The Wheels that Never Stop Turning... Summer 2015 "To Do" List

At the point in the year, I'm always thinking about what I want to do differently for next year and half kicking myself for not feeling like a did enough last summer, lol. Isn't that always the life of a teacher? In the last few weeks as we gear up for Georgia's new standardized test that aligns with Common Core, I realize that I need some new tricks to get and keep my kids engaged with new and unfamiliar texts, but to also give them tools that carry with them into high school. Below is my "To Do" list of things I want to accomplish this summer or ideas I want to refine from this year. 

• Become a Google Certified Teacher
• I completely acknowledge the need to integrate EFFECTIVE technology in the classroom. While I'm not super keen on the whole cell phone piece of interactive technology (I still think they are way more of a distraction for the majority of students), I love what Google has to offer, and I plan to incorporate much Google's apps next school year. 
• Become a TOOL Certified Teacher
• Eventually, I'd like to try teaching online where more of my time can be geared towards feedback and direct interaction with students. This is something that isn't happening anytime soon but down the road. I did renew my contract this year, lol. 
• Jump in with Kylene Beers and Bob Probsts Signposts 
• I want my kids focused on finding the clues contained in stories that they often overlook, but they definitely need to recognize and know about. I'm particularly excited to see what their non-fiction book has to offer. 
• Read more Jeff Anderson.
• I very cautiously began incorporating his grammar strategies this year as my students tackled informational texts, and it was amazing! Full steam ahead for next year. 
• Update my bulletin boards with year long emphasis in mind
• Every year, I plan out my bulletin boards based on units. However, I'm always emphasizing structure when writing throughout the entire year as well as FANBOYS and AWUBUS words. I want to create year long bulletin boards to really hit home with students how flexible many reading and writing ideas are across texts. This is definitely the case with Notice and Note signposts. 

This is my list so far. As we round out this year (we're only 3 weeks away from our last nine weeks!), I'm sure I'll be adding more. For now, check out some great Notice and Note Signpost bookmarks (Thanks Teaching With A Touch Of Twang) I came across on Pinterest that really have me inspired to introduce these to my kiddos during our short story unit!!

Technology Tuesday!

Practical Ed Tech is a page I started following with  my Google+ account. While you can simply periodically check in on their website for neat apps and tech tips, you can also opt to have weekly emails sent. I do the weekly emails and have them sent to my school email, so I can more readily feel out how I might be able to use them in my classroom.

What I love about this week's tip is how to use Skitch which is a tool that allows you to crop, blur, type on, or draw on existing pictures. This is really great when you might want to post that awesome pic from a field trip on your personal social media page, but you don't want to include any of your kiddos in the background or for privacy reasons.

Check it out and Happy Technology Tuesday!

"THAT" Student..YOU Know...the One that NEVER Brings all of His/Her Supplies/Books to Class??

We all have one (or maybe more than one). That student that just can't seem to bring all of their belongings to class. There is always one book, workbook, assignment, pen, pencil, etc. that gets left in the locker. This drives me bonkers. It's probably one of the worst pet peeves I have as a teacher not including forgetting to write your name on your paper. Maybe it's because I was a little OCD throughout school and never wanted to be that kid that forgot something. I even remember running back across campus during college because I grabbed the wrong binder. The thought of walking into class unprepared was more paralyzing to me than skipping the class altogether, but I digress.

So back to "that" kid that always asks in the first five minutes after the bell has wrung, "Mrs. DeLong, I need to go to my locker. I forgot to get my/ I got the wrong __________." It's to the point now that oftentimes, a quiet hush befalls my room as the other students wait to see what sort of verbal lashing "that" student will get today. And yet, tomorrow, I know that same kid, five minutes into class, will raise his/her hand and tell me they've forgotten something else yet again. Our team provides each student with a Knight Card of 10 punches that they may use during class to go to the restroom. My other teammates let the kids use it to go to their locker, but again, since it's one of my pet peeves, I don't. My "AHA" moment to this ongoing issue came last week when my students were required to turn in an argumentative essay. Out of about 85ish students, I only received 40 essays. Knowing that I was going to have them conduct peer evaluations, I had written the essay with them earlier in the week. I realized that instead of having those kids just sit there in class while the kids that completed the essay conducted the peer evaluation, I made extra copies of my essay, and had those kids do the peer evaluation on my essay. This upset several that assumed they would be able to get out of an assignment, lol. Much to their chagrin, and I totally was giggling on the inside.

Kids that are repeat offenders of not bringing their required materials to class lose their locker for a week. Since this is usually pretty embarrassing for a student as they are forced to keep the entire contents of their locker in a crate in their homeroom teacher's room, we rarely have to take a locker away multiple times in the year. Once usually does the trick.

Since I have students create several booklets for notes and helpful hints, I've started creating 2-3 extras that students use when they forget their own copy. The booklets are extremely helpful in keeping all of our elements of writing and sentence construction together for easy access, and I routinely encourage my kiddos to keep them out on their desk during the writing process. By far my most creative idea was writing the essays along with my students, so that when they fail to turn their own essay in, they can peer evaluate my essay which still allows me to assess if they can identify the important parts of the essay as well as identify any suggestions they might have such as improving word choice which is a focus in my room right now.

At the end of the day, this strategy doesn't get "that" kid to remember his/her things when coming to class, but it does ensure that they don't waste 15 min going back to their locker (our team lockers are on a completely different hall than where we teach) thereby getting behind while they are out of the room and me having to explain the directions all over again (which is even more aggravating). At the end of the day, it keeps my entire class on the same page within the same time frame, and that, for me (and "that" kid), is time well spent.

Don't ask about lack of writing utensils.... whole other story, lol........