A bargain "toolbox" design

Since at least 2012, I've seen "teacher toolboxes" floating around Pinterest.  Just doing a Google image search for that term yields a plethora of redesigned Lowe's drawer units.  I liked them but I felt they wouldn't quite work with my style.  Honestly, I'm lucky if my pen makes it back into a pencil cup immediately after use and I doubted that I'd be able to keep putting pencils and pens back in drawers.  I also don't keep all of my supplies in the same place.  Some live on my desk, some live on the cart where my document camera sits, and others are used infrequently enough that they stay in cabinets.

Just a few of the toolboxes on the Internet

Since I'm moving to a new classroom in the fall and I'm considering gaining classroom space by exiling my desk to the attached closet (which is a huge room), I thought a small toolbox could be useful.  My binder clips and paper clips are perpetually mixed up and I can't always find the size I need. 

I picked up a few mini two-drawer units from Dollar Tree.  That store has so many good teaching items at such a reasonable price.  The inside dimensions of these drawers are about 3" wide, 4" deep, and 1 1/2" tall.  They're not going to hold writing utensils, but that suits my needs just fine. 

I used a few small dots of hot glue to attach the drawer units together.  When you do this, I would suggest removing the drawers (bend the frame ever so slightly).  Put the glue on the bottom of one unit, then place that unit on top of the next unit.  This will keep you from putting glue where it could interfere with the movement of the drawer.

Next, I cut labels to size to fit each drawer.  If you want to make your own, they should be 1 5/8" tall and 3 1/2" wide.  If you want the sizing already done, feel free to download my file below and edit it to list the items you need, picking a font and color that you like.  Use cardstock and the labels will fit nicely in the front of each drawer.  There's sort of a little lip in front that holds the paper upright, so adhesive would be optional.  You could use a little double-sided tape, glue dots, or the like to hold the paper in place if you're afraid it will shift, but mine are loose so I can change out the contents quickly if I decide to. 

Here's the finished product (in a poor photo, sorry)!  Total cost: $3 plus tax.  Time to link up to #made4math!

I have designs on adding a few more drawers if I can find more at another Dollar Tree.   I brainstormed all my ideas in the file below.  The font is "KG What the Teacher Wants" and can be downloaded free for personal use. 


Have you made any organizational changes for next year?

Mathematically yours,
Miss B

It's no wonder I always feel busy!

On Friday, I was talking with a colleague about the upcoming school year and the changes we're going to face, especially in regard to additional record keeping.  She said she was planning to make herself an afternoon checklist so that she would be sure to have everything done before she left the building.  She joked that it was because she was getting old, but I told her I could also benefit from such a list.  

This afternoon, I sat down to type out a list of the things I do after school.  Note that actually planning lessons and grading papers don't figure into this list.  I aim to do those things during my planning period or at home.  This list is just the other aspects of my job.  While I was at it, I also made my morning routine list.  I get to school about 45-55 minutes before the students arrive, so there's also time then to grade a small stack of papers or pull together some ideas for an upcoming lesson plan.  

Morning Routine
 Print lesson plans and papers to be copied
 Check mailbox, sign in, and deliver copy requests (We don't make our own copies; we have a staff member who runs the photocopiers.)
 Update boards
 Check e-mail
 Deliver TAP work (TAP is our in-school suspension)
 Unlock calculators


Afternoon Routine

During waves: ("Waves" are our dismissal groups.  We have 4 waves and the process takes 15+ minutes.  I typically have a handful of kids in my room who will be able to help with some of these tasks.)
 Change the date
 Lock calculators
 Attendance in Power School (We do this every period, but I have a tendency to forget the last class of the day every now and again.)
 Check e-mail
 TAP list, gather work
 Log parent contacts
 Photo 180 (This should be done during the day, but I'll have a back up reminder if I forgot earlier.)
 Label and file missed work (This should have been done during the day, but I'll also collect work for students with upcoming absences at this time.)

After waves: (I'll continue the list above and add in these tasks that aren't well suited to completion during dismissal.)
 Check mailbox
 Math Maintenance
 Daily grades in Power School
 Weekly files up-to-date
 Student files up-to-date

What does your routine look like?  

Mathematically yours, 

Miss B

Problem of the Week: Absences

I'm not sure this will become a regular feature, but I've now written two posts that explain how I want to deal with an issue of classroom management.  I sort of like the title "Problem of the Week" but I suspect these won't be weekly, even if I do feature this regularly.  Let me know what problems you'd like me to tackle.  :)

This post will focus on how to handle make-up work for absent students.  Currently, I have a hanging file organizer for each class that contains handouts for students who were absent.  Read more about them here.  I like this system and it's made it much less likely that I need to sort through files to find papers for children.

Why does this system need to change?  Well, I realized that it works well if the make up work is all on handouts.  But what if the missing work was from a textbook, used manipulatives, was a game, etc?  It's near impossible to put those items in the pocket.  I realized a little "while you were out" form would greatly improve my communication with students who had been absent.

I'm not a paper work fan.  I do know, however, that there are always a few helpful students who want some extra responsibility.  I'll let those students fill out the forms based on our daily agenda (always posted on the chalkboard) and collect the day's handouts for the absent students.  At the end of class, they can place the papers and form in the class file.  I hope this will foster a spirit of helpfulness in my class.

Here they are as an editable Word doc.  It's this week's #Made4Math!


No cute fonts or anything today- my school-issued laptop died yesterday morning and  I suspect it needs a new hard drive again (this happened in December, too).  For now, I'm making do with my 6-year-old dinosaur of a PC until at least tomorrow and realizing how unaccustomed to PC I've grown in the past 5 years since I started working in a district that only uses Mac. The timing on my poor computer's demise couldn't have been much worse since teachers report back to school on Tuesday and I know our tech office is probably being bombarded with requests from all directions.  Say a prayer that the tech guys will be able to resurrect my computer and its files once again.

Mathematically yours,
Miss B

Late work

I don't know if it's just me, but I often find myself with a small stack of papers that come in as late work, frequently well after the original due date.  In my district, we're not supposed to deny a child the opportunity to turn in work even if it's two months late, so sometimes work from April arrives in June.  At that point, it's not useful to me or the student since we're well beyond that concept, but I still have to grade it.

Since I assign different points whether the child was absent or just chose not to do the work on time, I often find myself going back to my attendance records to check.  This is a bit of a pain.  I've seen the binders that teachers use where students record that they have a missing assignment on the due date and they're neat but I wouldn't necessarily have that information at my fingertips if I'm grading papers at home.  I realized that I would be more efficient if this information was already recorded on the assignment.  So, I made some labels.  These can be printed on the standard 5160/8160 Avery labels that come 30 to a sheet. I wish I had some neon labels, but I'll have to be content with white for now.

Here they are, along with the directions that I'll post.  Labels are in PDF and Word in case you need to edit and I just put the directions in Word because you'll likely have a different procedure than I do.  Sorry for any wonkiness- Box doesn't love the font that I love (Noteworthy, available on Mac). 

I was totally ready to post this to Made4Math when I realized it's Friday.  I'm sure I'll concoct something else by then!  I'll be linking to The Teacher's Chair instead.  Have an awesome weekend! 










How do you keep track of the late assignments in your classroom?

Mathematically yours,
Miss B

Interactive Notebook Storage

I'm taking the plunge into interactive notebooks next year and I'm really pumped.  Bring on those composition books, kiddos!

I have decided to ask my students to keep a binder and a notebook.  That might sound repetitive, but I want to save the notebook for the cream-of-the-crop work and the essential ideas.  I teach a full block all year (yes, 85ish minutes a day all year), so I knew one composition books wouldn't be sufficient if we did everything there and frankly, not everything is important.  This is my biggest gripe when I look back at an interactive notebook I did in high school for AP U.S.- my teacher didn't help me make clear the distinctions between the important players and events from the minor ones.  I want the notebook to help my kids differentiate between the big concepts and the ancillary skills. 

I am still wrestling with the idea, but I'm pretty settled on the following: I'll give each student a gallon-size bag to keep their notebook and related supplies in.  There will be a set of 4 bins per class in which they'll always store that bag (so 7 kids on average will share the bin).  The notebooks can be taken home as required, but I'll encourage students to leave them in the room if they won't use them that night so as to minimize loss and we won't take them home for the first few weeks until we've established how useful they can be!  Once they do take them home, they'll have a little card (below) to place in their bag whenever they take it home.  That will help me if I need to check anything in the notebooks after school and it will serve as a reminder to them the next day of where their notebooks are.  I always tell my kids to use their resources, so I can't justify making them keep their notebooks in the room forever.  I also know I have students each year who take home the bare minimum.  In that case, I'd rather the notebook live in my room than get smashed in a locker!  

To be placed in the bag each time the notebook leaves the classroom.

Labels for the bags. Each child will be asked to provide the materials listed (just one or two colored pencils or highlighters, not entire packs).

The gallon-sized bags are perfect for composition books and a few accessories. 

Four bins per period.  At the beginning of the year, they'll seem empty, but I wanted to make sure the bins would still work after our notebooks grew throughout the year. 

The bins are honestly one of the sturdiest plastic purchases I've made in a while.  If you have a Big Lots, get yourself there ASAP if you need any baskets.  The size I bought is the "mini" size and was $3.50 (minus my 20% discount = $2.80!).  The toy box size with wheels was only $10 if I remember correctly.  The plastic is thick and rigid, clearly of a quality that will stand up to a lot of use.  They have the three colors shown and a dark blue, but I practically cleaned out my store of this size, so be quick if you want them.  They're with the dorm stuff in the seasonal area.  I bought a plastic shelving unit from Walmart that will hold all the bins nicely.  The bins and shelf cost me $80.  That's pricey for me, but I think both are of good quality and will last me many years; even if I decide to move away from notebooking they'll be useful. Another way to look at it is that I spent less than $1 per student to help them be successful this year. 

What are your thoughts on keeping notebooks in the classroom or sending them home?

Mathematically yours,
Miss B

Weekly files! And a freebie!

You've seen the colorful file system that Really Good Stuff sells, right?  I try to keep classroom expenditures that the kids don't use down super low.  I'd rather spend my money on stuff they'll touch.

So, I decided to make my own!  I spent $7 on mine instead of nearly $49, for a savings of 80%. 

Here's what you need:
5 - 7 Magazine files
My magazine files are from Target's $1 bin.  They have these polka dots, a lime green chevron, and an aqua print.  You might only want 5 files if you just want one for each day of the week.  I chose to add one for "next week" so that I can prep things as I plan ahead.  I also wanted one for "last week" so that I can take my time filing if needed and be prepared to pass out extra copies of papers my students lost (not that this ever happens, haha!).    

Optional:
free printable (below)
laminator
paper trimmer/scissors, 
adhesive of choice

Steps:
1. Assemble magazine files.
2. Choose a printable and print it on cardstock for durability.
3. Cut labels from printable into 3x3 squares.  Mat with coordinating cardstock if desired. Laminate these squares for durability.
4. Attach the labels to the short side of the magazine files.  I used Glue Dots however tape or hot glue should be just fine, too! 

Note: for now at least, I'm not attaching them to each other.  If I choose to adhere them to each other, I'll cut a piece of scrap cardboard for a base and glue them to each other as well as the base. 

Here's the printable of the labels in several colors.  You may use it yourself, but please do not redistribute it.  Send people here so they may download it themselves.  Thanks! 


Mathematically yours,
Miss B

The transition to summer vacation

What is your end of year routine?  Do you have one or do you just shove things in closets and head for the beach?  I'm slowly developing mine and deciding what changes I need to make to allow the fall to run as smoothly as possible.  My big projects to tackle on my to-do list fit into a couple of primary purposes: organize my room, prepare for a few bursts of productivity in the summer, and get a jump start on the fall. 

1a. Purge the filing cabinets.  Seriously.  I do not need the worksheets that the last teacher left in the filing cabinets five years ago.  Not only were they beneath the state standards when I took the job, but we're now implementing the much more rigorous Common Core.  When in doubt, recycle.  A drawer a day until the end of the year would let me come back in a good frame of mind in August. 
1b. Take home and file/organize papers I want to keep and materials for lesson planning.  I am a horrible filer!  Horrible!  In that way where I don't do it, there's a mound of papers on every surface, and I just hope no one wants anything from three months ago.  New plan: sort papers out by CC standard and just keep one master of each.  

2. Weed out the bookshelves.  Again, I do not need other people's cast offs or left behind books.  I have a half dozen really useful books I use again and again for masters.  The others, not so much.  Offer them up on our employee web portal and see if another teacher wants them.

3. Prep beginning of year things.  This bogs me down every year.  You see, teachers don't use the photocopiers at my school.  At the beginning of the year, we get very bogged down since one person is doing all of our copying.  Forms and worksheets I use at the beginning of every year should be copied now.  I hesitate to make my syllabus yet due to the CC switchover, but it might be worth it. 

4. Inventory supplies.  This is a new one, but absolutely necessary.  I buy more school supplies for my classroom than I care to count.  Some things I've actually built up a little inventory (cap erasers, lined paper, index cards) and others I've run out of completely (spiral notebooks, red pens).  I'm making a checklist of how many of each are in my room so when I get ready to purchase this summer, I'm spending wisely.  This list only includes supplies that I typically buy at Staples, Walmart, or Target in large quantities.  My plan is to save this list for next summer and use it to decide how much I go through so I can plan even better.  Download your copy of this inventory sheet here and edit it to match your classroom's needs. 

5. Map out the classroom.  This is required by my school, but SO terribly helpful that I would suggest it to anyone.  Before we leave in the summer, we inventory our furniture and draw a map of how it should look in our classroom so the custodians can get everything back into the correct place after they clean the floors.  I usually have to nudge a few things or swap a couple of tables that look similar, but it saves me at least an hour of work.

6. Take home PD materials.  I'm attending a few PD sessions this summer, one to address CC implementation and one to address the new teacher evaluation system we're using next year.  I have some materials that I need to take with me and I need to make sure they're not hidden away in a cupboard where I can't access them. 



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Factoring Polynomials Tarsia

It's time for Made 4 Math Monday!  I have a Polynomial Factoring Tarsia/Puzzle to share today.  This mixes all of the forms of factoring that my students have been working on in the past two weeks.  I've seen lots of Tarsia examples on Pinterest but the free software is only PC compatible and I typically use a Mac.  My PC is a bit of a dinosaur, so I haven't even tried out the software yet, so I went old school on this! 

Answer Key: You'll need to check that the pieces are in the correct rotation so that the sides actually match.  The 16 pieces form an equilateral triangle.
Row 1:            N
Row 2:        A G  C
Row 3:     J  K I   B D
Row 4: O E L  F  P H  M

My other Made4Math item this week is new tubs for each table in my classroom.  We christened them today and so far, so good.  I even had a bunch of comments from my 5th period class: "Wow, you bought us new tubs!"  "Those look really good!"  It's nice to be noticed.  The materials all fit nicely when I filled them up this morning and kids didn't need much time at all to get and replace the things we used today.  I seriously hope this is my last venture into reorganizing supplies this year since we're halfway in and on the third system! 

Made for Math- New Tubs

This year has been an organizational catastrophe for me.  I'm on my fifth curriculum in as many years (two new ones this year alone), so my filing cabinets are not anywhere near as helpful as I'd like them to be.  No one should be allowed to even look at my desk right now.  I started off the year with my desks in rows and each kid had a handy pencil bag with supplies to use.  They worked great until I switched my classroom setup to groups in December following some Kagan coursework and there wasn't a place for each kid to have his own bag.  For the past two months, the communal supplies have annoyed me.  I bought some rectangular bins that worked OK but kids didn't have a specific enough home for each item, so they became a mess in just a few weeks.  I may be a mess, but I like my kids to know where things are and be able to keep at least that little aspect of the classroom organized for me! 

Yesterday, I scored at Walmart with an awesome deal.  In the clearance aisle, I found six blue shower caddies for just $1 each.  As luck would have it, there are six tables in my room!  They're about $6 each online so I saved a bunch but they're probably worth $5-6 because they're super sturdy.  They're larger than other shower caddies I've seen, so they can hold all of the supplies I like for my kids to have on hand: scissors, glue sticks, red pens, highlighters, dry erase markers, cloths to erase the markers, protractors, and compasses.  I'm going to try having a stapler on each table too, though I worry that it could be too tempting as a potential toy/weapon.  Today, I printed out labels for each of the supplies so kids see where to place them in the bins.  A layer of packing tape over the labels will seal them in and thwart graffiti.  Aren't they great?  I sort of loathe this color blue, but I'm not one of the teachers who has a perfectly matched color scheme (or even a poorly matched one for that matter), so blue will be just fine.  

As you can see in the last picture, I put 3 9oz disposable cups in one side to help separate the pens, highlighters and markers. Total project cost: $7- $6 for bins and less than $1 for cups and labels!  Yay! 

I can't wait to fill these up tomorrow and have them on the tables for my kids to use. 

I'm posting this to Made for Math Monday.  Check them out for great ideas.

Update (6/29/2013): These tubs made it through the end of the year just fine.  The kids mostly did a good job getting the materials back into the right place.  For the fall, I'm going label each item as to which tub it belongs to.  As an open container on the table, there was much more temptation for students to play with the materials than when we had the individual bags on the desks.  The staplers never caused a problem like I thought they might.  If you're interested in using these, I just found them at Walmart for $2.88 each, now in a frosted clear color instead of blue.  Check the back to school area because they also have pink and teal there for college kids. 

Mathematically yours,
Miss B

Notebook Check Strategy

I refuse to spend time grading notebook organization.  I know teachers who do this and I remember taking many classes in school in which there were binder checks.  Personally, I think trading notebooks to check them in class is a waste of instructional time.  Collecting them to check myself is just plain daunting.  And for what?  It's not like grading a student's organization indicates their mastery of the content the subject requires them to learn.  I'm terribly disorganized when it comes to paperwork, but I know my math! 

The only benefit of checking notebooks in the traditional way is that it encourages students to have the life skill of being organized.  I've started a notebook check this year that goes a step further to ensure a student is familiar with the location of papers in his binder.  After all, I want students to be able to reference their notes as needed to help them attack problems.  When we have a few minutes at the end of class to spare, I pull out a stack of "cat cash," the money in our grade level economy.  I name a paper and award $5 to the first child who can find it and $1 to any other student who can find it before I call out the next paper.  The catch- it must be in the binder rings in the right section to count.  I run through three or four papers and that's it.  In about 3 minutes, we've checked every binder in the room.  I've done this twice so far this year and the students have responded well.  I've reminded them of this system when I pass back papers and it appears that this year more students are actually using the binder rings instead of a folder or the pocket inside the binder's cover (or the trash can). 

What do you do to encourage your students to be organized? 

Update: Storage pouches

Before school started, I posted about the storage pouches I was planning to use for my kids' desks this year.  As a middle school teacher, I see several groups of students throughout the day, so I wanted to have an easy supply set-up that wouldn't require materials to be passed out and collected each class period.  I also wanted a system that would be quiet and easy to operate.

So far, the storage pouches are doing their job nicely.  I did have three come off of the desk when the fabric loop unraveled.  Because they were all together and the same color, I'm going to blame that on faulty craftsmanship, not my kids.

Students have already accessed most of the materials in the pouches.  They are able to get what they need without leaving their seats or dumping the materials onto the floor, my two main worries prior to trying this out.  They're even doing a fairly good job remembering to put away what they've used and I'm doing a good job reminding them to do so.  I've only caught one runaway protractor on the floor in a week, so I think we're doing well. 

If you're looking for a way to organize supplies at student desks (and you aren't terribly worried about theft), I would recommend this method!  This wouldn't be a good method to use if you can't trust your students to return their materials when you ask them to do so.  I'm lucky to have a fairly trustworthy group most years, so I don't have too many materials walk.  Most of the materials that walk eventually find their way back because they've been accidentally liberated.  ;-) 

Storage pouches

I find that one of the most frustrating aspects of organizing my classroom is having supplies accessible to students in a way that minimizes the time and movement needed to get the supplies out and put them back. 

I've had plastic shoe boxes with supplies on shelves for my entire career.  The kids understand the organization and do a good job managing the supplies.  I've even made it through 4 years on the same $1 bins, so I think that's definitely a plus, too.  What I dislike is the ordeal of either passing out the supplies, having students pass out the supplies, or managing the parade of students gathering their own supplies. 

Enter what I hope will be a fix for these messy transitions.  Each desk will have its own set of supplies that are meant to stay there until we need them.  I searched high and low for the right container that wouldn't infringe on a students' book storage space.  I got these great mesh zipper pouches at the Dollar Tree.  Because they're mesh all over, the students will be able to see what's inside and not feel the need to dump the contents out to get an item (I hope).  I attached each one to a desk using a single zip tie through the fabric loop on the pouch.   The direction the pouch hangs is nice because the zipper is facing upward so things won't inadvertently fall out when it's opened. 

Inside, I placed our most-used items: protractor (which we also use as a ruler/straightedge), yellow highlighter, red pen, dry erase marker, and eraser cloth.  The expectation will be that the students may only use the items in the pouch when they are instructed to do so.  If I know kids will need other items like scissors or glue, I can add the items to the pouches for a particular day or pass them out in the first class and have the kids store the items in the pouch until the last class. 

What to do about "I'm done!"

We all have experienced the joys trials of teaching a group of students who work at very different paces.  There are those children who must be encouraged, coaxed, and refocused so that their work gets finished.  There are the kids on the opposite end of the spectrum who, it seems, have finished the worksheet before their classmates have even managed to get started.  What to do with the children who finish early? 

Obviously, you want to ensure that they're producing their best work and not rushing through an assignment simply to be finished.  I had one child who was such a pro at finishing everything quickly that I always saved my classroom chores for him (passing out papers, sorting things, taking a note to a classroom, etc).  It helped him to have something physical to do because he was very prone to getting into trouble and pestering other children within seconds of being finished his work. 

Other than classroom chores and the overused, "read your free reading book," there weren't many options in my classroom for early finishers.  I decided that this was the year I needed to make it happen! 

I'm going a totally different route with my Early Finisher choices.  I'm putting together brain teasers, puzzles, pentominoes, tangrams, 24, and the like with instructions for a short activity.  It's sort of an homage to elementary school math centers.  Each center will be stored in a zippered pencil pouch that the kids will select and take back to their seats.  I think the fabric pencil pouches will hold up and be easy for the kids to use.  I put a binder ring though the zipper on each pouch so it's easy to hang.  My hope is that these stations will build logical and spatial reasoning which are applicable across many subjects.  The start-up cost for me was about $20 for the pouches ($1.50 each at the discount store in my town, probably at Dollar Tree but not worth the drive for me) because I already had the other materials.  Most of them were sitting unused because I either didn't have enough for the whole class to use at once or because they weren't strictly related to my curriculum.  This is a step in the right direction!  I hope to create enough materials so I can swap these out mid-year.  Every term would be awesome, but I don't have enough materials for that just yet. 

These pouches are left over from previous students.  I purchased 12 more (not pictured) for a total of 16.

I also set up my classroom library in a much more inviting way than in years past.  I stacked some file crates sideways and used them as my bookshelves.  I placed some books related to math in a display.  I was so close to selling that pink locker storage piece because the pockets are so deep when it occurred to me that I could stuff the bottom with paper so items would sit up higher and be visible.  Duh!  My library last year, in comparison, had all of my books piled in one crate that was placed under a chair in a corner.  Not exactly inviting!  I could use some better books; most of what I have is so dated I don't even want to pick them up.  I will try to make it to a library sale this year in hopes of adding some attractive books to the collection and I'll go through my books at home to see if I have any that are age appropriate for the kiddos. 

Finally!  A classroom library with a bit of character.

Do you have any great ways to keep kids' brains active when they've finished their assignments?  Please share what works for you.

Miss B

Building Vocabulary with a Word Wall

I think most teachers are familiar with word walls.  I've seen elementary teachers organize them alphabetically.  For my math students in middle school, I organize the walls by unit theme.  Each unit we study is assigned a color so students can look for related words in the group.  We make use of our word walls in countless ways, but here are just a few:

1. I place all of the words for a new unit on the wall.  As we work our way through a unit and learn a new concept, students try to guess which word could have that meaning.  This often guides us through a discussion of prefixes, suffixes, and roots as students break down the words and try to make meaning from them.

2. Students refer to the wall to help them recall words that have slipped their minds and for spelling.

3. Because I am lucky to have two metal walls, my words are most often individual strips with magnets on the back.  We take them down and use them for games.  One favorite game is the fly-swatter game.  Give a representative from each team a fly-swatter (clean, of course), scatter the vocabulary words on the board, and give a definition, example, non-example, drawing, etc that the students have to match to the correct word.  It's fast-paced and they get to smack the board, so they love it!  My rules are that they may only smack the board and they must alternate turns smacking words (otherwise it looks like whack-a-mole gone bad and the kids don't pay attention to the words).

4. Review/Study.  I give a final exam so I encourage my students to use the word wall to identify their weaknesses.  They can read through the words and decide what to study based on what vocabulary is most difficult for them.  This is true for unit tests and quizzes as well.  I also find my students using the word wall when they help each other.  They are frequently overheard asking each other about the words and the responses typically include the related words.  I love hearing my kids use their vocabulary! 

I have experienced a few set-backs with my word walls in the past.  First, the words get a glare once laminated so they can be hard to read.   Sometimes I end up with students who have trouble reading at a distance even with really large font sizes.  So, readability is a big problem in my classroom.  Second, the students can't take the wall home so they don't have that resource when they are completing assignments outside of my room.  In response to those issues, I decided to do a little more with vocabulary this year. 

New to my class this year will be personal word walls.  Hooray!  I designed a template to look like a brick wall complete with a graffiti title.  Kids will be responsible for adding words to their wall when we first learn them in class.  Each unit will be written in a different color and the kids will be able to place the words how they want to on the sheet though I'll encourage them to group like words in some way instead of randomly scattering them.  I'm going to have the kids lightly shade or outline the boxes with colored pencil when they feel they have mastered the term.  To me, that means they can describe/define it clearly, draw it accurately, and spell it correctly.  I think we'll need two or more copies to fit all of our words depending on the course as each size holds about 75 words.  When I taught Geometry in the past, we had nearly 300 words, so we would have needed 4 of these.  I'm going to make this double sided and copy it on cardstock.  They'll keep it in a sheet protector so they can use it to quiz themselves by marking things off with a dry erase marker. 

Here's the file.  You'll need the font "a dripping marker" for the title (or just choose a font that you already have).


  

Now, as we keep the personal word walls, we'll also keep up with the one in the classroom.  I want the students to take more ownership this year, so I'm toying with the idea of letting them write the word strips.  The problem is that they wouldn't all be pretty and uniform and I don't know if I could handle it!   I made a matching title for the word wall in the graffiti font I used on the worksheet.  I'll report back and let you know who is making the word strips, me or the kids. 

If you would like to use this with your class, leave me a comment with your e-mail address and I'll send you the file.  

How do you organize vocabulary with your students?  What makes it meaningful to them?  I'd love to hear more strategies that work with math.

Miss B

Flexible Grouping

This is not a new idea.  It is, however, new to my classroom.  I have gotten so sick of getting kids into groups and then hearing the questions, "Who's in my group?" "Where is my group meeting?" or "What group number am I?" about 25 times in two minutes.  Enough is enough! 

I reclaimed some wall space from other things this year so I could put up pocket charts for flexible grouping in my classroom.  I want to be much more deliberate with my grouping this year.  I am hoping to get at least one or two STEM PBL experiences in for my kids and I know I will need to engineer those groups so the students can be successful. 

This isn't much to see yet because the class lists are far from finalized, so I haven't made name tags.  I got the pocket charts from the target dollar bin and the magnetic hooks are 88 cents for four in Walmart's back to school section.  Total cost is under $9 including a pack of index cards.  Each color will be for one of my block classes.  I haven't decided if I'm going to hang one up for my intervention period or not.  We'll see.

 

I am trying to decide what information I want (if any) on the back of the cards.  I could use state test data, but that doesn't tell me the whole picture.  What sorts of things do you look at as you group students early in the year?   Leave me a comment and let me know what works for you. 

EDIT 9/26/12: After one month of school, I can say this system is truly working well for my classes.  In addition to helping students find their groups more easily, it's eliminated the poor attitudes some students choose to display when presented with an assigned group.  

I also appreciate that I can look back at the end of the day and review which students were grouped together for a particular activity.  

I've also added labels for group jobs.  The jobs are things like timekeeper, materials manager, sharing supervisor, etc.  I'll just place the cards above the chart and say that the first person in the group is timekeeper, the second is materials manager, etc. 

I just found more of these pocket charts at Goodwill for 10 cents so I got the purple ones to replace the red which didn't go with my color code (first period gets everything pink/purple, fifth gets all green, seventh gets all blue, and intervention gets red). 


Miss B

Classroom/Grade Level Economy

Long before I started working at my current school, the 8th grade team had established a grade level currency called "Cat Cash" after our Wildcat mascot.  I'm always amazed at how much harder and longer students will work on an assignment when there's a dollar or two of Cat Cash attached to its completion.  I even have kids who will choose Cat Cash over candy as a prize when we play games.  They know the value of a buck! 

While we give out Cat Cash for good deeds, good work, meeting goals, and other positive things, we also fine children for breaking rules (chewing gum, being unprepared for class, and - the big one - being disrespectful to substitute teachers).  I've never really gotten on board with the fines as much as my co-workers. 

Our rewards are typically one event per marking period.  The students must pay a set amount of Cat Cash to attend the event.  We try to schedule these events for half days so we aren't interrupting instruction as much.  We've had movie days, the chance to each lunch in a teacher's classroom with dessert provided by the teacher, sports, a dance during the school day, and more.  Our last incentive is a raffle and we let kids cash in all of their money for raffle tickets. 

I'm adding a new element to the grade level economy for my students.  They can look at it as a reward or a punishment- it really depends on their level of personal responsibility.  I am completely fed up with freely handing out pencils, cap erasers, and the like to children who are simply not interested in being prepared for class.  If you need a pencil literally every day, you are not being responsible.  I am sure kids could make it through several days on one pencil if they were being careful.  (Just to make it clear, I'm not talking about kids whose families cannot afford to purchase school supplies.  In those instances, I am more than happy to provide a child with packs of pencils, reams of paper, binders, and the like, but I do not want to be handing out supplies on a daily basis.) 

To combat this pet peeve, I'm introducing the class store.  Students will have the opportunity to purchase items from the store at the very beginning of class using their Cat Cash.  After that, they'll need to make do by borrowing from someone or improvising.  I'm stocking the store with the bargain basement basics as well as some decorative items for fun.  I don't care whether they buy the items because they want them or because they need them, but I do hope it cuts down on the pencil parade! 

Do you have any tips for how to hold students personally responsible for coming prepared to class?  What have you tried?  Leave me a comment and let me know! 

Miss B

Keeping paperwork organized

I teach 80 students in an average year, all of whom I see every day for 80 minutes.  Some of these students (and often some I don't have during the blocks) are also in my 45-minute intervention or enrichment period at the end of the day.  It took me a few years to find the paperwork management system that worked best for me and my classes because I am not good at managing papers.  I was always that kid in school with the 2-inch thick folder and nothing clipped in her binder rings dated past September!  Here's what I use in my classroom that I can actually stay on top of.

These hanging file pockets hold four things for each class: missed work from absences, tests/quizzes that need to be made up, no name or not finished papers, and papers to be handed back.  I got these at JoAnn in the dorm section and they've been going strong for two years already with no signs of wear.  It doesn't look like they are carrying them this year because I couldn't find them in my store or online.  In any case, I know you can find similar hanging file organizers in teacher catalogs.  Lakeshore sells some here. 

I teach the kids to check the top pockets any time they're absent and then to ask me about make-up work.   Kids remind me to (let them) hand back papers when some are in the organizer because I am notoriously bad about remembering to pass back what I've graded. 

Not pictured are the bins where students turn in their work to me.  Those aren't as interesting.  They're simply stacked plastic file trays labeled with the class period.  Simple, and they work!

How do you organize paperwork for your students?  

Miss B

Homeworkopoly and Parking Lot

Last Thursday, I started to get my classroom set up for the upcoming school year.  It's earlier than I've ever started that process, but I know that there will be lots of changes at school this year, so the sooner I get rolling, the smoother it should go.

On Friday, I was quite industrious, I think.  Inspired by Pinterest, I took on several projects.  The first project is dubbed Homeworkopoly.  I changed the directions and the board to suit my classroom.  My students will individually earn the right to play on Friday if they have turned in all of their homework for the week on time.  They'll roll just one die since the board is small (and I don't want to hear about taking a second turn for rolling doubles).  The potential rewards are small prizes that are inexpensive or free but are things I know my kids generally like.

Go earns $50 Cat Cash (money in our grade-level economy).  They'll earn this whenever they pass by Go, just like in real Monopoly. 
Free Reading awards kids with the opportunity to free read instead of doing the math warm-up one day.  They always whine about doing the warm-up, so this might be a good motivator to do homework.  Since I repeat the same skills all week on a warm-up, missing out on one day shouldn't detract from a child's overall learning. 
Treasure Chest is just the choice of a small prize (pencil, eraser, etc), piece of candy, or $25 Cat Cash.
Lunch Bunch will be the coveted prize for sure!  It gives kids the chance to bring two friends to eat lunch in my room.  Since lunch tables are assigned and stay the same all year, some kids never get to eat with their closest friends.
When they land on Chance, the kids can answer a math problem to earn extra Cat Cash.  I found some brain teaser flash cards at Target and I decided to use the math questions from them as most of them fall within our 7th or 8th grade state standards.  The rest are logical reasoning combined with math that could also be solved with just a little brute force. 

I'm storing all of the cards in plastic index card boxes.  I put advertising magnets on the backs (free!).  I bought magnets at Dollar Tree and put numbered stickers on them.  Each class will have a different color.  With the hope this will work, I shouldn't have to remake the pieces for next year.  They're a little bigger than I would have liked, but I'm sure we'll make it work!  I also added a small dry erase board nearby so that kids can work out their Chance problems there if they want to.  Please ignore the pink hooks.  I haven't taken them down from last year because I'm not sure the game is going to stay right here. 

 

On to project #2.  Here's our classroom "Parking Lot."   My middle schoolers can't drive yet, but they'll all be assigned a parking space.  When I need to do a quick, short exit pass, I can have the kids write their work on post-it notes and stick them to this poster.  Each kid will use their number (based off my alphabetized list, of course) so I can quickly record their scores.  To differentiate this assignment, I can give out different colored post-its and direct the children to answer a certain question based on the color of their post-it.  Then when scoring them, I can score by color.  Easy peasy!  I think it will be quick enough to score one class's answers while the next class is doing the warm-up. 

Another thing I LOVE about my craftiness is that I used two hideously old fashioned pieces of scrapbooking paper.  They're great for school but not so hot for my own crafts!    


What have you been working on this summer?  Leave me a comment and a link and let me know.  As always, if you like what you see, please become a follower!


Miss B