classroom environment Archives - Page 19 of 24

What to Do in the First Week of School

August 15, 2017 by Inspired Together Teachers 1 Comment

What are your plans for the first week of school?

Recently, we received a letter from Andrea, a new fourth grade teacher from California. Andrea sent us a question which is probably on the minds of many of you at this time of year.

Andrea wrote,

“As I begin my first year, I am overwhelmed by a lot. The biggest thing overwhelming me right now is what to do during our first week. Of course, I plan to really layout and enforce those expectations as well as start to build a community within my classroom, but what sort of thing should I be doing curriculum-wise? What sort of fun things can we do?”

Andrea, we love your questions. The first week of school is an important time to lay the groundwork for a successful school year, but it is also a time to start engaging students in meaningful learning and show them that learning can be fun and engaging!

Here are our suggestions for things you should do during the first week of school:

Be professional.

First impressions matter. Establish yourself as a teacher, an adult who is confident and in charge. You don’t need a suit, but you don’t want to look like a student. The weather may be warm, but this is not the time or place for flip-flops. Trust us. Yes, some teachers dress very casually, but you want to use every bit of advantage you have to start things off right. Dress in comfortable clothes and low- heeled shoes.

Professionalism also means being where you are supposed to be. Do not leave students unsupervised. Be on time for lunch or recess duty. Supervise passing time in the hallways. Have a procedure for duties such as attendance and lunch count and take them seriously.

Make students feel welcome.

Welcome students with a sign on the door or in the hallway outside your room. Great them as they enter the room. Consider having them create a product in the first few days such as an About Me page to share on a bulletin board. Another great idea for the first days of school is to ask students to fill out a survey indicating their interests and their strengths and challenges related to your curriculum areas.

Find a few fun, age appropriate community builders and plan to do one each day. This will help you get to know students and help students get to know each other.

For example, using a marker, write questions on a beach ball such as, What are your favorite foods? How do you like to spend your free time? What sports do you like? What kinds of pets do you have? Then get in a circle and throw the ball. Students answer the question nearest to their right thumb.

Search Pinterest or Google classroom community building activities for many more ideas.

Learn student’s names as quickly as you can.

Seating charts can help. You may want to create name tags they can wear around their necks or place on their desks. Greet students by name as they enter the room. Take pictures of small groups on the first day and label them with names.

Using student’s names as often as possible is good practice. Dale Carnegie, who wrote the classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People noted that “A person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Knowing student’s names will go a long way towards building respect and ensuring a positive classroom environment.

Teach Procedures.

Have class schedules posted. Have procedures for dismissal, moving to another area of the building, bathroom use and pencil sharpening. Know what your non-negotiables are, and explain them to students. Share your homework policy and what headings you would like students to use at the top of their papers.

Discuss rules and expectations, or consider creating them with students. This recent article discusses how to create a list of student rights and responsibilities.

Try to keep discussion of rules and procedures to no more than 50 percent of your time in the first week. You will want to spend 50 % of your time on curriculum, too.

Be prepared with emergency procedures.

Walk students through the plan for fire drills and other emergency procedures. Know the exit routes from your room. Have an emergency kit and class lists near the door to grab quickly. You may not have a formal drill in the first week (though some schools require it) but it is a good idea, especially with young children, to practice a drill and set expectations for emergency procedures. Don’t let the first emergency drill catch you unprepared!

Another emergency situation to be aware of is students with medical concerns. Check student files and be sure you know of students with severe allergies, epi-pens, diabetes or other issues.

Use a little humor.

You may or may not be the funniest person on the planet, but a little humor is often unexpected and welcome. Share a relevant cartoon or poster. Tell a silly joke that is related to your curriculum.

Why were the early days of history called the dark ages? Because they were full of Knights.

What do you call a number that can’t keep still? A roamin’ numeral.

Why did the scientist take out his doorbell? He wanted to win the no-bell prize.

If students are groaning, you have their attention.

You might even have a joke of the day calendar and read it while waiting for announcements.

Plan a read aloud.

Every elementary teacher and possibly secondary teachers should set up a regular read aloud time. Reading aloud to students is a great way to model many different reading skills and habits and increase reading pleasure. Most students love to be read to. Students who love reading will read more and in the process, increase their reading skills. It is also a chance for secondary students to discover intriguing or fascinating information. Read a chapter a day, and be sure to stop at an exciting spot!

Check out our list of favorite read aloud books. Here is a list of favorite fall books.

Plan an activity to help students become familiar with curriculum materials.

Consider materials that you will use often such as textbooks or websites. Plan a scavenger hunt where students will dig through their books to find examples of things such as indexes, charts and graphs, vocabulary boxes and review sections. Send them to a website and have students find different sections or different types of information. Here is a source to get you started planning scavenger hunts.

Plan a few engaging lessons related to your curriculum.

Interactive lessons will engage students more than lectures. Look through teacher’s guides for problem solving activities, which are often very engaging. Puzzles are also high interest. Another idea is to bring in many different resources and have students use different books and materials to find information about a topic and complete a graphic organizer.

Here is an example. To introduce a unit on mammals, one teacher brought in many library books and found many websites related to different animals. Without defining them, she then gave students a graphic organizer to list as many examples as they could of mammals and non-mammals. Then students looked at their examples and in small groups, made lists of characteristics of mammals and non-mammals.

Plan at least one portion of each class period during the first week for exploring and getting excited about the curriculum.

Plan a small group activity.

Many students learn best through social interaction. Plan a small group activity that will get them up and moving and talking with others. This will allow you to assess their social skills, and see who the class leaders are.

Give students clear directions and clear explanations for the task. Have a product they must complete individually, though they are working together. Circulate as they work to answer questions and prevent unwanted behaviors. Smaller groups of 3-4 are better than larger groups. Graphic organizers often work well for group work. Small group work often makes for a good assessment of students’ prior experience and knowledge.

Example: In groups of 3 or 4, create a KWL Chart. Make a list of everything you know about the American Revolution. List people, events, and places. Then make a list of things you want like to know or things you think an educated citizen of the United States would need to know.

Over plan

If you don’t get to them, you can always use your lesson plans another day. It is far, far better to over plan than to run out of things to do and try to wing it. Do not succumb to the “talk amongst your selves” time filler. It is a recipe for behavior problems and sets you up as being ineffective. Have some fillers always at the ready. Teach students a quick review game and use it when you have a few minutes at the end of a period. Have students make a “Top Ten Things We Learned about ____ ” list. Have students write exit slips. Read from a book of funny poems or extraordinary events.

The first week of school is both exciting and exhausting. When you are ready and well-planned, you can enjoy the week. This is what you have prepared to do and you are ready. This is your time to shine!

Go knock their socks off!

Start the School Year With the “Right” Expectations

August 8, 2017 by Inspired Together Teachers 2 Comments

Are you worried about classroom management? Are you having an internal debate about how to establish classroom rules on the first day? Will you create the rules and have them posted before the students arrive? Or will you create the rules with the students? With so much to think about regarding establishing classroom rules and procedures, it can be overwhelming.

We propose an approach that may appeal to you….establishing Rights and Responsibilities.

Establishing Rights and Responsibilities with your class can replace or supplement classroom rules. It involves a classroom discussion, group brainstorming, and a large piece of paper on the wall. Depending on the age of your students and the time frame you can allot to this activity, the discussion can be as short as 10 minutes or it could be spread out over multiple class periods.

The activity for establishing your classroom’s Rights and Responsibilities could loosely adhere to the steps below or could follow them exactly. The beauty of this approach is that it could be easily modified and still get the same outcome.

Steps:

Large paper is taped on wall. Although it will later become two columns, start with the word “Rights” written in the top left corner.

2. Ask the students, “What basic rights do you think you should have in this classroom?” As students state their rights, list them numerically down the left column of the sheet. It may look something like this:

3. Once you have a list of rights, explain to the students that in order for everyone’s rights to be met, we all have a responsibility to make sure we do our part in assuring those rights are upheld. It is our responsibility to display words and actions that support the rights of all. It is our responsibility to make sure our individual words and actions don’t ever take away someone’s rights.

4. Draw a vertical line down the middle of your paper to create second column. Write the word “Responsibilities” at the top of the second column. Tell the students you will all brainstorm a responsibility for each corresponding right. For example, if the first right is “to feel safe,” have the students decide what the corresponding responsibility would be. You may get answers such as, “In order for everyone to feel safe, it is my responsibility to make sure my words and actions are not threatening to anyone” or “For others to feel safe, I can’t hurt anyone.” You can generalize their answers into one common responsibility for each right.

5. Write the corresponding responsibilities directly across from the rights on your large chart as the students discuss and identify each responsibility. Your original list becomes something like this: The final result is a set of classroom expectations (responsibilities), decided upon by the students, each with a corresponding purpose (rights). Since students do better when they understand the purpose, this activity allows them the opportunity to see the thinking behind classroom rules. It is definitely a more holistic approach to establishing classroom expectations. Plus, if you are already planning on having the students establish the rules as a class, this provides a nice structure for the discussion.

Whether you use this as a supplement to your classroom rules, or as the “rules” themselves, we wish you all the best as you establish your classroom expectations.

10 Things You Won’t Hear Excellent Teachers Say

August 2, 2017 by Inspired Together Teachers 2 Comments

Though we would like it if the world were always a positive, friendly place, sometimes it just isn’t so. We’ve heard our share of negative teacher room talk. Still, we try to do our part to stay positive and focus on how to handle challenges in a way that encourages positive change. Given that philosophy, here are ten things you won’t hear excellent teachers say:

These kids are all lazy and unmotivated.

Really? All of them? Show us a classroom where all of the students are unmotivated and we will show you a classroom that needs a reboot. Perhaps the lessons need to be more academically or developmentally appropriate. Maybe the work needs to be more active and engaging. Has the teacher built a good relationship with the students? If not, start there. Students are more likely to do good work for teachers they like and respect.

You’ll do what I say because I am the teacher and you are the student.

You might get students to comply with this statement, but compliance is not the same as learning. Compliance is at the low end of the motivation scale, with interest and engagement at the other end.

That’s not how we act. Were you raised in a barn?

You don’t know how they were raised. Making assumptions or belittling their background is not likely to teach them proper behavior.

When I want to control my class, I just give them a pop quiz.

There are two problems here- emphasizing control over learning and understanding the purposes of assessment.

Did you leave your brain at home today?

Teachers who say things like this think they are being sarcastic, but be aware that many, many students do not understand sarcasm and will just recognize this statement as an insult.

That is a stupid question.

If you want to make sure students never ask a question in your classroom, be sure to tell them that their questions are stupid.

Don’t smile until Christmas.

The sentiment behind this one is that you have to let students know who is in control and that you are not their friend. However, you can build a classroom environment where students will work and respect you and each other. You can be firm in your expectations while building a rapport with your students. We say, go ahead and smile on the first day.

She works so hard she makes the rest of us look bad.

The general public does enough teacher bashing. We don’t need to do it to ourselves. If you make this statement, you are really making a statement about how YOU work.

There are only 39 days left of school!

The problem with counting down the number of days of school is that the subtle message is “this place is so bad we can’t wait to get out of here!” In your glee, you are negating the fact that school is a positive, purposeful place for learning. While we all like our vacation, many students are safe, fed, and happy at school. Sometimes home and summer brings unknown and unsettling circumstances. If you are confronted with an end of the year countdown, consider saying things like “Only six more days until we can stay home and read all day long.”

How many years until I retire?

This is not a problem if you are actually planning your retirement. But if you are an early career teacher and you are starting to count the days and years until you retire, you might want to take a look at why you are so miserable in your job. Yes, teaching is hard work and we know that not every minute is enjoyable. The good should outweigh the bad. Good teachers generally like their work!

Here’s to positive teacher talk,

An Open Letter to a First Year Teacher from a Second Year Teacher: What I Wish I Had Known

July 25, 2017 by Inspired Together Teachers 1 Comment

Dear First Year Teacher,

Welcome to the first year of teaching. Have a blast. Your students and principal can’t wait to have a first year teacher full of energy and enthusiasm. Have fun and pay attention. The year is going to fly by. Keep a journal, blog or just take notes in your lesson planner because you are going to learn a lot. Here is what I wish someone had told me before I began my first year last August.

Try not to stress, and when you do feel stress somehow hide it from your students. Students and staff can sense stress and do not respond well to it. A teacher who has high energy and enthusiasm should balance that with a calm demeanor. Calm does not mean passive or lazy. Breath, walk away from tension, and take care of yourself. I am talking to you Type A, first year teacher. Do not be the first one in the building and the last one to leave at night. Go home, eat healthy, exercise, see your friends. Enjoy your life outside of school. It will make you a better teacher, I promise.

Focus on the students that are not behavior problems. Teachers and staff have a tendency to focus on the frequent flyers, the students who are acting out on a regular basis. Do not fall into that trap. Most students are wonderful: kind, hard-working, positive.

Speaking of focus, don’t put too much focus on students with academic problems and or parents who expect special accommodations for their student. Follow the IEP and accommodations plan but be aware of going above and beyond for only one student. Some parents scream for extra attention, help and communication with the teacher. Be careful, this is not always helpful to that particular student, or the other students in the room. Redirect your energies and pay attention to all of your students. The squeaky wheel should not always get the grease.

People can be mean. Don’t let this throw you off your game. Listen and learn from people who offer advice in a substantive and meaningful way. Otherwise, just tune the mean people out. Assume that their meanness will be counteracted by others in their life or the building.

On the other hand, when people give your criticism, and good teachers must have criticism, listen. Resist defensiveness and embrace curiosity. Remember: administrators, parents, teachers and students do not respond well to defensive behavior. Take a deep breath, put on your poker face and open yourself to criticism when it is given with good intentions.

Watch what works in your classroom and abandon what doesn’t even if your administrator, famous/successful teachers or professors say it is the best way to teach. Be a scientist in your own classroom and when you see evidence of growth: pounce. Take notes, look at data, listen to students, and repeat what you think is working.

Find a friend. Teachers don’t always welcome newcomers. Conversations with colleagues can be awkward, and you might feel like an outsider. Find the people in the building that are like you and make an effort to connect. Stop by their room for a chat or try to sit next to them during meetings. If your teacher’s lounge and lunchtime crowd gets negative, don’t join in. Be the positive teacher in the room.

Keep track of success and celebrate it with your students and yourself. Leave notes for yourself in your lesson plans when things go well and when they don’t. Praise students and yourself more and criticize less. Do not give students fake praise, but praise them for actual growth and achievement in all areas of school and life.

Be patient. Remember you have years to get better as a teacher, and students have many more years of school ahead of them. Do not think you need to help them climb the whole education mountain in one year. You are only supposed to lead them part of the way. They will make progress in your classroom and next year’s classroom and so on.

Some subjects are harder to teach than others. Don’t get discouraged. I teach ancient world history to sixth graders. I wish I had worried less about making it to a certain place in our textbook my first year and focused more on engagement, cooperative learning and critical thinking. My new goal is that my students are more open to the idea that our world is shaped by nearly all time periods, regions, religions, and ethnicities. Yet, somehow, the people of the world are more alike than different. The number zero was “invented” in at least two different completely disconnected civilizations at about the same time period and for different reasons. When my students discover that fact, I want them to say “wow!” That is a much easier goal to reach than hitting page 492 by June 1st.

Continue to love your students. This is not always easy, but it is essential to being a great teacher. Love them in the agape sense of love which to me means be present and open to their uniqueness in this world. Know their favorite sports teams, foods and how many siblings they have. Ask about their dance competitions, basketball tournaments and favorite video games. The more open you are to the person they are becoming the more they will surprise you with their capacity to grow academically and emotionally. Your classroom will pulsate with enthusiasm, engagement and energy if you keep an open heart.

And at the risk of repeating myself, have fun. At our end of the year class discussion, all my students talked about one thing they wished they had done differently in their 6th grade year. The answers ranged from not being so scared at the start of 6th grade, to reading more books in the beginning of the year, to reaching out to new classmates sooner. I said, “I wish I had had more fun with all of you.” Don’t make that mistake. You have worked hard to get your own classroom – now enjoy it.

Good luck and best wishes for a fantastic first year,

Heather Trees

Heather Trees is a TYT Tribe mentor and a sixth-grade teacher at Mazzuchelli Catholic Middle school In Dubuque, Iowa. She teaches social studies, religion, and language arts. Her greatest passion is inspiring a love of reading in all students. She believes there are no nonreaders just children who have not found their gateway book into a love of reading. Last year her 24 students read 437 books, many from her classroom library.

Teaching is a second career for Heather. She has a BA in theater and communications from Northwestern University and an MA in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern. Her first career was a television journalist and nightly news anchor at TV stations in Iowa and California. After taking time to stay home with her children, she began a career working with children in a school library, which led to her returning to school to get her teaching credential.

6 Yard Sale Bargains For New Teachers

July 18, 2017 by Inspired Together Teachers 1 Comment

In the summer, yard sales are everywhere. As a new teacher, yard sales (also called garage sales) are exactly what you need to fill your classroom shelves and spaces efficiently and inexpensively.

The next time you are tempted to drive by that yard/garage sale, slow down and make sure they aren’t selling any of these items that you will likely need for your classroom:

Games. Games are a great garage sale find because they don’t have to be fully intact to be useful. Gameboards can be easily modified to fit whatever content you are teaching as a review activity. The dice and spinners can be separated from the game for many classroom activities and as a grouping tool. While most games teach a skill or two, if you are lucky, you will find a game that serves a clear academic purpose. Boggle can be a perfect station for spelling. Zingo! provides picture cues to accompany words for your early readers and Mancala makes even those of us who love mathematic problems stretch our thinking.

2. Puzzles. Puzzles are the perfect indoor recess activity for students of any age. In addition, puzzles serve to enhance motor skills for our youngest learners. Puzzles also offer a creative way to form groups. Pick six connecting pieces from each corner, break them off, mix them up, distribute one to each member of the class, and then have the students find their group members by searching out others with conjoining pieces. If you think out of the box, there are also many other uses for puzzles in your classroom.

3. Puppets. Although not as easy to find as puzzles or games, it is not uncommon to find puppets at garage sales. When purchased new, puppets can be pricey. However, at yard sales they are often affordable. Don’t shy away from puppets that look “overly loved.” Although they might look a bit shabby to you, there is some quality about that puppet that made some child love it so much. Could your students feel the same? Puppets have several uses in a classroom depending on the age of your students. From the basic chef puppet that reads the lunch menu each morning, to the cat and mouse puppets that can be used to teach about dialogue, we think you can find a classroom use for even the most interesting yard sale puppets.

4. Carpet squares. If you are fortunate enough to come across these at a yard sale, grab them and run. If they are still at the yard sale, it means a more veteran teacher hasn’t been to the yard sale yet. Carpet squares provide much more comfort when sitting on hard classroom floors. Plus, they create perfect boundaries for students when working on the floor and are easily transportable by the students themselves.

5. Furniture for flexible seating. Grab those bean bags, director’s chairs, and butterfly chairs with neon green faux fur. All of these and more are most likely waiting for you at the yard sale around the corner. They are inexpensive, easy to move, and will be a hit with your students. Most likely your students will give you credit for picking out such a “cool polka-dotted bean bag” for the reading corner. You don’t have to tell them that your 12 year-old neighbor actually purchased the chair and you just bought it from her for $3 at the yard sale.

6. Books. Books are teacher goldmines just waiting to be explored at yard sales. Lucky for you, parents love to buy books for their kids. When the kids grow up, the parents pick a few favorites to keep and the rest are yours for the taking at their next garage sale. You will be surprised how quickly you can build a classroom library just by attending yard sales. We know you may be hesitant to buy so many used books because your vision of a classroom library is filled with shiny new books. However, trust us when we say that the favorites will be lovingly battered and bruised by November. The garage sale books just got a bit of a head start.

We also advise you to watch your local ads. Experienced garage salers will advertise by stating specific items they will be selling. If you see any of the items on the above list in the advertisement, hop in your car and head over. Also, if you see an ad that says it is a teacher hosting the garage sale, ask your parents for your birthday money early because that is a sale you don’t want to miss!

For a list of the teacher books we recommend you try to find at yard sales this summer, sign up for our guide entitled 25 Great Books About Teachers that Every Teacher Should Read.

Happy Bargain Hunting,

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