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.

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.

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.