As we all know, parent communication is an extremely important part of our job. Staying in touch with parents about their child's progress is crucial. But how do we keep it all together and organized when there are phone calls, emails, conferences, after school encounters, etc. to keep track of? As I'm sure quite a few of you have encountered, sometimes there is a lapse in memory on our part, ... Read More about Parent Communication Binder – Keeping It All Together
A Ninja Subject and Predicate Classroom Transformation
Let's face it, grammar is usually NOT students' favorite subject, however, it is so important that students learn how to write properly. They must be able to identify whether or not they are writing a complete thought in a sentence and get their message across to the writer effectively. For this reason, using hands-on subject and predicate activities is a great method for teaching these otherwise ... Read More about A Ninja Subject and Predicate Classroom Transformation
Engaging Students by Incorporating Games in the Classroom
This summer I took some time to take some Professional Development courses in my district, as well as, did some of my own research online. Many of the ideas were the same, get each of the students involved and make them accountable. In the past I believed that putting students in groups would involve them, and assigning them a "job" would do it. I definitely love having students work together in ... Read More about Engaging Students by Incorporating Games in the Classroom
Classroom Library Set Up
Do you want to set up an organized and easy to use classroom library, but don't know where to start? Hopefully my process will give up an idea of where to start. First off, let me give you a quick snapshot of my personal experience. Last year, I started at a new school midyear. It was quite the challenge to start midyear and walk into another teacher's small classroom to co-teach. By ... Read More about Classroom Library Set Up
DIY Whiteboards for Students
DIY whiteboards for students take less than five minutes to make for a class set and the benefits are immeasurable! I absolutely LOVE quick response boards. We have used them for several activities like math daily work, vocabulary, spelling and more. I find that the students LOVE writing with dry erase markers, and I love how quickly I can assess who is understanding the concept and who is ... Read More about DIY Whiteboards for Students
Author Research Project – Kate DiCamillo
I am SO excited! We just recently got a class set of 30 laptops that we share with one other class. We used them for the first time last week to start our first author research project. Right before we began to read "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane," we researched Kate DiCamillo. Boy, did they have a blast! We first read the questions found in my FREE product, Kate DiCamillo ... Read More about Author Research Project – Kate DiCamillo