Getting Organized: Better Late Than Never

Ideas always come to me when  I least expect them. Since I am crazy ADD, I'm always jotting down notes or leaving memos on my KEEP APP on my phone. 

On the way home from Atlanta today, I kept thinking about how I could streamline all the paperwork I have to keep up with including student information, bell schedules, attendance, sub plans, etc. While I have a current system in place, I want to move more towards having everything in one place. Pinterest has a wealth of pins the ultimate teacher binder; however, after perusing probably close to 100 pins, I finally settled on making my own, since many ideas on Pinterest are elementary school based and include way more information than I would ever want in the binder. I want it to be simple and user-friendly. So here is essentially what I came up with thanks to some awesome graphic templates by Mel Stampz:

Cover Page

Table of Contents

Attendance (I have one for each period I teach)

Teaching Schedule

This is as far as I got today, but I will update as I finish the other template pages. Since I teach two content areas, I like to keep all my plans on the same page for each day, so I can plan cross-curricular activities more often. It also allows me to keep a better perspective on what's going on for the week. Ideally, I like to be able to see my lesson plans for the week, meetings, school activities/events, and any other goings-on occurring that week, so I don't get surprised. No one likes mentally preparing to go make 500 copies only to be reminded at the last minute that you have a previously scheduled parent conference, AND you haven't filled out the parent conference paperwork yet. Not at all how you wanted the day to go, or end in my case since I have end of the day planning. Forgotten meetings can definitely throw off my momentum which is why I'm determined to get all my proverbial ducks in a row this year. So here's to getting organized; better late than never :) 

Happy Labor Day Weekend!!

Putting All the Pieces Together: Reading, Grammar, and Writing

We just finished up our third full week of school, and I am definitely ready for this long weekend. However, every year I tell myself I'm not going to bring work home on holiday weekends, but..... I always do. This weekend's load includes 120 RAEECE paragraphs, 90 comma tests, 90 conjunction quizzes, and 30 Georgia Studies quizzes. The ironic part is that I'm excited to see how my kiddos did on their first major test and to see how much they've improved on their writing. Using Kelly Gallagher's ideas for incorporating grammar instruction through "Sentences of the Week" based on "Articles of the Week" and creating an evidence-based response, I have really seen kids begin to connect the proverbial dots when it comes to reading and writing and identifying important grammar elements to emulate. This is one of those "AHA" moments I wish I would have figured out before now.

Here's the basic run-down of Sentences and Articles of the Week:

Prior to Monday, I choose an current event article from NewsELA or Vale Middle School's Articles of the Week. I try and keep in mind what we are learning in Georgia Studies or what my students might be learning in science to reinforce cross-curricular connections.
The 2-3 sentences I pick out for my sentences of the week all have a common grammar connection. 

Sometimes I choose the grammar concept based on our curriculum map or what I see my students struggling with when writing. For example, for the first Monday's SoW, I chose to cover prepositional phrases and predicate adjectives to demonstrate to students the difference between their idea of a simple sentence and what a quality detailed simple sentence COULD look like. 

Here are the SoW Directions that I have my students copy down. For the first week, I chose an article on the 5-Second Rule. If you're students are anything like mine (teenagers in general really :), germs on the floor won't make them hesitate a second for a dropped piece of candy. 

Here are the SoWs I used the first week based on the 5-Second Rule article. Also included are the SoWs from the 2nd week on an Amelia Earhart article. Both articles were taken from the NewsELA website. 

I had intended for week 2 to focus on verb mood, something that is quite new to students, and what, I figured, would take a considerable amount of time to recognize in texts and use correctly in their own writing. However, the grammar fates dictated something quite different. After reading through some of their written responses from the 5-Second Rule article, I quickly realized that my little doodlebugs had no idea how to use commas correctly. And I really mean, they had absolutely no idea. I had kids putting commas before and after subordinating conjunctions in complex sentences, no commas with coordinating conjunctions, commas before "is", etc. It was bad. So, those first writing pieces dictated the grammar concept I focused on in the Amelia Earhart article. 

After going over the grammar component, we focus on the article. I was a bit skeptical when Gallagher mentions in his book, Write Like This, that the kids like seeing the SoW sentences when reading the AoW, but he was so right! It also motivates my students to pay attention to how the author is writing and incorporating grammar. When we read the Amelia Earhart piece, they were very quick to point out other examples of commas and what rules they applied to. This type of classroom conversation has never taken place in my room before. 

During the second week of school, I also introduce annotation for printed texts. I teach students to use the BUQ2C Method: Box headings and subheadings, Underline main ideas and key details, Question mark unfamiliar words or phrases, and Comment on the gist of each paragraph or section of text in the margin. We annotate the first article together, so they can see my thought process in how I determine what gets underlined, circled, and how I choose to make/word my comments on each section of the text. After reading Gallagher's book, I realized I don't do nearly enough modeling for my kids, so they see the thought process that goes into writing and revising. Another goal for the year :)

Several years ago, the other two Language Arts teachers and myself all began teaching our kids how to write in RAEECE Format. It's a short paragraph response that includes text-based evidence and an MLA citation. This is a starting point for our kids that gives them that solid jumping off point, but also allows for expansion later on as they become more confident in their writing. In our county, writing in all content areas is our learning focus goal for this year. As a result, all teachers on the 8th grade hallway utilize this RAEECE model to ensure continuity in students' writing no matter what the student is writing about in any given class. 

I know I've included a lot of information in this post. To summarize:

• Monday: 

1. Warm-Up (Bell Ringer): Sentences of the Week- comma usage
2. Article of the Week
1. Annotate
2. Discuss
3. Short video: Amelia Earhart
3. RAEECE Response
1. Amelia Earhart Example: Based on the article, "Enhanced photo could solve Earhart disappearance mystery," what do you think might have actually happened to Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan?

Throughout the rest of the week, my warm-ups consist of having students create sentences with specific requirements focusing on comma usage. For example, I might have them create a sentence that begins with a transition and includes a list or series. Groups work together to come up with the best, most detailed sentence. If it's correct, I reward them with a pass of their choice (5pt, free lunch seat, late homework pass, etc). 

Day 2: Numbers and QR Codes

Numbers and Me

After stumbling upon Kelly Gallagher's book, Write Like This, I got quite motivated at the last minute this summer and began scanning Pinterest for anything pertaining to writing. I came across a great activity, "Me By Numbers". You could potentially modify this activity to fit onto an 8 1/2 x 11 or  poster board. Some similar activities even had students creating math equations to equal the number that then described them in some manner. 

While I did find this activity prior to the beginning of school, time got away from me, and I never got around to using it with my students. However, what I'm thinking of is having my kiddos do this at the end of the year as a reflection project to see how far they've come. I'm thinking of having them include numbers such as the number of writing assignments they've completed or the number of times they wanted to give up but kept going. I want them to reflect on moments they thought about giving up but pushed on. This is still an idea in progress, but you get the gist of it. Next year, I plan on having students do this activity at the beginning and end of the year and compare. 

QR Codes

Haven't we all heard about these, seen these, and maybe even ignored these by now? So as of this year, I'm officially hooked (line and sinker). Since so many of my kids have smartphones with guaranteed internet access, I created QR codes that take them everywhere from my teacher webpage, online textbook page, and even our school website. I then have students bookmark or create a shortcut on their home screen (or one of their other screens) for easy access. 

QR Codes also came in handy for my parents during Parent Orientation. We send a newsletter home during Open House before school starts, however, I hadn't stumbled upon QR codes at that point, so I used our Parent Orientation Night to condense our team newsletter to one page and add the QR codes (right). On the left is a student version I handed out prior when I was first practicing using QR codes. My students love anything that allows them to use their phone. 

I used the following website to create my QR Codes for Free!!

• Go to the website
• Paste in your URL
• I download my codes so I can copy and paste them to whichever documents I'm using. This also allows you to modify the actual size of the QR code. 

Both Apple and Android phones have QR Code Reader Apps for Free as well.

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First Week Reflections

In Georgia, we are well into our first month of school having gone back on July 31st and the students on August 6th. I've had quite a while to reflect on what I did the first three days (we started back on a Wednesday), and I have realized I need to come up with a new game plan for my kiddos. At the end of each school year, I always have such grand plans to spend my summer getting super organized, type up all my lesson plans (for the first time ever), and come up with awesome back to school activities for those days before the kiddos get their textbooks. What ACTUALLY happens is several bags of school books, notebooks, and other items are relegated to a corner of my home office or bedroom for at least the first month of summer. Every day I glance at the corner and tell myself that "tomorrow" I will get down to business. Right, never happens. Well, it does happen about two days before pre-planning is about to start, and the panic attacks set in as I realize that I haven't cracked open those now dusty bags all summer. But I digress.

A fellow 8th grade teacher shared her ice-breaker handout with me, and since I wasn't super excited about my brown bag activity, I eagerly took her up on the handout. It required students to get other student signatures for summer activities and hobbies that took place last summer. My students were quite receptive to it. What I realized went wrong is that they really enjoyed learning about what everyone signed off on. Sure I spent time going over some of the more interesting activities such as "Traveled off the continent" and "Likes to sew, knit, or crochet." However, next year I plan to allow kids to get into small groups and really analyze each other's responses to see what they had in common, what were their differences, and develop some new friendships. This activity is especially great for my classroom as we live in a high military area and are always getting in transfer students from other states. As we can all empathize, middle school is not the easiest place to walk in and be the "new kid" yet again. This activity definitely has the potential to offer students a sense of camaraderie, even if they only just met through allowing students to make connections and find commonalities. But none of that happened this year because it didn't occur to me to put students in groups to let them see what they had in common. So that's goal #1 for next year :)

THIS (made by Tales of Teaching in Heels) is very similar to what I did as an ice-breaker. The main difference is that my activities were in list form with lines for student signatures, but you get the idea :)