Tuesday Tip: Sharing Ideas with Fellow Teachers

I have had many, many opportunities to share ideas with colleagues. Some of my ideas have been appreciated and other haven't. There will be so many times in your career as a teacher to sit in roundtable discussions and share your ideas and philosophies. It is important to remember to listen as much as you talk, especially if you are a younger teacher. 

Veteran teachers have lots of very important experience to share, but that doesn't mean their way is the only way to do things. In order to cultivate mutually respectful relationships with your fellow teachers, listen to others' ideas, share your ideas and respect whatever decision is ultimately made, regardless of your personal opinions.

I will be totally honest with you, however, it's hard! I have had a very difficult time with it, especially being the extremely opinionated person that I am! But since starting my teaching career, I have learned the importance of cultivating relationships with fellow teachers. And it all begins with listening. It took me some time to learn that, so I hope you can benefit from the wisdom of my experience.

Management Monday: Beginning the Year

The first 6 weeks of school are, in this teacher's opinion, the most important. This is when I set up the routines and classroom procedures that will guide us through the rest of the year. It is more important to be consistent now than any other time. You will thank yourself later for having come up with very specific ways of performing tasks and ensuring students learn these procedures. Let's start with the most simple one - entering school in the morning.

There is so much to be done first thing in the morning. I have a very important rule that MUST always be followed though - I ask parents not to come into the classroom first thing in the morning. This is a time of routine and quiet work and having even one parent stop in for a spontaneous conference is very distracting to the day's routines.

First, student must hang up their backpacks on their hooks outside of the classroom. For the first week of school, I stand in the doorway to remind students what they need to do in the hallway before crossing the threshold. I don't allow book bags in the classroom because they are big and awkward and are a major tripping hazard.

Before entering the classroom, students need to empty their things out of their backpacks and carry their items into the room. Immediately, they put their items away and get to work on their morning math and grammar.

It is important not to introduce too many new routines on the first day. Stick to the most basic and/or important on the first day of school. After a few days, introduce another few. Also, try very hard not to have too many intricate details within each routine. The basic parts are important to hit, you can always add more specific tasks in later.

Great book! This will give you some great management strategies for the beginning of school. Especially helpful for  first-year teacher.

I Go By ...

One of the biggest organizational problems I have had is the chaos of the end of the day. In those last 15 minutes we try to squeeze in so much and I kept feeling like things were falling through the cracks. Then there was the inevitable - "oh Mrs. Fornero, I am taking the bus today!" "Oh ya, I am going on a playdate at G's house!" "My grandmother is picking me up, I have a dentist appointment!"

In order to ensure I knew ahead of time where everyone was going that afternoon, I made it their job and part of their morning routine to tell me. But let's face it - 22 kids telling you how they are getting home that afternoon? I might remember 2. So I created this "I Go By..." board.

I used sentence strips to write the different options, then put little pieces of velcro next to the option. Each of their names were put on a strip with velcro on the back and each morning they put their name next to their transportation method.

The options were - Bus, walk, car, playdate, or after-school program. Underneath the board (not shown) was a basket where students could drop notes to me from their parents. If a student was doing something out of their normal routine, we needed a note to allow it.

I hope this helps with some organization :-)

Valentine's Day Craft and Writing Prompt

Boy is winter here!! January 12th and we finally got some very cold weather. Totally miserable day outside - rainy, windy, and cold! I am lucky to live on the ocean or we would be socked with snow. On the plus side, snow means a snow day!

So I am in my sweats, on my couch. My 3-month-old is content in his swing and my 3-year-old is playing Dragonland on his dad's Ipad. This is a very typical afternoon for me. And the perfect time for a blog post.

The writing prompt we did was a very common one - "what does love mean to me?" I encouraged the students to think of times when they feel the most loved and the most special people in their lives. I was very proud of what they came up with.

To make it pretty, they did their final drafts inside of a heart on white paper. I then gave them pink, purple, red and white tissue paper. Their challenge was to decorate their paper with little, scrunched up pieces of the tissue paper and glue them down in a unique design on their writing samples. The purpose of the challenge was to strengthen their "alligator fingers." These are the muscles in the fingers they use to write. This is especially helpful for students who have poor penmanship. Since we still teach penmanship in our school, I felt it was important to do exercises such as this to work on forming letters and gaining more control of their pencils - a problem for many students.

I think the finished product came out really cool!

President's Day Lesson

As part of our President's Day unit, the 3rd graders in my class last year learned how to retrieve information from two articles, one about Abraham Lincoln and one about George Washington (I got the articles off www.abcteach.com). We used yellow highlighters to highlight important information, pink to highlight unfamiliar words, and green to highlight text to self connections.

Once finished reading and highlighting the articles, I passed out Venn Diagrams to the students. I did a mini lesson on how to use Venn Diagrams to compare and contrast two items. We then placed information from the articles onto the Venn Diagram to compare and contrast two Presidents.

Hall of Presidents

I did this great craft last year for Presidents Day. I printed out 8x10 photos of each of the 44 Presidents from www.abcteach.com and we made "presidential-looking" frames to go with each one. We used remnants of wallpaper samples to create a surround and glued the photos onto the background. We had some great discussions about each President as the students created the frames. We then taped the framed photos up onto the wall in the hallway outside my classroom and named it the "Hall of Presidents."

Soil "Trifle"

I am constantly trying to come up with ways to make lessons more memorable to students. This is one that students from 3 years ago still talk about. In fact, the day I did this lesson, I had an eighth grade student visiting in my room and he still asks about it too!

This lesson was to teach about the different types of soil - sandy soil, loam soil and clay soil.  We then made edible "soil layers trifle." Which, of course, they got to eat when done (the best part!) Just be aware of any allergies your students may have. Some have uncommon allergies that you might not think of - it's not just peanuts anymore!


The ingredients I used:

loam soil - crumbled chocolate cake - you can also use crushed chocolate cookies)
sandy soil - crushed Nilla wafers (or graham crackers)
clay soil - crumbled red velvet cake
silt - marshmallows (or whipped cream)
animal fossil - gummy worm
plant fossil - mint leaf

The students were given their materials in plastic bags, already portioned out and labeled, a plastic spoon for "digging", a clear plastic cup, and an observation sheet. I gave them enough to do 2 trifles - so they could eat one on the spot and take one home to show their parents (and eat after dinner!)

There are also many ways to do this lesson with non-edible items. If your school has rules about using food items for lessons, find materials that are non-edible, but try to keep the colors as close as possible to try to represent the real thing. Here are some suggestions:

loam soil - dirt

sandy soil - sand

clay soil - red/maroon crayons (crushed - easy to do with a sharp knife)

silt - salt

animal fossil - plastic animal figure (easy to find at the Dollar Store)

plant fossil - plastic plant (also easy to find at the Dollar Store - look for packs of little dinosaurs, they have the animals and plants in the same pack)

When we finish science lessons - I always pass out a "self-assessment form." This is an opportunity for students to grade themselves. They are given a rubric with points from 0-4. I find that the students are always harder on themselves than I would ever be on them! 

The scale:

    0 = no attempt was made

    1 = I didn't really try very hard and I need to work harder on this next time

    2 = I tried, but I had a hard time and will keep trying

    3 = I tried and got most of the work done right

    4 - I worked hard and followed all directions

   

1. Did I follow all directions as given?    

2. Did I work well with my partner? Did I give him/her a chance to speak and did I listen to him/her?

3. Did I pay attention and stay on task?

4. Did my product turn out the way I wanted it to?

Painting Like Michelangelo

This was a really fun lesson, the kids had a blast. We began by reading a short biography on famous artist Michelangelo. We talked about and saw copies of his famous paintings. Then we talked about the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel and what it must have been like to lay on his back and paint for hours and hours, day after day, for two years.

Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Michelangelo

After discussion, the kids got to try it out! I wish I could show you the photos I took of the students with drops of paint all over their faces!

Painting the Sistene Chapel!

How did your arm feel after 10 minutes? 20 minutes?

Classroom Management

Hey Everyone - Happy Monday!

So I hate Mondays. HATE Mondays. I have the hardest time getting out of bed on a Monday morning, no matter what time I go to bed on Sunday night. I feel like I need to get one more thing in. Last night, for example, I put my two cherubs to bed and got to work labeling all the bins in the toy closet. Some scrapbook paper, self-adhesive letters, some modge podge and voila! A very organized toy closet. Photos to come!

I thought I would also squeeze in a blog post about my classroom management system. I got the idea from a professor in my Master's program at American International College. He is also a 4th grade teacher and uses these as a positive reinforcement tool. I use them a bit differently and they can be adapted to any classroom. I call these bills "Fornero Dinero." Whenever I catch a student doing something right - sitting or reading quietly, getting ready, working efficiently, lining up quietly, etc. I simply slip one in their hand. I don't draw attention to it - but it certainly garners attention. It catches on so quickly!

One time, the students were lining up to go to Music and they were very loud in line. I looked around for one student standing quietly and patiently. I spotted her and handed her a Fornero Dinero. As soon as I did - like a ripple effect, each student began quieting down. I never had to raise my voice or even speak. And without words, they all got in a straight, quiet line and we headed to Music.

How Does It Work?

Once a week we do a "drawing." I usually do it on Friday afternoons, right before Fun Friday (choice) time. As students collect Fornero Dinero throughout the week, they write their names on the back. On Fridays, I collect them back and put them all in a bin and draw one or two and the winner gets a prize.

My prizes are: a homework pass, choose an item from the "treasure chest," lunch with the teacher, or teacher for a day (student teaches a lesson).

I also use this opportunity to teach about probability - reminding them that the more Fornero Dinero they put into the drawing, their chances of winning are much better. Before each drawing, I randomly pick a student and ask how many bills he or she entered into the drawing, then I tell the class how many are in the bin then ask what is the probability of this student winning?

Then we put it up on the board - 8 out of 40 = 1/5 or 20% chance of winning. I do this for each student and find out who has the best chance of winning.


I got the idea from the professor I mentioned before - his last name was Bateman so he called the bills "Bateman Bucks." Find a name for money that rhymes or has alliteration with your name and it makes it more fun!

Not legal tender!

Repurposing Shaving Cream

This is a really fun way to practice cursive letters, printing letters, multiplication facts, etc. It can be used as a whole class activity or as a literacy center. We had so much fun with this lesson.

While the students were out of the room, I sprayed shaving cream all over each of their desks. When they came back in, we did one cursive letter of the alphabet at a time, starting with A. The shaving cream allowed their little hands to move fluidly on their desks, as needed to create cursive letters.

As a bonus .... the desks had never been cleaner!!

Teaching About Warm and Cool Colors

Sadly, the art teacher from the school I work at passed away last year from cancer. She was an amazing woman and wonderful art teacher. While she was sick, the classroom teachers in our school agreed to take on teaching art so that she could continue to receive her pay through the end of the school year. 

During that time, I spent countless hours in the library researching art lessons for 3rd graders. Here's one I came up with to teach about warm and cool colors. I used Shamrocks because it was March and thought it was a good way to tie in a St. Patrick's Day craft. 

All you need is a shamrock tracer, white or manila card stock and markers.

I traced the shamrocks onto the card stock for my students, but they cut them out themselves. They began by tracing their hands and forearms across the side of the shamrock. Then they alternated colors in a pattern using warm colors (reds, yellows, oranges) for their hands. Run one color all the way around the hand in a single line. After filling in the hand, they used cool colors (blue, purple, green) to fill in around the hand. I suggest having the students begin their lines around the hands first.

For younger students - do the two pieces separately and glue the hand onto the shamrock. 

New Name!

Confident Little Readers is now Confident Little LEARNERS. That way I can post about all things teaching!

Teaching Symmetry

One of the lessons in math I teach each year is on symmetry. It's a very basic concept, but I like to have some fun with it so I come up with an art project for the students to do to illustrate symmetry. Below is a fun one we did last year.

Materials:

A photo of each student - student must be facing the camera as straight as possible, smiling, printed in black and white
White card stock
glue stick
pencil


Start by cutting each photo down the center of the student's face. Make sure it is exactly half. Hand each student half of their face (they will think this is hilarious). Ask them to glue the half-picture onto the card stock, as far to the edge as possible.

Using a pencil only, students should draw the other half of their face on the blank side of the page, using as much symmetry as possible.

My Classroom

As you may remember from my previous posts, I am taking a year off from teaching because I had a baby (3-month-old Joseph) in October. He joins my little family of my amazing husband Wesley and my spirited 3-year-old son Frankie.

Taking the 2011-12 school year off has taught me one important thing so far: I LOVE BEING A TEACHER! I just can't wait to get back to teaching in September. I have so many fresh and creative ideas for classroom design and lesson plans, as well as interactive bulletin board displays. I simply can't wait to try them out.

I wanted to post some photos of my 3rd grade classroom at my school in Gloucester, MA. Here you can get an idea of what my style of teaching is. My goal for this September is to take wider photos of the entire classroom so you can see the desk and bulletin board set up.

The community supplies are in a central location and clearly labeled. These bins were purchased at Dollar Tree, they came in lots of colors. However, I am toying with the idea of having supplies for each table group instead of the whole class. This may make transitions easier and quicker.

Calendar and birthday wall. 

We keep track of how many days in school with this place-value pocket chart.

Interactive "Celebrate America" Social Studies board.  I put three books into pockets and wrote questions below . I left space on the right for student to post their answers.

In third grade Science, we chart weather patterns, so we keep track of  the daily weather. In addition, I used the language of Science - "observation" and "prediction" to remind students that they are indeed scientists!

Book baskets (from Dollar Tree). After testing each student,  I determined their reading levels and used those levels to make book recommendations which I weekly put in their book baskets. During Reader's Workshop, students needed to use a book from their book baskets. Each label has the student's name and the level books they are allowed to choose from.

Reading corner: I like to put books on display that correspond with a particular theme, season or unit. Below,  books are sorted according to level.

More classroom supplies and math manipulatives. Each bin is clearly labeled. The milk crates have clip boards, white board and blocks. I don't like the look of this so it will be more organized next time you see it.