It's been a wild ride!

I can't believe I haven't posted since last August, which leads me to believe that the 2012-2013 school year took me on several adventures!  Well, it's been two weeks since the end of the school year and I've had enough of doctor's appointments and sitting on the sofa (gasp!).  In my defense, I did attend a 2 hour technology training which did require me to put on professional clothes and make-up :)

Now I truely believe, however, that my time on Pinterest should count for at a least a few staff development hours as I've found some pretty awesome ideas for the 2013-2014 school year.  This morning I came to the realization that I really should stop pinning and start creating everything that I've pinned!  I'll start posting the great finds soon.  Happy summer!

Getting and keeping parents involved

Have you ever had a parent tell you, "I just don't know how to help my kid at home."?  Here is a quick and easy way for them to help.  I have copies of these made and ready to hand out as soon as the words "I just don't know how to help my kids" are uttered.

You can find lots of other ideas at http://dbsenk.wordpress.com/2011/09/04/parent-education/

Where is that kid???

Have you ever been at your teacher table deep in to teaching your kids how to blend, then you look up and you notice little Johnny isn't sitting at his desk?  I've placed an "Exit Station" in my class to help me know exactly where my students are at when I look up from teacher table.

I've used blue painting tape to divide a dry erase board.  I've labeled the dry erase board with the possible places they could be at without asking for permission.  Students will sign their name on the board when they leave and erase it when they return.  This will allow be to be able to glance at it from my teacher table across the room and know who not in class at that moment AND know exactly where they are at. 

I've also placed two handsantizers, one for boys and one for girls, that the kids will place on their desks when they go to the restroom.  When kids sign out to go down to the bathroom they place the handsanitzer bottle on their desk. The purpose is three fold - I despise bathroom passes that travel to the bathroom because who knows what happens to them when they are there, I can look up and know why the desk is empty, and kids will sanitize their hands when they return to class.

FREE Reading Strategy Cards

I just stumbled upon a wonderful FREEBIE from http://downunderteacher.blogspot.com  It has free printables that you can post on your classroom wall.  This "Cafe" of strategies helps students gain independence and confidence in Reading with strategies for comprehension, fluency, accuracy and vocabulary.

http://downunderteacher.blogspot.com/2012/07/cafe-strategy-cards.html

When you visit her blog she has plenty of great ideas besides these.  Be sure to visit her TpT store for tons of inexpensive items.

Writing Stations! Part 1 - free tic tac toe board

Teaching in a collaborative classroom setting is so rewarding.  We'll get kids at the beginning of the year not know how and certainly not desiring to read and those same kids leave us so proud because they've learned how to read and they enjoy it! 

Yesterday we received our state testing data and we were overjoyed to see how our special education students did 15% better than their peers did the previous year in 4th grade. How do we do it? Well, our classroom spends pretty much the entire day doing stations. Notice, I didn't say busy work, I said stations.  They're either at one of the two teacher tables or working on differentiated learning stations.  It's evident that our use of Math and Reading stations has helped our students make tremendous gains.  I think it's time for us to expand our use to learning stations to Writing. This will prevent students from waiting in a needless line for an adult to conference with them over their writing.

Here's an easy station that can be thrown into the Writing station mix.  All the teacher has to do is update weekly spelling words, which we do anyway.

http://teacheristatales.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-05-14T17%3A01%3A00-04%3A00&max-results=7

This fabulous tic tac toe board and recording sheets can be downloaded for free at teacheristatales.blogspot.com.



Sticky Note Greeting Card

Here's the scenario.... during morning annoucements they announce it's (fill in the blank)'s birthday or (fill in the blank) appreciation week and you scramble to put a card/poster together for all of your students to sign and you end up not having time to teach Social Studies.  Sound familiar??

Thanks to our friends at Flapjackeducationresources.com, here is a quick and easy way to create a colorful card in a short time.

Have students write their well wishes on sticky notes while you shutter fold an 11x17 construction paper together and fasten ribbon. Voila! A color greeting that didn't take 45 minutes for a class of 24 to sign.

Happy sticky noting!

A bathroom pass that stays in class?

Do you ever cringe at the thought of what happens to your bathroom pass when it goes down the hall to the bathroom?  EEEWWWW!  For years and years I've been looking for a more sanitary bathroom pass.  Today I stumbled upon a fabulous idea from timanddory.wordpress.com.

Students sign out to go to the bathroom and place the hand sanitizer on their desk. The idea is that when a student goes to the bathroom, they will put the pass on their desk. When they get back, they will get a squirt of hand sanitizer. Plus, I absolutely adore that it's the Peanuts theme.  Not crazy about Charlie Brown?  How about Kermit and Miss Piggy or Superman and Wonder Woman?

Happy sanitizing!