I love my new way of selecting jobs in the classroom. This is the first year that I have done it, but I've been thinking about it for awhile.
Essentially: Students apply for jobs each month using the job application in which they select the job they want from the classified adds on back. They defend why they are the best ones for the job by answering questions. Then they promise that despite the job they receive, they will do their best. Finally, parents sign off and students turn in the application. For me, they are due on the 20th of each month. This early due date helps me have enough time to select the best application for each job.
The jobs are displayed on my job board.
Let me tell you, this board took a LOT of work this summer at the local teacher center. Thank goodness for laser die-cutters! It would have taken so much more time without it! I love the black background with bright colors on top look. I think it really pops. Then, I laminated circles of pretty paper (leftovers from something else I made), wrote each student's name on one and used velcro dots to attach them to each job.
It's bright, fun, and I included a job application pocket (just a manila folder laminated down that I slashed open carefully with a box cutter) so everything is in one spot.
Many people use many different types of behavior management. Over the last five years I have tried multiple different methods, and I think this year I have landed on my favorite.
I am a big fan of rewarding good behavior while also monitoring behavior that needs improvement.
Every day, every student starts on Green (Ready to Learn).
After one warning of poor behavior, if students continue, they move their color to Teal (Make Better Choices) and lose 5 minutes of recess. After moving their color, if they do not correct the behavior, they move their color to Blue (Chill Out) and lose 15 minutes of recess and I write a note home. Finally, if it continues further, they move their color to Purple (Poor Decisions), lose all of their recess, call home, and visit the office.
On the opposite side, students that are making good choices move their color up the clip chart. First they move their color from Green to Orange (Rockin' Choices). Then, students that are going above and beyond expectations move to Yellow (Star Student).
Regardless of where they move their color, when students move it they pull out their agendas (an established daily communication log), and write (in ink!) what color they are on and why. Then they bring it to me, I initial & indicated an area for parents to sign. This ensures that all behavior goes home regardless of the good or bad. If students do not get the Teal, Blue, or Purple agendas signed by the next day they keep their name on that color and owe 5 minutes of recess each day it is unsigned.
One of my favorite parts of this system is the set up. First of all, I love love love the polka dot look that I randomly thought of. (Honestly, I was just in the dollar store looking for something cheap and magnetic, because I'm not a fan of the clips themselves, I prefer using magnets.) I came across these pizza pans & used 3M strips to attach them to the bathroom door. This door is a prominent feature in my room, but is facing sideways, so it is not staring students in the face as a negative reminder of their behavior.
On the first day of school students take a index card piece (I cut them in quarters) and write their name in any color marker they like except yellow. Then, they can use crayons to design the background however they like. Finally they attach a slice of sticky magnet strip to the back and place their name on Green. Students love being able to do this, and it gives them ownership of their magnet. The marker name stands out against the crayon background, no matter what dark colors some students may use to color it in. (I once had a student that told me he deliberately was trying to 'crayon out' his name with black crayon, but it still didn't work and then he had to live with that design all year.)
I have enjoyed Kid President for awhile. He is a bright, happy, energetic kid who puts things in ways that gets through to people. I saw a video recently that I have had in the back of my mind to show to my class. My room has begun to suffer from some quiet and sneaky-type of bullying right now, and Kid President emphasizes being a role model in this video. I think that my students will respond well to him, and I look forward to reading their journal prompts after viewing the video. I have begun to put both journal prompts & math word problems on Edmodo. This allows students to complete the assignment at home or at school, and I can easily grade them at any time. Additionally, I have a record of student participation to show who is or is not completing their work. I'll post a reflection after the discussion of the video.
This year having a comprehensive classroom website with lots (and I mean lots) of resources has been a saving grace when it comes to helping out the parents of students in my room transition to Common Core.
There are many differences between CCSS and the old stuff, and parents realized it pretty quick. I put many links I find for each curricular unit and skill, as well as my own resources online consistently, and the response has been great. In my experience most parents want to help, but sometimes don't know how. The website has great ways to help that.
In addition, the links are a great solution if students have an error on a classroom link (we use TenMarks, Scootpad, and Edmodo) and I cannot fix it immediately, they just use one of my website links.
I also update it daily with homework. In fact, students copy the homework directly from the website into their agendas so there is no disparity between what goes home and what is online.
Finally, getting it up and running before school started turned out to be a great thing. I included some information about how the classroom runs (color system, process for getting a classroom job, schedule, etc.) so parents have a better understanding going in what to expect.
I also have the Young Einsteins Club running via my website. This is a great club that I will share more about at a later time. However, it is a nice activity for fast finishers and my class has really taken to it. Overall, classroom websites are truly wonderful resources :)
During our current Social Studies unit we are focusing a lot on differing perspectives of the same event. One thing we did was reenact the classic 3 Little Pigs story and then read the True Story of the Three Little Pigs.
When discussing the different perspectives of the two stories the students got into a great discussion about which story was true. This led me to decide to hold a trial.
The Three Little Pigs vs. The Wolf
The class was pretty evenly split with 8 students supporting the wolf, 8 supporting the pigs, and 9 students in the middle. Thus, we ended up with 4 attorneys for each side, 4 witnesses for each side, and 9 jury members.
For a week they worked together researching different versions of the story from various cultures. Using this information, the witnesses created a back-story that supported their side, the attorneys prepared questions for their witnesses to develop a case, and the jury obtained some background knowledge on the case.
Fast forward to the Trial Date. The entire class ended up doing a superb job with their roles! (With the exception of some jury members who kept trying to ask questions or object on behalf of one of the sides.) The attorneys asked some great questions of some creative witnesses (that included a fly in one of the houses, a lizard on the side of the road, one of the pigs' cousins following the wolf but disguised as a bush, and a hippo out for a jog), the witnesses did a nice job providing textually-accurate accounts of the events, and the jury members ruled in favor of the wolf.
Now, for the follow up. Starting tomorrow, students will have until Friday to write an account of their role: Attorneys will write a summary of their case and include specific references to the stories they used as research. Witnesses will tell an account of what they saw, and support that account with specific references to the stories. The jury members will write an explanation for why they chose the side that they voted for (it was decided by individual ballot), and reference specific things said by attorneys and witnesses during the trial.
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I have been working all year at helping students realize the difference between their words and author's words. As such, they are required to do a modified bibliography (which I will explain at a later date) for some of their projects. Though the focus of this project is on realizing the different perspectives of the same story, I want to continue to emphasize students' supporting their claims with specific research.
Below are the follow up worksheets that explain to students what they are required to write and cite for each role. (in case anyone wants to do this activity) Enjoy!
My school has implemented the use of Signposts to Close Reading this year. It has been interesting to see the students look closer at what they read and realize connections more quickly. However, when an entire school is implementing them using similar resources, those resources become limited. Even my team (5th grade) is using picture books to introduce each signpost, because it is brand new & the signposts are easy to see in picture books before moving on to the harder texts. To remedy this problem, instead of waiting to have the resources & therefore making others wait, I found some of the books in 'narrated' form on Youtube and have the students watch them instead.
Last Friday we were working on one of the harder signposts, a Memory Moment, and watching a Youtube narrated picture book when my principal walked in. (I don't know about everyone else, but even in my 5th year, when he walks in my heart rate picks up...not in a bad way, but I just pray that the students are extra on-their-game in those minutes) After the read-aloud was done, we discussed the Memory Moment (which they got immediately), and they began referencing other Memory Moments they had read in other stories. Specifically, they talked about Jack Will's memory of the Bleeding Scream in Wonder by R.J. Palacio (the book I am reading aloud to them right now). I reread that section for them, and then they began discussing how it's not only a memory moment, but also an Aha! Moment that referred back to a Conflict & Contradiction, two other signposts. With my principal right there.
Cue the internal happy dance!
It's so great because I see these students' great minds every day, and it is always nice when someone comes in during one of those times...as opposed to 30 minutes earlier when chaos ensued as we set up our classroom terrariums (some things spilled, some toppled, tears were shed).
And then our superintendent walked in 10 minutes later just as a student was asking if we could spend the last 15 minutes before lunch playing games instead of working...
Tonight was my first Open House in 5 years where I was completely on my own.
I loved it.
Talking with so many parents & getting their feedback was fabulous. Our school is getting another teacher for our grade soon, so I expected questions about how we are splitting the classes up and whose leaving my class. Most parents that I talked to seemed content to wait (or talk to the office about it) instead of asking for information I couldn't give.
I spoke with one parent who she said how happy she & her son are that he's in my class again (I had him last year & got him again when I looped). She told me how she felt he came into his own last year & she thinks I was a big part of that. I was deeply honored by the compliments she gave me. But really, it's all him. He learned to be confident in himself and shone in his own right.
My class is amazing (I think I've mentioned that) & many of them have great, quick wit. Quick quote:
Yesterday I complimented a student on her cheery personality. Her response was a big smile and: "It's because I eat unicorns daily!"
During math class today I posted an equation and an expression (one in blue writing and one in purple) and asked students what was different between them. One student said they were different 'shades of blue'. Totally fine observation, may not be a math-y observation, but I did not specify.
However, another student started laughing & saying "Fifty shades of blue! Fifty shades of blue!"
Ummm... Here's hoping that is simply due to that book/movie being in the news for actor casting decisions being made!
It is definitely time for another (albeit short) post!
This past weekend was partially a working one for me (lots to do in a new classroom & a new grade level!) and partially restful and lovely. I spent the majority of it visiting family and enjoying the unique brand of humor we have, way of talking that we've developed over the years, and oddball inside jokes. I love my family and am very blessed to have them.
Despite the welcome-ness of the wweekend, it was also nice to get back to school. I looked forward to seeing the students' reactions to their new seats, reading their job applications for our salaried classroom jobs this month, and their overall quirkiness. I was not disappointed. They were great about moving to a new desk, and for quirk today I had some of the oddest requests for the nurse I've had in five years! But overall they were great.
My principal even did a walk-through toward the end of the day (code for 'time-when-students'-attention-spans-are-shot-and-everything-goes-haywire') and they were all working on independent work: graphing, multiplication timed tests, or making multiplication games with a partner. Sometimes you get that walk-through that is just horrendous and you hope and pray that they were a hallucination. But today you could hear a pin drop and they kept going at their work. I was so proud of them.
I will say, the 'down side' of the day was leaving work around 7pm, and then getting stuck at the store for an hour looking for replacement flash cards that I seem to have misplaced since end of year last year. Ah well, I was able to replace at least some of them!