First Year Teacher Series- Creating Your Procedures

While you are in the classroom you need to think about classroom procedures and expectations. These are the routines that you and your students will help run your classroom. Procedures are an important part of classroom management at the beginning of the year. This could be a big difference in the classroom climate. Below are common classroom procedures that teachers mush think through.

• Pencils: How will students get them? When do they get sharpened? What if a student forgets one? What if a student needs an eraser?

• Notebooks/textbooks: Will students come into the classroom each day with them? If not, how will you get them handed out each day? What if a student comes one day without them?

• Homework: Where will it be turned in or how you will collect it? How will you return it to the students after grading?

• Late work: How will students learn about what information they missed? What system will you use so they have access to the make-up work?

• Bathroom: How often can students use the bathroom? How will they let you know that they need to use the bathroom? Will you need to keep track of how many times a student has used the bathroom?

• Technology: How will classroom technology be stored? If portable, how will it be distributed to students? Will devices need to be charged overnight?

• Phones, tablets, personal devices: What is your school's policy? What times can students access them? When are the times when they should put them away?

• Entering the classroom: Should students remove hats? Are they to be quiet? Should they go straight to their students? What work should they get started on?

• Exiting the classroom: Will you dismiss students? Do they leave when the bell rings? Is there a line order they must learn? Should they line up quietly?

Take time to think about your classroom. Make a list of what procedures you should be active about. Also, answer the questions above to get a head start on your procedures. Below is a google doc of procedures you should be thinking about even though it is not everything this will better prepare you.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XXXD_g6m1E1tjxxDrKTupzouGRyKkHZvDQWQu6Up-o0/edit?usp=sharing

Fortunately, there may be procedures your school already provides like check out books and emergency drills. For others, you may want to ask a mentor teacher, a colleague, or look on the Internet. Remember it's better to be prepared than not be at all.

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First Year Teacher Series- Setting Up Your Classroom

Today is our first First Year Teacher Series, a special post dedicated to highlighting a specific teacher tip strategy in more detail than I do during some of my regular posts. To kick off the FYT Series I would like to start with "Setting Up Your Classroom". How spacious, attractive, a modern classroom, portable, or even a pod that you will get the keys to is out of your hands, but what you do turn it into is in your control. While you are setting up and arranging things around you will need to think about the furniture and materials.



Furniture

With furniture, it is important to focus on classroom order and functionality. Many of these issues in the classroom start with furniture. Before setting up the furniture think about these questions. How many students will I have? Do I have enough desks or tables? What furniture arrangement will be successful from day 1? Let's look at two scenarios. 

A science teacher was placed in one of the smallest classrooms in the school. This size limits the teacher's options on how to design the space. The best option is to start off with desks in evenly straight rows. This allows movement between the desks and limits student interaction. Once routines, procedures, and structure are in place the teacher can move desks into tables for students to collaborate. 

An elementary teacher has a large classroom so the teacher can design his vision. He groups the desks into 5 for whole class learning. Then he has a classroom library in the back corner. The elementary teacher classroom is different from the science teacher's classroom because his classroom, student's needs, and comfort level are different.

When setting up the furniture make sure to monitor all students at all times no matter if you are not teaching. For example, if you have a file cabinet or a reading nook these are places where students can be hidden and take advantage of.


Materials

The last aspect of a classroom setup is the organization of materials. Make sure regularly used items are easily accessible while less frequented used materials are stored away when the time comes. What are things that students need on a regular basis? Pencils, Notebooks, Textbooks anything else? What are some things that students don't need as much? Scissors, glue sticks, Binders? Here are a few ideas if you still need help. 

A 3rd grade teacher made sure each student had a whiteboard and a clipboard in a seat pocket because those materials were going to be used regularly. Then the teacher placed the binders in the cubbies because they were going to be used rarely. The teacher also placed the notebooks into the cubbies because she has unsure if she would use them. 

A high school teacher knew students would have a notebook for the first day but he had extra in case. He also had a cup of pencils on his desks if they needed one but also had a sign-out sheet to make sure the pencils were returned. In a cabinet, he stacked textbooks by class and in order so he would hand them out. By planning ahead this minimizes the time worrying about other things than students and teaching. This also increases success when school starts.

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♡ Teacher Life Q & A- Part 1 | My Career, First Steps, Student Teaching, Lesson Plans, and Classroom Management

Hi everyone welcome back! Today I am going to do a Q&A that I've been wanting for a while. I was hoping when I requested questions from you guys that I would get like a dozen or so questions. I got a lot of questions! I've decided to break these up. This post will be part one and the next will be a part two. The reason why I decided this so I can really take the time to answer the questions that you guys asked me. I will be answering eight questions. With that let's go on ahead and get started!


What do you include in your lesson plans and when do I usually do my lesson planning?

As far as what you have to put in your written lesson plans. You have to have your objective or your learning target. Then your strategy of how are you going to achieve your learning target. You have to have your assessment. How are you going to assess what you just taught the students? The assessments can be an exit slip, observation, and anecdotal records. Basically any kind of assessment. It's good to even be an informal assessment. Which is you're just watching the class and seeing how they react to the lesson. The last thing we have to put in there is the Common Core standard.  

As for when do I write my lesson plans. Sometimes I can get my lesson plans written when I'm in the classroom either on a prep period or in the morning before school actually begins. I like to go to work about an hour early so this way I have this extra time in my room to do whatever it is I need to do. But I will say the bulk of my lesson plan writing does get done at home it's just easier for me. I do them in the evening when I'm watching TV.  Also, even if I wanted to do long-term planning or if I really want to develop like a thematic unit for a week or two. I will even spend a Saturday or a Sunday sitting down and really focusing on how I'm going to tie all the subjects together.


How do I grade papers?

I have a variety of ways of grading papers. One of the good old-fashioned ways is just doing percentages. There were these many questions and you got that many wrong which is this percent so this is your grade.  Some assignments that don't really work that way. For example, on an exit slip that you're using for your quick assessment, you want to give the students to make sure they were paying attention. If you only have five questions one wrong is a B, two wrong is a D, three or more is an F. That's really harsh percentages. So what I would do is say that one wrong is a B, two wrong is to C three wrong is a D and then the rest would be an F. Make sure you adjust to meet the needs of you and your class. When it comes to entering the grades into the computer system, we do have to enter percentages.


What organizational systems do I have in the classroom to keep up with paperwork?

When it comes to all the paperwork, I will say grade as fast as you can. When you give a test and students start turning them in grade them immediately. So you can enter the grade and probably finish them all on that day. That is my biggest form of organization is just to get it done quickly. Then as far as the other paperwork goes writing RTI's for intervention students writing out your IEP stuff, writing out forms for interventions used with kids, and parent contact logs. My big strategy there is my planner and if I know that by this Friday I have to do this I will write it in my planner. If you don't have time to do the paperwork

 put it in your planner.

What kind of paperwork besides planning and grading do you take work home with you?

There's a lot of paperwork that is involved in teaching. If you have children who are struggling you have to write out what is called a referral for an intervention team meeting. These packets require a ton of information from the teacher and you have to record all their testing data so you have to fill out all those forms if you're referring a child for further interventions. If you have a behavior plan on a student you have to keep track of and to collect and store it in file folders. You have your form of testing you're doing you've got to store those tests and I then take all of the finished grades and put them on one sheet of paper in my pensive so this way I know what level all of my students are reading on.

Any tips for student teachers to help us have a successful experience?

For student teachers, my advice to you is one be prepared to work hard because not only are you student teaching to learn your own teaching skills but you want to view your student teaching as a time to network. You are meeting principals, you are potential co-workers, you are feeling out the district just as the district is feeling out you. I know a lot of schools require you to have more than one student teaching, there's your pre-student teaching and then your formal student teaching. Do that in two different school districts just so that you get your name out there. 

Next, arrive early and stay late. You want them to see you that you're there or you're available. If they're having an after-school program be prepared to stay at the after-school 

program. If they're having a curriculum meeting go to it. This is your opportunity to learn about every aspect of being a teacher not just what you have to do in the classroom. 

Also, the teacher in the classroom is your one-on-one resource. If you have questions ask that classroom teacher what to do or what would they do in your place. Also your lesson planning you're probably going to have a much more detailed lesson plan as a student 

teacher then you will as you know a permanent teacher. So for a student teacher an Erin Condren teacher planner probably would not work for you will need enough room in the boxes to write in all those extra details. I would actually recommend making like a template on a computer and using like font eight or nine where you can get in what manipulatives are going to be used what specific homework is going into this lesson plan. Make sure to be nice, be professional, dress appropriately, and work hard.

Could you give an overview of your classroom management system and do use a particular program?

We have in the district PBS which was called positive behavior support I loved that program. There were three general rules be safe, be responsible, and be respectful. Those three rules encompass a lot of behavior. For example, keeping your hands and feet to yourself as part of these safe. Completing and turning your homework on time as part of being responsible. Raising your hand and using a polite voice in class as part of being respectful. As long as you have those rules on your rule list you're covered for a lot of behaviors. That you're going to deal with in the course of the day. so that's my rules right there those for perfect. PBS is about bribery. If the kids are good for a week they get a treat. If the kids are good for a month they got a celebration party. I like being able to acknowledge that you were good this whole month. It's a very good and beneficial program and it works.

Is it expected that I will spend so much money on supplies and 

does my school provide anything?

 

My district does provide materials, furniture, and everything else. But during summer vacation, I like to monitor all the school supplies sales and I like to buy notebooks, folders with prongs, composition books, crayons, some markers, lots of pencil cap erasers, and pencils.  So when a student is out of something well I have a stash that I could now use. Also, if I want the whole class to have a blue folder for math so this way math papers go in this folder and not in another folder. I do spend a ton of money on my classroom but I want to provide my students with the best possible quality materials.

What inspired you to become a teacher?

I have to say when I was in 12th grade I had all my credits done already and I had two periods of like free time but I couldn't leave the building. So I really didn't want to take a study hall I talked to my counselor and said: "What can I do instead of study hall because I don't need it." So they had me go to a connected elementary and for one period I was volunteering in the kindergarten class and for the second period I was volunteering in the second grade classroom and I loved it!  The teachers would have me help them put up their bulletin boards and grade papers and putting stickers and stamps all over them which was fun! They would have me work one-on-one with the kids practicing their sight and spelling words and read to the children. By the end of 12th grade, I knew exactly what I was going to college for and what I was going to be with the rest of my life. I was going to be a teacher!

 My Advice:

If you're someone right now that you're in high school and you don't really know what to do or you don't know if you want to be a teacher volunteer.  Volunteer in a preschool or for assorted grade levels during summer vacation and see if working and being with children is something you really love and enjoy. It's very easy to figure out if you want to do this for a living.

Okay and with that, if you have any other questions you can ask them in the comments and I'll get to those in the next Q&A.

Thanks for reading,

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Distance Learning or Remote Teaching: Useful Tips for Making it Work

I want to provide tips for distance learning or eLearning especially as we find that at the present moment a majority of schools in the United States and other places around the world are closed. This is definitely something that we as teachers have not been prepared for and there's a big learning curve here. I think it's also important to say that no one person has all the answers. There's so much variation between different school districts and States and the number of digital resources that your school or district has access to. I think that's also why it took me a little longer to make this content even though some schools have already been doing e-learning or distance learning for over a month. At this point, it's just because I wanted to make sure I was adding meaning and helpful content. There's also no shortage of free resources at this point but we have to be intentional about it. Hopefully, you'll be intentional about today's tips. 

Maintaining motivation 

Now it can be difficult working at home alone. So it really important for you to reach out with other teachers and form a community so you can talk, solve problems, and share successes. With you doing this you won't have to be lonely. 

Free of distractions

Find a dedicated workspace that's free from distractions. Also, make sure during class contact hours that nothing behind you is making such noise. This is going to interfere with contacting your students. The number one most distraction for most people is their phones. Make sure the sound is turned off and it's out of sight so it's not interrupting you.  

  

Office Hours

Unlike a regular school, in which you might have office hours. Students are sometimes uncertain of when they should contact you. Of course, they can always leave an email and encourage them to do so. By the same token also check in on your students regularly reaching out to them just to make sure everything is okay and that their studies are progressing. If your students are struggling Zoom with your students, so they can ask questions about their work and then go finish it.

Give meaningful feedback

In an online class, it's extremely important to give meaningful feedback. In this feedback, you should always try to say something very positive to help encourage students. Of course, you can also go through and correct all the errors and problems that students have, but giving them a hopeful tone is important. In my own classes, I always pick one good thing that each student has done, and then I shared with all the rest of the students. This helps to create a sense of community among the learners and it shows even the least able student that they can do something right.

Online etiquette

In their online classes, students should be practicing good online etiquette. Which is treating others and the teacher with respect. It's important for students to understand these rules and one way to create them is to ask the students themselves. Ask students to write a list of what is and is not acceptable online. This also fits in with a general idea that runs throughout the idea of online teaching and that is to shift responsibility to the students. Make them more involved in the everyday decisions about their online education.

Set Expectations

In general, students can work on their homework at home. However, this does not mean that you simply say yes do your assignments for this work. You have to set up your expectations. What are they supposed to be doing, how should they be doing it, what should they be looking for, what skills should they be applying, so you have to start off by giving them a briefing on what is expected of them and then follow up. Once they've done the work to see again what questions and problems they've had but also for them to demonstrate what they've learned.

Goals and Paths

Building on those expectations that we mentioned earlier our goals and paths to get them there. Use your textbook to explain the tasks that students have to complete and the deadlines by which they need to complete them. To give students a sense of achievements set short medium and long term goals. Short term goals can be things like learning new vocabulary every day. Medium-term goals should be something like completing a project over the course of a week. A longer-term goal could be reading a new book.

Personalize assignments

You can improve students' motivation by personalizing your assignments and personalizing their goals. Make it a more student-centered online classroom in which you encourage students to conduct their own research on personal projects rather than having every single student do the same assignment so this helps avoid plagiarism.

Scheduling

The quick answer is that your schedule should mirror the hours that you normally have with the students in class as well as any homework expectations that you have of them. But you may divide up this a little bit, for example, it's probably unusual for you to talk for an hour in a class rather you're more likely to talk for maybe 5-10 minutes and you could videotape that and share that with the students. Then have them go off and do their work before they watch the next video about the next step of what you expect them. 

Deliver instruction in different ways

A big advantage of dividing your lectures or your talks into smaller segments is they're easier to share, but also it's easier for students to watch them and watch them again and again so they get a lot more exposure to the idea.


Grading: avoid being overwhelmed!

Grading can be a challenge don't be overwhelmed. There are a few things that 

you can do. First of all, here's a simple grading solution! If a student completes an assignment give them 2 points. If a student partially completes an assignment give them 1 point. If a student doesn't do the assignment give them 0 points. Another strategy is to only mark the first ten errors in any essay. Now for some students, this may all come in their first paragraph in others you make it through the entire essay. In this way, you're rationing your time and because students often make the same errors over and over again just correcting a few of them will probably give them guidance as to what else they should fix on their own.

Give regular open-ended questions

Another way to engage students is to give them regular open-ended questions. Maybe a question of the day or a question of the week that they're expected to discuss with other students. For example, you might say what job would you love to have and what job would you not like to have and why, so students have to think of individual jobs and compare them and then discuss them with each other. Get them into a process of putting together their ideas discussing them reflecting on what they hear.

Get your students reading!

Finally, get your students reading. It's the most important lifelong learning skill for continuing to improve their English. They'll improve their vocabulary, grammar, and critical thinking skills all at the same time. Also, look for resources that are available in your community perhaps from libraries or digitally online.

Thanks for reading,

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10 Ways to Practice Self Care | Tips for Teachers

Being a teacher can be a hectic and stressful job, so start implementing some of these 10 self care strategies! The best news is that these self care tips for teachers do not cost anything and you can practice them during the school day! 

What is Self Care?

Before we begin, however, I think we have to clear up some things about self-care. You see when a lot of people think about self-care I think what comes to mind is treating yourself, an idea which is great. I'm not saying not to treat yourself, but we're looking at overall wellness, caring for ourselves. 

When we're caring for other people and getting caught up in the daily grind we might go into debt. Not financial debt but sleep debt and joy debt.  We kind of starved for these fundamentals, and when we live that hustle and bustle it makes it really tough to actually nourish ourselves and heal ourselves from some of the stressors we're dealing with. The idea is that these are going to help nourish you as a person so you are in much better spirits, overall and you're promoting wellness you're really caring for yourself. 

#1  Make healthy food choices

Whatever food you bring, let's these food items help nourish and sustain. We're not thinking about that quick frozen meal or something that super low calories. Our bodies need fuel to function and about 1/4 of the calories we eat are needed to function our brain. We want to make sure we're feeding enough of the right foods. This can include healthy snacks such as hummus and carrot sticks, for instance. Easy, quick, and nourishing! Figure out what some healthy snacks are for you! 

It also means fewer treats. I'm not sure about you and your school but it was very common to have treats in our teacher's lounge and sometimes the stuff looks pretty good but if we know that eating that kind of thing is more of an indulgence and not making this an everyday thing is going to lead to long term wellness. A lot of that stuff might just be a sugar crash and that's not going to help you feel your best self-care.

# 2  Avoid Negative Nancies

Basically, those people who just really like to suck the joy out of teaching or out of your own experience are the kind who don't make it as much fun to be around and to be at school. Try to spend less time with the negative nancies and instead focus on people who build you up, celebrate your ideas, care about the profession and being the best teacher they can be. Shifting your focus to be spending more time with these positive examples is going to give you a much better overall picture of the job.

# 3  Take some time to yourself

Really take some time that's quiet just for you to reflect. One thing that I find to be true is when we are caught in that hustle and bustle cycle and always moving to the next thing we don't have time to really step back and reflect on what's happening. Sometimes we don't make the best decisions when we actually don't have time to reflect.

This doesn't have to be an everyday thing but if you give yourself some quiet moments with no phone, other people, and music just you and your thoughts. To really, figure out is life going well right now, how I'm teaching the best thing, am I taking enough care of myself. When you really take the time to reflect and take away the extra noise and distraction that's when you get the clarity to those aha moments. So make sure you're giving yourself the time here and there to just be. Even if it's just five minutes that does matter so really try to prioritize some of that.

#4  Play relaxing music

This can actually happen with your students and it involves plain relaxing music during class. If you search for relaxing music on YouTube there are so many beautiful instrumental tracks put together that are a couple hours long and make really nice calming music. I also enjoyed using some soft jazz in the classroom as well this music no lyrics just nice calm music can be very healing and I think both you and your students will enjoy it.

#5  Keep your desk tidy 

It's very easy for your desk to look like a warzone at the end of a school day. I've been there, but if we can focus on trying to reset your desk as well as keeping fewer items out it leads to more peace of mind. It's very common to have items on your desk that you actually don't use and don't really need out on the desk. When you've got an extra moment during the day take a close look at what's on your desk. Does all of that stuff need to be on top of the desk or could it work in a drawer? It's the concept of a cluttered desk leads to a cluttered mind and a clear desk can lead to a more clear mind. See if there are a few items you can remove from your desk to help promote self-care.

#6  Leave promptly 

Yes, you can stay as late as you want but when you set boundaries about what time you leave, you're saying yes to so many positive experiences that can happen once you leave the classroom. Even if you just start leaving right away after school one day a week start enjoying the benefits of that is a positive step in the right direction. Maybe you have something you need to get done you could stay after school and do it or it could be an enjoyable task when you're at home. It doesn't mean that you would never do work at home and the truth is a lot of things can just wait till tomorrow. Many of the things we're doing that education are not so urgent that they must be done right away that night. Yes, there are moments but it's not every moment. It doesn't hurt too much to say "I'll deal with it with a fresh perspective tomorrow."

# 7  Exercising

 Well at school see if you can squeeze in a little bit of physical activity during the day. Now chances are you're probably on your feet kind of running around the entire day when you have students in your room but there are little moments you might be able to stick in some exercises. For example, when you are making copies you can do lunges, squats, or calf raises. Simple little exercises and it doesn't require any additional time so see if there are little things you can do like a few yoga poses in your room.

#8  Stay hydrated 

Unfortunately, as teachers, we do often have to control the amount of water we're drinking because you probably can't go to the bathroom whenever you want. Try to set a schedule for yourselves to stay as hydrated as possible within that framework based upon when you can take breaks trying to stay hydrated. Especially if you're talking a lot and interacting with other students it's really important to help keep your energy up, keep you feeling your best. This really promotes wellness in a lot of different areas of life. When teaching focus more on water you will benefit from this.

#9 Practice deep breathing 

Whether it's dealing with an encounter with a challenging student or when you got an angry parent email. These things can really cause us to be in a more negative state and can cause us to feel stressed. When we feel stressed there are lots of physical signs in our bodies. Taking the time to breathe deeply and take a step back can be very helpful. A very simple breathing strategy focus on taking a deep breath in as you count to 10 hold the breath for a few moments and then exhale the breath. Practicing that a couple of times a day honestly can work wonders for stress levels. This can be a great strategy to help you stay calm and level-headed and not feel that physical stress as much in some of those tough situations.

#10  Self-care activities for your spirit

Self-care activities for your spirit are things that can give your soul a lift and enrich your life. This can be so different for everyone.

I know that by just cutting some beautiful roses or lavender from my garden and arranging them in a vase for my room, helps give me such a wonderful joyful lift to my spirit.

What lifts your spirits? It might be listening to a favorite song and singing out loud to the words or just lighting a scented candle. Give it a try!

In the comments, how do you choose to practice self-care as a teacher?

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