Setting Goals

This year my team is really focused on making goals.  We want to help students motivate themselves to do better each day.  Many times students start the year strong, but they don't have the ability to persevere or the grit to follow through with their goals.

In an attempt to help students have more grit and determination we have created some sheets that we are going to put in their folders this year.

We have a Math Goal sheet, a Reading Goal sheet, and a Spelling Goal sheet. We are going to place these sheets in the students take home folders.  Each week we will look and see how close we were to obtaining our goals.  Was our goal to easy or too hard?  How do you make a reasonable goal?  What is the difference between a long term goal and a short term goal?  What caused you not to reach your goal?  What helped you achiever your goal?  We are hoping to help the students see that they are in charge of their own education.

We want to be able to use their charts when we meet with parents.  Hopefully we can get everyone to see how important it is to stick to your goals and become an achiever.

Managing Papers

 When you start teaching one of the things that can waste a lot of your time is passing out papers.This may sound crazy, but I have found a way that works for me.  When my students hand in their papers at the end of each class period, they hand them in according to alphabetical order. (This helps me make sure that I have all the papers.  No missing work! )That way when I grade them, I can easily record the grades in the grade book. Then in the morning, the students or I can easily put the papers in these folders that are affixed to the front of my lockers.

I attach the folders to the lockers using the red label removable double sided Scotch poster tape. The folders stay on the lockers all year long when placed in the configuration above,

The Hello Kitty on the front has metal disks from the roofing department of the hardware store.  The magnet on the backs of the mustaches stick to them.  The kids take off the mustaches and put them in our daily graph when they get to school.  So it has extra uses! 

The Hello Kitty was made on my Cricut.  I don't know if you can get the cartridge any more, but you can download the digital files on line.

Like I discussed in my last post.  I kept the red, white and blue theme.  I had added Hello Kitties the year before last.  Last year I added the mustaches because they were the trendy must have items.  I imagine I will use them one more year because the kids are still crazy about them.

Pick a Theme and Stick with It!

I've been teaching for over 26 years.  When I first found out that I had gotten my job, I wanted to create a classroom that was all my own.  My own little happy spot.  Back then, there was no Pintrest or Internet, so I had to get really creative on my own.  Here are some ideas that have really helped me over the year.

Pick a color combination and stick with it.  I have chosen red, white and blue in my classroom.  It is kind of timeless.  The color doesn't matter.  I have friend that have chosen pink classrooms.  The great thing about this is that you can keep the decorations, pictures, charts and any crafts that you make for your classroom year after year.  You can add to the menagerie each year.  This also allows you the freedom to add a trendier piece to the mix.  Then in the summer you just have to refurbish. Take away the things that are worn out and add a few new things.

I have had a red white and blue classroom for six years.  I keep it fresh by adding a few surprises.  I love Hello Kitty with a red bow.  She looks great in my room.  One year Angry birds were the rage.  I added them to the mix.  Last year I needed a little chevron since it was the bee's knees.  Just a few fresh items and the room looked new and exciting.  If you try to make a different theme every year, you will spend a mint and the room may never be the work of art that you see on Pintrest.

Use fabric to cover your bulletin boards. Believe it or not, fadeless paper does fade. One of the great things about material is that it doesn't show staple marks like paper does.  I have had this material on my boards for six years.  It is still bright. I'm not allowed to paint my walls I wanted to add some color so I took felt and hung it on the wall with Command hook and loop stickies.  Now I have the stars and stripes on my wall.  This is the area where I post my anchor charts.  I put Velcro on the back of my charts and then hang them on the red felt.

My desks are arranged so that I or my coteachers can sit in the middle and work with individuals are small groups of students.  I have used this for the past two years and it has worked like a dream!

One of the important things I try to keep in mind is that the room doesn't need to be too stimulating. My extra decorations are above the lockers and cabinets.  I try to make sure that everything the kids are seeing has a purpose.

Morning Procedures

It is really important to have daily routines.  For many of my students, I am the only bit of stability in their day. From the moment the kids walk in, they don't have to guess what needs do be done.  The daily routine is well set out on this anchor chart.

You can find it at Teachers Pay Teachers. Morning Procedures

Even though it is April, my students still like to come in and look at the chart.  One of my fellow teachers had it on her bulletin board.  I heard the substitute referring to it just the other day. Since I have started this procedure, the kids don't argue about who does what.  Plus I have all the pencils I need ready to go. 

In case you haven't learned the joys of pre-sharpened pencils in your classroom, Let me share. Kids waste so much time sharpening pencils. The noise causes those who are deep in thought writing to loose focus.  I have a large box of sharpened pencils.  If a student has a dull pencil, he just makes an exchange and puts in the box for pencils that need to be sharpened. 

Accountable Talk- Anchor Charts

I am an anchor chart junkie.  I use them so much that I had to develop a little system. I make one chart in color as a jpeg.  I use this with my Promethean board or my document camera.  I then stretch it out a bit and put it on a legal size page and post it on the wall.  The kids also have a black and white version that they place in their notebooks.  I have a writer's bag of tricks and a social studies journal that I use in my room. If an anchor chart is really important I will print it out as an engineer's print at Staples.

One of the things that I like best about my classroom is the amount of time we spend discussing writing, Texas history or current events.  In order for that to happen, students must be respectful. This anchor chart is fabulous.  The students place it in their Social Studies journals.  For the first few weeks the students keep these open to use to help them find phrases that help them participate in discussions.

You can get this at Teachers Pay Teachers. Accountable Talk

Teacher Data Planner

It is hard to believe that I am so late to this party.  But, after twenty-six years of teaching. I thought I would finally start a blog about how I run my classroom. If you don't know me, I have taught from first to fourth grade.  Currently I am teaching writing, grammar, and Texas history to fourth graders.

Writing and Texas are two of my passions.So I hope that I will have some insight to share if you need some inspiration on those subjects!

I thought today I would share my data organizational system or teacher binder.  It keeps all my student documents in one place.  This is a 28 page jpeg file that has the different pages that I used this year,  I pasted them into a publisher file so I could customize the number and the placement of each of the files.  I had them printed from and back by the printer.  There were well over 100 pages when I was finished.  He only charged me $20. It was a great bargain.  I then punched holes and placed them in a binder.

If you want to use this system of front and back pages, in your layout place a blank page behind each of the page dividers. That way you can put the page dividers in a plastic page protector.

This is the cover for my binder.  I made several for my friends.  I think we are enjoying them.  I know may teachers would like one. So I opened a shop on Teachers Pay Teachers.  You can download the whole file for eight dollars here. Teacher Data Binder  

I also have a freebie here that is for a thank you post card that I had printed on Vista Print that matches my Americana design.

You can download it for free here. Thank You Card

I hope that you will follow my store.  If you have anything that you would like to see made, let me know.  I would be glad to try my hand at making it.