Blog post will be live Saturday, 3/25- stay tuned!

Happy Teacher Appreciation week! I feel beyond appreciated thanks to awesome team at We Are Teachers. They sent me this package full of teaching goodies, and want to spread the love to 25 other teachers as well! In order to enter, post a classroom selfie to instagram or twitter with the hashtag #teachlikeaboss!

Here’s what’s included in each box:

• $25 gift card to Teacher Created Materials
• Love by Matt De La Peña
• Papermate Flair Pens
• Personalized notepad
• Stickers
• Clipboard
• 8 x 10 Art Prints

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!

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!

(Disclaimer: You’re probably wondering why I’m wearing a skirt with bare legs in the middle of December. Promise I’m not that crazy. Let me explain… this was originally a blog post from back in August. Unfortunately, in the middle of a blog makeover, my site crashed and I lost about half of my posts. Retyping every post word-for-word would be insane, so I’m just re-typing this one since it went viral. Shout out to my friends at @targetteachers for that. Enjoy!)

I can’t help myself when it comes to Target’s dollar section. It’s my best friend (and my wallet’s worst nightmare) during back-to-school season. I basically cleared all the shelves in Metro Detroit with the different styles of chalkboards they had for only $3 .Here’s a really simple DIY craft that I made for my principal and assistant principal to hang outside of their rooms this school year. I’m going to make some for my co-workers and save for Christmas gifts. Each sign wound up being under $5.

I made a video tutorial for those of you who want to make your own! (Update: I was overwhelmed by all of the IG tags! Yours look better than mine. Teachers on Instagram don’t play.)

If you choose to glance over the words and would rather look at pictures (like I usually do), READ THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE: You need repositionable gluesticks for this to work. I included a link to them below of if you don’t have any!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

VIDEO TUTORIAL