Being A Child's Champion

You could read the research or you hear about it in your education courses but nothing really make a profound impact on you until you see it in a student's eyes.  Being a child's champion, cheering them on when they don't believe they can do it is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job!  As educators our job is not to just "teach" the standards but to make an authentic connection with our students by learning about who they are, what they like/dislike and to empower them with the skills they need to be successful in life.  

Yesterday, while conferencing with my students I was congratulating them on the successes they have had in making new friends in middle school, being responsible students, being self-advocates as well as making growth in reading and writing so far this year and most importantly, telling them how proud I was of them.  It was the smiles on their faces and some tears in their eyes that spoke to me….they knew I was their cheerleader.  That I believed in them.  That is worth more than ANY paycheck….ANY day!   

I am not "just" a teacher, I am a child's champion!

Get Those Kids Moving

As I stated yesterday on my Facebook page, it's critical to get our students moving especially after a break.  Here are 10 quick ways to add movement in your classroom!

• Keep it Up-  Have students stop "working" and quickly play a game of beach ball volleyball.  Have students toss around a beach ball around the classroom not allowing it to hit the ground.
• Stand Up-  As you are teaching new information, have students who are answering questions stand up if they know the answer.  Make sure to wait a few minutes to allow other students to come up with the answer as well.
• Task Card Rotation-  Need to review some information you taught prior to the break?  Create task cards for students to practice these skills.  Put a variety of different task cards in various spots in the classroom (set up like centers) and have the students move around answering the questions.
• Surf the Web- Go to Gonoodle.com.  It has great brain break activities.
• Core Fitness-  When you notice you are losing your students, stop and get them out of their seat doing any type of core fitness- sit ups, push-ups, wall sits, jumping jacks, and/or lunges.  Get that blood flowing!
• Dance Party-  Students love to dance even in 6th grade!  Play a current song and have a dance off.  Do it weekly and give out prizes!
• Whistle While They Work-  Need the classroom picked up?  Have the students whistle to a song while they clean up!
• Charades- Have students act out concepts being taught in the classroom.  Great for visual learners!
• Power Walk-  Put those coats on and head outside for a quick power walk!  Even 10 minutes will help students refocus!
• Mindfulness Activity-  Sometimes, students are stressed out when they get back from their vacation.  Teaching students deep breathing techniques can help them learn how to deal with pressure and stress.  

I hope these give you some fun new ways to add movement to your classroom!

Happy 2015!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!  

Looking forward to what 2015 will bring for me!  Hopefully it will be more blog posts!

The More You Read...

This week ends our first trimester for the 2014-15 school year. All of my students were required to read one chapter book per week which would total 10 books! I am so proud to say that most lived up to this goal! Reading is the heart of EVERYTHING and it's so critical that they read each and every day & night. One of my favorite quotes from one of the best authors says it all...

Brain Based Learning ~ Physical Movement

Want to improve the learning in your classroom?  

You will need to implement brain based strategies into your classroom.  

Strategy Number One-  Physical Movement

We know that we grow neurons through our lifetime and they are highly correlated with memory, mood and learning.  This process can be regulated daily with exercise.  When students move, good chemicals are produced to help thinking, focus and learning.  Our brain "run on empty" when they don't move, so it is critical as educators we get our students moving in the classroom.

What can you do in your room to make sure students get physical movement?  

State Changes & Energizers!

Here are some examples:

Cross Lateral Movements

Sit Ups/Push Ups

Jumping Jacks

Snow Balls Fights (Crumble up paper and throw at each other)

Stand and Sing YMCA

Thumb War with a Partner

Wall Squats

Trading Places (Students change seats)

Mingle, Mingle, Find Another Single (Have students walk around the room until you say stop. Then, have them  

I will post more examples soon!

Random Acts of Kindness and the Wonder Connection

For the first time in my career, we asked our incoming 6th grade students to read a book over the summer.  Our pick was Wonder by R. J. Palacio.  We choose the book because of it's amazing themes- Kindness, Acceptance, Friendship, etc.

We have decided to start our school year discussing kindness and how being kind to others truly impacts the world.  On September 11th, we watched a video clip called:  9/11 Anniversary Call for 10,000 Acts of Kindness.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taQt42zqrKs

Now, even though this "call" for kindness was a few years old, I decided to challenge my own students to this.  They all were asked to do a Random Act of Kindness.  Then, we would share our acts in hopes of inspiring others to continue to do more kind acts.  We also journaled about our experience.

Well, one of my students decided to do his Random Acts of Kindness on me!  This is what I saw on my desk:

I was shocked and SOOOO excited!  I love the fact that my student gave it back to me!  I decided to then, copy the sheet and pass it on to two students in my class as well as 5 teachers in my building!  Looking forward to this lesson impacting tons of other lives!

Anecdotal Observation ...Who Does It???

How many of you observe your students and record what you see?  

How about conference with them and take notes?  

Doing both will help drive your instruction!  

It has been proven that by systematically collecting and analyzing anecdotal comments, teachers can evaluate students' progress and abilities to inform and plan appropriate instruction.

Anecdotal Means: An anecdotal record is "a written record kept in a positive tone of a child's progress based on milestones particular to that child's social, emotional, physical, aesthetic, and cognitive development," notes the American Association of School Administrators (1992, p. 21).

There are two overall purposes of using anecdotal records: 

1.  to identify the instructional needs of students
2.  to provide information about students’ development over an extended period of time

Interested in a variety of anecdotal forms and conference forms?  Check out my latest product on Teacher's Pay Teachers!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/50-Anecdotal-Record-Conference-Forms-1429227