Summer Homework that is Worth Doing

The Classroom Clique, a group of really amazing teachers, is celebrating teachers this week with a blog hop filled with freebies, amazing prizes, and tips that are sure to make your year end well!  Make sure to stop by each blog in the hop, gather the key word, combine them to make a sentence (the words go in order), and download the freebies (and leave feedback to earn TPT credits for the site-wide sale!).

In a comprehensive analysis published by the RAND Corporation, McCombs and colleagues (2011) note that elementary students’ performance falls by about a month during the summer, but the decline is far worse for lower-income students. Most disturbing, it appears that summer learning loss is cumulative and that, over time, these periods of differential learning rates between low-income and higher-income students contribute substantially to the achievement gap. These researchers concluded that efforts to close the achievement gap during the school year alone may be unsuccessful. “Slowing the Summer Slide” by ASCD

Summer slide is REAL!  So the question is, how do you get students to actually study over the summer? I have worked in schools where they give hefty packets of worksheets to complete over the summer and offer a pencil or some other incentive that usually does not motive them to do the work.  What I have seen over the years is that these packets generally end up in the trash, are partially completed, and frankly, just waste a bunch of  resources. Motivation is key here and I know I wouldn’t be interested in completing a packet of work over the summer!  Giving students ideas of things they can do over the summer that incorporate skills they have learned during the year, can be done with friends, and gets them moving is what will help keep kids learning over the summer and help reduce the need for remediation the first few months of school.

I have created an example of this for fourth through sixth graders.  The idea is to give kids choice, the thumbs up to use technology, incorporate play, and make learning fun!  I have selected three big themes that are each a week long and incorporate reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. Some kids have jam packed schedules during the summer, while others are more laid back.  Whether your students are travelers or not, this is a great way to help them dream big, apply skills learned in a real-world way, avoid the dreaded “I’m B-O-R-E-D!”statement, and have a lot of fun.   They can all be extended to go more in depth, but this is a great launch into this kind of thinking and I highly encourage your students to find one and expand on this idea!  Click here to get it for free.  Don’t forget to leave feedback to earn credits towards the big TPT site wide sale for Teacher Appreciation Week this week.

The last few weeks of school are often the hardest.  You have report cards, student placement cards, RTI wrap-up, packing your room, testing, parties, performances, promotion ceremonies, and the list seems to go on an on.  I get it.  So, here are some tried and true tips on how to wrap up the year without having to increase your blood pressure meds!

1. Take a deep breath and know that this too shall pass.  Summer will come and you will be just fine!
2. Delegate, delegate, delegate.  You know those students who have been asking you what they can do all year long to help.  Well take them up on it.  Kids LOVE to help!  But I warn you on this.  Choose wisely or you will make more work for yourself.  Don’t just pick kids that are willing to help, but choose ones that are willing to do what it takes to get the job done correctly the first time.
3. Once you have those student helpers, make a to-do list on the white board in the morning.  Assign a student or two each task and mark when it needs to be done by.  They can work on that when they finish their work, at recess, or if they are at school early in the morning.
4. When students are working on fun, end of the year activities like memory books, get some work done!  Use every minute you have to get something done, so you aren’t there until 8 pm every day.  Don’t feel guilty. You have worked hard and those kids have worked hard and deserve some structured time to themselves.

Because we think teachers are amazing people, we thought we would give away three really great prizes that every teacher will LOVE!

Gift cards for:

• $50 to Teachers Pay Teachers
• $30 to Target
• $15 to Starbucks

Now write down this word and hop over to the next blog. Keep track of all of these key words so that you can enter to win the prizes above!

Click on the picture below to get to the next blog.

After you complete the blog hop and gather all the key phrases, click the Rafflecopter link (below) on any of the blogs in this hop and enter the key word sentence to be entered in the raffle of these prizes.

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May newsletter emailed yesterday!

Check your inbox, promotions tab, and spam folders for an email from hookstersideas@gmail.com, in fact add that to your contacts so that you don’t miss a thing!  Topics covered this month: end of the year wrap up, The Classroom Clique Teacher Appreciation Week celebration, and a freebie for moms of toddlers.  If you have been following me on Instagram, you won’t want to miss this email!  If you want this freebie and aren’t a newsletter subscriber, sign up for my newsletter and you will still get it! 🙂

Free in May’s newsletter! For my Instagram followers who signed up for my newsletter, make sure you check your promotions and spam folder for this awesome freebie!

April $75 TPT Gift Card Giveaway

Who has “summeritis”???  Spring is here and no one wants to plan when the weather is so nice (I’m sorry east coast…it is sunny and 75° here in Seal Beach).  I get it.  All the more reason you should enter An Apple for the Teacher‘s April TPT gift card giveaway!  Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter.  Then use that gift card to help you plan the rest of the year!  Best of luck to you!  Entries accepted April 6-13th.

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Like It or Not, Testing Season is Here…

The dreaded T.E.S.T. is rapidly approaching. Boo I know, but like it or not, you and your students will make it through this awful time.  I wanted to share with you a couple of things I have done in the past that makes this time of the year a little more manageable and enjoyable.

Before Testing

One of the best things I have done before testing season is having parents make motivational posters to display.  Send home a quick note outlining what you are looking for and a piece of construction paper/butcher paper/poster board or have them get the paper themselves.  The key is this note needs to be top secret so that your students are surprised and from my experience, if you give them the paper, you are more likely to get it back!  Make sure to include some parameters and any specific rules you have for the posters.  It is REALLY awesome if you can get your whole school on-board with this idea because then you can have these posters hanging ALL over the school! You can use the posters to cover anchor charts, student work, or anything that can’t be displayed during the test.  If you aren’t allowed to have anything up during testing, you can display them in the halls.  The parents are always very creative and the students LOVE seeing that their parents believe in them and want them to try their best.  Click here for a freebie, editable note to send home to parents to get them started.  You may want to send this home at conference time, with report cards, or in a sealed envelope to keep wandering eyes out!

***While most parents get really into this project, there will always be a few who don’t submit their posters.  My suggestion is to have them due a  week prior to the start of testing so you have time to make a poster for those that didn’t get one from their parents.  You don’t want anyone feeling left out or unloved!  Here are some examples of ones that I have made for my student in this situation.  Just think of it as a therapeutic exercise for you…everyone loves to color!

It is always a good idea to set the due date for parent posters a week before you need them because inevitably, a few students will not have one and that allows for you to find your creative zen and make one for them. Here are a few of mine.

During Testing

Actively monitoring your students can be one of the most boring, frustrating, tasks you must endure as a teaching.  I wear a Fitbit to track my daily steps and my typical step count during a normal teaching day is around 5,000.  On testing days, it isn’t uncommon for me to get my 10,000 steps without even leaving the classroom. That’s 5 miles folks!  Walked around my kids desks.  It is good to get the extra steps, but when you can’t talk for multiple hours on end, this can be torture to teachers and you aren’t even taking the test!  Students are equally tortured; they are required to sit for cruel amounts of time, reading the same boring text, possibly becoming frustrated, discouraged, and just plain tired!  My suggestion during testing, when you get a break, is to give your brain a break.  Play rock, paper, scissors rally which gets kids out of their seat, having fun, and cheering each other on.  Here is how you play:

Give your students (and yourself!) a break during state testing by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors Rally, which is a whole class version of the traditional two person game! So fun! Hint: Even adults have fun with this so give it a whirl at your next staff meeting to lighten the mood!

After Testing

I have never understood why students don’t have a half day on testing days (The testing administrator in me says, “I know, I know…make-up tests!”).  Nevertheless, you have to figure out something to do with these kids that is academically based and preferably out of their seats.  My answer to this has always been project-based learning!!!!  Depending on what you are studying at that time, I have done things like team science stations (including making balloon-powered cars and having a race), state reports (earlier in the year, have students write letters to each state and they will get a huge packet of information from their tourism department that they can use as part of their research).  Additionally, do dramatic readings or reader’s theaters are great…better yet, have them team write their own script and then act it out.  Anything where they can use technology to research has always been a hit.  Or, if you teach 5th grade and your students are promoting to middle school, you can have them all write promotion speeches, practice, and recite them in front of the class and then choose one or two that will actually says their speech at the promotion ceremony.

How do you make testing season more fun???

Before You Do Anything Crazy, Read On!

Bad behavior can kill your Pinterest perfect lesson in no time.  I know you have spent countless hours lesson planning only to have your lesson ruined by Little Expletive (insert name of disruptive student).  It is now March and you are either on Spring Break or will be next week and you are ready to wrangle Little ______ if he does _______ one more time. Before you do something CRAZY, read on!  I can help!

A little background you may not know about me.  My first three years teaching were in a 5th grade classroom in a bungalow in Compton.  Enough said.  My next two years in Los Angeles. The next year as an Intervention Specialist implementing Behavior RTI for the first time.  My toughest year and a half was in downtown Phoenix and parents were my challenge in a more affluent Dallas.  I have seen it ALL and nothing surprises me when it comes to behavior of staff and students any more!  I have been given crazy advice, like my mentor teacher telling me that I should lay on the ground with my feet up in the air (think dead cockroach), kicking my legs and waving my arms all while screaming as a way to get my unruly class’ attention.  I have also been given amazing advice, like narrating positive behaviors to correct the negative behavior a student is displaying (highly effective).

While in Phoenix, I worked with an amazing SPED co-teacher and we developed a system that would help my most challenging students (both behavior and as a result of their behavior, their academics suffered too).  Over the years, I have tweaked and modified it to work with any population and make it more user friendly.

Weekly behavior charts and progress monitoring for behavior of the most challenging students.

Establish No More Than 5 Behavior Goals

If you have an RTI (Response to Intervention) team, this would be a great place to start.  If you are going at this solo, I highly recommend you reach out to a colleague that you admire the way he/she manages behavior and get some input.  Brainstorm the top 5 behaviors you wish Little _____ would change or do differently.  Then determine if you want the behavior goal be meet daily (more severe) or weekly (less severe).

Determine Motivation

Sit down with the child and discuss the target behaviors you came up with.  Then determine what motivates this child.  Is spending time with you or another special person? Is it listening to their iPod during independent work?  What makes this person tick?  There are several surveys you can give to help with determining motivation if you are stuck.  This motivation is what will help you and the student choose a reward when they meet the goal.  Here are some great resources for a reward system.  Another thing that I found to be very motivating was having students get to choose a friend that would also get to do the reward with them.  That way other students in the class could help motivate this child instead of being annoyed by them.

Consistency

Once you have your reward in place and your behaviors identified and discussed with student (and parent), you are ready to start using the behavior charts.  The key with anything that creates change, is consistency.  It is critical that you and any teacher the student goes to follows through with the plan. This means that you need to mark this child’s chart after every block of time outlined on the chart (this varies by what the child can do and still be successful…some students can be successful after 2o minutes, others it is more or less time).  It is A LOT of work for the teacher initially, but it becomes more automatic the longer you use these charts.  At one point, I had three students on different behavior charts that required check-in every 20 minutes.  Yikes!  I made my students responsible for asking me to sign their chart because I would forget.  I told them, that they needed the points and it was their responsibility to ask me and I gave them a non-verbal signal (writing with an imaginary pen in the air) to cue me to come over and mark their chart.  I also initial my mark so that I know which ones I marked and which ones they marked (see below).

Tally Up and Reward

At the end of the day or week (depending on the chart format you are using), I would have the student tally the points and determine their score for the day/week.  I usually didn’t have time at the end of the day to do this, so I would have students tally and check-out with me on the way to the bus or dismissal.  If they earned their goal, they would get their reward first thing in the morning.  I made it so they didn’t even have to ask me.  They would just do what ever their pre-determined reward was (usually with a friend).

Daily Behavior Charts and Progress Monitoring Graphs for your most challenging behaviors.

 You may be interested in the forms pictured and discussed above.  You can find them here:

EDITABLE Daily and Weekly Behavior Charts

How do you handle Little _______?

Student Led Conferences: Primary vs. Upper Elementary

There is no way a five year old can effectively lead a parent teacher conference.  Or is there a way?  It may be easier to imagine a fifth grader leading their parents through their strengths and areas for growth than it is a five year old, but it is completely possible and something you should definitely give a try!  Let me explain some subtle and not so subtle differences between Student Led Conferences (SLCs) in the primary and upper elementary levels.

PLAN and COLLECT

There is no getting around it.  Planning is essential to helping students succeed during their conference.  They need to know what specifically they are good at and what they can improve on.   This requires more guidance and structure for younger students and should probably be done in a small group or individual conference.  Checklists are helpful at the primary level and portfolio analysis is necessary with older students.

Checklists help primary students identify strengths and areas for improvement so they can effectively tell their parents how they are doing in school.

Upper Elementary students benefit from reviewing their portfolios and choosing work samples that highlight their strengths and areas for improvement.

PRACTICE

Role playing with both the younger and older kiddos is so very important.  Many students may have never had a conversation like a conference with a parent before and so they will have a mix of emotions.  They may feel anxious, nervous, shy, scared, etc. because they don’t know how their parents will react to what they are saying.  By practicing what they will say, giving them sentence starters, and a guide to what they will do during their conference will help them with the unknown a little.  With the itty bittys you will probably need to practice this way more than with the older students.

Primary student SLC booklet

Inside Primary student SLC booklet

Upper Elementary SLC student booklet

Upper Elementary SLC student booklet

If you choose to have a student booklet that will walk the students through what you want them to do and discuss, I highly recommend making it like a scavenger hunt (see above) where students use a stamp to mark what they have completed.  This approach has students of all ages showing parents quick tasks that they have mastered or work samples that show their ability.  I recommend using centers they know well.  In my primary edition, I include the following centers that you may wish to use.

Organize, Sort, Count Center for Kinder

Roll, Write, Compare, Chomp! for Kinder

Reading & Writing Center for any grade.

Reading & Writing Center for any grade.

SIT BACK AND WATCH THE MAGIC UNFOLD!

Once you have planned and practiced, it is time to let the headache that parent conferences usually is walk out the door.  Once your SLCs begin, make sure to monitor the conversations, but bit your tongue from interjecting too much.  I usually try to stand in earshot, eavesdropping, so I’m not making myself a part of the conversation.

You can find the following two products in my store here:

EDITABLE Student Led Conferences (SLC) Starter Pack (Featured in the March 6, 2016 TPT newsletter!)

EDITABLE Kindergarten Student Led Conferences (SLC) Starter Pack (can be adapted for K-2)

Have you used SLCs?  What grade and tips for success do you have?

 

Writing Tips For the Reluctant Writing Teacher

Writing is arguably the hardest thing to teach.  For me this is partly because I have never considered myself a stellar writer, but also because there are so many different approaches and styles and a lot depends on the writer’s personality.  Additionally, it seems that writing has never had the emphasis that reading and math have had (unless you teach a tested grade), so if something has to get squeezed out, it may well be writing.

It is amazing how much a fellow teacher can influence you and how you teach when they are passionate about something.  One of my partner teachers is passionate about writing and getting students to love it as much as her.  After many conversations about how she teaches writing, and reading several books that she recommended, I have become a better writing teacher.  The following are some tips I learned and resources I have found that are beneficial if you are like me and dread teaching writing!

Tip # 1 Make Time for Writing Instruction EVERY SINGLE DAY!

When I was in the classroom, I found it hard to find the time to actually teaching writing.  We wrote across the subjects in an effort to squeeze it in when possible, but what I learned is that my students actually became better writers when I actually taught them skills and strategies that would help them become better writers.  Go figure! 🙂 I usually could only manage consistently 20-30 minutes a day for four days a week.

Tip #2 Write in FRONT of your students.

This may sound silly, but modelling what you expect can go along way!  I always thought students would copy my style and I didn’t want that.  However, what I have learned is that some students (usually the limited proficient students) would copy my style, but it was a lot fewer than I thought.  Students benefit from hearing you think aloud and go through the writing process.  Keep a writing notebook, similar to theirs so that you can model what is expected.

Tip #3 Use MENTOR TEXTS and Anchor Charts.

Find a great book, article, letter in the genre that you are teaching and pick it apart based on how the author wrote it.  Look at texts from a different perspective than when reading for comprehension.  For example, if you are teaching students how to write strong beginnings, find several examples of books that have strong beginnings to share just that first paragraph with them.  Then create anchor charts that document these different strategies so students can reference them when they begin writing.

Tip #4 Read, read, read!

Read aloud, ALL the time , to your students regardless of their age.  My fifth graders learned to love to read because I loved to read and that passion is clear when I read aloud.  It is important to read aloud a variety of types of texts and when reading, pause and think like the author of the text.

Tip #5 Follow a workshop model for writing.

With my limited time to teach writing, my lessons often carried over from the previous day.  With that said, I usually always followed this model:

1. Model the strategy and create the anchor chart with students based on mentor texts.
2. Students have a chunk of time to write, independently, in quiet (or with classical music playing).
3. Author’s chair.

Students need time to practice the strategy that they just learned.  Then they also need to share with their peers what they have come up with.  As I walk around the room, I read over their shoulders.  I make a little mark on their page if they are sharing what they wrote that day.  That way I can screen which students share so I get a variety of different strategies.  Some times, they don’t have time to finish their thoughts and so it becomes homework to finish their writing, but regardless, I still have them share if I think they are off to a great start.

Two resources that will help you in your writing endeavors are:

• Portland Public Schools K-5 Writing Binder:  They have an amazing collection of writing units for K-5 based on the Common Core genres.  Find them here. 
• Ralph Fletcher Craft Lessons:  He has two books that I have found EXTREMELY helpful in teaching the craft of writing (not the nitty gritty grammar, conventions, etc.).  The first is for fictional  writing and the second is for nonfiction             

What writing resources do you find very useful?  Comment below!

New Year’s Resolutions

Join us as The Classroom Clique shares their New Year’s Resolutions!  This year is a little different for me because typically at this time of the year, I am frantically thinking about how I can do things differently (read: BETTER) in my classroom, but because I now only have a classroom of one, Jackson (soon to be one), my priorities and goals have also changed.

Since I no longer have an income, I have really set some strict goals for myself when it comes to my store.  Here are my top three:

• Develop and create at least 3 new products that are timely, thorough, and most importantly useful each month.  This means that I will have at least doubled my store’s inventory!
• Now that I have an awesome new logo, thanks to Kristen at Chalk & Apples, I need to update all product covers so that they are reflective of what you get when you buy them! They pretty much stink right now!
• I will continue to revamp my new blog design and regularly post relevant teaching and coaching tips here.

I really feel like I have no excuse to not be in the best shape of my life and frankly I am in the worst!  After having Jackson, I lost a ton of weight during the first three months (I actually got to pre-baby weight) mainly due to stress since baby J was quite sick and was still in the hospital.  Once he came home and things gradually became more like they were, just now with a baby, and he continued to become stronger and healthier, I gradually gained all that weight back.  I was within 6 pounds of my goal weight, but now am back up to about 18 pounds. Ugh.  Things have recently been further complicated because Jackson is now eating solid food and will eat way more if I eat with him, so in an effort to plump him up, I am also getting fatter! Double ugh! I was given some Christmas money and am looking on Craigslist for a jogging stroller, so I can ditch the baby fluff by my birthday in July.

Get a house.  After moving back to Southern California this summer from Dallas, my husband and I were shocked to see how expensive it is here for housing.  We were away for a little over 3 years and prices seem to be back to what they were right before the housing bubble burst and everything went south for real estate!  With that said, I boomeranged back home and brought with me my husband and baby!  Yikes!  My mom and stepdad are amazing, but I am sure they want their quiet house back!!! 🙂

During the duration of this blog hop (Friday, Jan. 9, 2016-Monday, Jan. 11, 2016), I will be giving away my How to Write and Reach Your 2016 Goals for FREE!  Happy New Year and I hope that this year is the best one yet for you and yours!

Check out what other goals The Classroom Clique has for this year by clicking below!

An InLinkzLink-up

January’s $75 TPT Gift Card Contest

Who couldn’t use $75 to spend at Teachers Pay Teachers??!!  I have partnered with An Apple for the Teacher some other very talented teachers to help you ring in the new year with some money in your pocket!  Click here to enter the contest!  The contest runs from TODAY, January 6, 2016 to January 13th and the winner will be announced on January 14th, 2016.

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This is a monthly contest so make sure to enter each month on the 6th for your chance at a TPT gift card!

 

How to WRITE and REACH your 2016 goals

As the confetti settles and we face the bitter fact that winter break is coming to an end and we can’t binge on Netflix all day, most of us start reflecting on the prior year and how we can change for the better for the new year ahead.

Making new year’s resolutions is common place, but this usually translates into lofty, unrealistic ideas that we would love to accomplish, but usually by the first week of the new year have gone out the window!  Instead of setting resolutions, I try to focus on realistic goals for myself, my class (when I’m teaching), and my business.

Winter break is a natural stopping point, just like the beginning of the year, so why not reflect on the goals set at the beginning of the year and set new ones for the year to come.  I set deadlines to meet these goals and have checkpoints throughout that period of time to make sure that I am in fact on my way to meeting that goal.

I recommend that you go through this process yourself before trying to teach your kiddos to do this.  Then you will have an example to show and hold them accountable too.  Below is the process that I follow to set goals for myself.

Step 1: Categorize and Prioritize

I have so many things that I want to do and do better  than I did before, but keeping in the mindset of REALISTIC I have to narrow that list down and categorize.  I start with big broad categories like work or school.

Step 2: Narrow Broad Categories to Specific Goals

Then I narrow down those broad categories into more specific topics and goals within those topics.

Step 3: Rewrite Specific Goals as S.M.A.R.T. Goals

I make sure these questions are answered in my rewritten goal.

• Specific: What specifically do you want to accomplish?
• Measurable: How will you know if you accomplished it?
• Achievable: How can the goal be achieved?
• Relevant: Is this important now?
• Time-bound: When will your goal be met? When will you monitor your progress towards this goal?

Step 4: Map It Out on a Calendar

Finally, I make a plan to reach these goals by determining when I will start working towards these goals and how long it will take, realistically, to reach this goal and set an end date.  Then I will add to the calendar dates that I will check in with myself by rereading these goals and reflect on what I need to do to continue on the path of reaching this goal.  Grab these goal planning pages for your students and yourself here.

How do you establish and reach your yearly goals?