Props!

One thing that I've done with every class I've taught is write cards to each student. I call them "Props."

I bought these cards from Target. Each day I write a card for one student from each class. I have five classes, so I write five cards each day.

The cards are addressed to the student and their family. Inside is a personalized "prop" highlighting exceptional behavior or work I've seen in class.

The kids are quick to remind me if I forget to give out "props." They have fun guessing who will receive it, and everyone claps when I finally say the name.

I really like writing "props!" It's an easy way to help foster a positive classroom environment. 

Boggle

I love following other educators via blogs, Twitter, Linked In, and Pinterest. You can find so many amazing ideas!

I got the idea for a classroom Boggle Board from this blog: http://mrsrojasteaches.blogspot.com/2011/08/boggle-board-w-printable.html

Here's how mine looks:

Every week I create a new Boggle Board. I will either use student names or theme words, and then fill in the remaining boxes with random letters. This week I put in the word "Spring" because it has been so nice out!

I set a different amount of words they need to find each week. This week was 15 words. When they show me their list, they can get a piece of candy.

The kids LOVE playing Boggle. If I don't put it up right away, my class borders on mutiny. It's definitely a fun edition for the classroom. 

No Red Ink=No more boring grammar!

Today I am going to review a website that has changed the way I teach grammar. It's called No Red Ink.

No Red Ink

No Red Ink allows the students to complete an interest survey ranging from their favorite TV shows, musicians, and even their own friends and pets. Then whenever they work on an assignment or quiz, the sentences are customized to address their interests. The kids LOVE doing grammar practice now; it's crazy!

The interest survey

A sample question

Besides being engaging and funny, the site is also:

• Easy to use
• Allows me to assess a variety of grammar skills
• Allows me to differentiate instruction
• Allows me to easily monitor progress and provide remedial practice for those who need it
• Allows me to track data
• Saves me time-the site creates and grades the activities and quizzes, and creates a heat map to show progress and mastery 
• Motivating for students-they can track their progress and practice extra skills 

No Red Ink is FREE, and next fall there will be a premium version. I have nothing but great things to say about this site! 

Norms

My school just started a new semester last week, which means I have brand new students. I feel incredibly lucky; my students and groups are absolutely fantastic! Even though I've only been teaching them for a few days, I can tell we're going to have an excellent semester.

One of the activities I do with students at the beginning of the semester is have them create norms. Norms are agreed upon behaviors. We use that terms in our collaborative teaching teams, so I decided to use the same vocabulary with my students.

The first step of the activity is to have the students brainstorm norms for themselves. How do they want their class to act? What behaviors do they want to see? What behaviors do they NOT want to see? The students brainstormed in small groups, or independently, then we created a class brainstorm. Here's what they came up for their norms:

One aspect that makes this activity unique is that the students don't just create norms for themselves; they also create norms for me! I explained that I believed how a teacher acts directly influences the classroom climate. I had them brainstorm ideas for class activities, qualities of good teachers, and qualities of bad teachers. They were pretty surprised at the thought of making norms for me, but they came up with lots of ideas.

Tomorrow I'm going to share the finished lists with the students. We will refer to them for the rest of the semester. 

Awesome Journals!

Confession: ever since I was young, I've been OBSESSED with journals. I love them.

However, I had this awful habit of buying journals, and then never writing in them. I have always been hard on myself to be perfect. When I saw a blank journal, my excitement would quickly be replaced by the fear that I would never be able to fill one up with anything worthwhile.

As I mentioned in my first post, I have been re-inspired as a writing teacher and a personal writer to embrace the joy and thrill of writing. I am attempting to let go of my past hang-ups and just get back into writing.

To do that, I bought a TON of different journals. I wanted to try out many different formats, and incorporate the ones I liked best in my classroom.

The one I've started and will definitely be using with my middle school students is The Pocket Scavenger by Keri Smith.

This book is soooo much fun!! It's a scavenger hunt. Each page has a different item to locate. Then you write a story to go with the item.

However, you're not done yet! For the final step, you flip the book upside down, close your eyes, and pick a random page. On the red strip is an instruction about how to alter your item.

Each time you write, it will turn out differently! I've really enjoyed writing in mine so far. I am buying a copy for each of my five classes. I teach at an E-STEM school, so this book is a perfect way to integrate E-STEM concepts into writing.

I also bought many other journals. I am addicted...and I'm not ashamed. I can't wait to start these other ones!

A New Adventure! :)

I used to keep a blog. I started in my second year of teaching. A couple of my other teacher friends were blogging as well, and I enjoyed the experience. However, I dropped the ball and stopped blogging.

I didn't think about blogging again until almost two years later. I was at the TIES 2013 Education Technology Conference with some other teachers from my school. I attended a breakout session titled, "TIES-To Be or Note to Be a Techie Teacher." The presenter was a Language Arts teacher, and she shared numerous techie tools, websites, apps, resources, and ideas. She also mentioned blogging.

During her presentation, I found myself feeling inspired and excited about teaching writing, and writing myself. I always LOVED to write, but I had stopped. Honestly, I feel a big part of it is because I put all this pressure on myself when I wrote. I ended up feeling paralyzed and stopped attempting it.

However, when I was in that session, I remembered how exciting and FUN it could be to write! I want my kids to feel that way about writing, and I want to model that authentically in my classroom.

This is the start of a new adventure for me, professionally and personally. My goals are:

1. Write daily.
2. Blog regularly.
3. Find other teachers to follow and collaborate with via blogging.
4. Have fun and embrace the excitement and joy that comes from writing. :)

If you are interested in checking out the presenter's blog, her address is http://writeonwallace.blogspot.com/.