If you have an extra-chatty class, check out this post with tips for how to get your students to stop talking in just one week!
After 19 years in the classroom, I‘ve picked up a few tricks that have saved me from hours reinventing the wheel year after year. The best thing I ever did for myself was complete some upfront work that led to years of little to no prep and planning! Here are my top three work smarter, not harder tips for easy lesson planning: 1. Save and store reusable worksheets and task cards. Classrooms don't have a lot of storage space, but keeping photocopies of the materials your students will use year af
From the moment students step through your door, you begin to build that sense of community together. It’s important to start working on core values immediately so that students know they are going to be apart of a class family that is safe, supportive, and welcoming. These are some of my favorite ways to build […]
Learn how to manage one of the biggest challenges of teaching: Six disrespectful students in the same class. Yikes!
The best "icebreaker" activity for high school students (who hate icebreaker activities). Get a jump start on creating a bond with your students.
An escape room in the classroom is a super fun way to engage your students in any topic. Make one easily with the worksheet you already have!
Let’s talk about creating and using tactile schedules in the classroom. If you have a Teacher of the Visually Impaired that works with you, they may provide you with a kit or schedule pieces from the library of the blind. Here is a link to my local library. Check with your state and see if you […]
Morning Meeting is the best part of the day in my 4th-grade classroom, and I want to share some of my fourth graders’ favorite morning meeting activities. These morning meeting activities are ones that we use all year to work on teamwork, classroom community, and just having fun building relationships together! BONUS: All of these […]
Goal Setting - This 4th grade teacher uses post it notes to remind children of their goals upon entering the classroom. I love that her method to this has
Lesson for the First Day of Geometry Class. Resources for Geometry Teachers. Download FREE Geometry worksheets, tests, and quizzes as well.
It seems like every day there is an endless stream of students reporting behaviors or incidents that happen in the classroom. On one hand, we want to help our students feel heard and validated so they know we are a safe person for them to talk to. On the other hand, we certainly don't want to feed into the tattle machine. It's a fine line to walk. So how do we handle tattling in our classrooms?
Classroom Management is the one thing that can make or break a school year. These 6 tips will get you on the right track to a successful school year.
Launch your opinion writing unit with these 10 daily opinion writing lesson plans, including anchor charts, graphic organizers, opinion writing prompts and The Day the Crayons Quit craft!
Everything has happened so fast! One day we were teaching and preparing for standardized testing and the next we were at home trying to figure out how to work Google Classroom and teach remotely. You might be feeling a little overwhelmed and uncertain about what you should be doing now that you are home every
Shifting from guided reading to the science of reading groups is a big change. Take a look at how I organize me, kids, and parents for small groups.
Do you ever feel like you've made so many resources for your classes and that you just wish some veteran teacher would magically appear to give you some new, fresh ideas that your students will love? Well, today is your lucky day! I'm giving away one of my best-selling resources, 50 World Language Games and
There is a common mistake teachers make on the first day of school that sets in motion bad student habits and misbehaviors that can last the rest of the school year. That’s a big statement, I know. But this one particular mistake will be ... Read more
3 Ways to Use Individual Whiteboards for Quick Practice: There are plenty of ways to use individual whiteboards in the classroom each day. Here are three ways I use them!
Included are 18 German Classroom Survival Phrase Posters. Each poster is 8 1/2 x 11, containing the German phrase at the top and the English translation at the bottom. My students use these all year long to stay in the target language. I recommend printing them on card stock and laminating them s...
Dante only comments during morning meeting when every day he says something about the weather. The teacher set it up that way to teach it to him, but he's having trouble making a leap to spontaneous commenting.
When everything is chaotic and you don't know how to regain control, give your classroom to God and watch Him work.
Behavior is one of the biggest classroom management problems teachers face and another is communicating to parents. Use these reporting behavior forms!
These January language arts tips will get you through the longest month of the school year. Refocus secondary students after winter break.
A few weeks ago, I went into Chase’s class for tutoring. I'd emailed Chase’s teacher one evening and said, “Chase keeps telling me that this stuff you’re sending home is math - but I’m not sure I believe him. Help, please.” She emailed right back and said, “No problem! I can tutor Chase after...
Hatching Chicks in the Classroom Hatching chicks in the classroom is probably my favorite activity every year! Not only is it a wonderful hands-on life science lesson, but hatching chicks in the classroom also creates the perfect stage for you to teach concepts across the curriculum because your students are so engaged! You can […]
Defiance, disrespectfulness, kids yelling “NO!” – this is what a teacher’s classroom management nightmares are made of! These days, most teachers may have had one or two defiant children in their class at some point, even all the way … Continue reading →
This graphic organizer is the perfect way to get students actively engaged in your classroom, right from the first day! This product can be used for any subject and any grade! One version has some titles and one version is blank. You can use the blank one as extra space if you have more rules than I have included, just print it back to back. Also included are two sets of PowerPoint slides. One set matches the doodle note and has EDITABLE TEXT fields that allow you to include your own personal information to meet the needs of your classroom. The other set is completely blank for easy customization, just add your own text fields. This would be a great resource to use along with my Back to School Classroom Expectations Color By Number! What is included? ⭐ 1 Doodle Note with headings ⭐ 1 Doodle Note without headings ⭐ 1 Doodle Note completely blank for extra rules ⭐ 1 Completed example ⭐ 8 PowerPoint Slides that match the Doodle Note - Editable! ⭐ 6 PowerPoint Slides that are completely blank - Editable! Connect with me My Blog: www.themorehousemagic.com Instagram: @themorehousemagic Facebook: The Morehouse Magic "Doodle Notes" is a trademarked term. Used with permission. Please visit www.doodlenotes.org for more information.
The first time I taught a group of kindergartens I was pretty excited. This age is so fun! But as the group walked in I realized the HUGE struggle it is to get Kindergarteners to do anything on their first day of school. It's the most adorable little struggle to get them to sit on the rug
There’s at least one in every classroom — yep, I’m talking about the kid who just sits there, and doesn’t work. The one who needs constant cajoling to put pencil to paper and get started. In some cases, there’s an attitude problem and the student is disengaged from school in general, and in other cases, … Continued
Classroom/behavior management is one of the most important things to master in your classroom. Having solid behavior management helps maintain a positive classroom environment, while enabling teachers and students to accomplish LEARNING! Here are TEN tips and tricks for behavior management I use in my classroom: Greeting Students at the Door The way you start
LOLs for your kinders.
This idea is actually a gem that one of my students thought of years ago! This fun trick will get students as young as Kindergarten to stop chatting! It's one of my favorite classroom management tricks!
Hello teachers! Brittany from The SuperHERO Teacher's Resources here to talk all about why you should incorporate exit tickets into your daily classroom routine. If your teaching style is anything like mine, you love spontaneity in the classroom just as much as you love a solid classroom management plan that paves the way for an engaging and innovative lesson. My first couple of years teaching, I struggled to find the balance between fun and focus. I honestly wasn't sure if it was possible to have both-- until I began incorporating exit tickets. You're probably thinking: "wait-- I thought exit tickets assessed student comprehension"-- and you would be right, but they also help with SO much more. Let me explain! 1. Exit tickets are a classroom management miracle. I am not even exaggerating when I say incorporating exit tickets will transform your classroom management. Picture this: it's the end of a class period and you just finished up the best lesson of your career... 5 minutes early... You start to notice students packing up, fidgeting, and then the sweet student who loves discussing the daily lunch menu breaks out into chatter with the person next to them. Soon, every student in the room is in a debate about whether square pizza or chicken nuggets are better (square pizza, obviously)! It's stressful and nearly impossible to avoid... that is, without exit tickets! If your students know they have an exit ticket prompt they have to complete before they can leave the classroom, they will remain focused on the task at hand and there won't be time for the excess chatter that inevitably occurs moments before the bell rings. Exit tickets are a classroom management hack that students will be oblivious to. It's not a punishment, it's a routine that is developed to track their comprehension and growth... It just so happens to also prevent them from focusing on the distractions around the room. 2. Exit tickets create student routine. Classroom routine and classroom management kind of go hand in hand, in my opinion. If a routine is developed from the beginning, your classroom management will be in tune. When I used exit ticket and bell ringer journals in my classroom, the students knew the moment they entered my classroom that they had a 5 minute bell ringer prompt to complete and at the end of class they were to reflect on the lesson by completing a 5 minute exit ticket prompt. Developing these daily routines allowed me the opportunity to be more spontaneous and exciting in my lessons and delivery. Using an exit ticket journal, like the one linked here, gives you all of the prompts you'll need for an entire year, taking the stress of developing them off your shoulders. 3. Exit tickets assess student comprehension. The most common reason teachers use exit tickets is their ability to assess student comprehension in a quick, simply way. In five minutes or less, teachers can determine whether their lesson is successful or if there needs to be some re-teaching the following day. Exit tickets don't have to be in a question format either-- they can be visuals, graphs, images and more, which will help meet the learning styles and expectations of each student in your classroom. You can test out an entire week of exit ticket prompts using the freebie I designed from one of my Exit Ticket Journals. Simply click here, download the free resource and share with your students. 4. Exit tickets track student growth. Tracking growth is important for both you AND your students. When students have a moment to reflect on their comprehension of a lesson, they can process where they may be struggling or excelling in your class. If you're using something like an exit ticket journal, students have the ability to go back and see how far they've grown from the beginning of the school year, which can serve as motivation and inspiration to continue working hard throughout the school year. These simple prompts provide students with a visual representation of their progress in your class, whether it's a unit or an ongoing theme over the course of an entire year. 5. Exit tickets help teachers reflect on their teaching practices. Reflecting on our own teaching practices is equally as important as helping students reflect on their progress! However, I think we all know how time consuming it is to do a pre-test and post-test for every single unit or lesson. Exit tickets can be assessed in seconds, especially visuals. For example: if you asked students to shade in their understanding of the day's lesson on a bar scaled 1 to 10 and you see that most students shaded in 5 or less, you'll know that re-teaching needs to occur the following day. While you may have days that students are confused or lacking comprehension, you'll also find exit ticket responses to be rewarding-- because you'll see the positive things they take away from your lessons, too! Looking for an entire year of exit tickets? Check out my Exit Ticket Journal here. Download two free weeks of exit tickets here! These resources are also incredible for incorporating exit tickets: 1. Growth Mindset Exit Tickets from The Daring English Teacher 2. Formative Assessment Power Pack from Room 213 3. Exit Slips for Any Subject from Presto Plans 4. English Bell Ringers and Exit Tickets from Tracee Orman Have a fabulous day and keep changing lives!
5 Uses for Slinkys in the Kindergarten Classroom to jazz up literacy activities for meaningful and fun practice.
The end of the day is dragging on and the kids are wound up! Here are some classroom routines and ideas for decreasing chaos at dismissal.
Check out these great ideas for helping your students feel like part of a classroom community during distance learning & social distancing.
These three icebreakers for teens will make the first class, youth group, or club fun for everyone, even the introverts.
A collaborative blog where two friends share great ideas, activities, and resources about teaching, coaching, and tutoring in the primary grades!
A collection of the clearest, most high-quality books, articles, videos, and downloadable documents for learning how to differentiate in your classroom.
It seems like every day there is an endless stream of students reporting behaviors or incidents that happen in the classroom. On one hand, we want to help our students feel heard and validated so they know we are a safe person for them to talk to. On the other hand, we certainly don't want to feed into the tattle machine. It's a fine line to walk. So how do we handle tattling in our classrooms?
One of the secrets to exceptional classroom management is to aim for the stars. It’s to accept nothing less than what you want for your classroom, your students, and your career. It doesn’t matter where you teach. It doesn’t matter who is on your ... Read more
The Word of the Day for February 2, 2024 is Weltschmerz. Find out the meaning of Weltschmerz and learn about its origin and uses!
You no doubt have a packed schedule the first week of school, but classroom management must take precedence. Far and above everything else. Because it’s the foundation upon which effective teaching is built. It also ensures your peace and protects your students’ right to ... Read more
In this post, you will find 27 Formative Assessment Tools for Your Classroom! Formative assessment is such an essential part of the learning process and student success, and many digital tools can help support this process.This list has a wide variety of features and options to help you solidify your formative assessment strategies! Many of the tools below are great for both formative and summative assessments.
To this day, there is nothing less satisfying in school than when an English teacher gets the history wrong during the introduction to a new piece of literature. Small mistakes are forgivable. Comm…
Every teacher has had a day where everything went wrong and you felt like you had no control over your class at all. One particularly horrifying moment in my teaching career was when I was
After discovering the gem that is Which One Doesn't Belong, and writing a blog post about WODB, I knew that I eventually wanted my students to create their own as a project. Now that state testing is finally over, it is nice to be able to finally present this to the class. I had thought about ideas on how to structure the project, but I was still short on some ideas. I came across this tweet from Mishaal Surti, which gave me some inspiration. I created a document that included a rubric as well as some ideas from the tweet that is linked above. Students were allowed to pick their partner, and we headed to the computer lab. I told students that they needed to look at examples of WODBs, which we also did before heading to the computer lab. I then instructed students how to create a Google Doc to insert images and equations. I required students to use their own interests to find four items that one could argue do not belong in a set and also required them to justify using some type of mathematical reasoning. I was really impressed with what some of my students created. Before you look at the projects my kids created, take a look at the Google Doc I created with the assignment and the rubric. Shapes and angles. Which One Doesn't Belong? Items at Chipotle. WODB? Cereals. WODB? Various graphs. WODB? Car Brands. WODB? Fast Food Restaurants. WODB? Symmetrical Superhero Logos. WODB? Money. WODB? Exponential and Logarithmic Functions. WODB? Cities. WODB? Various Equations. WODB? Musical Notes. WODB? Since there are several field trips today, I was unable to let my geometry class present. However, I had enough kids in attendance in my Algebra II classes, so I went ahead and let them present. I really enjoyed listening to their arguments and reasoning of their peers' projects. I definitely recommend this project for a one to two day assignment. Feel free to comment if you have any questions.
Don’t miss out on one of our favorite toys for targeting all kinds of developmental skills...while making music!
