I have been at this Virtual Learning thing for 7 whole days now (if you don't count the Spring) and I have settled into a schedule that I am finding to work for my students and I SO FAR.  I say "so far" because this all truly is an ever-changing experience.  Even after 7 days, we are tweaking and fixing things so that they work better for us.  But with that said, here is the schedule that seems to be working for us as the moment. My day with the students actively on the computer in front of me is from 9am to 12pm.  Each day, they log on at 9am.  Then, we say goodbye and log out at noon.  In between that time, I have two 10 minute breaks scheduled (usually on the hour to make things easy to remember.)  The specific breakdown of our day is as follows: ** Block 1 ** 9:00 - 9:20am       Morning Check In/SEL Read Aloud 9:20 - 9:30am      Grammar 9:30 - 10:00 am   Reading Lesson (skills, read aloud, comprehension) 10:00 - ......

I will admit it.  I didn't always speak to my kids when they came into my room in the morning. I know...a collective gasp of revolt and judgement just went up in teacher-land.   But it is true.  My kids would come into the room and I would sit at my desk (or whatever space I had in the front of the room) taking attendance, lunch count, processing notes the kids gave me, or whatever other 100 things we as teachers need to do in the morning as the day begins.  My kids would get to their seats and immediately get to work on a morning packet or reading or whatever else I assigned for them as morning work that particular year.  There was very little interaction between anyone in the room.  Everyone was serious and got to work. Now, this worked for me for many different reasons, not the least of which was that it was quiet in my classroom.  No one was off doing anything they shouldn't be doing.  No one was out of control or out of their sea......

One of the nonnegotiables in my classroom is read aloud time.  I build it into my schedule so that every day, rain or shine, I read aloud to my students.  I get quite a few questions about how I actually do read aloud and what it looks like in my classroom, so I thought I would write about it here to give you a clearer picture of what read aloud looks like in my room. At the end of every school day, about 20 minutes before the bell rings for dismissal,  I have my students clean up our classroom using the 60 second clean up , they write their homework in their planners, we pass out papers (homework, flyers from the office, etc...) and then they pack up their stuff to go home.  When the kids are done packing up, I have them join me on the rug.  Since this is an individual process (some kids take longer than others) I head to the rug at this time and sit in my chair.  Kids join me as they finish up and we usually start talking about the books we are read......

The second aspect of respect that we touched upon in class was THINKING before you speak.  Using the letter S from Digital Divide and Conquer's awesome Respect Posters , I gathered my students on the rug to discuss the idea of THINKing before we speak. You know those signs that are all over Pinterest using the acronym THINK?  Here are a few examples of them .  Anyway, I used that acronym to design my lesson.  The purpose was to force the students to think about the words that were coming out of their mouths and how they were perceived by other people. First, I wrote THINK on the chart paper, leaving a bit of space between them.  I went through, letter by letter, telling the students what it meant, then giving examples of times when they probably went against that trait, but also examples of how they could exemplify it.  For example, T = True.  Is what you are saying actually true, or are you just giving your opinion?  When you call someone ugl......

As we all are well aware, you can be the best teacher in the world but if the kids are absent, it doesn't really matter.  Teaching an empty chair is doing nothing for anyone.   A few years ago, we were really struggling with an absenteeism problem at my school site.  Kids just weren't coming to school.  For one reason or another, they were taking days off like crazy. Today I wanted to share a little thing with you that has been working to help get the kids into their seats each day.   Since the kids were missing so many days,  I thought that if they actually *knew* how many days they were absent within a given month, it just might help to make them think about coming in.  To help them keep track, I created this little postcard on Vista Print .  You can see that all the days we are in school are written on the card, from September to June (this is actually a Vista Print image of the card from a few years ago, so the dates don't match up ......

Keeping my classroom a positive place is something that I know will encourage my students to be active, present members of our room.  Here are a few ideas that I have used to make Room 6 a positive place. Morning Greeting I start my morning, EVERY morning, with this fun little call back chant.  I wrote in greater detail about it here , but basically, once our morning work is done, I begin my class by saying to them "Good morning my most amazing (or any adjective) class."  To which they respond, "Good morning my most amazing teacher!"  Um....who doesn't like being called amazing???  Changing the adjective helps keep my kids on their toes and really enjoying that greeting.  Then I say, "How are you doing today?" and they respond with, "We are lookin' good and feelin' fine."  Every single face has a smile on it at that point every single time. Apple of My Eye To show the students that I notice the little deeds they do each d......

I am just going to say it.  I am not a big fan of task cards. {ducking from anything that may get thrown at me right now.} I know that they are really hot right now.  I know that people love them.  I know that they are the greatest thing since sliced bread for some teachers.  But *I* have just never really fell head over heals for them. Until this year. OK...that isn't exactly true.  I still am not a huge fan BUT my kids LOVE LOVE LOVE them.  Did I mention that they love them?  Because they do.  Task cards have revitalized plain old worksheets for the kids.  They have instant buy in and I find that the kids are completing their work faster if I present the work in task card format than if I simply type everything up on a worksheet page. So, since we have this new found love for task cards in my room, I thought I would share some of the ways that task cards have been successful in my class this year. First up is the " Task Card Dum......

Right about now is when school becomes one big stress ball of emotions for me.  Between testing and report cards and looming culmination....not to mention the senioritis that hits the fifth graders....April is really a hard month in which to teach.    And it isn't just me.  It seems like overall the staff (not just at my school but at all schools in my area) just tend to be a bit more stressed and down.  So when I read what Angela Watson of The Cornerstone for Teaching had to say in Chapter 7 of her new book Unshakeable: 20 Ways to Enjoy Teaching Every Day...No Matter What , it really struck a chord with me. This chapter is all about how you, one person, can affect the entire school culture.  The big takeaway for me was to stay positive.  In all of your interactions with colleagues, remain steadfast in your positivity. I have to admit, this is hard for me sometimes. It is just so easy to give in to the complaining as a way to destress.  But,......

Homework.  It is definitely a love-hate relationship that I have with that word.  On the one hand, I think the practice time is incredibly valuable for the students.  On the other, I know that with after school activities and the fact that the kids spend 6 + hours at school, they need a break.  With this in mind, I have formulated a homework plan in my room that is quick, to the point, easy to follow, and, most importantly, useful. For me, as I am sure is the case with many of you, homework consists of pages that I *would* assign during class if time allowed.  It is not busy work.  It is useful items that I believe provide consistent and necessary practice of skills that we are learning in class.  So what do I assign? Nightly, the students have the following. Read for 20 minutes. Complete a reading log response for the reading. Math Review Page Comprehension Paragraph of the Week Root Words I know...looks like a lot.  But it actuall......

In my class, the students have two sets of supplies -- individual and communal.  I find that having a set of shared items makes like easier for me and having some individual ones, makes like easier for them (which, in turn, makes life easier for me ;)) Each student has a pencil box with the essential items that they need.  Things like pencils, crayons, their Walking Classroom Walkit , the Classroom Procedure manual , and their reading book.  They also are allowed to keep scissors and a few other things that they may need, as long as the box doesn't overflow. The communal cubby, which is housed on the center desk in the group, has rulers, a tissue box, glue bottles, and extra crayons.  This is stuff that the entire table shares.  It is also things that don't get used all that often, so don't need a space in the box, but still need to be available to the kids. How do you manage your student supplies?  Do they have their own things or do they share every......

Nothing mindblowing today but I just wanted to share with you my end-of-the-day clean-up routine.  I know that sometimes this time of day can be completely chaotic, but I have tried my best to cut down on that and have us end with calm.  Here is what I do. I start about 25 minutes before the dismissal bell rings.  I begin by announcing that I am "looking for people who are ready to go home."  This is students' cue to sit down, clear off their desk space, and look at me.  Then, we have our 60-second clean up (I wrote in detail about that here ), our 15-second box clean and our 15-second furniture straighten. This is an old picture.  They also have POTW! Then, I ask the kids to take out their planner and we go over the homework.  I have the assignment written on the board, and used to just have them copy it down, but I have found that if I *also* say it aloud, the kids have a higher rate of writing it in their planner and not missing any homework......

Now that you have the basic overview   (if you missed this post, I would highly recommend going back and reading it) of what is happening during Reading Rotations in my room, I thought I would show you what I have done to organize it all and get it going with my students. I have 4 different groups in my room.  I named them....and you will be blown away by the creativity here....A, B, C, D.  I know.  I told you.  So creative. My reading groups are homogenous.  I think that, for me, I am able to target the reading needs of my students better this way.  There are many times during the day that we use heterogeneous groupings in my room, but this just isn't one of them.  I know some of you prefer to mix your reading groups up, and that is fine.  Either way will work in these reading rotations. Once my students were grouped, I gave each child a schedule for their own group.  The schedules look like this. You will notice that there ar......

Notebooks and journals are expensive.  I mean, $0.50 isn't ridiculous, but if you multiply that by 34, then again by the three or four journals needed throughout the year for the various subjects that are taught...well, that is just a lot of money out of my pocket.  And usually, I spend it, grumble a little, then move on because I know it is good for my students and a necessary cost. Then, the year goes on and, come the end, I realize that I haven't even filled half of many of the notebooks for whatever reason (I got lazy in my interactive notebook gusto from the beginning of the year, most things didn't require me to have the kids write it in the notebook, we didn't take that many notes....who knows) So this year, I decided to try and cut down on both the out of pocket cost and the lack of filling the notebook space and try something a little different.  I combined two notebooks into one, by flipping it upside down. The front of my notebook is for grammar.  Al......

I just wanted to share a little first day seating tip with you that I have been doing for years.  Actually, it didn't seem like much of a tip until I was talking to a colleague about it and she said that she had never thought of that before and it sounded like a blog post to her! ;) Where will each student choose to sit? Anyway, the first day of school, I intentionally leave all of the seats open.  I don't put name tags down at all.  I allow the students to sit next to whomever they wish and wherever they would like.  I know.  I gasp just went out amongst some of you.  How could I leave such an uncertainty up to chance?  What if the kids choose the wrong person to sit next to?   They may.....TALK!  Ahhhh!  Yeah, I know. But here is why I do it. By allowing the students to sit where they want on the first day, they are telling me a few things.  First, I am able to see who is an "eager beaver" and who is a "shrink......

Here we are, in part three of the series on a Classroom Economy.  If you missed what to do on Day One or Day Two , just go read them and come back.  I will be waiting here for you.  :)   Day Three: Today, the focus is on expenses and fines.  Students are ALWAYS curious about this part, and holding them off until the third day of school is sometimes hard.  However, I really want to focus on the positive, so I tend to keep this part on the back burner for a little bit.  On the first few days of school, the kids are usually in the honeymoon phase.  They are very well behaved and on-task, so keeping the fines discussion until day three generally tends to be OK. By this point, they have *seen* the expenses and fines.  I have them posted in my classroom and they are on the Register Cards I give them.  But I haven't actually explained them in full detail (other than in the overview on day one, when I skim through it.) So we start ......