“I’m her favorite student!” I’ve heard that phrase over and over in the eighteen years I’ve been working around schools and the short seven years of my teaching career. I never deny it, or even acknowledge whether or not it’s true. I usually just smile and nod, yet students still say it. Since I’ve heard it a […]
Classroom Management
Supporting Students Can be More than Academic
Supporting students has always meant letting my students know that I understood how stressful their lives can be. While we can’t control their home lives we can be aware that our schools are not necessarily very student friendly. Between earlier and earlier starting times, dress codes/uniforms, poorly scheduled rosters, and crazy standardized testing, students do […]
Elements of a Great Lesson Plan
There is no right way to plan a great lesson. Sometimes what you thought would be an amazing plan falls apart and other times what was supposed to take only five minutes ends up being twenty-five. Or my absolute favorite thing happens, there is a “teachable moment” and it is not written on any lesson […]
Behavior Bugs Are On The Loose!
Every school year I use some type of token system with my class. Since I have students who loop with me for several years, I don’t like to use the same system every year so as not to repeat something that has already been done for students I have again. One year I used poker […]
Advice from Adventures in Seating Plans
The seating plan is often thought of as an important element for student success. From the first day of school, the seating plan is a teacher’s strategy for learning student names, and student names can be the most important piece of information a teacher can gather the first day of school. For that reason most teachers choose to use […]
Taming Those Treasure Collections
I love teaching first and second grade. I love everything about it. I love the giggles, and the wide-eyed wonderment, and the sweet voices, and the constant questions. And one of my favorite things is when kids come in from recess, and they’ve found special treasures out on the playground. Treasures like rocks, and feathers, […]
Creating Safe Spaces Within Our Classrooms
This year I will begin my “lucky” thirteenth year in the classroom in my current district, and my second year teaching junior high. One of my strengths as a teacher is my classroom management. It’s been something that has come naturally to me ever since my days of student teaching and I credit it all to […]
The New, Old Classroom
Going into my 20th year of teaching I am just as excited as I was that first year. I remember spending that first summer in 1996 organizing my classroom, making curtains, and buying supplies. This summer, I am doing much of the same thing; but with a new twist. I have 20 years of experience now to guide […]