I teach in Spain. Spaniards talk A LOT. I am dealing with a serious level of blurting out! Something had to give, so I created the perfect combination of a blurt chart with a Friday game of minute to win it. Here is how I do it... I want to emphasize that this is VERY different than the olden-style writing a name on the board for a punishment. With … [Read more...]
(FREE) Game for Mastering Math Facts!
This math game is exactly what the teacher wants: 1. Fun 2. Effective 3. Easy 4. Free The purpose of the game is to help your students learn their math facts fluently. I always start my 2nd graders out memorizing their doubles (sums to 20) with this game and then it morphs easily into doubles plus one facts, and then onto the real toughies (7+9, 8+6, … [Read more...]
Goodbye Messy Filing Cabinet! HELLO Organized Binders!
Messy filing cabinets have always kept me from feeling like I had an organized classroom. I never had a really good system for managing my teaching materials and so they ended up in a file that I always intended to refer back to, but...I swear that those filing cabinets have always had their own lives! This year, we have been kicked out of our classrooms during planning … [Read more...]
How To Use a Math Word Wall
Word walls can do so much more than just be a nice display! This is a lesson I wish I could give my younger teaching self. Over my career I have struggled with word walls in general. But since I started teaching in a high ESL population, I've realized that a good word wall can be the most important visual cue in the classroom. After researching and delving into this task, I can … [Read more...]
Organizing your Math Manipulatives
I have finally figured out a method that is working for me in terms of distributing math manipulatives to my students/table groups! We do A LOT of problem solving work in my classroom and I want my students to have their hands all over manipulatives that help them visualize, solve, and reason with the tasks they are tackling. In the past, I have tried putting all of my … [Read more...]
Tame the nose pickers in your class!
Nose picking is a problem in more classes than mine, right? You know that feeling when you are pleasantly reading a book to your class when out of the corner of your eye, you see one of your most adorable students slyly stick their finger up their nose. In that brief second, you are filled with hope that they will quickly pull their finger away realizing they have … [Read more...]
End of the School Year Tips (to be SUPER prepared for next year!)
Every June, I lock up my classroom for summer and FEEL like I have left everything ready to go when August rolls around. Yet, every August, I unlock those doors and realize how much work I have on my plate to get my stuff together for another school year. THIS year, I will set myself up for success for the next school year. I need to repeat that... THIS YEAR, I WILL SET MYSELF … [Read more...]
Interactive Read Aloud in Six Easy Steps…
Interactive Read Aloud has completely changed the way I teach reading! I want to shout this from the teachers lounge rooftop :) My school has been teaching Lucy Calkins' Writing Workshop for the past several years. At the beginning of THIS year, I was asked to be a Reading Workshop "lab classroom" which basically means I committed myself to learning how to teach Reading … [Read more...]
Five tips to increase student engagement in your lessons
How do you keep your students engaged and motivated throughout your lesson? Do you have any special techniques to make keep your students interacting throughout? We know that just calling on one student who raises their hand is not the best way to create learning for everyone. Active engagement is critical. Below, I have compiled my top five strategies for active engagement … [Read more...]
Context Clues FREEBIE!
Hey there online friends! I just wanted to pop in really quick and let you know I just posted a helpful little resource for helping your kiddos use the sentence level context clues to find meaning. I wrote eight short passages and inserted a nonsense word instead of a real word. The kids read the passage and circle the clues that help them make guesses toward the meaning. I … [Read more...]
