Ideas That I Stole from Great Teachers.....

OK. Here is my list of fabulous ideas which I snatched from super-creative, talented teachers that I am fortunate to work with. 

First, here is Ms. Zuskin's gigantic math calendar wall.  Is this awesome or what?

Here is a cool idea that I stole from the second-grade teacher (Ms. Beeson). In our reading curriculum, we have the students respond (answer) on a sticky note.  Then there is the challenge of how they turn it in and how you are supposed to grade a pile of sticky notes!

Ms. Beeson came up with a system for this organizational dilemma.  When you have an assignment that have to be done on a sticky note, have them put it on a sticky note challenge board.  Get a posterboard and section it off.  Place sticky notes on there (in desk number order).  Then laminate it.  When the students have filled in their sticky note, they put it on the number that corresponds with their desk number.  Right away, you can see who did their assignment and grade it easier!

 The above board is Ms. Owen's neat board (before kids put the assignment on there).  Below is my board after the kids have placed their sticky-notes on there.  I can see right away that a few students did not finish their sticky notes yet.  This is an easy way to grade their work at a glance without sorting through a stack of sticky notes that may or may not have names on them.

The next idea comes from the amazing Ms. Zuskin.  If you have plastic letters that students use to make words/in a station, put them in a letter box.  These boxes are available at teacher supply stores.  This is not the amazing idea.  The amazing idea is that she took alphabet stickers and put them on the bottom of the individual trays so that students would know right away where they letters went when they clean up!  This is what the box looks like upside down:



Here is an idea that I stole from Mrs. Hall (and modified it slightly).  For Christmas gifts for parents, we made sled ornaments.  Take kid's pictures sitting with arms out.  I had kids sit on a table and had them pose as if on a sled.  Then I printed it out, laminated it, and cut around the child.  They made sleds out of Popsicle sticks and painted them red.  Then we hot glued on yarn for the hanger and sled handle.  Of course, I whited out the kid's face for the Internet, not in real life!



I Wish...

I wish the printer never ran out of ink.
I wish all children had parents that read to them at night.
I wish jeans were considered professional dress.
I wish I'd never dropped the ball on a child's education.
I wish expo markers didn't smell.
I wish all pens were purple.
I wish pencils were sharpened overnight by magical elves.
I wish children were kind to each other.
I wish chocolate contained zero calories.
I wish I had a secretary! 

Show and Tell

Show and tell.
Child #1 didn't have his show and tell because his sister didn't pack it.
"Next!"
Child #2 brings in a Kindle Fire.  "I don't have any books on it yet, but I have over 100 games!"
"Next!"
Child #3 plops down in the chair with a stuffed dog.  "Now that's more like it," I think.
She begins:
"This is my stuffed dog.  His name is Dammit.  I got him from my grandpa."
"Wait," I interrupt, "What did you say his name was?"
"Dammit.  It's name is the same as my dog's name at home.  His name is Dammit because he pooped in my closet."
"NEXT!"

Ten Minutes of my day

7:39: Catch up on the news: who has brought a show and tell, who has left their backpack, who can't find their jacket from yesterday, etc
7:40: Answer 4 questions about if we are having outside recess or not
7:43: Locate the stapler
7:45: Say, "Yes, you can use the stapler.  Wait, do you know how to use the stapler?"
7:46: Pull staples out of  paper becuase they stapled it in the middle
7:47: Show child how to use the stapler correctly
7:48: Using tweezers, pull staples that are jammed in the stapler
7:49: Repeat answer about recess.  Threaten no recess if one more child asks

Worth the drive

One of my least favorite things to do is drive.  Let me just preface this story with that statement.  So when my son asked me to drive him to church tonight, I was not quite looking forward to it. 
 I left work at 4:10, drove to pick up my sophomore son at 5:10, drove to pick up his friend, and drove them to church by 6:00 for the high school ministry program on Wednesday nights.  As he got out of the car, he said, "Wait, I've got to get my wallet out of the back." 
"Why do you need your walled?" I inquired.
"I need to tithe," he said.
As he was shutting the back door, I heard his friend say, "Got your tithe?"
"Yep," Jeff replied and they headed into the church.
As I drove away, I teared up.  "Wow, God!  You are Amazing!"
I was reminded how 4 years ago, we moved to Fort Worth.  Everything was new.  New school. New people. No friends. 
I really wanted Jeffrey to connect and make some new friends at church, so I insisted that he go to the Jr. High program weekly.  He wasn't thrilled about going.  I kept driving him there every week and hoping he'd make a friend or talk to somebody. Anybody. 
Each week was fruitless.  Then one week after I dropped him off, I cried all the way home.  I cried because my son needed a friend.  I cried out to God for Jeffrey.  I wanted him to have good relationships.  I wanted him to have Godly friends.  I wanted him to have connections. 
The next week, God answered my prayer.  I got a call from a woman who heard that we lived near her and that my son was going to the Jr. High night weekly.  She thought we might want to carpool.  I talked with her about moving to the area and how we weren't connected in a lifegroup yet either.
She told me about their lifegroup and how it had several kids in it the same age as Jeffrey.  I was so excited and we started going to that lifegroup.
Now it is four years later.  I can look back and see how much God has given us.  How much He has given Jeffrey.  He has wonderful Christian friends that are as close as brothers.  Jeffrey has friends that he can talk about God with and share his life with.  What an amazing journey!
I realized that God cares so much about our needs.  He cares so much about our children's needs too!  He worked in Jeffrey's life to give him the connections that he needed.  Thank you, God for listening to my prayer and giving us more than we could ever ask or imagine!  What good gifts you give to our children.
And tonight's reminder was well worth the drive. :-)

First Grade Survey

My first-graders are learning about surveys, data, and making a representation (or a graph) of the data.  Each pair of students came up with their own survey question and polled everyone in the class.  Then we went to the computer lab to make the representations on kidpix.  I personally think anytime you can combine kidpix and math, you are sure to impress someone with your tech-savvy 6 year-olds.  I am walking around viewing their representations when I come across one interesting one.  Now I told my students that they must have a title, their 2 categories labeled, numbers, and a representation of that number (tally marks, pictures, circles, bar graph, etc).  This group has the question: Which do you like better: bm or p?  Furthermore, they discovered that 15 people liked bm and 7 people liked p. 
While biting my bottom lip, I ask, "What is your survey question again?"  
"You know," they reply, "Which do you like better: blue macaws or parrots?"
"Oh, of course!  How silly of me!  One tip though: You might want to label it "blue macaw" and "parrot". Just so no one gets confused,"  
 "No.  We would rather abbreviate it," they reply.  Oh well.  I tried.  I think I'll hang it in the hallway anyway.  It will definitely leave people guessing!

Bathroom Rules for first graders

At the beginning of the year, I always go over the rules of the restroom: use whispering voices, do not play around, wash your hands, come back into the hallway and sit quietly.
Around mid-year, I think I should add some more rules.  Here goes:

1. Do not step in the water puddle on the floor in the first stall.
2. Do not put water bottles in the toilet.
3. Do not attempt to take water bottles out of the toilet.
4. Do not throw water on anyone else.
5. Do not crawl under, over, or peek into stalls.
6. Do not turn out the lights and hide, then pop out to scare someone and scream.
7. Take off your gloves before washing your hands.
8. Always flush the toilet.
9. If the toilet will not stop flushing, do not run screaming from the restroom. 
10. (for boys) Aim for the urinal.  Do not aim up in the air, onto the floor, or treat others as a target.
11. Do not sing at the top of your lungs just to hear your voice echo.
12. Wrestling is not allowed in the restroom.
13. Attempting to spider-man climb the walls is not allowed either.

So there are my 13 rules for the restroom. I'm sure I'll have to add more as May approaches. Hmmm...