Creating Our Google Classroom Header

Teachers begin the school year building classroom community. I also want to build community in my virtual (Google) classroom!

One of the first Google Classroom assignments I plan to do this year is Creating Our Google Classroom Theme. Students will work collaboratively to create a custom classroom header which represents the individuality in our classroom community.

In this activity, students will think about an image which they feel represents their uniqueness. It could be something they really love, such as an animal, sport, food. It could be a favorite saying, character, book, or food.

In Google, I have created a header template with our class name and numbers. My students are assigned numbers the first day of school (as I am sure most of you do). Each student's job will be to find an image that represents him or her and place it on top of his or her number, creating a collage of the students' interests.

In this simple assignment, students will learn:

• How to follow directions in a Google Classroom assignment.
• How to collaborate as a class on one document.
• How to use the Research Tool.
• How to resize an image.
• How to rotate an image.

 Want to try it? Here are some resources to help:
How to Create a Google Classroom Custom Header with Google Drawings
My Google Classroom Custom Header-   This is ready to use. Just change 4P to your classroom name and add or delete numbers as needed. You will need to first Make a Copy and save it to your Google Drive.

Starting the Day Underwhelmed

Overwhelmed

I should have known better. Every year I make the same mistake. I don't listen to myself and trust my own teaching instincts.

Because of that, each day in the classroom last week started out chaotic.

I'm sure it didn't look chaotic to an outside observer. But in my insides, there was chaos.  My head was spinning, my stomach churning, my mouth was getting dry, and my face was starting to burn. I could feel myself starting to talk faster and with a higher pitch.

I was getting overwhelmed. Quickly. First thing in the morning. And as a highly sensitive person, avoiding the feeling of being overwhelmed is the most important thing I can do to conserve my much needed energy.

When highly sensitive people get overwhelmed, they have more trouble thinking on their feet, saying the right things and making decisive choices. Being overwhelmed makes highly sensitive people much less effective teachers.

So what was I doing wrong?

My students knew the routine. They knew how to come in, sign up for lunch, read the message, and start their morning work.

The problem was the morning work.

I listened to what the rest of the 4th grade teachers were doing for morning work and being the conscientious team member that I am, I thought I should be doing what they were doing. Even though, deep down, a voice was telling me it was the wrong decision.

The morning work was differentiated at three different levels. It was a Daily Math packet with math problems for students to do Monday through Thursday. The intention of the packet is to cover the many different skills learned in 4th grade. The preparation for this was easy. I simply had to make the three different packets and it would last the entire week. The problem with the packet was that there were too many items that students needed help with.  So it meant I needed to do lots of on the spot one-on-one teaching.

Picture this. Ten or more students standing in a line at my desk, all needing help on different problems. Me quickly teaching each problem to the students while trying to attend to other morning procedures such as attendance, lunch count, collecting notes and homework. Students waiting not so patiently in line as I thrown in little lessons of how to wait your turn and not interrupt when I am talking to another student.

The room is a buzz of chaotic activity.

Not the way I want to start my day.

A Better Way to Start the Day 

 

After reflecting on why I came home so drained all week, here is how I now start my day.

Students have been taught how to come into the classroom, sign up for lunch, read the morning message on the board and begin the morning work that is in their folders.

The morning work takes more time to prepare. But the results are worth it.

It is never a new skill. It always a review or application of something they have learned. Usually it reinforces what we are working on during the day.

When students complete their morning work, they go to the correction table and correct their own work. They bring it to me for a quick check. If they got something wrong, I ask them to tell me why they think they got it wrong. Then, they put it into their mailbox.

Students can move onto a choice. I have a list to choose from called "What Can I Do When I Am Done?" It includes a variety of independent activities such a read, write, quiet games, draw, puzzles, and computer games.

I use this time to first attend to my clerical duties and then help individual students. I usually pull a couple students who I think made need help to sit with at a round table as I check other students' morning work. 

The room has a soft hum of productive activity.

This is the way I love to start my day.

Building Vocabulary: Flustered, upset, livid, ENRAGED!

Emily Kissner's blog entry, Teaching About Character Traits, reminded me that before diving into character traits, it is important that students understand the difference between character traits and emotions. Emotions change often over the course of a story. Traits may not change at all. When looking for a perfect list of character traits on the web, I seem to always find emotions mixed in to the lists. Confusing for me and confusing for the kids. I like this list not only because it does not have emotions, but it groups synonyms for traits together.

Using Emily's Character Trait and Emotions: Making Inferences resource, I was ready to teach the first lesson.

Today must have been the day that the planets were lined up perfect for me because right before I started the lesson, in walks our principal.

"Sorry for the interruption," he says, sitting down on the stool a the front of our classroom.

"Fourth graders," he says seriously. "I am frustrated. I am upset about Bloody Mary and I need your help."

Those of you who are not familiar with the Bloody Mary ghost legend, Bloody Mary in our school is a ghost that inhabits the bathrooms and scares children. The legend has been going on for years, each upper elementary class keeping it alive with ghastly tales told on the bus to wide-eyed innocent kindergarteners and first graders.

"This is the year that Bloody Mary is going to stop. I have a kindergarten student who will not come to school because of it. And you, fourth graders, are going to take the lead in making sure it stops."

So after our principal leaves, it is time for the emotion lesson. I start by saying, "Mr. Stevens was experiencing a strong emotion right now! What was he feeling? How did you know? Was it important to understand how he was feeling? Why? Well just like you were able to figure out how he was feeling, it is important that you also figure out how characters feel when you are reading."

"I am going to help you not only learn how to figure out how your characters are feeling during stories, but also teach you new vocabulary words for emotions. How cool is that? Let's start by seeing what emotion words you already know."

I follow Emily's lesson to the T. First, students silently brainstorm, with a partner, emotion words they already know. Then, we paste her emotion words lists into our reading notebooks, noticing if any of the words we already knew appear on the lists. I project the lists onto the Smartboard and explain how it works. Here is a snapshot of what it looks like. Isn't it wonderful?

As I explain, I go back to our principal example and act out him talking to the class, each time increasing the intensity of his anger.

"Boys and girls I am a bit flustered about Bloody Mary still happening in our school." I say with a rather pleasant expression. "Fourth graders," I say with a very angry look and tone of voice. "I am ENRAGED about Bloody Mary, and IT MUST STOP!"

I proceed to do this with a few more of the emotion categories- sad, happy, and scared. The students are practically rolling on the floor laughing at my dramatic representations.

Then, onto the skits! I explain the task. Students will have five minutes to plan their skit. They need to select one of the emotions from the chart that they will be acting and our job is to try to figure out the emotion. Again, I followed Emily's lesson plan.

When it was time to act out, we had our emotion lists open. After a pair of students performed their skit, they would call on people to guess the emotion.

What went well? 

• Students were using the new vocabulary in a meaningful experience. They were truly thinking about the level within a emotion category that they felt was acted out in the skit. I saw high level thinking and discussion as students used the clues from the skit to figure out which emotion was being acted out.
• Many students chose more than one emotion to act out, because in their skits, the emotion may have changed. For example, in the ice cream skit, the girl was happy when she got ice cream but sad when she dropped it. I will refer back to these when we talk about how emotions change over the course of a story.
• Everyone was engaged, using multiple learning modalities, and having fun while learning. YIPEE!
• We continued to use the vocabulary the rest of the day. I am going to make a poster out of these lists so that we can refer to them quickly.
• Students were making inferences, describing characters, expanding vocabulary, speaking and listening and working cooperatively.

When You Follow Your Students

How often do students have ideas for something fun they want to do, and we gently push those ideas away, for fear that steering off our planned path would get us behind in the skills we must teach? What would happen if instead we say, "Yes! What a splendid idea! How should we go about doing it?" Would it be such a waste of time to listen to and follow our students' ideas, even if they don't align with what our grade level is supposed to be doing?

Three of my girls came to school excited with such an idea one morning. "Mrs. Pilver, can we do a science fair?" they ask, looking at me with their fresh open faces. "Look at this book that Anna has found! It is all about how to do a science fair! The whole 4th grade could do it! What do you think?"

How would you respond? What goes through your head at a time like this? That science fairs are done at the middle school and not something 4th graders do? We have to do water cycle, ecosystems, electricity, forces and motion units! We have test prep and grammar lessons and so many math skills to cover, how could we possibly fit in a science fair? Or, oh no, this sounds messy and unmanageable, how could I ever do this!

Or do you think, this is an opportunity for my students to engage in something they are interested in and take ownership for the process and the learning. How exciting! Now, how can I align this to my goals?

"Of course we can!" I responded. "Put yourself on the meeting agenda and talk to the class about your ideas."

Our class did the science fair. (The rest of the 4th grade teachers said, "No.") We figured it out together. It was a mini 4th grade version of a science fair. And it was wonderful! I used it as an opportunity to teach the scientific method. Students learned how to ask questions, make hypothesis and draw conclusions. They learned how to find experiments to do and how to ask their parents for help to gather the materials. They learned how to use materials carefully and respect each others experiments. They learned how to make attractive display boards that would teach judges what their science fair project involved and what they learned from doing it. All students were engaged, on task, and successful. And when I asked them how they liked doing the science fair, their response was, "It was the best day ever!"

Teachers complain about students being disengaged or misbehaved. Is that partly because students have figured out that school is about following teachers? What magic could happen if we follow our students instead?

Is balance and health possible to achieve when you teach?

I left teaching 13 years ago because I was getting burned out. Burned out and sick. I could not see myself staying in the teaching profession for the rest of my career. I got so overwhelmed and behind in paperwork, that I missed the renewal notice for my teaching certification. I lost my job which forced me to find a new one. It was a blessing in disguise.

I got a new job working for a regional education service center as a literacy and technology specialist. During my time off from teaching in the classroom, I became the healthiest I had ever been in my adulthood. I found time to learn about good nutrition and health, slowly incorporating healthy food, exercise and balance into my life.

As I spent time in schools all across Connecticut, I noticed so many of the teachers I met seemed to sacrifice their own health needs for their teaching career.  Many teachers were not eating well, they were gaining weight in their hips and bellies and getting sick often. They were stressed, out of balance and overwhelmed. They ignored the signals that their bodies are giving them  which can eventually lead to illness. It seemed that teachers just accept that fact that during the school year they will give up healthy habits and make up for it in the summer.


After 10 years of working for the educational service center, I came to realize that I needed to return to the classroom. Although I was really good at nurturing my health, I was no longer serving my spirit. I was being asked to provide training and support for state mandates, and I did not want to be an advocate of practices that I did not believe served our students. I knew in my heart that teaching kids was where I was meant to be. I needed to be true to my beliefs about teaching and learning, and the only place I felt I could truly do that, was in the classroom. I promised myself that when I went back to teaching, I would find balance between teaching and my life, keeping my optimal health a priority.

My first year back was extremely stressful and hard on my health. I realized that it was the first year, and it would get better as I learned about the new school, the curriculum and got myself organized. The second year was better, but bad health habits were starting to creep in. I often stayed late even though I was exhausted at the end of the day. I nibbled on chocolate provided at meetings, grabbed treats left in the staff room and rewarded myself with candy at the end of the day. I cut down on exercise, making deals with myself that I'd catch up on the weekends. My home life suffered because I was either too busy preparing for school or too tired. I told myself that it was the second year and it would get better.

The third year I became chronically ill. I had come down with a virus in the spring that led to laryngitis. The cough that followed the virus never left me. I had it all summer and still had it when I returned to school. After seeing a pulmonologist, an allergist, and a gastroenterologist and going on inhalers, allergy meds, and acid reducers, I decided I needed to take a good look at my own health habits. I knew that I was never going to get well if I could not achieve balance in all aspects of my life.

So, is balance and health possible to achieve when you are a dedicated teacher? I believe it is. And I am going to work to achieve it. It will take a conscious effort to look carefully at the things that bring me stress and work at ways to eliminate those stress-ers. It will mean carefully noticing how I respond to stress and make changes that help me deal with it in a healthier way. Most of all, achieving health will mean adding healthy habits to all aspects of my life; at home and at school.

What do you do to stay healthy and balanced during the school year?

Stop Correcting All of Those Papers!

I hate correcting papers. It is one of those mundane tasks that I procrastinate doing until I have a huge pile of papers, causing me to feel overwhelmed and stressed.  I've been working on ways to reduce the amount of correcting in order to eliminate this stress-er from my life.

Student Self-Correcting
When I sit home correcting papers, what is it really doing for kids? Even spending time writing detailed feedback on their papers isn't a guarantee that they will read it. As much as I can, I am building time into the day for students to correct their own work. This provides them with immediate feedback instead of waiting until I get around to checking their work. We often correct papers together and although it takes time, the children enjoy the feedback and I enjoy the one less paper to correct.

I often provide copies of answers, which students use to correct their work. I usually do this for AM work. Students know to show their self-corrected paper to me before they put it in their mailbox to go home. That way I can do a quick check and reteach if needed, as well as give them a positive comment for what they have done well. Again, instant feedback and one less paper to correct!

Less Worksheets and More Meaningful Activities
It is so easy to get seduced by an attractive worksheet. But if I was a student would I be thinking to myself, "I can't wait to get to school! We are going to be doing worksheets today!" Before making copies of that worksheet, I've been trying to think about other ways that the concepts on the worksheets could be taught. With worksheets, who is doing most of the work? I am! I copy them, I organize them,  and I correct them. I am trying to instead think about how I can put the bulk of the work into the students' hands so that they produce something that is more relevant to their lives rather than do isolated worksheet practice items.

Correct the Paper While Students Work on It
I often do this during math. As I walk around to check in and help students, I also correct the items that they have done so far. Even if I don't get all of the papers corrected, I am reducing the number of items that I will later have to correct AND students are getting immediate feedback as they work.

Correct Tests and Quizzes As They Finish
When my students complete a test or quiz they know to do only one thing, read! When I see a student reading, I take their test and correct it. I keep correcting until all of the papers are done. Students are busy reading and that is never a waste of time. Once again, I can show them immediately how they did and help them with areas they struggled with on the spot.

These are strategies I've tried so far and I will continue to experiment with ways to reduce my correcting time. What strategies do you use?

I Stopped Policing My Class as They Walk Down the Hallway

I stopped owning my students' behavior as they walk down the hallway. They know what the expectations are and why it is important to use whisper voices. Reminding them, pulling them out of line if they talk too loud, having them go back and try it again...none of that works. Maybe it does for that moment, but it all begins again the next time we walk down the hall. So I asked students what they think we should do. How could we solve this problem of talking too loud in the hallways? Their solution was to play the "1,2,3 Quiet Game" and as soon as I said those words, they'd be quiet. If they made it the entire way, they could get a marble in a jar. We tried that. But, it really didn't work. I still had to monitor, manage, and police their behavior.

I decided that they needed to own this line behavior. They needed to monitor themselves. So I told the class that whoever was the line leader that week would be the person in charge. That person will determine how the class did and if he or she felt the line was marble worthy, he or she would give them a marble.

I no longer police my class line. I step right in line with them. If I hear someone talking loud, I don't say a word. The Line Leader stops at a few stopping points along the way so the class can catch up and monitor themselves. Once the line is quiet again, the Line Leader begins again. When we get back to the class, the Line Leader either gives a marble or not.

Walking down the hall has become a pleasant time for me. I always start out with "Okay, Abby (or whoever the line leader is that day) is ready to do her job! She is in charge. One, two, three, quiet game!" Then off we go. Their line behavior was never this good when I did the reminding, warning, and policing.  What other things can could my students be in charge of?

Go Notebooking!

As a Dinah Zike advanced trainer, I do my best to keep up with Dinah-Might Adventures' growing product line. Yesterday I was thrilled to receive a package from the Dinah Zike Academy. Enclosed were six titles of their new Notebooking Central books, with a letter asking me (and all other advanced trainers) to create at least one model notebook based on a selected Notebooking Central title.

What a gift! This has jump-started me into my teaching gear after 5 days of not thinking about school. I just searched the web, looking for the best deal for 4 oz bottles of Elmer's School glue. I found the lowest price at Discount School Supply , .74 cents each, and ordered enough bottles for my class. Now on to planning how I will utilize these incredible teaching resources in the classroom!

Can Student Made Videos Help Store Information into Long-Term Memory?

Last year I starting making movies with my class. My students created movies about idioms, social skills, rocks, and the water cycle. I posted those on the class wiki. They loved to watch those movies over and over again. They viewed those movies so much they had the lines memorized. Not just their lines, everyone's lines! Now, if I ask one of my students from last year what an idiom is, they remember, because they remember those movies. So, when I overheard an upper grade teacher grumbling in the staff lounge about the 7th graders still not knowing certain grammar skills, I started to wonder. If you want to have certain skills, facts, and vocabulary stored in students' minds, are student made movies one of the most effective ways to do that? Thus, my experiment.

An assessment taken after our geometry unit revealed the concepts and vocabulary that my students had not yet mastered. Some students still couldn't describe a parallelogram or a rhombus or the difference between a rhombus and a square. I could tell that some were still confused about right angles or pairs of parallel lines. I used the assessment data to determine which concept each student would be responsible for teaching others about in a skit that would be a part of our class geometry movie. I put students into pairs and wrote their assigned topic on an index card.

I introduced the idea of a geometry movie through the movies found on the Student Made Math Movies wiki. I gave the pairs this assignment and this scoring guide and they went to work. My students had already had experience writing scripts, so they were ready to write these without instruction. But if your student have not written scripts, you will want to teach them the genre by reading examples of scripts and using other scripts as models for their writing.

Students will be finishing up the movies this week. After the holiday break, my goal is to have the movie done and posted for them to view over and over again. After an extended period of time, I will give them the geometry assessment again. That will help me determine if my hypothesis has some truth, that student made movies DO help students keep facts, concepts and vocabulary in their long-term memory.

Using Technology with Caution

I hate to admit it, but it may be true. Adding technology may not be producing the results I was hoping for. Although my students last year were engaged and involved in their learning most of the time, their scores on the standardized tests did not show growth. In some cases, the scores went down. Even though they learned how to collaborate, communicate and create, other academic skills needed for the tests were not developed.

This year, as I integrate technology into my curriculum, I am asking myself these questions.

How rigorous is the activity? I am going to use Karen Hess' Cognitive Rigor Matrix to evaluate the learning activities that I am designing, striving for a range of Depth of Knowledge levels. The higher the Depth of Knowledge level, the more deeply students must understand the content to complete the task.

Are the learning outcomes serving a standard? I will begin with the standards. I will ask myself, how will the use of technology help students master those standards? Common Core Standards has been adopted in my state. Using those as well as the Cognitive Rigor Matrix will ensure that the activities will achieve results.

Are my expectations for the process and product high enough? I will use scoring guides with most of my technology activities to help communicate the expectations clearly. When students know what the expectations are, they will strive to reach them.

How will I evaluate the impact of the technology on the learning? I will use data to help me see the impact the use of the technology is having on student learning.

Preparing Students for Quality Online Discussions

I believe that it is my responsibility to spend time preparing students before they participate in an online discussion. Just like literature discussion groups in the classroom, I can't assume that just because I put them together in a group to talk about a book, my students will know how to have a meaningful discussion that helps build their understanding.

My goal for my students is that they communicate their ideas through their posts, by elaborating their writing, supporting their thinking with evidence, building on other students' ideas, acknowledging other students' opinions by agreeing or disagreeing,  and displaying courteous online behavior. I want them to understand the difference between online social chatting and discussing online for learning purposes. I want them to write to get their messages across and seek to understand what others are saying. And I want them to see how listening to and responding to others ideas impacts their own thinking.

Ranking Discussion Responses
I begin with a lesson called "What Makes a Good Online Discussion Response?' I have my students analyze actual threaded discussions with the goal of selecting the posts that they think are the best. For my 4th grade students, I choose 3 questions along with the threaded responses to the question. I divide my class into groups of 3. Their task is to choose 3 responses to each question that they believe are the best and rank them, with #1 being the best. Then, they are to take all of the #1 responses and decide which one was the best of all. I give them this team task sheet, which outlines the steps to take, including choosing someone to be the writer, the reader, and the task manager. We first do one together and they complete the other two in their teams.

After they finish that task, they  turn in their top responses to me. I conclude this lesson by asking my students do a self-reflection on an index card. 1. What did your group do well? 2. How could your group improve? 3. What did you do well? 3. What could you improve? I also ask for volunteers to share if they would like to acknowledge anyone in their group who they felt was a good team mate and why.


Determining the Criteria
The second day I post the selected #1 responses on the SMARTboard. I asked my students to explain why they thought the winning responses deserved #1. What made them so good? As they share, I list their ideas around the responses. Then, together we create a list entitled "Quality Responses". They copy those into their technology books (little essay books where they keep technology related directions and passwords). Here is the list that they came up with this year:

The Online Discussion Challenge!
Next, I present The Online Discussion Challenge! I tell students that they have 3 challenges that they need to pass before they can actually discuss online with other classrooms. First, I walk them through how to sign up and use Edmodo.  They write down directions in their Technology books. Then, I explain their first Online Discussion Challenge.  Their job is to write quality responses to 2 or more of the 4 questions that I had posted about a book that we are reading.

After students log into Edmodo, they begin the first challenge. After they completed 2 or more posts, they bring their technology book to me and read a book while I check their responses. If they pass the challenge, I put a little sticker next to You Passed the Challenge! If they do not pass the challenge, that is if their responses are lacking all the needed criteria to make the posts Quality, I call them over and give feedback about what they can do to revise or edit the posts, making them quality responses.

The second challenge is to respond to 2 other people's responses. I model how to agree or disagree with another person, explaining why you feel that way. We look at some posts and think about questions that they we might ask the author of the post, seeking clarification or elaboration of ideas. My students move onto challenge 2 and again bring their technology books to me as I check their responses before they move on to the final challenge.

The final challenge is to show emotion in a post using word or symbols. We compare real time discussion with online discussion and how in real time you show your emotions through body language as well as words. We look at the ways our message could come across with the wrong emotion if we use capitals, meaning we are shouting, or if we use certain language.

Once my students pass all 3 challenges, they are ready to discuss online. In this case, we have been reading the Global Read Aloud and we have a Skype partner classroom that has been getting ready to discuss on Edmodo, too. Although we've been practicing by discussing the book with our classmates, the real thing happens this Thursday when both classrooms get on Edmodo the same time. I can't wait!

Instead of Class Rewards: 10 Steps to Take

Are you nervous about getting rid of your class rewards? Scared that without the external motivators, students won't behave? So was I. Here are 10 things to try in place of a class reward system. It has worked for me!

1. Begin the year in awe of your students. Let them know daily how amazing they are.  Notice and and comment on the specific things that they say and do that impresses you. My students knew that I loved them and that I thought they were awesome by the third day of school.

2. Find out everything you can about your students early on. I asked parents to write me a letter about their child, I did student interest inventories, and I had letters from the students before school began. Be sure to connect with each student every day with a short personal comment. "How's Jasmine?" "Any new legos?" "How is your headache today?" "Love the nails!"


3. Celebrate with a "special" activity within the first week. For example, our day routinely begins with AM work and an AM checklist. I told them frequently how impressed I was with how quickly they learned the morning routine and showed independence. I noticed how they helped each other and how they worked together to get things done. I told them that I usually waited a few weeks before I did a special technology project, but because of their incredible independent behavior, I felt that it was time for the project now. Show them the connection between their behavior and use of time and your behavior and choices of activities. Help them see that managing their time well and making smart choices reaps fun benefits. Continue to have celebrations, no matter how small. We had an extra five minutes of recess last week because we got everything done that I had planned for math that day with five minutes to spare!

4. Have students discuss what kind of place they want to come to every day. Read Bad Case of Stripes and talk about the message in the story. Then discuss these kinds of questions: "What kind of place do you want this room to be? How do you want to feel here? Do you want to feel like you can be yourself? How can we help everyone feel comfortable being who they are?"

5. Have students write a class constitution. Show the video, Creating a Class Constitution, on Discovery Streaming. Then have the students do the same activity. It is wonderful and I will do it every year. I know there are people who are going to disagree with me but when you write the constitution, be careful about changing all of your "don't" statements to "do" statements. I had more than one person comment about my students' rules "Don't Bully" and "Don't Tip in Your Chairs", saying "You are supposed to write all your rules in positive language". But if I had changed it to positive statements like "Be Nice" and "Keep all four legs of the chair on the ground", I would be changing their words and probably their meaning to some extent. Let them own it. They said don't bully because they mean don't bully!

6. Discuss Logical Consequences. After everyone signs the class constitution, talk about the consequences of breaking the rules. Tell them that you respect their rules and your job is to enforce them. Ask "Do you think that just because we all just agreed, no one will ever break these rules?" I tell them about the 3 consequences, Take a Break, You Break It, You Fix It, and Lose Privileges. I also talk about mistakes vs. habit. We all break rules from time to time. However, doing the same thing over and over again is becoming a habit and I will work with the individual to come up with solutions that will help.

7. Tell students that you don't reward good behavior. I simply said that I don't reward good behavior, I expect it. I don't give out prizes or stickers for good behavior. However, I tell them, we will still do fun things like pajamas and a movie or beach day. Those kinds of days will be celebrations of all of their hard work.

7. Help students manage their time through Fun Friday. I got this idea from The Cornerstone by Angela Watson. Every Friday I plan a "fun" activity that I was planning to do anyway. This first week we decorated our reading journals. The second week my students used the laptops to play Cool Math games. This week we will be creating a video to put onto our blog. Here is the catch. All AM work and other independent work must be done before participating in Fun Friday. I give my students plenty of time to get their AM work and other work done. I make sure I tell them how long they will have to do it and I announce when there is so much time left. Refrain from nagging students to get their work done. After 2 weeks of Fun Friday, you will see most of your students managing their time better and staying on task.


8. Use brain based teaching strategies. Make sure kids have choices and voices, build movement, hands-on, novelty and play into the day, provide challenges and opportunities to inquire and solve problems, let them talk and collaborate, balance between consistent grounding rituals and routines and open-ended activities, and build on their interests and background knowledge.

9. Learn about the connections between human needs and motivation. When unexpected behaviors crop up, follow-through with your consequences but also ask yourself what is motivating the student to behave this way? Is there a need that is not being met? What can you do or change that will help him/her get his/her needs met? (Choice Theory, Circle of Courage, Motivation Breakthrough)

10. Involve students in shared decision making and planning as soon as you can. Listen carefully to your students. Jump off of their ideas and use them as community building activities. A simple way to do this is with class jobs. I don't start the year with jobs. I tell students that we will begin in after a week or so and I need them to be thinking about what jobs our class needs. I use their ideas along with some of my tried and true jobs when I introduce jobs. If you know what your goals are for your students it is easier to use their ideas without feeling like it is a waste of time. For example, this year my goal is for my students to have ownership of our class blog. That means they will design it and decide how it is used. So when one of my students drew me a picture of our class as the 4th Grade Superheroes, I took advantage of his idea. I introduced the concept of blogs by showing my students examples of blogs and then we looked at our empty blog with its generic heading. I told them that they needed to personalize it so it was their blog. After sharing Thomas' drawing, the class agreed to call it 4P Superheroes. After lots of brainstorming, I helped them combine their ideas and we ended with a plan for a blog header and introduction video starring them, the 4P Superheroes.

Reaching Boys Who Struggle: Giving Effective Directions

Although this sequence may appear time-consuming, investment in learning and using these steps can pay major dividends, both for us and our students. Kathleen Palmer Cleveland

Effective Directions in Sequence	Examples
Step 1:  Change state.	"If you can hear my voice, clap once." "If you can hear my voice, clap twice." Soften your voice and say, "If you can hear my voice, look this way."
Step 2: Explain relevance.	"Thank you for coming to attention so quickly. We have some important work to do today! I am confident that you will do well." "In the last lesson we did ___________ s a way of getting better at _________________. Today we will continue that process by doing ______________. This is going to help you become more skilled at _______________. So to review, the goal for this lesson is _________________. Let's get started!"
Step 3:  Be crystal clear.	"There are three steps to complete in order. Step 1:  First, we will__________ Step 2:  Second, we will_____________ Step 3:  Third, we will________________"
Step 4: Engage in multiple modalities.	"As you read the directions along with me, I will highlight the important words on the SMARTboard."
Step 5:  Check for understanding.	"Turn to your neighbor and make sure you understand each step."
Step 6:  Announce duration.	"I have set aside about _________(minutes, hours, days)for you to complete this work. You will have plenty of time to finish."
Step 7:  Pair verbal commands with auditory start/stop signals.	"When I give the signal, you will __________. "(state first step of task).
Step 8:  Provide backup.	Leave the written directions visible on board.
Step 9:  Give fair warning.	"You have two minutes to finish your work."
Step 10:  Acknowledge effort.	"Thank you for completing your task and coming to attention."

From Teaching Boys Who Struggle in School:  Strategies that Turn Underachievers into Successful Learners P.90-100

10 Strategies for Reaching Boys Who Struggle

1. Build Trusting Relationships
2. Follow These Guidelines for Classroom Policies 
3. Understand Boys' Basic Requests for Communicating
4. Give Effective Directions
5. Give Informational Feedback
6. Use Affirming Statements
7. Teach Pragmatic Communication Skills
8. Increase Physical Comfort
9. Apply the Principles of Active Learning
10. Build Literacy Through Engaging Activities

Reaching Boys Who Struggle: Understand Boys' Basic Requests for Communicating

1. Give me a way out.	Sometimes I screw up, but that doesn't mean I'll always act that way. I need a way to move on without being too embarrassed about how stupidly I just behaved. Tell me how I can be better. I want to know.
2. Help me know my strengths.	Help me understand what skills I have or am improving in, both academically and socially. I don't always know what they are or how to make the most of them.
3. Help me relax into learning.	Laugh sometimes, even at yourself. If I know you make mistakes, it makes it easier to accept when I do.
4. Help me "save face."	Don't humiliate or make fun of me in front of others. It does not make me want to work harder. I will hate you for it and be forced to get back at you.
5. Inspire me.	Share your passion about what you are teaching with me. Help me to feel excited about what I'm learning. Your enthusiasm rubs off.
6. Keep it private.	If I make a mistake, be a matter-of-fact in telling me why, and do it as privately as possible.
7. Let me know I matter.	Greet me as though you care and are glad I'm there.
8. Make it real.	Help me understand why things are important in the real world. It helps me want to learn more.
9. Notice when I try.	Let me know somehow when I do things well. I like to hear that. It's OK if you tell  my parents.
10. Speak to me with respect.	Treat me with respect and show me what that looks like. Sometimes I don't know, and if I mess up, a kind response speaks loudest to me.

From Teaching Boys Who Struggle in School:  Strategies that Turn Underachievers into Successful Learners P.90-100

10 Strategies for Reaching Boys Who Struggle

1. Build Trusting Relationships
2. Follow These Guidelines for Classroom Policies 
3. Understand Boys' Basic Requests for Communicating
4. Give Effective Directions
5. Give Informational Feedback
6. Use Affirming Statements
7. Teach Pragmatic Communication Skills
8. Increase Physical Comfort
9. Apply the Principles of Active Learning
10. Build Literacy Through Engaging Activities

Reaching Boys Who Struggle: Guidelines for Classroom Policies

"Abiding by the policies when one has helped develop them becomes a choice rather than a restriction against which to rebel, and this, in turn, reduces defensiveness...For an underachieving boy, being consulted about the policies not only feels respectful, but it also levels the playing field, so to speak, removing the power structure from the process and making all students views equally valuable and relevant." Kathleen Palmer Cleveland

Guidelines for Classroom Policies

1. Involve boys in creating the policies.
2. Limit the number of policies to five or fewer, for younger students one to three. Less than five policies are easier to remember and easier to enforce.
3. State policies positively. The brain does not read the word "not" in a declarative statement. So a rule "Don't push." emphasizes the word push. Pushing may actually get worse. Better to state what it is that students should do.
4. Make sure policies are fully understood before enforcing them. Avoid creating policies that are too vague (Be nice. Be respectful) If an underachieving boy is prone to defensiveness and insecurity, the enforcement of a policy he doesn't yet understand may further diminish his sense of self-confidence and belonging.
5. Be consistent. Be consistent. Be consistent. Consistency helps create the feeling of safety in the classroom.Boys need clear, firm boundaries. If they push on those boundaries, the boundaries have to be even stronger. Some boys push on a boundary because they want to check to see if it is still there, it is actually a way for them to feel safe. Consistency also builds trust. Boys who push the boundaries may see inconsistent reinforcement as a weakness in the teacher. To be consistent, once a policy is set, it needs to stay that way and applied the same to everyone. A sense of security develops when there is no guessing about what will happen when the boundary is pushed.
6. Enforce policies in a matter-of-fact way. Keep emotions out of it. Appear calm at all times even if you don't feel calm.
7. Forgive and forget. No grudges allowed.
8. Acknowledge effort. Notice when boys are trying to make better choices and improve.

From Teaching Boys Who Struggle in School:  Strategies that Turn Underachievers into Successful Learners P.90-100

10 Strategies for Reaching Boys Who Struggle

1. Build Trusting Relationships
2. Follow These Guidelines for Classroom Policies 
3. Understand Boys' Basic Requests for Communicating
4. Give Effective Directions
5. Give Informational Feedback
6. Use Affirming Statements
7. Teach Pragmatic Communication Skills
8. Increase Physical Comfort
9. Apply the Principles of Active Learning
10. Build Literacy Through Engaging Activities

Reaching Boys Who Struggle: Build Trusting Relationships

"Our first task is to help the underachieving boy - who is often highly sensitized to failure - feel safe enough in our classrooms to willingly reengage in learning." Kathleen Palmer Cleveland

Teacher Actions that Build Trust

Teacher-to-Boy Interactions

• Attends to my interests in some way
• Cares about me individually
• Easy to talk to
• Helps me feel OK about myself
• Knows how I learn
• Knows me personally
• Knows what I'm feeling
• Listens to me, is understanding
• Listens when I have a problem
• Respects me

Responses to Misbehavior

• Doesn't hold a grudge
• Fair
• Gives me a second chance
• Has no negative expectations
• Likes me even if I mess up
• Shows no favoritism

Support During Learning

• Encourages me to try again
• Explains work carefully
• Helps me learn from my mistakes
• Makes work interesting
• Passionate about and committed to what is being taught

Fear Reduction

• Doesn't humiliate me in front of the class
• Explains policies and why they are being enforced
• Relaxed and can laugh at own mistakes

From Teaching Boys Who Struggle in School:  Strategies that Turn Underachievers into Successful Learners p. 70

10 Strategies for Reaching Boys Who Struggle

10 Strategies for Reaching Boys Who Struggle

1. Build Trusting Relationships
2. Follow These Guidelines for Classroom Policies 
3. Understand Boys' Basic Requests for Communicating
4. Give Effective Directions
5. Give Informational Feedback
6. Use Affirming Statements
7. Teach Pragmatic Communication Skills
8. Increase Physical Comfort
9. Apply the Principles of Active Learning
10. Build Literacy Through Engaging Activities

1. Build Literacy Through Engaging Activities

10 Strategies for Reaching Boys Who Struggle

My goal this year is that I don't have a single boy on an individual behavior plan. "Strange goal", you might be thinking. "Are individual behavior checklists the norm in your class?"

Well, no, last year I did not have any students on individual behavior checklists. The year before, I did have one student who used one as my last resort. However, as I read over the notes about my new students' that I took during conferences with their former third grade teachers, behavior plans could become a norm if something does not change. One third of the boys were on individual behavior plans last year. That fact and the comment,"We spent the year disciplining the boys." left me wondering what was causing the behaviors and what could be done differently that might allow them to experience more success this year.

The book, Teaching Boys Who Struggle in School: Strategies That Turn Underachievers into Successful Learners by Kathleen Palmer Cleveland, provides a lot of  strategies that specifically target the needs of boys. As I prepare for school to start in two weeks, I am going to summarize some of the tools in the book that I find particularly helpful. If you want to know the rationale behind these tools, I highly recommend purchasing the book. There is so much more in it than I can share here.

10 Strategies for Reaching Boys Who Struggle

1. Build Trusting Relationships
2. Follow These Guidelines for Classroom Policies 
3. Understand Boys' Basic Requests for Communicating
4. Give Effective Directions
5. Give Informational Feedback
6. Use Affirming Statements
7. Teach Pragmatic Communication Skills
8. Increase Physical Comfort
9. Apply the Principles of Active Learning
10. Build Literacy Through Engaging Activities

These tools are ways teachers can help meet the needs of struggling boys in the contexts of school, classroom, relationships and learning experiences. They are meant to support a boy who struggles as a learner, building on his strengths and moving him toward his potential:

• Replace his negative attitudes about learning with productive perspectives about the role of risk (and even failure) as a necessary and valued part of the learning process.
• Reconnect him with school, with learning, and with a belief in himself as a competent learner who is capable, valued, and respected.
• Rebuild life skills and learning skills that lead to academic success and also lay the groundwork for success in life; and
• Reduce the need to use unproductive and distracting behaviors as a means of self-protection.

From Teaching Boys Who Struggle in School:  Strategies that Turn Underachievers into Successful Learners p.14

Why Does This Web2.0 Activity Matter?

 "Calder Pillay was all ears. He had never heard a teacher admit that she didn't know what she was doing. Even better, she was excited about it." From Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliet

Reading the book, Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, has reminded me of the magic of essential questions in the classroom. In the book, the cool sixth grade teacher, Ms. Hussey, announced to her students on the first day of school that what they were going to work on this year "all depends on what we get interested in - or what interests us". Ms. Hussey is an expert at asking questions that spark her students interests. When she asks her class, "Is writing the the most effective way to communicate?", students who love writing respond, "Yes of course it is" and those students who hate writing argue, "What about numbers? What about pictures? What about plain old talking?" The question, and disagreement the question provoked, lead the class into an in-depth investigation; and in the process they learned about cave art in France, papyrus scrolls in Egypt, Mayan petroglyphs in Mexico and stone tablets from the Middle East. They tried making stamps out of raw potatoes and covered the classroom walls with symbols. They invented a sign language for hands and feet and they communicated for one whole day using nothing but drawing.

Why essential questions?

Essential questions lead to inquiry learning. Inquiry learning not only motivates and engages students in learning, but it has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to help students achieve deeper understanding AND better test scores. And schools that use them have better attendance and lower drop-out rates. Listen to Jeffrey Wilhelm talk about the benefits of inquiry learning and essential questions.

Essential questions make connections across the curriculum for kids. Essential questions lead to big ideas and understandings. If you organize around good essential questions, kids naturally start to make lots of brain compatible connections as they transfer the big ideas to new situations and subjects.

Where do essential questions fit into my use of Web2.0 tools?

Jeffrey Wilhelm says, that when thinking about a book or topic you are going to teach, you need to ask, "Why does this matter? Why should the kids care about it? What deep understandings will it develop?"

I've planned many Web2.0 learning activities that are engaging AND help students learn content area skills and concepts. But, have I really challenged myself to ask the questions that Jeffrey Wilhelm suggests? For example, I am thinking about trying the Mystery State Skype Call this year. As a learning activity, it already sparks kids interests. There are a lot of great purposes for doing it. Besides the fact that it is fun, it connects kids to kids around the country, it teaches cooperation and collaboration in the classroom as kids try to solve the mystery together, it teaches kids facts about other states, it teaches how to use clues and resources to solve problems, it teaches map skills and geography, it teaches technology skills and more.

But, does a Mystery Skype call really matter? Why? What deep understandings does it have the potential to develop? Where does it fit in with big ideas across other subjects and situations in my classroom?

Some possible essential questions that would connect the Mystery State Skype Calls to my curriculum might be: Our focus on community "What is a community?" Our study of Connecticut "What makes a place unique? How does the geography and location of a place influence the people who live there?" The focus on communication: "Is writing the most effective way to communicate?"

How do I create questions that matter?

Creating these questions does not come nearly as easy to me as it does for Ms. Hussey. In fact, it is almost painful at times. I am never one hundred percent happy with my questions and find myself going back and revising them over and over.

I use the following guiding questions to help me reflect on the quality of the question I've created:

Will it pass the Jeremy test? Jeremy was one of my students that was easily disengaged and unmotivated. Would he care about this question?

Is it a question that recurs through other subjects and situations, allowing for wonderful connections to occur?

Is it a question that is relevant to the age group I teach? In my case, is it connected to the world of 9 and 10 year olds?

Is it genuine? Is it a question that  I don't know the answer to?

Is a question that recurs throughout one's life? For example the questions, "How does one person's actions impact others?" In the classroom this year, we will explore this question through the study of people, characters and ourselves.  I hope exploration of this question helps my students think about the impact of their actions later in life.

Is it a question that has no right answer? I find this is hard to decide. But sometimes I may think I know the answer, but in fact it is really an opinion based on facts or experience, or it is only piece of the answer.

It is non-judgmental and free of hidden agendas? Like "What lessons about life can stories reveal?" instead of "Why is reading important"?

When you ask it, will kids have a lot to say about it? Will it spark their interest? Might it create some differences in opinions? Will they be able to connect their prior experiences to it?

Does it have the potential to provoke deep thought, unpredictable outcomes, new understandings, and new questions?


Some questions I plan to ask this year are:

• Is telling the truth always the right thing to do?
• What influences people's choices?
• What influences people to change?
• What impact can one person's actions have?
• What lessons about life can stories reveal?
• What are an individual's responsibilities to the community?
• What is a community?
• Is writing the most effective way to communicate?

What essential questions will you be asking this year?

How Do You Get to Know Your Students Before School Starts?

What is the number one common characteristic of great teachers? They know their students.

Good teachers spend time at the beginning of the year learning as much as they can about their students in order to develop positive relationships and create an inclusive environment.

How do you get to know your students before they come to school the first day, so when they walk in your door you greet them with something like, "Hi Hannah, how is your dog Jasmine?" "So Sam, can you believe the home run that the Red Sox made during the last game?"

This is what I do. Very simple but very informative.

1. Letters:  The third grade teachers take time at the end of the year to have their students write letters to their new 4th grade teachers. They ask them to include information about their favorite things, favorite subjects, what they hope 4th grade will be like and other tidbits about themselves, like how many siblings they have, what kind of person they are and what they like to do. Thank you 3rd grade teachers! I then reference the things that the students shared or asked when I write my summer Welcome to 4th Grade! letters.
2. Student Pictures:  We use Power School for our student data. I create a student information table that includes the names of my new students and information about their interests, favorite books, abilities, school and social behaviors, any special needs they might have and their work habits. Next to their names, I paste their pictures, copied from Power School. I use this to memorize their names, faces, and tidbits about them.
3. Anecdotal Notes from Last Year's Teachers:  At the end of the year, we meet with each 3rd grade teacher. They share the students' assessment data and talk about each student. I jot down notes in Word about each student. I then put that information in my student information table. I am cautious not to form preconceived ideas about the children, but to look at the notes holistically and objectively.
4. Students Folders and Assessment Data:  I like the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) because not only does it show me the level of reading that a child is reading at,, but I also like to use the interest survey to note favorite topics and books. Other assessment data, like the Blue Ribbon assessment, writing prompts, and Dibels help me begin to identify strengths and weaknesses.
5. Parent Letter to Me:  I enclose an assignment for the parents in the students' welcome letter. I ask them to tell me about their child in a million words or less. They can email it to me or send it in with their child the first weeks of school.
6. Web2.0. I was thinking that I would like to have students share favorite things or write what they hope they learn on maybe a VoiceThread before school starts. I will set up accounts for them and send a postcard explaining how to share their ideas on the Voicethread.

What are some ways you get to know your students before the first day of school?

How have you used Web2.0 tools before school starts as a way for students to begin sharing and asking questions?

What other ideas do you have?

I Don't Decorate My Classroom

I don't decorate my classroom before school starts.

I stopped making elaborate bulletin boards for the first day of school. I stopped spending hours creating cute spaceships or race cars, each personalized with a student name and picture. I don't buy pre-made education posters to adorn my walls. I've even stopped making job charts, weather charts, calendar charts, behavior charts, editing checklist charts, how to write a paragraph charts, you name it charts. Yes, my students walk into a classroom where the walls are bare, the bulletin boards cry out, "Cover me!" and the absence of pictures and print in the room would leave enriched classroom environment enthusiasts shuddering.

Instead,

• I spend time getting to know my students before I even meet them.
• I set up my class and student accounts in VoiceThread, KidsBlog, Voki, Animoto, Wikispaces, and Glogster
• I go through my books and pull out the ones that I think my students will be interested in. I display those books with the covers showing and I put many of the other books away to be revealed as the year goes on.
• I organize and add to my collection of classroom and online math games.
• I compose my welcome back blog entry.
• I clean up my class wiki, archiving last year's contributions, and making room for the new.
• I collect pictures of all the parts of my life so that my students can get to know me.
• I fold and glue together lots of blank Foldables; empty bound books for our beginning of the year class books, top pockets to hold our learning during our science units, 2-tabs and 8-tabs for side by side word study books, and pocket books for our life timelines.
• I plan and prepare for a fun science lesson, a math game, and a team challenge on the first day of school.
• I make bubble letter name tags for each student to personalize on the very first day.
• I carefully choose the books I'll use for my beginning of the year book hooks and read alouds.
• I work on my Writer's Notebook.

My room will get decorated.

I have no idea what it will look like, but I do know that over time the walls and spaces will be filled with things that matter to my students. Over time, my room will be a celebration of the personalities, talents, and gifts of the group of unique individuals that inhabit it.

Do you decorate your classroom? 
What do you do instead?

How does what you do or don't do reflect what you believe about kids and learning?