A little time off

Well. I have my low group back. At the last minute I was given the green light to work with my low performing kids everyday. I am so thankful for this opportunity. Some pretty cool things happened when we switched classes. A few kids got wind that something was changing. So they switched themselves without asking. A few kids stayed in my class because they wanted to. Then some stuck themselves with the other teacher because they wanted to. It was priceless. We gave a few students a choice. Who will teach you better? Some students need rigid structure. That is not my style. Some students need a flexible environment to work at their own pace. That is my style. I have gifted kids as well as low performing kids. Although I only had them two days this week (due to the flooding) I have already had a glimpse of this working. Having the same group of kids everyday for 110 minutes. Teaching them both History and ELA. I have come to realize that there are two things that are important for these kids to perform well on these stupid state tests: vocabulary and reading comprehension. I am going to focus 80% of my lessons on those two things. Let me give you an example of how I used the IPADS to make this work. We have a website that we work on called "Edmodo". It is like a Facebook for school. I put all sorts of things on there including PDF files so kids can download whatever it is that we are working on. We are reading "The Ransom of Red Chief" by O.Henry. As I was reading the story out loud I realized that they have no idea what O.Henry is referring to in the story. (These are 5th-7th graders) How can they comprehend a story and have no picture in their head. The story is just a jumble of words. Things such as; maypole, buggy, bloodhound, and red haired freckle face boy, and a summit. This is all in the first page. Not to mention they probably cannot even picture the time period. So, as I read the story I told them to find pictures online of these things and post them on our Edmodo page. It helps them to see what the story is saying by use of visual images. These kids were brought up on visual stimulation. I think this will be very helpful. I also think that articles from Readers Digest will be helpful. They are short, clean, and easy reads. Yet, they have ideas that can be allowed for further discussion and keep kids relevant on current issues. I then created a dice game on Social Studies vocabulary and made it a competition. This went over real well. These kids LOVE dice. I bought a few inflatable globes and threw these around the class while they were playing the dice game. They all have short attention spans. I am giving in to those attention spans and working with them rather than fighting them. If I can help them use that natural ability to do 5 things at once, maybe that will help them in the long run. Teaching them to sit still and be quiet all the time is fighting their nature. How miserable. I have found a website called teacherspayteachers.com. I bought a few downloadable lessons and a set of 5 reading discussion cue cards. It is so cool. A teacher in Kansas made discussion cue cards for me laminated them and sent them in the mail. I paid her 35 bucks with shipping. What an awesome idea. Instead of paying companies, I pay people like me. One day I can do the same. I also ordered a book called "Teaching Outside of the Box" by LouAnne Johnson. I have not read very far into it, but it is inspiring me already. She wrote the book that inspired the movie Dangerous Minds. Her teaching philosophy is a lot like mine. Helps me to not feel so insecure about the amount of flexibility I give my children.

2 days till lift off!!!!!

Monday I am back at it. Flexibility already tested. I am not getting my low level kids everyday. The powers that be suggested that this would not be a good idea. I will probably never the know the reason why. So. I will have my low level kid for only Social Studies. I will have my middle of the road kids for English. We follow an A/B schedule. Meaning one day I see my English kids and the next day I see my Social Studies kids. Rotating schedule. I also heard a rumor we may not get our IPADs. I have been working on lesson plans everyday for about 3 hours. I communicate with another teacher via phone, text, email. We are meeting at the school tomorrow to make copies and support each other. I ordered 5 plastic inflatable globes from Amazon. My students really don't know where the continents are and my 3 year old nephew does (why is that?). I have been typing up plans and ideas. I send them to my principal and fellow teachers. Checking and rechecking. This is the OCD part. I can't stop thinking about school. Relaxation is not an option. If I am not working right now I feel like I am wasting precious time. I am branching out for ideas. I posted my GLE's on Facebook. GLE's are Grade Level Expectations. What I am focusing on with my kids. I have been getting feedback and support from Facebook. I have to research the topics I am teaching and think: How am I gonna get this in their brain? How is it gonna stay there? Will it be fun? Can they apply it and show me they really know it? The nerdy part of me loves to research all the topics. I am so nervous. I am wanting this semester to be easier than last semester.

Teacher Supplies

Be creative. I cannot tell you how many times this school year I have been told to be creative when the internet was down. I am super creative. So creative sometimes that it hurts to cram all that creativity in one brain. I have to write things down constantly. Ideas come into my head at the most inconvenient times, too. As I am falling asleep or driving on the interstate. I am a pack rat. I see an empty box of granola bars and I try to think of what I can use the box for. I collect jars, old keys, pizza boxes,loose fabric scraps, broken plates,old newspapers, magazines, etc. There can be an opportunity to use anything. Most recently, I bought new sheets and kept the plastic bags they come in. They are square and have a zipper! Perfect for holding group craft supplies. I would like to emphasize this next sentence. TEACHERS SPEND THEIR OWN MONEY ON THEIR CLASSROOMS. I try to inform everyone about this. We can only claim 250 bucks on our taxes. I am going to try to itemize my expenses this year. I am well over the 1,000 dollar mark. On December 31st I spent some money on my classroom. Mainly organizing materials and games for early finishers. Here is that list for inquiring minds: A few books from Amazon, lesson plans from teacherspayteachers.com, 2 big buckets, 2 medium size baskets, 2 tupperware organizing containers, 6 small covered containers, 1 game of checkers, 1 pack of sharpies, 5 sticky tack packs, 2 100 piece puzzles, 1 box of markers, 1 ruler, 1 pack of division flashcards, 1 pack of multiplication flashcards,1 pack of memory flashcards, UNO game, Dominoes, 50 beverage stirrers, 1 pack of construction paper, 10 huge poster boards, and 18 small poster boards. All of these things will be destroyed in the next couple on months. These things are torn apart by kids very fast. Without them, those 18,000 minutes would go less smooth.