My new normal and preparing for Cultural DIversity in the classroom?

        The year 2020 has been full of surprises. My first surprise was believing I was 51. I look back and can´t believe the things that I have overcome and accomplished.  I graduated  college with my masters,  I served in Operation Desert Shield/Storm,  I bought  my first car by myself,  I got my first teaching job in the middle of the year,  I had my first child,  Brittany Beans at 28.  She was a blessing that sent me down another path.  My goals and dreams became driven by wanting her to have a better life, and to have a role model that exemplifies strength.  I remember my family saying you have changed since Britt was born, I would smile and say, "It is all about her now, not me.¨  I started thinking before I reacted,  I planned out things,  my decisions were based on her needs.  I  got married and moved to Texas from Arkansas.  That was a big change.  I am from the South where doors were not locked, everyone knew everyone, anyone could displine you and entire family spent time every weekend  together  playing cards, bbq, playing bowling and just listending to music and dancing and have fun, and  obviously holidays was a big thing.  Moving to Texas was a big change,  I had to get used to the hustle and bustle, and rush of things here. Everyone moves fast, no one has time to congregate and enjoy each other, the many highways that led to everywhere if anywhere.  I missed the feeling of home.  I tried to bring it here, but that didn´t work.  They were not used to hanging with one another and enjoying it.  I was shocked.  My new normal.   I had to adjust and change to the environment.  I found my rhythm and grew as an educator and a mom.   I had my second daughter and found myself again needing to change my environment and surroundings to become her role model that exemplied not just strength , but courage and determination no matter what.  Getting used to being a single parent was rough because I wanted to break that cycle in my family.  Unable to do so, left me questioning things, It was looking into my daughters eyes and realizing all that matter is that she was raised as a strong, independent woman that had pride in her self and culture.

         At the Age of 51 looking back I realize, everything I have experience was meant to help me grow into the person I am today.  God has a plan.  I say all that to say,  with Covid and BLM movement  I find myself again changing up things to adapt and persevere through the circumstances that I am presented with at this time.  While on  Spring Break  not just me but teachers across the world found themselves thrust into a new normal over night of teaching online.  It was the most trying and  exhausting thing.   We were literally given no time to plan we were just trying to keep a float.  However, we adjusted and came through.  Can you agree?  So now it is time to adjust and plan again for the unknown.  So  what are you doing to prepare for the new school year?  I  invested in training with Simply 12k,  I have watched youtube videos, and listened in on webinars just in case.  Meanwhile, the next point of concern is making sure that all kids are valued and one way to do that is through classroom libraries.

          Are you preparing to address cultural diversity?  As a reading teacher,  I purposely this year made sure that  I created baskets that represent the various cultures of our world.  Especially those in my classroom. I had books that represented Asians, African Americans, Hispanics, Autism, Learning disabilities, Health issues:  Mental and physical.  I included books from all genres and all levels,  I wanted eveyone to feel like they belong.  With what is going on in society to day,  it is more than important to make that happen now.

You need an idea where to start?  Here is my process and it takes time, I think I took a week over a 3 hour period each day literally putting my library together.  I do it before we are on contract so it will be done. it depends on how large your library is as to how long it will take.  

1.  I pour them on the tables and  sort them first by Fiction and Nonfiction.  

2.  My first sort is to sort the main genre into subgenres that may take a day

3.  My second sort is to pick  either Fiction Or Nonfiction to start with it is usually Fiction

4.  I sort by author first, because that is the easiest,  So those baskets are done.

5.  I then sit and read the backs of each book sorting them into more categories,  if they fit into multiple categories i make a decision.

6.  I than think of category names for the stacks I have created.  I try to do a mixture of genre labels and come up with some creative labels. Examples:  Boys Rule,  Girl Power,  Girl protagonist Boy protagonist,  mystery,  Who done It? I´m not that different than you,  graphic novels, animals,  humorous, dear diary, 

that´s not funny, etc.  

7.  This allows me to pull out books that represent different cultures as well as books that tell stories of people with disabilites of all type:  learning, physical and mental.

8. I repeat this process for my nonfiction books:  I sort them by informational,  biography, autobiography first.

9.  I than go deeper:  sort by topics--war, space, weather, animals, Male character, Girl Character, government etc.  

     When I sort my Fiction books, I am paying attention to books that represent different cultures, and disabilities.  I put them in baskets title: I am not that different than you,  I know you do you know me.  I make it a point to discuss the sorting and categories with the kids and they know what the basket titles mean.

     I put baskets on the center of tables during the first 3 weeks of school and kids read and explore those.  However,  with our new normal,  we have to think aobut how to create stacks for kids without them interacting with one another,  that is crazy  to even thnik about.  Our district created a Padlet of online resources that kids can access to choose books from and that allow them to read online or listen to them.  I have created book trailer power points to share with my students. I choose a book from each basket to introduce the categories, I  pick some of my top favorites as well as books that were popular go to books form previous years.   Here is my library from last year.  I have 6 shelves here with a table where I set up my own reading life, and then I have a Reading nook with a chair, floor lamp and book case.

So as you see the library is one of the most important thing when ou are setting up your classroom, especially if you are a Reading teacher..  Know that it is possible to create powerpoiints or google slides shows n the same manner.  I will share my thoughts and one of my slide shows soon.  Making sure we represent all cultures is something that should have been in place,  but it takes time and you have to do the work.  My kids loved seeing themselves represented in the books they read. It really hooked my disengaged readers.   Happy sorting!

 

Life Happens!!! Yet, I still teach.

    Life Happens!!!

        Hello world, it's me,  MrsEduc8te.  It has been a long while, so much has happened in my life that things were put on pause for a minute, so here I am trying to get back to building a legacy for myself and my children.  As an educator, we all know to well how we put our jobs before ourselves and sometimes even our own families.  I found myself swamped in a list of things that had to be done daily. 

          As new teacher to middle school,  I found myself faced with feeling like a new teacher all over.  Even after 20 yrs I wasn't ready for what was to come.  The year left me doubting myself and my abilities.  I was put into situations that made things worse not better.  I couldn't believe how much I was struggling internally and externally.  All I wanted to do was crawl back to Elementary, but I sucked it up and found the energy and strength to dig in and do what needed to be done to make it through the year.  Well I did!!  However, I spent the Summer doing what I do best preparing for the new year. The new year brought new titles to me, I became Team Lead and the Instructional Facilitator of ELA on our campus. So I had to get my stuff together.

      Fast  forward to the new year.   It has been a lot of changes both professionally: New Principal, New positions, New Teks, New initiatives and a New Team.  The changes at my job were minimal yet impacting.  Not saying the school wasn't awesome under the direction of the previous principal.  It definitely was more than a school we were a family.  SEL was a big part of our belief and still is needed.  It is the initiatives along with SEL that is making the school even better. One of those such initiatives is  the active use of THRESHOLD.  We were task at meeting and greeting kids at the door every morning as they are lined up 2 by 2, during this interaction give brief and concise directions as to what they are to do when they cross the Threshold.  It has been an amazing change in student behavior and student accountability.  I also am able to observe students mindsets and moods as I greet them individually.  It was hard at first, not know all their names, but I know their names now and a little bit about them has made threshold so meaningful and the kids come up with some of the craziest greetings.  I have dabbed, fist bumped, high five, chest bumped, done the butty bump and hugged. 

     The second initiative that was impactful for me was creating an Intentional Monitoring chart.  The idea behind the chart was to track students ability to do task ask of them.  You literally walk the room, observe student application of skills and chart it on your monitoring chart.  It holds kids accountable.  The students are aware that they are being held accountable in not just one class but all classes.  They are actively participating and on task.  They are listening and performing.  It is cutting down on behavioral issues, allowing teachers to focus more on curriculum.  It has created an atmosphere where student learning is at the center of things. 

     So what does it look like,   I created a sheet of the skills from each unit of study for reading and writing  that we are working on at the time.   The goal is for students to practice skills monitored and teacher to track how they are applying goals.  As I teach daily, students are tasked with responding on sticky notes and/ or journals. I  go from desk to desk giving direct feedback on their sheets using symbols. ( +  they are doing it,  -  they are not doing it ).  Sometimes  the chart may focused on compliance, but mostly learning targets.  It is an awesome accountability system for not just the students, but the kids also.
       
      The last thing that has impacted my year is my 6th grade team.  I have 4 other colleagues that I work with and they are the most amazing people.  We work so well together.  We made a point to get to know one another first, then work on planning curriculum.  We all teach reading and writing.  I have 2 reading classes, IDS reading and 2 writing classes.  As a team, we made a point to start the year setting up classroom expectations, and building relationships with our class.  It has made a big  difference.  I feel that my students know me as much as I know them.  We study the curriculum, we share ideas, we problem solve together and most importantly we admit when we need help and we take the time to laugh.  Yes,  I said laugh.  We try to not get so bogged down that not only are we not able to be there  students, but our own families as well.  This has been the most productive and strong start to the school year.  This year start was ten times better than last year.  I am no longer doubting my decision to move to  Middle School.   I know things happen for a reason and maybe one day I can sit down and really think about how last year set me up for this year.

             My personal life was affected as well.  I knew I had to do things differently.  I prayed, meditated and started journaling.  I also found some valuable books that helped me along the way to finding peace, acceptance and the energy to move forward without reservation.
 I found a way to balance my life at all cost.  I am making myself do things that I enjoy more often like; reading for pleasure, walking, listening to music, and spending time with my kids.  I try to leave work at a reasonable time, and not to take everything on as my responsibility as far as planning and curriculum.  I am making list and setting priorities to help me  stay focused.  The second semester is kicking in and my focus is on Student growth.  Our schools focus in on Student Growth.  So stay tune as I take you on my journey as a middle school teacher working to also build a Reading Consultant business.

               

        





   So when life happens!! It is time to reevaluate and make some changes!

       

Summer, Summer Time: A year in Reflection

My first year of Middle School was a journey in itself.  I walked out of Elementary School confident, assured and  excited about my  new endeavors.  Little did I know that when I got to my new destination what was in store for me.  Middles school turned out to me a whole different world. I had to get used to the  schedules, the time crunches, the relentless other things that were required and expected.  I wasn't prepared for just how much I would have to modify and adjust.  The one thing  I refuse to modify was my belief that Reading Workshop was possible even with the 45 minute classes. Through trial and error the first semester,  I figured it out.

As a Reading teacher,  I was overwhelmed.  I have been teaching 20 plus years and was frustrated at the idea of not getting my routines down like I did when I taught Elementary.  So I had to revisit Reading Workshop components and how to best effectively implemet the components in the 45 minutes that I had.  However,  I really only had 35 to 40 minutes. I had to practice and time my mini lessons,  have all my materials and  resources picked out, layed out ready to use.  I listened to others say it was hard to do small groups and tutoring with all the other responsibilities: monitoring tardies,  checking uniforms, manning the halls until the tardy bell rings and taking attendance. I totally agreed, but knew as a teacher how precious my time was. So after the nine weeks and part of the second,  I beginning reflecting and planning how to be more strategic with my lessons.

I check off their names on paper roster as they came into the class,  I created DO NOW activities that were explained on the Morning Message slides  I created weekly. I then would start  with Independent Reading allowing me to Confer and figure out my small group or groups for the day.  I did a 5 to 7 min lesson over a skill or strategy that good readers use and began small groups.  It was  hard and took mulitple times for it to run smoothly and it did.  I found my groove as a new teacher to MS,  I felt like a first year teacher.  I knew if I was overwhelmed so were others,  I created a Beginners Reading Workshop E book. I talked about the make up of the workshop, setting up routines and procedures, materials needed and even added mini lessons that I used.

Reading workshop is possible in Middle School and High school,  It all depends on your willingness to step out your comfort zone, relinquish control and read to really understand the workshop model whether it is for Reading, Writing, Math, Science or Social Studies.  Small groups and conferring are possible in all subjects you just have to understand your standards, the curriculum and your students needs.  Do you need a starting point?  Check out my E- book by clicking the link to the right and go to my TPT store.

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I teach middle school, now what?

      As a teacher of 20 years, I took the plunge and moved to Sixth grade in the middle schools.  What a difference!!!! I made it through the first nine weeks.  It is such a blur.   I realized  that just trying to manage 5 different classes with over 22 students in each was a challenge.  However, that wasn't the biggest challenge.  The biggest challenge was running workshop in a 45 minute time span.  I often heard MS teachers talk about how workshop is not for the middle school and just wondered how they could not utilize workshop model.  And than I became a MS teacher,  boy did I start seeing why they felt the way they did. I began to question all I believed in as a Reading teacher and had to have a lot of pep talks with myself.  I had to step back and realize, "No I can do  Reading workshop in Middle school." I just needed to reevaluate what I was doing?  What was working? What wasn't working?  What did I do in Elementary?  How can I use that and make it fit the time span I had in MS.  So I dove in and I made it work and now I have a flow and plan to make this flow run more smoothly in the new nine weeks.

How did I plan to do this, you ask?

I took a piece of paper and sketched out a few scenarios. I had to consider the expectations of the building.  All teachers had to be in the hallway and monitor until the tardy bell rang.  So I had been seeing post on FB about Bell Ringers and Do now activities, that  at first I saw no need for. WRONG!

So I quickly thought of activities that students could do the first 5 to 7 minutes of class, while I monitored in the hall way.  I came up with several possibilities.  Have you tried any of these as a Reading teacher?

• Students enter and discuss previous reading with partners, by pulling one sticky note to talk about using the question prompts provided.  Students are encouraged to revise and edit the sticky note and place both back in their journals, reflecting on them.
• Students would pull a sticky note from the previous night and right long and strong over it in their journals guided by questions that were on the board.
• Students would read independently, or complete previous nights homework if necessary.
• Students entered and began to do a write around based on prompts that were on the tables,  it may reflect on a previous lesson, homework, or to set up the days workshop learning.

I than had to make sure that I read the lessons a head of time and wrote out my script using note cards or large sticky notes.  I  know from previous  experience that trying to hold and read the text isn't effective or necessary.  I make my anchor charts and or slides I  planned to use for the week,  ahead of time.  I had to then practice them.  It was a necessity that I stuck to no more than 15 minutes for my mini lesson. Now don't get me wrong,  Some days my Mini was a Maxi and I had to reevaluate why and make adjustments because  with 20 minutes left I,  I  was determined that kids would be independently reading and I would be conferring or pulling small groups after the first few weeks of schools. 

   The first nine weeks was a lot of learning curves for scheduling, managing time, and dealing with transitions, lunch, meetings and drills.   Where I usually gather my data  and use it to create my groups and conferring schedules, I found myself winging it.  Anyone that knows me, knows this frustrated me.  So I came up with several ways to approach the new 9 weeks, I looked at what happened the first nine weeks.  I spent my weekend getting it together.  I went through all my data, analyze my students strengths and weakness, created small groups, determined how to make sure I pull every student in a week. My goal is to pull at least 2 small groups a day, conferring the entire time or a combination of both.

Now that I realize 45 minutes is not as long as it seems,  I have to be real strategic with managing my time especially in regards to the  mini lesson. It is doable, even with Lucy Caulkins UOS.  I learned from 7 years of  using her resources, planning ahead is the key.  I read the lessons for the week over the weekend and scripted out  what I would say and do to meet the learning target of the lesson.  I then  made sure to look over each lesson again the day before I present the lesson.

 Another game plan is to still plan to do  the Do Now activity,  So I scheduled  them in a rotation format.  I modeled them to the students and then I change it up daily.  I than worked backwards.  I  still want to do the Do Now.  I can use the entire independent reading block and  hold table top conferences with as many students a day as I can giving mini teaching points.  My goal is for students to spend most of their time reading during the time in my room, keeping my conferences between  2 to 7 minutes each.  Which every I chose.  I feel like I have a game plan.  Yet as most games, their is always a foul or a fumble that has to be over come.  We shall see.

Reading workshop is a model where kids should be reading most of the time.  I realized that unlike elementary it isn't familiar to some MS teachers.  With the time constraints, I see why.  However, I know from experience that small groups and conferring is the way to move kids and kids need time in class to read  or write during reading and writing.  So I plan to make that happen.

So how do I create small groups in MS?  

I use my data.  What data?  

Reading logs:

I can analyze what they are reading, how many pages are they reading daily, how long is it taking them to finish a book, what their goals are and if they are meeting their goals.  I can create small groups based on analysis.

Reading Journals:

What types of responses are they writing the most and least, are they using text evidence or not and/or are they demonstrating understanding of the learning targets from previous lessons.

Sticky notes:

What types of responses are they writing the most and least, are they using text evidence or not and/or are they demonstrating understanding of the learning targets from previous lessons.

Previous STAAR results:

I look at the categories and the TEK:  The lowest and the highest

I look at MAP results:

Categories, sub categories,  reading level range

I am able to form groups to meet the needs of the students using this information.  Do I use it all?  No,  Do I look at it all?  Yes you may find commonalities that would further solidify the groups you make.  I than use various resources to find skills and strategies to address in my small groups.  One of my biggest resources to use is Jennifer Serravallo:  Reading Strategies book.   I often come up with my own lessons to meet the TEK that I am addressing.  I know I will modifying and adjusting as I go because  that is what we as teachers do.  

If you would like more information on small groups check out my previous blogs or grab this resource in my TPT store by hitting the  tab on the right marked.

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The New School year is approaching. " Now What?"

Teaching is a hard job, let no one tell you different.  We are never truly off.  We wear several hats and are constantly modifying and adjusting.  However, as a teacher we need to make sure to get to know the learner as a person before we began to educate them.

So it's the first week of school,  do I teach content or build  a community of learners?

Build a community of learners.

How do I build a community of learners?

Teachers need to make sure students get to know one another as well as get to know you as a person and a  teacher.  Here are several ways to do this?  Make sure you as the teacher participate as well.  Some you will want to do a head of time to model what it should look like.

1.  Create  "Get to know Bingo Boards."

Set a timer for  5 minutes and allow kids to do a scavenger hunt with one another.  They need to find someone that fits each category.  The kids would sign their names to a box.  The goal is to get a signature from each student.

2. Have kids to create visual representations to introduce themselves to the class.

Students can make flyers, posters,  or book marks using pictures to describe themselves.  You can even allow them to cut out and make things to glue to their medium to share.

3.   Have kids do Acrostic poems about  their favorite subjects, books, tv show, game, etc.

Students can use different types of paper that you have cut up ahead of time (card stock or construction paper) into different size strips, hole punch some of them, grab some yarn, string or ribbon so they can create a book mark or you can display in the classroom.

4.  Have them bring items from home to share during morning meeting,  so many kids are assigned a day until everyone has shared.

5.  Create or download  Get to know Interest Surveys.  I use a combination of the  subject areas and  personal interest surveys.

6.  Make Flyers introducing themselves.  There are several ways,  For reading you could have them write I like and I don't like book poster.   When I taught math we did a buy the numbers flyer. We divided the construction paper into four boxes and drew diagonals into each  box and use numbers to represent themselves.  Example:  2   I have two siblings:  Dawn and Eric

7.  Give students an Index card with the prompt:  If I could tell my teacher anything about me it would be............  You will be amazed at the information you get.

8.   Let students create a Flipgrid to introduce themselves.

 Don't forget that  keeping a positive Mindset is something we need to instill in students so in order to make that happen,  I will read the book The Girl that Never Made Mistakes:  But here are a couple ore:

1.  Fantastic Elastic Brain
2.  Beautiful oops
3. The Most Magnificent Thing
4.  How Full is your Bucket

This year I will talk about character development and use posters to represent character traits that students should be aware of I am able to build a bulleting board of vocabulary words that represent character and good citzenship.  Here is a link to the freebie,  if you like them grab the entire set.  I usually introduce 1 in the morning,  1 mid day and 1 to close out the day.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Classroom-Character-Anchor-charts-3927937

ROUTINES, PROCEDURES, EXPECTATIONS

As a teacher we have to make sure these are in place in order to get curriculum accomplished.  Remember to model what you expect.  Allow kids to make the rules with you.

I always start by posing this question?

What behaviors do you think we need to display as a community to ensure that everybody is able to learn at his/her on speed and in their on way?   (You may want to incorporate a Read Aloud or two.)

Some of my favorites are listed below.  However,  think about your grade level, the suggested ideas are just that suggested.  There is so much more you can do with any book you choose to read aloud to kids, modeling fluency, model thinking strategies, introduce reading skills,setting goals and even teach routines and expectations

Mrs. Nelson is Missing-  Behavior expectations
Recess Queen-  Behavior Expectation
Molly Sue Melon- Bullying
First Day Jitters
How I spent my Summer vacation
( You can use as a jump off for writing workshop.  shows what strengths and needs.)
Each Kindness-  Belonging and respect
Mrs. Malarkey Leaves no Reader behind-  Choosing Books
Come on Rain


Tips to consider:

• Avoid trying to give them too many  Rules and Routines at a time, spread them over a  few weeks.  
• Always come back and visit them often.  Always address the rule being broken not the students.. 
• Choose your actions and words carefully when correcting misbehavior.    
• As with all discipline plans,  you need to make sure kids are aware of the consequences for not following those rules and procedures.
• Make sure you are consistent, fair and respectful
• Create a visual to hang in the classroom:

  LOOKS LIKE               SOUNDS LIKE

• Say it, explain it, model it and  have kids model it as well. Be sure to include what it doesn't look like as well,  but I wouldn't necessarily put it on an  anchor chart.

Don't take anything for granted:  Here are the routines/procedures I have written to model and taught over previous years and I am sure a lot of these will be helpful in middle school as well.

1.  How to line up,  turning in work, sitting in seats
2.  How to use the pencil sharpener
3.  How to use materials in room( several different lessons)
4.  How to use class library
5.  Morning daily routine:  Planners, Homework, daily work, attendance
6.  Jobs and duties
7  How to come to/from meeting area and materials needed
8. SLANT( acronym we use in our district:
       Sit up in chair
       Lean in to listen to speaker
       Ask questions to confirm and understand
       Nod your head to show confirmation of information given
       Track the speaker ( all eyes and body turn toward the speaker)

9.   Non-Negotiable  (school wide)
10. Asking questions
11. Planners, Take home folders
12.  Traffic light signal( for noise level as well as to signify when to not disturb teacher
13.  Restroom, hallway and cafeteria expectations
14.  Partnerships/group work
15.  Use of School supply and Browsing boxes
16.  Labeling work
17.  Setting goals/progress monitoring
18.  Homework
19   Use of centers and nooks
20   Pillars ( Caring, Effort,  Responsibility, Respect, Integrity)= Citizenship
21   Consequences/Disciplinary plans
22.   Emergency Drill expectations
23.   Use of Technology
24.   Attention and other signals used in class ( your choice)

These are  the procedures and rules I have addressed over the course of my teaching career.  There are no set rules,  Think about what needs to be in place for your class to run efficiently and effectively, and no I don't do them all on the same day.  I do Mid workshop teaching points and also spread them over the first 3 weeks of school as stated before.  I revisit them often,  I make sure to model and follow the anchor chart format:  What does it look like, and what does it sound like?

You want to have routines and procedures for how the major workshop will work daily:
Reading Workshop, Writing workshop, Math workshop, and maybe even Science workshop.  There is a gambit of procedures and routines that  I do over three week period,  A great resource that gives a list of  mini lesson ideas for Reading and Writing  Workshop is Fountas and Pinelll's :  Guiding Readers and Writers.


Here is some pictures  of my old classroom,  However,  I am moving from fourth to sixth grade and I am working furiously to get my room set up,  Starting with my library.  Look for a blog post to come about setting up classroom libraries.

So take a breath,  ask a colleague,  learn by doing and be okay with making a mistake.  After 87 years,  I do.  However,  just remember the key for me was to start reflecting.  I kept a journal and everyday I would journal about my day,  what went well, what didn't.  My actions and behaviors, the students actions and behaviors.  I problems solved and made lots of list in my journal.

Every one have a great 2018-2019 school year.

You are appreciated

So you're a teacher? Now What?

As the year winds down, and testing wraps up.  Now what?    Students are tired, teachers are tired.  Sometimes behaviors explodes and students have literally checked out.  They figure we have taken the state test,  schools over.  Yet you have anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months left.   So Now What?

How about Book Clubs.  A great way to wrap up the school year.   Book Clubs allow students to collaborate and be interactive.  Their are so many things that you can do with book clubs, and their are so many ways to form students.

Did you know that book clubs don't have to be just  chapter books.  How about starting off with picture books.

Some of my favorite books to use for book clubs:

Baseball Saved Us
Rosa Parks
Anne Frank
Pink and Say
Ruby Bridges.

IF you are looking for additional resources and like some of these titles I have additional response activities that you can use with them.

I

If your not sure about book clubs,  how about creating a bingo board of activities for student to choose from to apply to their books, whether they are book club books or independent books.  My goal is to keep their hands moving and them actively engaged.  No down time!  Students love making and creating things.  We have created power points, book boards, diorama's, posters, puppet shows, and much much more.  Here is the resource given to the students,  I model those I think they are unfamiliar with and as they choose if needed I model as the need arises.

So, it's the end of the school year, so what?

        Are your students loosing focus?  Are they acting like they were at the beginning of the year?  Have they began to act out or become  unmotivated or care?  What's a teacher to do?

       In order to have a smooth exit to the year,  it is important that during this time of year teachers take the time to remember that they need to revisit expectations and continue with morning meetings.  The students need consistency so don't let up.  Now, I am not saying bombard them with work, especially busy work.  I am saying  use activities that will grab their attention but still address learning targets.

       The first thing to do is to make sure to have not only morning meetings but classroom meetings.  I have three rotations,  a homeroom/Social Studies and two LA/Reading  rotations.   I started revisiting our school pillars, one a week with my homeroom students. The students are creating posters that represent what they do and don't look like.  They are coming up with statements as well.  There job is to tell me one way they plan to show that pillar, and to evaluate themselves at the end of the day.   What are you doing to ensure students comply.

       In my rotation stations we revisit the contract posters we created at the beginning of the year as to the expectations for Reading and Writing workshop to be able to take place efficiently and effectively.   I remind them of the Non-Negotiables established at the beginning of the year.  I make sure to address every infraction that is major, and ignore the ones that are petty even if they are becoming annoying.  You will have those students that will do things just to get under your skin.  That is where you refer to some of your favorite PD for classroom management strategies.  I posted a few below.  I do make sure to stop when behaviors are off and problem solve and come up with solutions to the issues.  I don't want kids to think that it is okay for some behaviors and not others.  I just don't harp on them as a whole class.  I pull those students quietly and use some of the strategies from Power Struggles.  If you don't have this book.  I highly recommend it. 

        What are you doing?  Do you need ideas and support? Check out these two resources, they are sitting on my desk now and when issues arise I refer to them.  Great tools for all teachers especially new teachers.

             





       Other things that I have found that works at the end of the year as a reminder to students of their jobs is  number one practice academies.  If students aren't doing what is expected, I reteach and model expectations, have them practice it until it becomes a habit again.  The main thing is to not let the end of the year or the fact that testing is over to justify students lack of effort or behavioral changes.    A second thing is rewards,  give out reward coupons, use your treasure chest,  Here are a few rewards I use.  You will find them in my store.  Hit the link on the sidebar and it will take you there to check them out along with other resources for the classroom.



        When All else fails,  make sure to give opportunities for students to share and discuss their learning,  make sure to give brain breaks and technology apps such as:  Gonoodle, Kahoot, padlet, google classroom, CPS, Pic Collage,  and Sock puppets.  Use logic puzzles, incorporate music and art around  content area.   The goal is to keep them engaged!! However, keep it relevant to content,  not busy work.

So it's the end of the school, year, Now What?