiate. You should have 5 versions of homework if you can: easy, easy with medium on the back if they're ready, medium, medium with hard on back if they feel ready, hard
- Send home a weekly newsletter detailing what you did in class this week, and upcoming school and class events. Include a section of great questions for the answers to ask their kids such as, "What happened to Wilber when Templton's rotten egg broke?" or "How did you smile on picture day?"
- 90 minute reading block, with mini lesson to discuss strategies, time to work on strategies in stations, and a block of independent reading time.
- stations so that I have a time segment to confer with individuals or groups that need extra support for differentiation. Other station ideas: listening station with books on tape, drawing/painting station to work on mental imagery, computer station with text that's on screen so kids get used to the medium, text scavenger hunt where kids have to look through different mediums (books, articles, newspapers for certain content)
- book club
- author study or subject study display
- big books/read alouds with multiple copies for students to read independently after class reading
- large library organized by genre, not level
- book boxes/bags for "next to read"
- notebooks for daily writing and strategy development
- 6o minute writing block
- peer assessment with read alouds
- book publishing project
- I am from poems
- writing stations with specific focuses such as:
sentence fluency
word choice
conventions (and punctuation)
voice
organization
ideas & content
Possible Projects:
garden
outdoor paint project
Games:
Zap
Two Truths, One Lie
Animal Signs
Arriba, Abajo
Heads Up, Seven Up
Magic Scrap
Community Circle
Machine
Freeze
Rainstorm
Conductor
Symphony
When writing sub plans remember to mention suggestions for approaching specific students. Be sure to include information on routines, game ideas.
This is a start.
END OF THE YEAR:
class photo album
This is a start.
Just this weekend I started a "Solo Teaching Journal" to try to figure out exactly what you're suggesting. What works for me is to set some goals for myself and my students for each block, so I've listed everything we do during the day and written what I want students to learn and what I need to learn. Then I'm planning backwards from that and outlining what each day will look like so that we can reach our goal.
ReplyDeleteCommunity building will be my focus the first week. I've gone back and re-read some of the activities from Ch. 4, Vern's book, for ways to build community. I'm going to do a variation on p. 114, Opening and Closing questions where we'll take the last 10 min. of class to write on a 3X5 one thing each student wants to remember from the day. We'll file them in a box and it'll be really useful during writer's workshop. I'm also planning to set up jobs differently than what I've seen so far, having students work in teams rather than alone.
I'm still interested in working on a reading log, if anyone else is.
Thanks Julia for starting this up again.
ReplyDeleteI like the notecard idea, Febe. I love how you give the day resonance!
I like the stations idea too Julia. I want to take-away implementing procedures through art from my mentor. If the children's art and essays and math are on display, the kiddos seem take more interest in the world around them. All the while teaching craftsmanship skills that they can then apply when they are ready to publish or display a piece of work.
Some of the beginning of the year art activities are learning about warm and cool colors using oil pastels to make their name tags, painting a color wheel, making thumb nail sketches and line drawings in their sketch books. I can post pictures of these later, if there is an interest.
I was wondering if there is a way to post word documents on here. I was thinking about posting that Reading Connections attachment here. So people could take it if they want it rather then mass e-mail.
Over winter break I put organized the materials from all of our classes into two large binders. One all about theory and articles arranged by major subject. The other one is all the activities from our classes and classmates somewhat organized by subject and themes.
Why am I talking about that? Well, I was thinking about a way to organize the blog so we can add on to one idea more effectively, to make it easier to read and access next fall. For instance, maybe having a new post on 'procedures' and another post on 'beginning of the year activities' (community building). One post on Reading, one on Writing or Literacy. These are just suggestions.
Good night and Good luck! Zoe's sleeping sweetly;)
Hello,
ReplyDeleteWhen I sit down and write it, I am going to use the paper for Vern's class as a springboard for organizing the school year. I will use his paper to organize the start of the year, but also use that for a file that moves forward. I am particularly going to focus on classroom management and strategies because I think the curriculum likely will be dictated by the district where I'm (hopefully) teaching.
Thanks, Julia, for starting this. I'll add more once I organize my thoughts. Perhaps we all could provide parts or all of our classroom management papers here?
Thanks,
Michael
anne?
ReplyDelete