And HERE WE GO!!

I cannot BELIEVE it is the middle of the first week of school already! I have been so busy, I haven't been able to even think about posting. My kids are awesome. I am so impressed with how much they learned in first grade last year! GREAT JOB first grade team!

I have SO MANY new students who joined our school for our Engineering and Technology magnet, which makes me so unbelievably happy!

I LOVE getting to know my kids. The first week can make or break a school year, and definitely sets the tone. I was taught to be strict the first couple of weeks of the school year and followed that notion in previous years. I was very strict year round. This year, however, I am trying a different approach. This approach may not be for every teaching style but so far is working for me. My classroom has always been very organized and very structured. I have rules (obviously) and a procedure for absolutely every possible scenario in my classroom. My students do not do well with down time, so I cut out most, if not all down time. I teach the students exactly what I expect and remind them of procedures often. I am very consistent and fair with every student. Since my classroom, classroom management plan, and procedures are so structured, I am able to focus on building relationships with my students right off the bat this year. I can honestly say that I have enjoyed the past three days of building relationships with my students WAY more than the days I spent being extremely stern. 

Rita Pierson once said "Kids don't learn from people they don't like." This gave me the thought of building relationships as soon as possible to see how far it could take us. I am really excited with what I see so far. I have noticed that kids don't like disappointing people they like either. I try to get as many of my students to smile throughout the day as possible. This could be as simple as smiling at them while you talk to them, giving them a compliment, and telling them you care about them. They love attention, no matter how small. If they aren't getting good attention then they will try for negative attention. They don't care, they just need it from someone. I am trying to give all 18 of my students as much positive attention I can dish out to forego any negative attention attempts. We will see how this year goes.

Keep it up for the little hands and continue working on those lesson plans!

- Amber

Meet the Teacher

Meet the teacher went pretty well this year. I didn't have as many students/parents show up as last year, but the students and parents that I did meet were amazing! Here are a few of the things I did this year for Meet the Teacher. 

I try to always set up a student station. During Meet the Teacher, parents usually have a lot of paperwork to fill out, things to read, and a teacher to talk to. I learned my first year of teaching that during this time, their children are not very patient. I've seen parents get REALLY frustrated. I do not have children of my own (yet) but I thought about what would make it easier for my parents to have the time to talk to me, and fill out the appropriate forms. I came up with a coloring station. I posted a prompt "What was your favorite part of your summer?" As I met students I asked them to draw their favorite part of their summer, so I could post it for the first day of school. I ask them to write a couple sentences (if they can) and tell me about it when they are done. I can loosely gauge a students abilities here too. Parents really appreciated it. I had whole families and siblings coloring and talking about their favorite parts of summer. Students were literally dragged out of the classroom to meet other siblings teachers. SUCCESS!

The first stop for parents was the sign in table. I placed my wish list here, with fingers crossed. I definitely had more takers last year but I had more parents show up last year too. There is no harm in asking. My first year I didn't put out a wish list because I knew the poverty level at my school was very high. But I just place them in sight and do not pressure anyone to donate. If they can, they do. My wish list sign said "Please lend a helping hand... pick a hand to donate that item to our classroom. We would greatly appreciate it. - Ms. Lemos" 

I placed all name tags on the board so students (and parents) could pick their seats. After Meet the Teacher, I was able to figure out who didn't make it and place the rest of the students where I wanted them. 

Believe it or not, every student picked a seat as close to the front as possible, without their parent telling them. I was shocked. Once their student picked a seat, the parent would get to work filling out the student information form on that desk. 

Each desk had a bottle of water, a gift bag, a student information sheet, a pen, a book, my classroom management plan, and a letter from a student from my 2014-2015 school year. I am so happy I decided to have my students write these letters last year to the incoming 2nd graders. Reading these letters was hilarious! I laughed and laughed at the tips and advice my old students wrote to my new students about being in my class. One of my favorite quotes "Ms. Lemos is so fun. Don't break her rules, you will not like it." LOL! Sounds awful! 

I gave each student a chapter book to keep. I received a donated box of High School Musical chapter books from A Gift for Teaching. Some of my students cannot read chapter books yet, but I gave them a goal that by the end of the year they will be able to read them by themselves. For now I told them to ask a parent to read it to them and use it for homework. 

Welcome bags...this was something I was adamant about doing this year. Growing up, I always helped my Aunt set up her classroom for MTT. She always had a bag for the student/parents to take. I believe hers may have been an emergency school year kit. I wanted my welcome bags to act as my welcome letter. I wanted everything in the bag to somehow be incorporated into the letter as well.  This was harder for me than I thought it would be. Each bag had starburst, smarties, a bag of wise chips, and a bottle of water. The welcome letter read "Welcome to Ms. Lemos' reading class! I am so glad you are here! I was bursting with excitement to meet you. I know you are thirsty for knowledge and ready to learn. I am so lucky to have so many smarties this year! Have a great last weekend of summer! See you on Monday, wise guys! -Ms. Lemos"

Overall, MTT was a success. Despite the storm and crazy parking, families came to our classrooms with smiles on their faces. 

It was a great start to the 2015-2016 school year!

Keep it up for the little hands and continue working on those lesson plans!

- Amber 

Writing Folders

Writing folders...hmm.

Every year I change the way I do writing. Last year I used writing journals (spirals), and it worked pretty well. However, I realized that students were having a hard time finding their stories in their journal, and understanding which step in the writing process they were in. I found this writing folder idea, that I will be implementing this year.

You will need three 2-pocket folders, stapled together, to create a 6 pocket writing folder.

The first two pockets will be for blank writing paper. Probably primary handwriting paper in one pocket and lined paper in the other.

The next two pockets start the writing process. The first pocket is for prewrite. Students will brainstorm their ideas for their writing and keep it in this pocket. After brainstorming, students will work on their rough drafts and leave it in this pocket.

When students move to the revising phase of writing, they move their paper to the revising pocket. Lastly, students work on the final draft and keep their work here.

I am excited to try it this year. Who knows maybe it will stick.

Let's keep it up for the little hands, and continue working on our lesson plans.

- Amber

Interactive Notebooks

I think interactive notebooks are brilliant! If I would've known about them, I would've incorporated them into my lesson plans a while ago! An interactive notebook is a notebook or journal (I prefer composition notebooks) that students use to hold important information that they can interact with in different ways. This may be worksheets, cut, colored and glued into the notebook with important grade level content, graphic organizers drawn or glued in, small flip books, etc.

I found all of my interactive notebook pages on TeachersPayTeachers. I am teaching ELA this year, so all of my interactive notebook pages are obviously Reading/Language Arts. However, there are interactive notebook pages, worksheets and ideas for almost every grade and every subject. My interactive notebook pages came from Nicole Shelby and Laurane Rae.

I DID NOT create these pages, but I wanted to show you an idea I had to aid in the lesson planning process. If you like my idea and would like to integrate interactive notebooks into your curriculum, please check out Interactive Notebook Pages on TPT.

I created a teacher Interactive Notebook binder to help aid in lesson planning and be used as a sample/example for student work. I will also use this binder as a reference to remember what important information should be filled in by students.

Inside this binder, I have ALL interactive notebook pages placed inside sheet protecters. All extra printouts are also inside each sheet protector (in case your students need extra copies). 

I have my interactive binder tabbed by subject. Since I am teaching ELA this year, I have Phonics, Language Arts and Reading. Each tab has a table of contents written down in order of standard.

This will help in the lesson planning process as well. I will be bringing this binder to planning meetings to make sure we are hitting each standard, and inputing important interactive pages into our plans. 

I will let you know how it goes this year!

Let's keep it up for the little hands, and continue working on our lesson plans!

- Amber