Goal Setting in the K-2 Classroom

March 17, 2018

Happy March Madness! March is easily my favorite time of the school year: college basketball is on 24/7, the countdown to spring break has begun, and students truly start to take ownership of their learning. With end-of-year testing right around the corner, I love getting my students excited about the growth they’ve made this year!

I hold our final data conferences every March during the two weeks before Spring Break. They involve the whole class, student, and family in the goal setting process. They consist of:
1. Whole class read aloud (Week 1, Day 1)
2. Individual conference with students (Week 1)
3. Parent-teacher conference (Week 2)

Read along to learn more about each component & for a free goal setting template!

Whole Class Read Aloud of Salt in His Shoes: Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream

I love this book for goal setting and teaching a growth mindset. I prefer it to some of the more popular growth mindset books because the main character is a young black male. It’s important that I keep books in the classroom that look like my students in order to foster a positive sense of self identity.

Salt in His Shoes: Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream is about Michael Jordan as a child. He was never as talented as basketball as the other kids in the neighborhood, so he would put salt in his shoes as a good luck charm. The book continues to show that in addition, young Michael Jordan would also spend all of his free time practicing. He eventually became a great neighborhood ball player, and as we all know, one of the most legendary basketball players of all time! I then ask the kids, “Do you think the salt in his shoes was the real reason Michael became great at basketball?” They answer that no, it was because he practiced. I then explain that the district sets a certain goal for us to reach on the end of year iReady test, and we’re going to take steps to get as close to that number as we can.

Student Conferences

I meet with each kid typically during my lunch or prep for about 10 minutes. We use this form, that you can grab for free in my TpT store! I use this during each of our three conferences, and by the end of the year, I have a binder full of evidence for my end-of-year evaluation.

We write the growth window- the start date is that day, and the end date is the day of the test. We then reflect on what the child can do now (based on data the district gives from the middle-of-year testing window) and what they need to be able to do by the final test. We then talk about what they can do at school and at home to meet that goal. I ask the child to speak with their parents about what they can do at home to reach that goal.

Parent Teacher Conferences

I wish these were called parent-student-teacher conferences, because at this point in the year, the student does the most of the talking! We use the goal setting template to guide the parent conference for the first 5-7 minutes. Our conferences are only 10 minutes, so it’s a quick and easy way to communicate progress with parents in a meaningful way!

You can grab the book here and the goal setting template here.

How do you set goals with your students? How do you communicate this during conferences? Leave any tips in the comments!

Book Lists

8 Essential Books for New Teachers

January 29, 2018

Starting your teaching career is fun, yet complicated. Your first few years will be spent settling into your classroom, spending late nights on Pinterest, and constantly thinking “Am I doing this right?”

Whether you’re entering an empty classroom or trying to manage some sticky behaviors, there’s a book out there to help you. I’ve narrowed down my long list to the 6 must-read books for student teachers and first year teachers. I hope this list saves you time so you’re prepared to rock your time as a new teacher!

PS- I’m always looking for new suggestions, so feel free to drop a comment if you have read any other great books that will help new teachers (and myself!)

Your First Year: How to Survive and Thrive as a New Teacher
• Teacher’s Field Guide: 7 Truths About Teaching to Help You Start off Strong, Avoid Burnout, and Stay in Love with Teaching
• The First Six Weeks of School
• The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher (Book & DVD)
• Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids: (and the rest of your class, too!)
• The Reading Strategies Book: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Readers
• Number Talks: Whole Number Computation, Grades K-5

The Teacher Version of “What To Expect”

1. Your First Year: How to Survive and Thrive as a New Teacher

This book is essential for: bite-sized advice for situations you’ll encounter as a new teacher.

This book was published last year and I borrowed it from a new teacher at my school. It’s the shortest book on the list and is a good book to read while student teaching or the summer before your first year. It touches the surface of basically every aspect of what being a first year teacher entails so you know what to expect. Read this one first for background information on what the other books take a deeper dive into.

The Best Book for Work/Life Balance

2. Teacher’s Field Guide: 7 Truths About Teaching to Help You Start off Strong, Avoid Burnout, and Stay in Love with Teaching

This book is essential for: avoiding burnout in your first few years.

This book is a new release that I wish existed during my first year! The author is a US Senate recognized Master Teacher who knows her stuff. I read this cover-to-cover in two days and couldn’t put it down. It has a lot of graphs, infographics, and doodles that make it a pleasurable read. The biggest game changer for me was a section about recognizing and preventing burnout before it occurs.

Schedules and Lesson Plans for the First Month of School

3. The First Six Weeks of School

This book is essential for: planning and executing the first few weeks of school.

I used this book word-for-word during my first two years of teaching. Now, I still use it as a skeleton and give myself a little more freedom to suit my needs. It’s basically the teaching bible. It plans the first six weeks for K-5 down to the minute! Even if you have set curriculum, it will prevent situations you never saw coming, like their first adventure with scissors. It also has insanely good advice for teaching procedures for centers!

The Ultimate Guide of Procedures and Routines

The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher (Book & DVD)

This book is essential for: ensuring you have all bases covered Day 1.

This book was given to me by my district my first year AND by an experienced teacher in another district. Ask any great teacher, and they’ve read this book. It may look “old school” but don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s solid, practical advice without the fluff.

The Best Book for Behavior Management

5. Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids: (and the rest of your class, too!)

This book is essential for: managing tricky behaviors.

Behavior management is my least favorite part of teaching. This book has really helped me minimize problematic behaviors that arise during the school day and every year it slowly gets better. I especially recommend this to anyone who has a student with an emotional/behavioral impairment.

The Best Book for Teaching Reading

6. The Reading Strategies Book: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Readers

This book is essential for: engaging readers and increasing test scores.

I love this book because it has a wide variety of lesson plans for kids at all levels. I use this along with Jan Richardson’s guided reading books since I teach at a school with a Scholastic leveled book room. This is based on Fountas and Pinnell reading levels, so if your school uses DRA, Scholastic Guided Reading, or Lexile levels be sure to use a conversion chart.

The Best Book for Teaching Writing

This book is essential for: explaining why modeling is critical for writing, and providing steps for instruction.

Before attending Kelly Boswell’s PD in person, I was teaching all wrong. I would pre-write samples and show the kids. Kelly’s book provides concrete steps for modeling every step of the writing process with kids, so they understand what a writer’s thought process looks like. She also recently published Write This Way from the Start: The First 15 Days of Writer’s Workshop (Capstone Professional: Maupin House), which I’m dying to get my hands on!

The Best Book for Teaching Math

This book is essential for: developing strong number sense for K-5 learners.

This book is pricy, but honestly so critical for math instruction. It includes videos and step-by-steps of introducing pretty much any math lesson you’ll ever teach. It even gives you sample problems to get you through your first few days of lesson plans on a topic. It has made planning for math SO much easier, even with our district’s scripted curriculum. There’s also a rental option if you just want to try it out a few times in the classroom!

Thanks for reading! If you have any other suggestions of titles for new teachers, please comment with the title! I’m always looking for new books to read and improve my instruction, and I especially love ones that I can share with other teachers!

Lifestyle

Productivity Tips for Busy Teachers

January 21, 2018

When I first started teaching, I had awful time management skills. I wanted to be a great teacher, but I also wanted to form (and maintain) friendships in a new city. I assumed that maintaining a work/life balance meant sacrificing one for the other. I wasn’t willing to do that and exhausted myself by trying to “do it all” without a game plan. I’m very Type B and know how frustrating it is to fail at the same, basic advice given to me over and over again: “Make sure everything has a place! Use a planner! Say ‘no’ to things that aren’t important to you! Meal plan! Become a morning person! Don’t wait til the last minute!”

If this advice doesn’t work for you, chances are you’re a real person. You might have kids, graduate classes, or a second job when you leave school for the day. You don’t have enough time to eat all three meals, let alone meal plan. You need more hours in the day, but can’t cut any out of your busy schedule.

When I was teaching while in grad school full time, I tried every trick in the book to maintain a healthy work/life balance. I learned that you can’t add hours to the day, but you can be intentional about how you spend your time. You don’t need to be a Type A person or plan every single day down to the minute (trust me, I tried). After a lot of trial and error, here’s what worked. Hopefully, this list can save you the time and stress I went through trying to figure it all out.

1. Write your plans in pencil.

I love flair pens and Sharpies as much as the next teacher, but pencils make changing plans a lot less stressful. It also puts you in the mindset that it’s okay to change plans occasionally, we’re all humans that are busy. I spend maybe 15 minutes max planning on Saturdays (see #4 for how I set time limits) in my Passion Planner, which I LOVE. I’m really not a planner person, but this one works because it has everything I need for my personal and work life in one spot. I brainstorm personal and work to-do items for the week in the planner, but always put them on a screen daily to ensure they get done(see #2).

2. Keep your to-do list on a screen, not paper.

My favorite tool for this is a chrome extension called Momentum. I keep a to-do list and a big “to do” for the day on it. Every time I open a web browser, it greets me with a relaxing picture and inspirational quote. It’s a lot easier to keep track of than a paper and pen list that I usually lose or forget about. I’m on my computer more than anywhere, so it’s a great home base for feeling accomplished while working.

For shopping lists, use a phone app. My favorite is Any.do. Forgetting something on a paper list or “list in your head” (guiltyyyyyy) can cause you to lose around an hour from your day, and typically pulls you away from a task you were working hard on!

3. Tackle the chores you hate on Saturday

The Sunday scaries are REAL. Getting everything done on Saturday gives you a stress-free night out (or in) and a full day after to do whatever you want. On weekends when I have Saturday plans, I’ll do everything on Friday night. Since I’m a procrastinator, even writing this tip makes me roll my eyes a little. Here are some reasons for making this a habit:

Stores are less crowded on Sundays, and practically empty on Friday nights. You’ll save at least 30 minutes from your trip by getting a closer parking spot, accessing items more quickly, and breezing through the lines.
Guilt-free Saturday nights. Binge watching a Netflix series on Saturday nights isn’t as fun when Sunday of lesson plans, laundry, and cleaning are on your mind. If you’re going out, you can celebrate everything you got done with no fear of a hangover!
Sunday funday. Adios, Sunday scaries. Go to brunch, drink that bloody mary, shop til you drop, and spend time doing what you wanna do.
Feeling energized on Mondays. I’m now a Monday person now that I’m not spending my entire Sunday cleaning, cooking, and sometimes planning. It feels like a total “reset” button on the week. You can always finish up small tasks in your place on Sundays if that makes you feel more “ready” for the Monday ahead. Much better than showing up to work exhausted from a long day of chores!

[h1]4. Use alarms, not the clock, for small tasks.

During the school day, I used to get nothing done during my prep because I was constantly staring at the clock to make sure I’d leave on time to get my class from their specials. Now, I set a daily alarm that rings 10 minutes before my prep ends so I can start cleaning up and heading down to get the kids. It helps you focus SO much more. I also do this in the mornings while getting ready because sometimes I lose track of time doing my hair and makeup. Instead of thinking “I need to be ready by 1”, you’ll think more along the lines of “I have 30 minutes to get ready”. Doing this with smaller tasks will ensure you spend less time on them in order to create space and time for bigger projects, self care, or working out.

5. Don’t make social plans more than a week in advance.

Things come up. With the exception of RSVP events, I don’t plan anything more than a week ahead of time. There are less hurt feelings if someone needs to cancel, and spontaneous plans are usually the best kind. It feels less like an appointment when you make social plans on the spot. It’s been really helpful with dating, too, because I used to schedule plans with my girlfriends around a first or second date that was already planned for the week. I used to go shopping for cute date clothes too, which is now nearly impossible when making day-of plans. When you spend less time getting ready for a date, there’s less room for feeling like you wasted your time if it didn’t work out. I usually try to keep either Friday nights or Sundays without any plans at all so spontaneous plans like dates or nights with my girlfriends can pop up.

6. Read this book

As I previously mentioned, I’m really disorganized and Type B. This book was a total gamechanger the year I started my TpT store while in grad school full time and working full time. Even though my things aren’t organized, my mind now is. It literally re-trains your brain in a way that works for you!

Last but not least, here’s a little peek of what I’m doing this upcoming week. Like I mentioned in #5, I like to leave lots of blank space open for the following weekend so plans can organically come up!

What are you up to this weekend? Let me know in the comments section!

Lifestyle

Personal & Professional Resolutions for 2018

January 7, 2018

Happy New Year! This year on social media, I’ve seen a big shift from making resolutions to setting goals for 2018. The trend inspired me to write a blog post about embracing resolutions and making them work for you.

Resolutions can be intimidating, but are actually much easier to achieve than goals! Goals are typically set on a grander scale, leaving tons of room for disappointment when December comes around. Resolutions have a higher chance of success because they are simply a small change to your daily, weekly, or monthly activity.

Each year I set a teaching resolution and a personal resolution. Below, you will find what I chose for this year, along with a list if you need some inspiration!

Skirt ($18 once it’s in your cart!!) · Top (also on sale!) · Shoes

My personal resolution for 2018 is to not eat in the car. Other personal resolutions that I’ve kept are not going to the tanning bed (haven’t since 2014!), no caffeine (I’m slowly introducing coffee back into my life), and no phone out while eating.

My teaching resolution is to change our classroom calendar on the first school day of every month. I’ve been seriously slacking now that I no longer teach a grade that does “calendar time”. I set an event in my iCal on the first school day of each month so I don’t forget! It sets an alarm on my phone 15 minutes before. If you use Chrome, the extension Momentum helps you feel so accomplished and focused on your daily goals!

Here are lists of teaching & personal resolutions that are easy to keep and lead to some positive change for the upcoming year ahead!

Personal Resolution Ideas

Download the app Mint and pick one area to budget. Stick to it each month for a year.
Unsubscribe from 10 email lists on the last day of each month.
Don’t go to bed with any dirty dishes in the sink.
Use a Swell instead of wasting money and plastic on disposable water bottles.
Don’t let your gas tank get more empty than 1/4 of a tank.
Send one hand-written card a month to a friend you haven’t seen in a while.
Unfollow 1 person on social media per month that you constantly compare yourself to.
Make a list when you go grocery shopping and only buy those items.
Limit your Amazon orders to 3 a month.
Put away laundry the day you do it.

Teaching Resolution Ideas

Clean your board at the end of each week with a
Replace used sub plans on the first day you return to work from an illness or personal day
Change your calendar on the first school day of the month
No coming early & staying after on the same day. On days you arrive early, leave on time. On days you know you’ll be staying after, arrive when the bell rings.
Pick a day of the week. On this day, do not bring any work home or check e-mails once you get home!
Use a thermos instead of using disposable coffee cups/ making a daily coffee stop
Bring your lunch to work instead of going out on your prep.
Make 1 positive phone call home a week.
No work e-mailing from your phone. (I swear by this for work/life balance!)
Lay out your work clothes the night before.
Recycle the cans you drink at work (mine stay in a bin under the sink until it’s full!

PS- I love how this outfit goes from “single & ready to mingle” to “trust me with your children” in 0.5 seconds. I got this skirt 70% off the sale price at Loft & it hits the knee when you wear flats!

I hope you all are having a great start to 2018 so far! If you have a resolution this year, tell me about it in the comments section- I love hearing what everyone is up to!

Playlists

November Classroom Playlist

October 29, 2017

Happy (almost) November! Since the start of the school year, quite a few teachers on instagram have asked me to share my classroom playlist. Now that the back-to-school frenzy has calmed down a bit, I’ll be sharing a new playlist each month! You can follow along directly on Spotify or use the track list below to create a a playlist on a CD, Apple Music, or whatever platform you use to play music during the school day.

A few of these songs were shared by students, and others are songs from my current personal playlist. Finding songs without any explicit or suggestive lyrics turned out to be more difficult than I thought! Maybe I’ll post clean versions of my favorite “teacher” songs as a second playlist next month. Thoughts?

Here’s the playlist you can follow. The track list is below the player if Spotify is blocked at your school (like mine)!

1. Good Ole Days (feat. Kesha) – Macklemore
2. Help Me Out (feat. Julia Michaels)- Maroon 5
3. I Like Me Better- Lauv
4. Celebrate- Ingrid Michaelson
5. Let Me Go- Alesso, Hailee Steinfeld, Florida Georgia Line
6. Lush Life- Zara Larsson
7. Most Girls- Hailee Steinfeld
8. Friends (with BloodPop)- Justin Bieber
9. I’m The One- Kidz Bop
10. Problems, Problems- Frankie & Marc E. Bassy
11. Mine- Phoebe Ryan
12. Looking for You- Empire Cast
13. No Promises (Acoustic)- Cheat Codes & Demi Lovato
14. Some Type of Love- Charlie Puth
15. Together- Demi Lovato & Jason Derulo
16. Should’ve Been Us- Tori Kelly
17. Havana- Camilla Cabello & Young Thug
18. Silence- Marshmello & Khalid

Which is your favorite? What songs are you listening to right now? Leave some feedback/suggestions in the comments below for the December playlist!

Uncategorized

Organizing Class Assignments with Ease

August 23, 2017

As a new teacher, I spent countless hours playing hide-and-go seek with missing assignments. At first, I didn’t mind, but as the year went on the papers found better hiding spots. Permission slips would sneak their way into the crack between my desk and the wall, piles of graded assignments would park themselves on the guided reading table, and unfinished work would be sandwiched between notebook pages.

My endless search for loose paper wasn’t because my students are bad at staying organized. Actually, they were REALLY good at following my directions. Disclaimer- these directions WILL lead to missing papers:

“If it’s not done, keep it in your desk for now.”
“Put this note in your pocket.”
“Turn in your permission slips in with your homework.”

Even when I had every paper turned into a single bin, I was still doing too much work. It took a ton of time to sort through different assignments, flip between pages of the gradebook, and sometimes get up for a new game of paper hide-and-go seek. I took the pressure off myself and came up with a system that my little friends could manage on their own.

This system has six categories for turning in student work: I’m done, still working, homework, signed notes, send home, and extra copies. Each section is pretty self-explanatory, but if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below!

To set it up, you’ll need an IKEA Shelf, matching bins, and these free labels. I love this shelf because the bins come out completely, so you can easily take work back and forth after grading it. I usually assign a student to collect homework, and it’s much easier for little hands by carrying the bin instead of 34 packets!

If you don’t have an IKEA near you, you can use these 3-drawer Sterilite bins. You’ll need 2, so this 4-pack is a pretty solid discount. A paper cutter will ensure that they fit inside of each drawer perfectly.

Once you have either the shelf or bins, just print, cut, and attach! Take time to explain the system to the class and parents. I let parents come in at the start and end of the day to turn in signed notes and collect extra copies if their student is missing an assignment or form. It especially comes in handy when gathering work for a student who is absent!