Everyone's a salesman

I admit it, I'm on Teachers Pay Teachers.  I actually took down most of my materials, though.  I was making enough "extra" money for little splurges like a special experience for my daughter at Disney World (the trip wasn't paid for by TPT money, that was two years of savings) and for an American Girl doll for Christmas (she already had one I found at a second hand sale so the TPT money bought her a brand new one).  I just started to feel guilty for students who were subjected to my materials because a teacher didn't want to make his or her own handouts.  Aren't here ENOUGH handouts available somewhere?  My textbook has two ancillary workbooks, there are plenty of free internet resources, I just hate the idea of kids mindlessly filling in forms.  I did have (and still do have) some more interactive things on there like matching cards and other manipulatives, but the things that were bigger sellers were packets of handouts.

I'm done with handouts.  I have enough handouts.  I'll post handouts here for FREE as I make them during the year.  If someone really needs a handout, take it.  Whatever.

I started this blog because I was tired after a few years of seeing fourth and fifth year teachers bragging about how wonderful they are.  Yes, I'm sure they are great.  I'm sure they have great ideas.  I definitely learn a lot from them.  I appreciate them sharing their ideas.  UNTIL they start to sell me something that is little more than a handout.  I figured, I've been teaching for twenty-four years, I've got a bunch of letters after my name and I have a bunch of recognition things, I can share what I know as well as a fourth year teacher.  Hence, this blog.  Whether or not anyone reads it.

So far this summer I've taken two webinars on "innovative ideas."  The presenters did have very good ideas and presented information in a cogent way with relevant research explained well.  I wasn't blown away by anything, though.  Maybe I've just been to so many workshops and conferences, I just don't think there's a need for people to tell me the obvious.

• Get kids involved in the learning.
• If they do, they learn.  If they listen, they might not be learning.
• RTI, ELA, CCCS, buzz buzz buzz, we all know the words.
• Formative assessment, summative assessment, flexible grouping, facilitating learning.

I know all that stuff.  I want to SEE it in action.  I want to see how it looks in your classroom.  I don't want to hear about "think pair share" as being more than "turn to your neighbor and tell them..."  I want to know WHAT they should tell their neighbor, what is a good topic, at what point in the lesson.  I want concrete examples.  I've heard enough "experts" tell me what to do and I think I'm doing the right thing, but then another teacher thinks she's doing the right thing and we're actually doing different things.  What IS the right thing?

Here's an example of how I use "think pair share."  When was teaching descriptive adjectives and adjective agreement, I asked students to turn to their neighbor and say a Spanish sentence describing themselves, another sentence describing their partner, and a third sentence describing someone famous (could be a teacher, the rule was they had to be nice about people we know in real life).  Is that the right thing?  I don't know.  If the purpose of think pair share is to further process your own understanding, the idea that "to teach is to learn twice," then my example isn't the right thing.  If the purpose of think pair share is to explain what you know so you and your partner can process together and check each other's understanding, and also to give a chance for the teacher to do some quick formative assessment by eavesdropping, then my example is definitely the right thing.  (My example would not only require the students to use the correct adjective but also to use the masculine or feminine adjective form AND the appropriate form of the verb SER in a sentence.  It actually gives the teacher an opportunity to see which students can apply AND integrate new skills and possibly pinpoint which students need targeted support on different parts of the language learning sequence.)  Would an observer who isn't familiar with language learning understand the difference?  I'm not sure.

But there's a bigger mystery to me.  WHY are so many teachers selling their wares, their lessons and handouts and ideas?  And why are so many teachers willing to buy a handout rather than spend 10 minutes (at most) making their own?

Spanish geography

Sometime in the first month of the year, I go through the countries where Spanish is spoken. 

First I ask the students to write as many Spanish-speaking countries as they can in two minutes and then I time them.  There are 21, I tell them.  Many kids give up after 30 seconds, some realize there's a map on the wall or there's a bulletin board in the back of the room.  Most kids include answers that are WAY off base like New Mexico, Brazil, and Africa.  (I then explain the difference between a state, a country, and a continent.)

And then we watch this video on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKle4UFMjXI&index=5&list=PLgU6hXPsBxvI_RsrarB1-BcwR5iAy2wDT



This is my favorite of the country ones.  I think the girls are adorable, they are obviously the same age as my students, and they have good accents that my students can imitate.  We watch the video twice so students can focus on the video the first time and then fill in some more countries on their list the second time. 

FINALLY, I use the Smartboard to show all of the countries and label them as I go through the continents.  I'll try to insert my Smartboard file in September when I go back to school, but basically all I did was take the background for Central America, label each Spanish-speaking country, and then put the country shape over it.  Then I did the same thing for South America.  For North America I just write the countries on the map as I review it, since the islands are so tiny.

After this, I have a list on one of my word walls with all of the Spanish-speaking countries.  It's useful for me as I plan activities so I don't keep referring to the same few countries I'm most familiar with, and students refer to the list when selecting countries for their Culture Project each marking period.

Here are some other YouTubes I've found through the years.  Please add YOUR favorite Spanish geography links in the comments.

• Mnemonics to learn ALL the countries in Central America and the Carribbean.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSOLUieKmfk&index=7&list=PLgU6hXPsBxvI_RsrarB1-BcwR5iAy2wDT
• Mnemonics to learn ALL the countries in South America. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYSHaL2uGGE
• Incredibly creative teacher's original song that includes dancing, great for kinesthetic learners. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpYkL4ejW8U

There used to be a video to the Rock the Capitals song with a Peruvian professor dancing around, it reminded me of my grandfather trying to salsa dance in our basement.  I can't find it anymore.  If you know the one I'm talking about, PLEASE let me know!  It's just so cute!

This website is just FULL of information and images of South America.  Definitely a good resource for students to use for research or for teachers to use for planning. http://rediscoversouthamerica.com/  I also found this cute image on there.

 



Classroom management

A friend posted this article on her fb feed and it got me thinking about other techniques I use to quiet my class.


1. The callback - Pick a phrase, preferably something content-area specific. The teacher says half of the phrase and the class responds with the other half.

Since I teach beginning level Spanish, I start the class with a greeting using this technique. I say "Buenos días" or "Buenas tardes" depending on the time of day, and the class responds with "hola" (Good morning, good afternoon, hi). I explain that the greeting to start class is also a cultural example, as many classes in Soanish speaking counties are expected to stand and greet the teacher when the teacher enters the room.  Another popular one is "gracias," with students responding "de nada" (thank you, you're welcome). The kids also like when I pretend to sneeze and they respond with "salud."
My daughter's kindergarten teacher used this same technique but with phrases from pop culture. My favorite was hearing my daughter sing Vanilla Ice: teacher said "stop, collaborate" and the class responded "and listen." The teacher told me about a time she tried the technique with a song they'd heard in a movie from class, but only my daughter remembered it. That last point shows the importance of teaching and practicing your callback phrase!

2. Maracas - I collect maracas to display in my class. When students are working with a partner, I shake the maracas a little bit to signal that I want their attention. It's a take off on the flickering lights or the ringing bell, but I think the maracas are less of an assault to your senses. Plus, the kids think it's really cool. I can circulate the room during the activity and hand the maraca to a student to shake as a "reward." And since it's culturally appropriate, it counts as incorporating culture into my curriculum.

3. Raise your hand - I feel like a dork raising my hand in my classroom. If I want my young teens to act like adults, I need to treat them that way. The hand-raising DOES still work for them, but I feel like it's juvenile. So if there's a point in class when students should be paying attention but I've lost them, like side conversations took over or something very funny happened on the other side of the room, I quietly say "raise your hand if you can hear me." I repeat it twice or three times, and get everyone's attention without yelling and without raising my voice.

4. Seating chart - This one was mentioned to me at a new teacher workshop when I started my current job. It was my 6th year of teaching so I wasnt "new," but this little gem is the one thing I've used every year since. On the very first day, have seats assigned and put a seating chart on the board. Because kids can't always read a map and because the very last thing I want to do as they enter is embarrass them, my chart just has the list of student names and the seat number for each student. (This also matches Harry Wong's suggestion from "The First Days of School" to let students know they are in the right place.) I have a post it on each desk with the number and students just find their seats. It also lets me say nothing in English to start the class. I start immediately with "cómo te llamas" and "me llamo" and I have the seating chart to check answers, no English for like 10 minutes the very first day. It freaks the kids out but they can all do it.)

During the year when I need to change seats, I have a classroom map up with first names. By that time they are familiar with me and the room layout so it's less intimidating.

5. Paper distribution and collection - This one I read about many years ago. Many teachers collect papers by passing them forward. Middle school students are notoriously space cadet-ish and they forget kids are behind them. I now collect papers by passing them down the row sideways. I also distribute papers sideways. Even when I return class work, I sort it by the order students are seated so I can put down a set of papers at the start of a row, students take their paper from the top of the pile. They don't bother to look at other grades because they are looking at their own paper while passing the pile.

Of course the BEST classroom management technique is to have interesting and engaging lessons. If students know what to expect AND thy know they will probably like what's going on, most students will behave appropriately.

What's your favorite technique to get and maintain student attention?

Planning now for year-long differentiation

How do you prepare for the coming school year?  I usually get so upset during finals review that I vow to do things differently the following year.  I make lists, download activities, make all of these grandiose plans, and then come October I fall into the same old routines.

Not this year.

I'm really excited to finally implement something I envisioned two or three years ago.  My classes are all level one Spanish (first exposure for most students to a World Language, other than Dora the Explorer), but they are all heterogeneous.  I have special needs students in the same room as gifted students, heritage language learners (who speak a good deal of Spanish at home) and native speakers (who attended school until recently in a Spanish-speaking country), and the usual assortment of "regular" students.  Since this is the first time students are really learning a World Language, I focus on skill development including memorization strategies.  Some students pick up really quickly, while others need more repetition and practice.  And then, of course, there's always the issues of other classes and their homework, compounded by the Common Core era.  I came up with the idea to give a "test" after a quick presentation of the material, and then students would move into flexible groups depending on their performance on that test.

In most classes, that kind of differentiation would be akin to a unit pretest.  For the majority of my students, though, all of the material is new at the beginning of a unit.  By condensing the six week unit into two or three weeks, I can see who really needs the extra supports and who would be ready for the enrichment activities.  I've done variations of this, but not as a complete curriculum.  For example, this past year after a quiz I identified students who I felt needed extra practice on a given skill and "assigned" additional review work.  Although I tracked who was assigned the work and who completed it, I didn't really offer extra in-class instruction and those students seldom came for after school extra help.  What I'd like to do this year is after the 2-3 week presentation of the unit's main concepts, give a multiple choice version of the unit test.  Students will then be assigned to enrichment or advanced groups.  The enrichment groups will be for students who "passed" the different concepts, depending on what they've already mastered I plan to have a variety of activities like authentic readings (magazine articles, children's books, etc) and technology activities (podcast, websites, etc) that require students to use the concepts in a presentational mode.  The advanced groups will be dependent upon what concept I'll review, some students may be in the advanced group all the time and others will just be there for grammar work.  Those lessons will be more like the regular routines, direct instruction and drill and guided conversations.

I spent a lot of time reworking my first few chapters to cover all the material in 2-3 weeks.  I don't plan on telling the students that there will be two parts to each chapter, I hope it just develops naturally.  I'm not even sure if I'll count the first multiple choice "test" or not, since I  don't want to spend a day "reviewing" and then a day "testing" for each unit BEFORE the actual test.  Too much testing = not enough learning.  I do have to be aware, though, that if students (and parents) think I'm going too quickly then the entire plan could fall down the drain.

I'm struggling with the day-to-day plan, though.  How do I manage 125 students' individual plans?  I've seen a bunch of the charts on pinterest for how teachers manage flexible groups, but they all seem geared to elementary school where there is the same group of students all day.  My options seem to be five small charts (one for each class) or one large color-coded chart.  The good thing is I only have two classes back-to-back twice a day so I wouldn't have to have all 125 students listed each period on the large chart.  Or perhaps just have three charts, the two back-to-back groups color coded and then the singleton (that I suspect will have the largest range of student abilities).  If anyone has experience with flexible grouping, I'd love to hear your ideas. 

Teacher binder

I started the summer creating what I think is an AWESOME teacher binder.  I incorporated suggestions from two colleagues, used some of the forms I developed over the years, adapted some things I saw on pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers, and created what I think is a great resource.  My colleagues have their own versions, too, since we each picked how many of each page type we wanted. 

 

 

I created a cover that uses a clip art we found on google.com that represents our content area.  I didn't put the cover we made on here because it wasn't copyright-free clip art, but it was very easy to make.  Just find clip art that you like and put it on a new page in PowerPoint, then make a border using the Shapes tool.  We all have the same image, but it says our own name.  It also has our classroom number in case it gets misplaced, and it has the school year on it in case we love it so much we want to use the same cover another year.

We laminated the cover so it is sturdy.  Since we planned on bringing the planner to Staples to be bound into a notebook, we wanted the cover extra-sturdy like a "real" cover.  (We wanted a spiral notebook instead of a binder so it's more portable.  I tried the traditional binder thing and it never lasted more than a month, I'd just leave it on my desk and add papers to it whenever I remembered.  I hope that this notebook is more convenient so that I can throw it into my bookbag or just grab it and go.


There are two options for lesson plan pages.  Both options show a week at a glance over a two-page spread, with daily space for essential questions, homework assignment, and schedule of the day's activities.  (We all teach Spanish so it's written in Spanish.)  The middle school version (on the left) has space for absentees, five periods to note students who don't show a homework assignment on a spot-check, and space to note students who've made up incomplete assignments.  The high school version (on the right) doesn't have space for notations about students but includes space for two unique lesson plans each day.  Each set also has a big space (same size as the daily space) for extra notes a teacher might need to keep, such as for BIPs or student anecdotal data.  We included 43 copies of these, printed back-to-back.

We wanted to be able to see all of the most common IEP accommodations and modifications by class period.  We decided the ones we referred to most were copy of class notes, listening tests reread (we all teach Spanish so we do a lot of listening activities), preferential seating, and extended time.  We included space for other accoms and mods we need to keep track of for individual students, like when someone has unlimited bathroom access or needs to have their homework agenda pad signed daily.  At the bottom there's a space to note which students are on which academic team and with which guidance counselor, so it's easy to follow up with a student's case manager.  (We have four interdisciplinary teams and two guidance counselors on each grade level in the middle school.  There are, at present, four special education teachers on the grade level I teach. 

There are lined pages organized like traditional looseleaf paper, in three columns, and in five columns (not shown).  I'm not sure what we'll use this for but it's a "just in case" thing for this year and next year we may decide it's not worth it. 

We put a year at a glance over a two page spread that can be used for curriculum mapping, tracking meeting minutes, or even student anecdotal data.  I included six in mine, printed back-to-back, so I could have a set for each of the mandatory monthly meetings I attend (department, grade level, faculty) and each committee I'm on.  There's also a monthly calendar noting school holidays, including extra space each month for additional notes.  In our actual books we included a page printed from our district website that has the complete school year on one page, too.

There are grading pages that look like the old grade books with space for 10 assignments.  One friend is using these to track homework, but I think I'm going to use it to track mastery of required content.  I included 10 pages, back to back, so there's two for each class period.  My friend included double so she has two for each class, one for each marking period.

Parent contact log.  I usually use email for my contact, which I then sort into folders by class period.  This is mostly for phone calls and parent meetings, since I usually forget to log emails.  I put four pages, back to back, which will give me space to log 40 phone calls/meetings.

At Staples we purchased dividers like you'd use for a regular binder and inserted them into the sections of our planner.  We got the dividers you write on, not the ones with the insertable paper pieces that fall out.  Then we took it all to the copy center and asked the nice young man to bind it for us.  He used a reinforced spiral binder that he said should last the year (at least), and then put a nice sturdy cover on the back.

I admit, it's a little abnormal to be THIS much in love with a plan book.  If you want to use mine or if you want to download it and change it around, however you like, this is the link.  If you use it, please leave me a comment letting me know how you like it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer vacation

I've always wanted to be one of those teachers like I read about in the newspaper.  You know the ones I mean.  The ones who work three hours a day, six months of the year, and then do nothing but collect big fat paychecks the rest of the year.  Wouldn't that be great?

I don't believe there are ANY teachers who do that.  Granted, some are better at fitting all of their tasks into their 7-hour contractual school day.  I'm definitely not like that.  I get to work about twenty minutes early (I would be earlier but my daughter likes to sleep as late as possible on school days), just enough time to straighten my desks since the custodian has plenty of other tasks in his work day, too.  I meet with colleagues during most of my prep periods, although we sometimes spend the time chatting over the copier more than creating new engaging lessons.  I stay an hour after school ends to do paperwork and call parents, and usually wind up doing some professional reading, researching, or creating after dinner.

But the summer?  That's the time for ME.  Yeah, right.  I'm sure most teachers spend some time thinking about the upcoming school year, reflecting on the positives of the previous year and planning interesting learning experiences for the next year.  I've spent a lot of the last few summers addicted to pinterest.  And this summer I've decided I have enough knowledge, experience, and expertise that I need to share it.  Somehow.  So that's what I'm going to be doing for the next few weeks.  Sharing.  Because I have a lot to offer.

And with a blog, if no one cares what I have to say, at least I can still say it.