Technology Overload

One thing that I love about working in this district is that the opportunity to incorporate cool technology in the classroom is always there.  Sometime I wonder how people taught before technology was available!

Today, I am feeling overwhelmed with all the technology that we have access to.  In my classroom, my students use Lexia, Study Island, Math Expressions, Fusion, and Education City, Benchmark, and Tumble Books.  While I love having all of these options out there for my students to stay engaged and excited about learning, I am having a hard time managing all of these resources so that they will benefit my learners.

I am wondering if anyone has advice on how they are finding the time to into some of these resources to assign things, or make it individualized for each student in a class of 23+.  I feel like I am letting my students down because not every resource is personalized for their level/ability/skill.  Any ideas would be appreciated!

Sub Plans

I was fortunate enough to travel the week before Thanksgiving, which meant that I took three personal days last week.  I am still exhausted from the process of planning for it all!  It took me longer to plan for the sub than it usually takes me to plan for a whole week.  I spent long nights the week before I left writing detailed plans for each day and making sure everything was exactly the way it needed to be.  I wanted to make sure I covered every contingency and that I had plenty of activities for each class.  I feel as if this helped make the transition easier, both for my students and for the substitute, but I still feel like I'm trying to catch up from my time away.

How do you usually plan for a substitute?  What do you think is necessary to include in your plans?  How strictly do you want your sub to adhere to your plans?  I found out my sub didn't follow the morning meeting quite the way I wrote it down, and that doesn't bother me so much, but when I found out he didn't require all of my students to do their morning work, that did bother me.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

Google Account?

You have a shakopeeschools.org account. That's good. Now what do you do with it?

I've run into a number of people that have our lovely Google accounts and really haven't done much other than make a blog posts. I thought I would list some ways I use it and I'd also love to hear how you all are using yours!

Here we go!

1.) I made a Google calendar and have it on my teacher website with all my assignments listed. I also do this for my swim team schedule.

2.) I sync my bookmarks using Google Chrome's "sign into Chrome" feature and can access my bookmarks on any machine with Chrome (including my iPhone, iPad, laptop, and desktop.)

3.) I created an exit ticket and put it on my teacher website when we were in the computer lab.

4.) I created a Google+ account to follow education blogs and other teachers as well as share resources I find (MORE PEOPLE SHOULD JOIN SO I'M NOT ALL ALONE!)

5.) I use a Google form to have volunteers register for my swim/dive team meets. I also use it to keep track of their contact information.

6.) I store important documents in the 5GB of storage that's on Google Drive and can access that anywhere on any device.

I think I should be a Google sales rep. 

How do you use your Google Account?

Behavior Interventions... 6th Grade -UP

Within my EBD program, I feel that a lot of our behavior interventions are working well for students, scheduled breaks, visual schedules, social skills groups, point sheets/reinforcement programs. My last two years, I have had few 5th graders. This year, I have 6. Now is the time for me to start planning how to transition/gradually transfer responsibility to these 5th graders to prepare them for 6th grade and up. So, any ideas/experience for how these types of interventions are implemented within classrooms in the upper-grades? Are visual schedules used much (i.e., individualized schedules to carry around), do students self-initiate for breaks. What works well in your rooms for students who have behavior/social/emotional needs? Thanks!

Its that time....

I cannot believe how fast the year is already going; however I can honestly say that I am ready for a 2 day break. With teaching I feel that we can often time forget the 'ME time.'  Its important that we still have a balance between our work life and personal life.  Sometimes they can get very intertwined and its important to take that time for us. 

What are you looking most forward to on your break?

Websites: Sharing Notes and Presentations

Hello Everyone!
I've had a number of requests from students and parents to share my notes and presentations that I use in class. They want them posted on my website.

What I have noticed is that some students just assume they can slack off in class and then print the notes at home... that's why I've been resistant.

But I'm curious, how do you share notes to parents and students online?

Meaningful Discussion

My major goal for this year is to create an environment for higher-level discussion in the classroom.

As a group, the 7^th graders I work with are very willing to participate and answer questions. However, I struggle with asking higher-level questions and fostering genuine discussion. Students are willing to raise their hands to share journal responses, for example, but I don’t think those questions are necessarily as deep as they could be. When discussion is the focus for a small group, students take turns, but often don’t build on each other’s responses further than “I agree.” In the past, I have tried different discussion protocols with varying degrees of success.

Do you have any suggestions for encouraging meaningful discussion at the middle school/junior high level? Has there been a certain protocol that has worked well for you?

1st qtr done - WOW!

Getting great help and guidance from my team. 

I can’t believe 1^st quarter is done.  I can finally say I feel I am with the rest of my team (meaning we are on the same platform waiting for our train).  Starting a classroom after school has started has been a challenge again this year.  I feel like I have been missing the train and trying to find all the things I need to teach my class successfully.  My team has been a wonderful help sharing with me what I do not have and helping me identify what I need to still get for my class.  It has also been a good challenge this year to have to share my room.  It has made me be more organized and prepared for my class I only have my room for the morning and then another teacher has the room in the afternoon.  Any ideas as to how to share the chart paper?  Two classes one easel?? 

Conference Time Again

Hi,

So the first Jr. High conference was last night, and I could not believe how many parents came in to see me. I had a line and talked all night. It was fabulous. I feel like this year I had more conversations about how parents and students could specific target skills to improve in English. I also felt like parents were holding their students accountable to their grades rather than holding me accountable to student effort. I am glad to see that the parents of my 7th grade class are so invested in their students' educations. But I do wish that I could more concisely move parents through a conversation. I don't like that many of the parents had to wait in a long line to talk to me. I would like to focus my conversations and try to be more brief on Tuesday, the second day of conferences.

Does anyone have ideas for how to speed up a conference? How were conferences for you? Is there a specific structure you use to discuss students when parents talk to you?