An Apple A Day - Behavior Management

Back in September, I posted about my behavior management plans for this year.  The Applicious Teacher's linky is giving me the perfect opportunity to look back on how those systems worked!

The Clip Chart

Unfortunately, I never took another picture of the clip chart later in the year.  It was so colorful as the year progressed.  Students were so excited each time they got a new clip!  Some were on their third glitter clip by the end, and all but one student got a new clip at least once during the year.  (That student with from the clip down/clip up anecdote from my previous post got his black clip during the last week of school.  He was beaming with pride).  I will most certainly be using my chart again next year.

However, there were two problems:

1. Numbers - their numbers were taped on (so they could easily be switched to a new clip).  After the first couple of months, about half of the clips didn't have a number because they fell off.
2. Clips - I made 32 black clips, 32 purple clips, 32 blue clips, 16 green clips, and 16 red clips before school started.  This hardly lasted me the first trimester.  After that, I never did another huge batch of clips.  I'm sad to say that some students had to wait a week before I got their new clip ready.  It was stressful for me and not really fair for them!

So, this summer ...

I am going to make 34 (to be prepared for new students - that was another wrench in the plan) of ALL of the colors.  I am going to glue numbers 1-32 (and just have two extra of each) on to them.  I know not every student will use all of the clips, but that will just mean I have a head start for the next year, right?

Raffle

Having clips and raffle were just too much.  I had a hard time being consistent with both.  Next year, I think I will still do a math raffle (since I can't use clips then) and will probably still do a raffle from unused bathroom passes at the end of each month.  Not too long after my last post, the allure of the raffle diminished and it wasn't a good Afternoon Routine motivator (I have another idea for that - it will probably be a Monday Made It sometime this summer).

Class Chain

I never started it!  I think I will try doing something whole class next year, though.  My kiddos were jealous when other fourth graders got their marble/button jar parties!

What's your behavior management?  How do you balance the different aspects of it?

Tried It Tuesday - NEON Binders

As I stalked read blogs last summer, I saw many ideas for organizational binders for students, including many cute acronyms.  I posted some thoughts about it last summer here.  And then, I TRIED IT!  (however, as you clearly know from my lack of posts over the past months, I was a bad blogger this year.  I don't have pictures of my kiddos' binders.  I hope you'll forgive me!)

(and am therefore linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper's Tried It Tuesday)

I decided on N.E.O.N as my acronym (as my classroom color scheme is black with neon colors).  It stands for Navigating Everyday with Organization and Neatness.  I got this particular acronym from Ginger at Ginger Snaps, though my binder was very different.  One major difference is that these binders never left the classroom.

Here's the cover, which each student colored.  32 identical binders?  They definitely needed names and a bit of personality! Most of them were into the neon idea and used highlighters.  They turned out cute! (Bad Blogger, Bad Blogger)

Click the picture to go to the Google Doc.

Inside, we put three folders, all labeled (with cute labels that I cannot seem to find an electronic copy of right now).  

• Each student had a red folder.  One side was labeled "Ready to Turn In" (see my post linked above for why) and the other said "Miscellaneous."  (New vocab word for some students on the very first day of school!)
• Each student had a blue folder for Language Arts.
• Each student had a black or yellow (their choice - because I couldn't find enough black ones) for social studies and science. (I alternate teaching these two, so students never need both)

What students kept in them:

• Front Pocket of Binder: Bathroom Pass, Daily Behavior Log
• Red Folder: Work ready to be turned in and work that didn't "fit" anywhere else
• Blue Folder: Any work in progress for Language Arts, especially Writing Workshop and Reading Workshop papers
• Black/Yellow Folder: Any work in progress for Social Studies or Science
• Back Pocket of Binder:  Any work that involved construction paper (you know how it's too big to fit in folders?  Well, it fits here!)

What I liked:

• Students' desks were more organized than last year, when they just had folders in their desk.
• Many kiddos felt like they were organizational super stars.  They bragged to other classes about them.

Needs to Be Improved:

• Wow, did some kiddos accumulate work/papers in there!  I tried having a whole class clean out every other week, but the kiddos who needed it the most didn't really pay attention.
• Some kiddos (those same ones) jammed paper in, so it wasn't organized, papers were crinkled, and it was just a MESS!
• The holes on almost every students' folders ripped during the year.  Major pain to deal with. (Cute story side note:  I had a about six students who at the beginning of the year were an academic mess - no organization, no effort, nada.  I worked with them and their parents very closely to get them on track.  All but one made huge progress.  When students were cleaning out their desks at the end of the year, I commented to one of the successful ones that I was amazed at the great condition of his NEON binder.  His response:  "Well, you know how at the beginning of the year ... well, I wasn't as good at being a good student and I never used my binder.  So really, it's only half a year used."  It made me smile to be reminded of how far he had come and that he knew it!)

The Verdict:

Better than the folders from the year before, but not everything I'm looking for.

Will I Do It Again?

Not the same way.  My teammates and I have already talked about having school-to-home binders this year, so NEON binders may still exist in my room, but their purpose will be different.  I blog about it more once the idea is more settled in our minds.

What have you tried?  Go link up with Fourth Grade Flipper and share!

My First Monday Made-It of Summer 2013

Today marks the start of my productive summer.  I've spent most of the time over the past three days watching movies (we went to see Man of Steel - I was SO bored for the second half of the movie), TV shows on Netflix (I'm a bit late to The Office), playing video games, reading blogs, and just generally being a bump on a log.

Well, no more!

Today starts my summer of:

• wedding planning
• exercising
• eating healthy
• working on school projects
• finally finishing setting up my apartment (almost two years into living here)

I did get started on the first of my Summer-To-Do-List for school - ORGANIZING MASTER COPIES.  That means I have something to link up to Tara's Monday Made-It!!!

The first step in making organization that you'll actually use is making something cute (or at least decently nice looking), right? 

 I have decided to use binders.  I'll go more into my reasons once this project is finished, and I can proudly present the final product.  Therefore, my first step was making covers and spine inserts for my binders.  Now, these aren't the cutest things in the world, but once they are printed on brightly colored paper and lined up in a neat row on my book case, I think they will look plenty pretty enough to make me happy.  I also made a page to put in the front of each binder that lists the standards covered in that binder and some of the bigger, overarching standards (especially those in Common Core).  I am really trying to focus on the standards rather than the curriculum, especially for the coming year with having to use our old curriculum to meet Common Core (plus, my team-mates and I found this year that the activities we come up with to meet the standards are almost always more fun for students than the curriculum's).

Here's the whole document - 71 pages!
Fonts: Oh {Photo} Shoot by Kevin and Amanda, Tekton Pro Bold, Tekton Pro BoldExt.Border :  From the Pond http://frompond.blogspot.com    

An example social studies binder - the front has the topic and the over -arching standard.
The next page is the full standard and the chapters in our textbook it relates to
(this will be the first thing in the binder) and the last page has Analysis Skills we
are supposed to teach all year long (it will be on the back of the standards page).
Social Studies and Science Binders have California State Standards.

An example for math.  I split these up by Common Core domain.
Down at the bottom of the last page are the 8 Mathematical Practices, just to keep them in my brain!
Math binders have California Common Core (so, Common Core plus CA's additions).

An example for Language Arts.  Again, the last page has the broader Common Core standards.
Language Arts binders have California Common Core

My Language Arts spine inserts.  I decided not to make them full
length because it is so hard to get a full length one in, am I right?!?!?

Would you like to use these?  

Click HERE to go to the PDF in Google Docs.  Click HERE to go to an editable Word Doc in Google Docs, so you can edit (though I'm not sure how well the formatting will transfer - make sure you have the fonts downloaded)!

Happy Monday!  

Summer Time and the Livin's Easy

Whew!  This has been a hectic seven months.  I can't believe it's been that long since I posted.  I bet most of you thought I was gone for good.

Now that the school year's over, I'm back.

Next year, I'll try blogging the whole year.  Wish me luck.

A quick recap of November - June (with more details likely to come in later posts):

1.  I got engaged!!!!!!  We aren't getting married until next summer, so I haven't started planning yet, but now that school is out, the planning is ON!

(nothing else on this list is going to come close to that level of exciting, at least to me, so hence the font size decrease)

2.  I successfully survived my second year of teaching, with me being the second most experienced with 4th grade on my team (and therefore having to step up to leadership roles) and having one team-member transferred mid-year (followed by a train of subs as they searched for a replacement).

3.  I finished BTSA.

4.  I didn't get a pink slip (hey, big deal for a second year teacher)

5.  I said good bye (making them promise to visit, of course) to an absolutely amazing group of kiddos. I think that this will be one of those groups that stands out as one of my favorites for my entire career. 

Now, for my summer plans ...

This year, I'm trying to keep my school summer to-do list shorter.  Last year, I was so overwhelmed by everything I wanted to do that I did very little of it.  That, and I have a wedding to plan! :)

• Organize master copies

• Make "I can" statement posters for all standards (especially Common Core Math and Language Arts, but also Social Studies and Science)

• Map out Language Arts (I meant to do this last summer.  It's even more important now that we are switching to Common Core this year)

• Make a Teacher Toolbox (yep, I didn't last summer)

I've seen SO many great ones.  This inspiration is from Mrs. Tina's Tots.

• Make a Copy, File, Laminate box (my take on the Copy, File, Grade box that's been all over lately)

Again, so many great ones.  This inspiration is from 4th Grade Frolics.

• Work on Social Studies Units (I completely re-did one social studies unit this school year, and the kids LOVED it.  They cheered for Social Studies time, rather than groaning.  WIN!)

• Make Behavior Chart colored clips

• Figure out how I'm going to organize myself next year (lesson plans, grading, student info, meeting notes, etc)

What's on your summer to-do list?  Any advice for any of mine?

Hello Again

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted.  Over a month since I've really read blogs either.

So, hello again, bloggy world!

I've been super busy and haven't really wanted to think about school when I got home.  Major drama going on at my school.

The super busy is not subsiding.  Report cards are due one week from today.  Yikes!

The drama is somewhat subsiding, so I'm not running to hide from anything education related.

What better way to step back into (hopefully) regular blogging than to link up with Tara for a Monday Made It (ignore that it is Friday, please)?

I posted this summer about some professional development books I read (Book Whisperer, Notebook Connections, Daily 5).    I have been integrating those with our curriculum (Treasures) to make my own Reading Workshop.  One part of it is our reading notebooks.

I feel like I'm getting really good at teaching those lessons.  One day I teach the comprehension strategy.  Students practice when they read.  The next day, I teach them how we write a response using that strategy by modeling it with a text we all know.  Then, they write a response, either on the same topic as our model, on the same book but focusing on a different part, or on their independent reading book.

Then, during Reading Workshop, they are supposed to write a response on any book using any of the strategies we have learned.

"We were supposed to remember how to do those?"

Well, yeah, I'd like them to, but if they've only done it once, I get that it'd be hard to remember.

Enter the Reading Response Strategy Binders.  There are two of these in our Work on Writing drawer for students to reference.

Instructions for setting up every entry.  Formatting matters, kiddos!

On the back of each instructions is a typed up copy of the one we wrote whole class when I taught it.

Do you want a copy of my oh-so-pretty (if I do say so myself ... I'm rather proud of these) pages?  Well, here they are!  I already need to add more strategies so check back soon for an updated version!

Happy Veteran's Day Weekend!

Posting Student Work - We're So Proud Board

I got this idea last year when we did a veteran teacher observation for BTSA.  I love it, the kids love it, and most teachers love it when they come into my room.

It's my We're So Proud Board:

The blurry parts are, of course, their names.
After many, many tries at fitting all 32 students' work here, this is the most space saving configuration boyfriend and I could come up with.

Every other Thursday, I make sure I (or our aide) has sorted all of their work (everything from homework to graded tests) in their mailboxes:

I know there aren't papers in their here, but it's the only pic I have of it!

They take their pile of papers to their desk and look through them.  It's the first time they've seen any of the grades, so they spend some time seeing what they got right and wrong and just generally reviewing their work.

Next, they choose one piece they are most proud of.  We have a list of reasons you might be proud that the kiddos came up with, including things like a good grade, doing better than normal in a subject, doing well on something that was really challenging, trying really hard, doing neater work than normal, etc.

Then, they fill out a "Smiley Slip" (that's those yellow papers you see in the corner of each).  They staple it to wherever they want on their paper and turn it in for me to put up.

I use the black and white version on yellow paper.

Click on either image for the google doc of both color and b/w!

Last, they return all of their papers to their mailbox to be filed later.  After our conferences in November, they will take most of this work home each time we do "We're So Proud" instead of putting it in their mailboxes, but I like to save everything until conferences!

How do you display student work?  How often do you change it out?

Currently and Writing Wednesday (err... Thursday with Freebies for you!)

First up, Currently:

Thanks, Farley, for hosting!

Okay, okay, so I know The Witches isn't really all that seasonal ... actually, no I don't know, as I still need to read it!  But, it is what I am most excited about right now.  One of my awesome teammates has a unit she does every year in October with The Witches.  My kiddos ordered enough Scholastic books with our last book order that I was able to get a class set of The Witches, so our two classes are going to read them at the same time this year and of course I'll be using her unit.  I am ridiculously excited!

And now, Writing Wednesday on a Thursday (don't you hate forgetting your camera at school?!?!?)

With our district narrative writing assessment window starting NEXT week and of course a million things trying to butt their way into our writing time, I'm having a hard time getting through all of the pieces of a narrative before testing them.  Never mind revising and publishing.  That's going to have to come after the district test!

So far this year, we had been brainstorming and writing "shots" (see post here and here, respectively) on whatever students felt like that day.  Many had worked on pieces of upwards of 10 stories!  But now that we want to be published in the next two and a half weeks, I wanted the kiddos to start focusing on one story.  We made this checklist of questions to help choose a great story for them to write:

After we had all chosen a story, we talked about what drafting actually is:

Next, we identified the problem and solution.  We talked A BUNCH about how problems don't have to be bad and how solutions don't always have to be happy and took some notes on that:

 

Each student brainstormed and wrote on a sticky note a solution to the problem of an alien landing in your campsite.  They LOVED it.  Many were not school appropriate (too violent), but some were super creative!

Then, we got back to work on our stories.  Once we figured out the problem and some possible endings, students worked together to choose a solution that fit the problem.

Click here for the worksheet!

And finally, we got to leads.  I "read" two leads - one from a Magic Treehouse book and one I said was from a rough draft of mine (I'm going to tell you about my airplane ride.  Great, right?).  Almost all of the kiddos seemed to get why the Magic Treehouse one was better.  Then, I gave them notes (it would have been WAY WAY WAY too much writing notes) and we glued them like so into our notebooks. We read over the notes, wrote an example for each, and outlawed some annoying  uninteresting "leads" (Hi, my name is _____ and I'm going to tell you about ____ is one of my biggest pet peeves!)  Last, the kiddos read the leads in their independent reading books and we talked about what made those interesting.

Click here for the notes. Fonts from dafont.com

And finally, today, we wrote leads!

Happy October!