Santa's Helper Christmas Writing

There is a fabulous book called "Who Will Help Santa This Year?" that is super adorable and absolutely hysterical.

It's all about who will help Santa and Santa finding the perfect worker (elves).  I have been really working to make writing fun for my students.  I thought this would be great because it could be short and sweet and turn into a class book.  The plan is to have each student write a paragraph about someone or something that could help Santa and tell about the things that could go wrong.  Then I am going to put it together for a class book and keepsake. My kids love to be silly and I want them to work on creativity so this should be a great starting point for them.  You can download the pages at my TPT store.

 

Christmas Scrapbook Pages

For the Christmas season I do a ton of scrapbook pages.  This year we wrote letters to Santa, letters to soldiers, and then I did a Christmas picture of the kids.  Each of those was a separate page.  For the letters to Santa and to the soldiers I used the same page.  Letters to Santa had the student's picture in the corner next to the signature.  Letters to the soldier had clip art instead.  You can premake the pages and print them out so they can be handwritten or you can have students type out their final drafts.   The result of the letter pages looked something like this:

The Christmas picture page was already shown in another post but here it is again.

The clip art is from Shalece Elynne, Surfin' Through Second, and Teaching My 3.  I also used PicMonkey to add reindeer noses and antlers, elf hants and ears, santa hats or any other cute things onto the kids' pictures. 

Christmas Gifts

Today's post is short and sweet.  One of my favorite things about Scholastic are the $1 books.  Boy do these make me happy.  I like to buy a set for small groups and occasionally I'll buy a class set.  My favorite thing to do is to use them as Christmas gifts though.  For a dollar a book you really can't get a better deal.

My first year, I didn't think my students would like the idea of getting a book as a present, but I was wrong.  My kids loved their books.  I had kids that couldn't wait to start reading.  Some started in the middle of the party.  Even the kids who aren't fans of reading got excited to take a book home.

Sub Plans

So part of the job of teaching is that inevitably you will be absent. That means sub plans. Inevitably you will also be absent for multiple days. This year I headed to the MSTA State Convention (my third year and it's like Christmas, birthday, and Thanksgiving all rolled into one). That means three days out as I travel several hours and spend two days at convention. As much as I love coming to convention I am terrified of the possibilities of a sub in my room. Let's face it, everything that can go wrong will. My first year I left almost ten pages for sub plans. Did I mention that was just for day 1? I worry. A lot. Plus, I've been a sub. I have been in rooms where they leave a stack of papers and no instructions or they don't leave enough work or there isn't a roster or any number of not great things. Not in my room. I have managed to cut it down to 4 pages or so per day which gives them enough detail that if they are clueless in the classroom it gives some assistance and if they are an experienced teacher they can quickly scan and get the important details.

One of my favorite activities though is leaving a writing prompt where the kids get to guess where I am and what I am doing. This is great for convention since I am gone several days and it gets their imaginations going. Last year I moved, changed jobs, had a boyfriend, went to the beach, took my daughter to the doctor (I am single and I don't have kids haha), and so much more. I was laughing so hard I was crying. I was actually really sad that I didn't get to be there to see it in action during the writing process and it became my inspiration for "My Teacher's Secret Life," a writing prompt about what teachers  do on their weekends. 

This year, I actually forgot to put it in my plans, so before I left I had a few minutes and we did a quick writing that was just basic ideas. The first thing I noticed was my kids wanted to write two sentences and be done. I think I need to do a daily journal to get them used to writing more. They absolutely loved writing about me though. They were dying to know what I was doing. They will be so disappointed to find out I didn't climb mountains, skydive, travel to Paris, cook a Thanksgiving dinner, get married or bring them back souvenirs. Those were just some of the awesome ideas. I think they think I'm a rockstar. My life is way too boring for their high expectations. Haha. 

My Journey to the Centers of the Classroom 3

This year I have a specific group of kids that can read every word on the page, but they struggle to understand what they read.  One of my favorite resources I've started using is close reading passages from the 24/7 Teacher.  I love these because each passage has four different reading levels. They also have different questions that are leveled from questions that are explicitly in the text, questions about new vocabulary, and inference and higher level questions.  I love these because she has themed ones for each month and there are more than I can possibly ever use.

My Journey to the Centers of the Classroom Log 2

So in June I blogged about my ups and downs with centers and small groups.  Just into November I've changed course again.  My goal at the beginning of the year was to have five centers and the students would visit a different center every day.  One of those centers would be at my table.  I had done this before and it had worked well in getting me to focus on pulling a group and really working with them.  This year I have huge ability differences in my reading specifically. I teach third grade and have students who read anywhere from first grade level to fifth and sixth grade level and then I have a group of students that struggles with comprehension.  Meeting in mixed groups wasn't meeting the individual needs of my students so I had to do some revamping.

One of the big shifts I've made this year is that I rarely meet with my lowest group as a whole group.  I have gotten to where I meet with them individually and I usually don't meet them during centers. Instead, I try to pull them throughout the day as I have time.  The activities I do with them are usually more individualized and we do anything from sight words to phonics books to just practicing fluency.  They each have their own needs and it is just easier to work with them one-on-one.

One of the games I love and so do my students is Buzz.  These are fluency phrases and Buzz cards.  The students have to read the card and keep it if they read it correctly. If they get a buzz card they have to put them all back.  When we do play it with the group they are so excited they can barely stand to wait their turn.  Even my kids who really don't like reading love to play this with their friends.  This is definitely one of those little gems from TPT that I love having as a resource.

Another resource I enjoy using with them is from Miss DeCarbo's store.  Her text evidence packages are great for my lower readers that need practice going back and looking for text evidence.

Animal Classification Reading Passages

One of the things I find it difficult to teach is science. I am not naturally good at understanding science which makes it harder to explain it.  On top of that, science and social studies somehow always get pushed to the back burner because math and reading take precedence in the classroom.  I am making a concentrated effort to be more effective, but it still manages to slip through the cracks.  I did manage to make this set though to help out with animal classification.

We don't have enough science books for a class set so my students need something in their hands they can read.  Plus, this also has comprehension questions to go with it.  I like using it to review after we've used our science books, talked, done activities, etc.  It has reading passages for mammals, reptiles, amphibians, arthropods, vertebrates, invertebrates, and fish. Each passage has an accompanying set of questions that build on all the previous knowledge and answer sheets to go with them.  If you would like to try it out you can grab it here.

CUBES and Word Problems

So this is a method that I saw other teachers use. While it doesn't fix all my kids problems in word problems, it does at least help a little bit.

The underlying idea is that students have to break down the word problem and really understand the information and what is being asked BEFORE they solve the problem.  At the moment, some schools are trying to move away from the "action words" like "in all" or "how much more." This method does work better for some of my students though, so I do introduce it to them. It helps them make sense of all the "stuff" they are reading.  This is a page I like to print for them to keep close in case they need it to help them figure out where to go. If you like it you can download it as a freebie from my TPT store.

Halloween Scrapbook Pages

It seems like this time of year I add quite a bit to my kids' scrapbooks. During October we go to the pumpkin patch on a field trip and we have a ton of fun and take lots of pictures and I make a field trip scrapbook page.

To add to that we also do monster writing. I love working on descriptive writing because my kids really need help making their stories more interesting.  Monsters make it easy because they get to use their imagination. The first thing we do is draw monsters. My kids are much more into art this year so their drawings were spectacular and every kid had their own brand of creativity. Once we drew our monsters, we practiced brainstorming and we spent a ton of time talking about adjectives. Then they wrote paragraphs describing their monsters.  We got these up in time for conferences so our parents could see them.  The kids loved showing them off.

We also include our first publisher project in our scrapbook.  Most of my kids are great with technology, but in third grade they haven't really worked with any word or computer programs designed specifically for publishing.  In October my kids get a crash course in text boxes, fill color, lines, clip art, fonts, and typing skills. We do all of this in Microsoft Publisher and the kids get so excited.  It takes a lot of convincing to get them to focus on the writing and not all the extras.  Ok so that doesn't really happen in real life because who doesn't love clip art, but a teacher has to try.

Five for Friday Linky 10/31

This week I am trying to get back in the blogging groove and link up to Doodle Bugs' Five for Friday Linky.

I'm not going to lie. I am not a big crafty person and when one of the ladies on my hall suggested this picture frame craft from Oriental Trading for the Halloween Party I was not jumping for joy. I also wasn't so thrilled about doing a scrapbook last year, but I have completely changed my mind about all things picture related. This craft officially made it all worth while.

While we were at the pumpkin patch, I took pictures to use in our end of the year scrapbook and this craft.  I don't think much of it and my kids usually don't think twice about it either. If anything, they want to ham it up for the camera. On the way home from our trip, one of my kids asked me why I liked taking so many pictures. I told him I was going to put them in our scrapbook. He didn't know what a scrapbook was so I explained that it had pictures of things we would do this year. Then he said, "So you keep it?" When I explained that I sent it home and it was his to keep, his face lit up. Then, he got this frame and picture to take home today. When He saw it his face lit up once again and he gave me a huge hug. I had to leave the room before I started all out bawling. These little things may not mean much to me, but you never know when a family or even a student will appreciate it. Call me a crafty wanna-be but I am now looking for other crafty stuff I can squeeze in that will be memorable for my kids.

As a new teacher I've been working hard to get enough shelves and storage for books in my classroom.  Since my amazing mother (who happens to be my inspiration for teaching) donated lots of books to my library, I don't have anywhere near enough space in my class. At the moment I have boxes and tubs stacked on boxes and tubs full of books.  Early in the week I made some room on one of my shelves in my house and unpacked some of my small group sets and my seasonal read alouds. About half of the books on the bottom shelf are Christmas books. I think I went a little Scholastic book order crazy my first year when it came to the November and December issues. I thought I didn't have enough Christmas books...problem solved. Haha. 

This week we are getting ready to wrap up our second unit in our new series. My goal is to finish up the third unit focus wall pieces so I can get them ready before I leave for my conference. Super excited about that!

Well Halloween means Halloween parties and we had a hot dog party complete with cupcakes, chips, cookies, and candy. It was super simple, but I didn't have any tongs to take the hotdogs out of the crockpot. My coworkers needed some items for their party to so we went to Wal-Mart. The above picture is what happens when we go shopping together. We spotted the colorful tongs and it was love at first sight. The lady standing about five feet away left the aisle shortly after giving us odd looks and commenting on how super excited we were...we might have been overly happy about the prettiness.  What makes this fabulous is that we all got excited and we all had to have one. Working with ladies who get my quirkiness, share it, and encourage it just makes my week ten times better.

This is completely not teaching related, but I received a new bracelet in the mail. I'm completely in love with it. A little sparkle to add to the end of my week! I hope everyone enjoys their fabulous weekend!

Columbus Day Weekend Sunday Scoop

Today I am linking up with the Teaching Trio's Sunday Scoop!

Here it is ladies and gents! Happy Sunday!

Computer Tags

September has managed to run away with my life.  If I thought August was a whirlwind, September definitely takes the cake on busy.  This month our school has been focusing on deploying laptops and getting the school to a one-to-one position.  My classroom has gone from 10 laptops to 20 laptops.  When my students walked in the next day there was lots of squealing and excitement.

What makes it a little more difficult for me is now I have to keep track of computers and how they are functioning.  With ten laptops it was hard enough when students told me what was going on.  Last year I started out putting a post-it note on a computer that wasn't working, but sometimes I couldn't remember what students told me was wrong or I couldn't remember which computer they told me.

Of course, simple solutions are the best! Number the computers.  Seriously.  How did I not think of that? It took seeing someone's blog where they had tagged their computers or iPads or some other technology.  Sorry, I don't remember who it was or I would give credit.  It was a simple fix for the problem I was having.  Everything is numbered and labeled in my class.  I really didn't think about putting labels with numbers on my computers.  Now students can tell me which number computer is having the issue so if I can't take care of it right away I can write down the number and the problem and look at it later.

Of course, if I'm going to label things it has to be pretty. I practically live in my classroom some days and I don't want to be surrounded by things that irritate me or don't look pleasing.  I'm in love with these frames from the Workaholic NBCT.  They are adorable and I use them for so much right now. Plus they come in lots of color variations. I fit about 12 on a page and my name is above the number.

Starting My Day Right (A Wordless Wednesday Post)

This week I am linking up for Miss DeCarbo's Wordless Wednesday!

To make sure I start my morning smoothly, I've learned my desk and table must be organized before I leave the night before. How do you make sure your mornings start smoothly?

Pesky Computer Cords

I mentioned in an earlier post that our school is currently moving towards one-to-one for students and laptops. This is great for me because it reduces sharing issues and my students can do independent projects with less management.  Plus, if a computer isn't working it doesn't disrupt my class as much.  Before when a computer had an issue it meant more students at a single computers, students moving, arguments over who was doing what, and so much more.  You know how one minor problem can spiral into a bigger issue.

Now I have twenty laptops, but with twenty laptops comes lots of chargers, cords, and having to store those cords.  Laptops on desks means their cords need to be around the desks. That means students have to be able to move around them.  Well this isn't the prettiest solution, but it works.  The cords aren't in the way and my students aren't tripping on them.

Our janitors and maintenance staff had these little thingy-ma-jiggers (yes that's as good as the description is getting).

They have a sticky back so all you have to do is peel off the back and stick it on.  You can also use a screw in the middle and screw it in to give it more stability. Then you use a zip tie and run the cords through.  It is super simple and easy.  It doesn't look gorgeous, but it is done and I don't have issues with it. Woohoo!

Wordless Wednesday: Focus Wall

Two posts in one day! Say what??? For this post I'm linking up to Miss DeCarbo at Sugar and Spice's Wordless Wednesday.

Certain things have to be cute in my classroom. Certain things have to match. I'm pretty sure there is a law.  This week I managed to start on matching sets for my focus wall, because I have been pulling resources from everywhere  this year (yay new series) and nothing matched. So matching focus wall pieces is my new hobby. 

What things in your classroom or life need to be cute or match to make you happy?

Pumpkin Patch Scrapbook Page

One of our field trips is a trip to a local pumpkin patch.  Our kids get to have a ton of fun and they get to bring home a mini pumpkin for Halloween.  I make two scrapbook pages out of the trip.  The first page is our class photo.  Field trips are great opportunities to get class photos because almost all your kids will show up for these.  Haha.  This scrapbook page was super simple.  The background was by Graphics from the Pond (AMAZING clipart) and I found a cute pumpkin font here.  This was the end result except instead of the ugly black box you would obviously put your class picture.

The second page was more personal. The day after we went to the pumpkin patch I had my students write a paragraph about their experience on the field trip. They published this on the computer and I printed it out on cardstock.  One field trip, two scrapbook pages!

Pencil Wars

The title of this post says it all for me.  Pencils are a battlefield for my students and I.  It drives me crazy!!  I've tried the sharpened and unsharpened buckets and giving it out pencils at the beginning of the week and so many other things.  Last year I ran across an idea for a pencil challenge.  This has saved my life!! I am not exaggerating.

I did make a change. I don't have pencil pouches for my kids and I am a little more picky about the pencils.  I give my kids three pencils a week.  They can come at any time and ask for another pencil, but they get three a week that count for the pencil challenge.  My big difference is that I want to make sure that my students are actually keeping track of THEIR pencils not just leaving them around and they end with the pencils they need. This means I write their number on their three pencils with a sharpie at the end of the pencil.  This takes a few minutes the first time you do it, but I don't mind. Plus it makes the kids accountable for their pencils.

I NEVER have students asking for a pencil from me.  NEVER! How incredible is that.  Plus, with their number on it I don't have students bringing me pencils because it is on the floor.  They find the correct person and I don't have random pencils floating around my room. Score for me!! Since I don't have kids constantly losing pencils it means we don't run through pencils as quickly as we have in the past.  My first year we actually ran out of pencils and I had to go buy some just to get through the year.

On Monday they get a prize if they can show me their three pencils.  If they can't they get the new pencils they need with their number.  If the pencils with their number are still in good condition they just keep using those and if they are getting small or look raggedy I will switch it out for a new pencil. Since my kids haven't had any problems keeping their pencils for a week, we are starting to up the time and now they have to keep track of those pencils for two weeks.

I know three pencils doesn't seem like much, but my kids are taking much better care of their pencils now so they don't need new pencils constantly.  They are obsessive about keeping track of their pencils.  I also cut down on sharpening because the kids are allowed to sharpen their pencil only in the morning during morning work.  Their job is to sharpen their three pencils.  If they need to sharpen their pencil the rest of the day they have to ask.  Before, my kids were sharpening whenever which meant if they were bored they got up and wandered to the pencil sharpener.  That meant my pencils magically disappeared.  Now they know their job is to have the three sharpened pencils and if they have to ask me to sharpen usually the first thing I ask is did you sharpen three this morning.

The pencil challenge has cut down on pencils in my room immensely and the way I do it works for me.

New Student Checklist

When a new student enters my room there are a million and one things that have to be done for them to function in my classroom.  There are several tests that have to be done to assess level, name tags, computer log-ins, data binders they need to be put in, and so much more.

My first year of teaching I had what I like to refer to as a "revolving door" classroom.  I had the lowest number of students, so I would get the kids that were transferring in.  This isn't at all unusual, but this particular year after I got a new student I would usually lose one within the next few weeks so I always had the lowest number of students.  That year since I had students moving in and out frequently I was constantly putting together papers for new students and doing all those little tasks and contacting five or six different people in the district to get all those tasks done.  I was always forgetting something though and I had no system to make sure that I did everything.

After about the fourth student I suddenly became brilliant.  You ever have those moments where you want to smack yourself for not realizing there is an easier way to do something?  As I went through and did everything for the new student, I wrote down what I was doing. Name tags, bus tags, clips, binders, supplies, tests, paperwork, etc.  I compiled a checklist for my new students for everything they would need.  If they needed anything done to be in my room it went on the list.

Each year I adapt the same checklist.  At the beginning of the year, as I'm setting up my new class, I change the list to fit what I'm doing this year.  It is a huge time saver.  Now I don't forget to have them tested or not contact someone about getting them into a certain system.  They also aren't waiting on me to get them a password I forgot to set up.  It makes my life soooooo much easier.

Organizing Copies

Several teachers I know have a similar system where they make their copies for the coming week and then they have a tray, bin, or basket for each day of the week.

I love my system for that, but I also have a system for copies farther into the future.  Sometimes you need to get a jump on copies or you want to do a complete unit at one time even though the unit will take several weeks. Instead of throwing those extra copies into a jumble I have baskets for each subject: reading, writing/grammar, math, and science/social studies.  When I have copies that aren't going to be used in the next week, they go into the corresponding basket.  Super simple and I can find the copies I need quickly.

It also has another great purpose, it makes finding extra work for days I have a substitute super easy.  If I have copies throughout the week that I haven't used, I put them at the bottom of my subject baskets.  That way I can use them later if I want them.  I separate the old copies and the new copies with a piece of pink cardstock.  Everything underneath the pink cardstock is old and I can pull it out for extra work, work for a sub, or whatever I need.

Everything on top I plan to use in the next couple weeks.  It makes my planning easier and my copies much easier to sort through.

Class Dojo

Last year I posted about my clip chart and how I was going to keep track of clips by using punchcards for every clip.  When students filled up a punchcard they were going to get a prize.  Well...that lasted all of about two days.  Ambitious would be the word I would use. Instead, I'm trying something very similar with a lot less maintenance on my part.  Class Dojo.

I used Class Dojo last year with my clip chart, but I would use clips one day and Dojo another day and it wasn't very consistent.  This year, I am using the clip chart only to clip down.  My parents and students are familiar with the chart for behavior and it also shows evidence for when students repeatedly have classroom issues and the discipline can't be handled in class anymore.

Instead of clipping up, which my kids really don't seem to care much about anymore, I am using Dojo Points.  For every 10 points, students will receive a prize.  There are a few reasons that this should work better for me.

1. Just hearing the sound of someone earning Dojo Points changes my classes behavior.  If your computer, iPad, or phone sound is on then earning points makes a sound.  My kids automatically start doing what they know they have to in order to earn Dojo Points.
2. This isn't something that takes a lot of effort.  All I have to do is press a button on my phone or computer.  
3. It encourages my kids to keep exhibiting better behavior. The earning potential never ends with Dojo Points like it did with the clip chart.  They can always keep earning points and prizes. That should be a huge motivator for my students.  

I made some reward pages and put them on my bulletin board to remind students what they can earn.  My first few students made it to ten points and the entire class got excited.  This is so low maintenance for me and my students really seem to love it.

My rewards are:

10 points- Candy

20 points- Pencil

30 points- Prize Box

40 points- Hats and Shades in Class

50 points- Work with a friend

60 points- Computer Pass

70 points- Homework Pass

80 points- Teacher Chair

90 points- Store Dollar

100 points- Snack

Holiday Weekends

Well most people are enjoying their three day weekend with last minute lake time or barbecues or shopping or any of the other fun things they could be doing.  When I think of long weekends I think of two things: extra time in my class and sleep. Well I managed to sleep for about 12 hours each of the last two nights (I also happen to be sick) and then I have spent Saturday and part of Sunday working in my classroom.  Have I mentioned I'm a self-professed workaholic? What I like about the extra time on weekends is that there is no one around which means fewer distractions and I can do all those things I have been putting off because I just don't have the time to do them  This weekend I managed to get a few things done.

First, we have a new reading and a new math series.  The great thing about new series is that it gets you out of any rut you might have been in.  They also happen to come with lots and lots of resources that are in separate pieces. I've been feeling like I'm having to go here for this resource and here for this resource and here for a different resource.  So my one big goal this week was to start organizing all of those separate pieces into one place so I would have everything I need.  For reading I made files for each week that includes vocab cards, definitions, and leveled readers.  As I add to my resources, I can add to the files.  Now the resources I need are in one place.  This will make me a lot less stressed in the coming weeks.

After I accomplished that minor feat, I managed to organize some of my binders.  This meant starting a reading resource binder that isn't related to my series but has supplements for different skills (i.e. teaching character traits, visualizing, cause and effect, etc.).  I also made labels for my binders because I had about eight total that didn't have a label and I was having to open three or four before I found the binder I needed.  Can we say waste of time?  Now I have cute labels and that makes me happy.

The other big thing I accomplished this weekend was to set up my intervention/small group binder.  In the next couple weeks we are going to start going to centers and I am now ready to pull individuals and small groups to work on skills.  This binder is set up to track data and keep me organized.

Beginning of the Year Scrapbook Page

Earlier I talked about the End of the Year Scrapbook that we create for our kids.  I thought it would be a good idea to show specific pages that I used in case you are interested in creating one too.  On the first day of school I like to give my students a chance to express themselves in an easy, non-stressful way.  This is a great little page by Doris Young that gives them something easy to do to ease us back into routine.

While they work on writing and coloring, I pull kids to take photos of their first day of school.  I make sure I have some kind of sign showing it is the first day of third grade.  This year I found these adorable signs on TPT by Teach and Tell Us that the students color themselves. I'm going to see how they turn out, but I'll probably have another sign ready for my kids to use just in case.

All you have to do is put each student's picture on a background and you have your first scrapbook page. I also include the "I'm Glad to be in grade 3" page in the scrapbook because my kids had some super cute excitements and nerves.

Give a Teacher a Hot Glue Gun and She'll Ask For...

Last week my family helped me get my new shelves put together.  This week third grade hallway got decorated.  Give us a hot glue gun and we can do just about anything.

Staining Shelves

So I am incredibly lucky that my Dad has been nice enough to build me wonderful shelves for my classroom. When I started my first year I just had two or three shelves that were hand me downs from the last room. It wasn't a big deal because my back wall had shelves that were almost five feet tall and went across most of the wall. Then I moved to my current classroom and I had a small shelf that ran the length of my back wall. I enlisted my Dad's help and he built me four shelves that spanned my back wall. Of course, a teacher can never have enough storage so this summer I wanted more shelves to put at the front of my room. This is where I plan on putting my students' individual boxes with manipulatives, books or personal task cards. It may also end up housing some of my centers.

I'm also very lucky that my Mom volunteered to help me paint the shelves. I decided to stain the shelves and I have to say they turned out great. 

In Process:

First Coat Complete:

DONE:

Dance Parties

One of my favorite things to do in my class is to have dance parties.  These can be for brain breaks, rewards, transitions, inside recess, or even just a little much needed fun on a stressful or long day. I love to play one of these as we are cleaning up centers or transitioning because students only get to dance once they have cleaned up their area and are ready to move on.  It is a motivator for them to get done.  Plus it gets out some of the wiggles and giggles.

My kids only have a couple rules for my dance parties.  The most important rule they have to follow is that they must stay behind their chair.  We have long tables for desks, so if they don't stay behind their chairs then they end up smacking someone else in the face (or they magically end up across the room with their best buddy). The other rule is that if it gets too loud the dance party is over.  Simple rules for some simple fun.  Usually it only takes me stopping a song once or for someone to sit down for my students to remember the rules.

Of course, YouTube is the place to go for all things dance party.  I like to use songs with specific dances so my kids don't end up on the floor break dancing and possibly breaking their necks.  It also means some of my more reserved kids don't feel as out of place and they will do the dances once they know the moves.  The popular ones we do are the ChaCha Slide and the Cupid Shuffle.  There are also a ton of videos on YouTube with Just Dance Kids.  I also love teacher made videos.  Here is a playlist of some of my favorites to use in my room.

 

Reminder App on iPhone

This is probably going to sound like the dumbest post ever, but you never know.  I've seen bloggers say that and then I look at what they did and think they are the most brilliant person I've ever kinda sorta met.

If you have an iPhone app and you don't use your Reminders App there is probably something wrong with your brain.  Ok.  Maybe not. It's just the easiest thing in the world for me and I don't have to have a ton of papers running around.  Plus, the app comes standard.  My obsession started with students that were leaving my class to go to other classes.  Maybe they had speech or reading with another teacher or maybe they were getting extra assistance. Some days I would have five or six students leaving my room at various times and that wasn't including the students that got pulled for reading intervention.  I am TERRIBLE at remembering to send kids.  Some of mine automatically remember, but the majority don't.  What else to do, but use my phone to set reminders. My first year I used my iPhone's calendar, but then it cluttered up my calendar and that irritated me. When I discovered reminders it was like the heavens opened up and angels started singing.  No lie.  There were lots of happy dances involved.

Here is how reminders work (mine may look slightly different because my phone is ancient and due for an upgrade):


Once you are in the Reminders App you can Add a List.  I have a list for "Special Classes" that encompasses speech, pull-outs, and resource classes.  Once you have your list setup, just go to the list and click on the plus sign or a blank line to make a new reminder in the list. I usually put my student's name and where they are going.  Here is an example of what a list might look like.

 

The best part is you can also set alarms.  For my ancient iPhone I click on the arrow out to the right.  For updated phones or iPads just click on the i that is on the right side. You will come to a screen that looks like this:

To set an alarm you turn "Remind Me On a Day" to the on setting.  Then you can change the day and how often it repeats.  If a student goes to the class every day I have it repeat daily. This means the alarms go off on the weekends too. If that bothers you (I don't really care), you have the option to do it a little bit differently.  Just set it up where you have a reminder for each day, Monday through Friday. Here is how that would look for one student daily:

If they only go a few days a week, I do set it up where they have a reminder only for the days they go.  For example, most of my speech students only go to their speech class a couple times a week.  If they went to speech on Monday and Wednesday I would set two reminders for them.  I would make one reminder for Monday and one for Wednesday.  Then I would set those reminders to go off every week.  This lets them go off only on the correct day of the week instead of every day.  

 

I'm also going to use my reminders app this year for another purpose.  My weekly checklist of things I need to finish to be ready for the next week. Last year I was constantly writing a list and marking things off.  I've seen teachers create a printable list or laminate their list and use a dry erase marker.  I'm going to use my reminders app.  Once you are done you can check it off and you can see what you have left.  Plus, once you have completed it the item will actually disappear and go into the completed category.  That way, your list gets visibly shorter.  That motivates me.  Once you are ready to reset the list you just click on the Completed and uncheck the boxes.  Then they go back to your list and you can start fresh.