Effective Teacher Day 1

A month left

My calendar tells me that I have just under 30 days left in the school year. Not 30 days to chill or take my foot off the peddle. Nope. I have 30 days to make 20 second graders glad that they're going to 3rd grade. For some,sadly, I want them to seriously pray they don't have me next year. 

What the Hunger Games has taught me about teaching

I devoured the HG series this week. Amazon did me a huge favor by allowing me to borrow the 1st copy to get me hooked. Needless to say I ravished all three books in a week. While I was working with a small group of kids I realized even more how the students respond to Class Dojo. They want to get as many points as possible, especially when they know that Friday we're going to have a treat. It made me think about the HG and how Tributes responded to the parachutes during the games. Here are some things I'm going to implement in class. 

• I'm going to give out my classroom jobs by lottery. I've attempted doling them out by having the students write an application. This would be much more interesting. *Update, this worked perfect. I am going to have to change the classroom jobs more often. Allowing them to keep them for weeks and weeks isn't working right. Maybe 3 days top.   
• Drop little "gifts" on students during the lessons. Maybe a calculator during a math 2 min drill or a book to help give more insights during a science lesson. 
• I have to manage classroom supplies better. "3 pencils and that's all. If you need another I will have to start taking a Class Dojo point from you." 
• Push the kids to work in groups that grow and flex all the time. This is more of a planning issue than anything else. Need to find a way to reward them for successfully working together. The catty-ness is so old!
• The more we understand our situation to better we can make decisions and not have to repeat lessons. 
• Understand that it's easy to become the thing you despise even if you think you're doing a noble work. Don't sink in order to get what you need. 
• Going to have some kind of mid week reward on Wednesday not just Friday. 5 days is too long for my students. Maybe if the students get 1/2 of the points needed for Friday by Wednesday they can do something fun on Wednesday afternoon. 

Testing starts next week. I can't wait for this to be over. I'm not sure how well my class will do, but I'm just ready for them to get it over with. The stress on the teachers and the kids is immense. The desire to succeed is even tougher when it doesn't seem to be met with equal desire by the students. Just got to hope and trust for the best. 

Day 62 of the 115 Royal Burpee challenge. Been beating my up for sure. I have the lion share of them to still do. Joy! *I'll do 5 burpees for every comment I get about my comparison on THG and teaching. Almost got a muscle up yesterday at Crossfit South Cobb. Got to build off that momentum. 

Mr. Whitaker's behavior report from Mr. Whitaker's Workshop.

ClassDojo has just increased their usefulness many fold! Now, I'm able to email parents much faster.  This is great, cause I email and text parnets often. This is a snippet of what they receive via email. As you can see I'm always on task. 

Hi,
I would like to share this report of Mr.’s behavior from Wednesday, 1st Feb 2012 to Thursday, 1st Feb 2018 with you. The report is attached to this email.

I hope this is useful.

Mr. Whitaker

I'm using ClassDojo to track and help you engage with your child’s behavioral progress. This will have a big impact on how much they learn in class, and will help your children build good behavior and good academic results.

Download Dojo

Class vs. Shaving cream (Round 1)

I get tired of watching my students go through ream upon ream of paper just wasting it. So I got this idea from another blog to use shaving cream as an assignment. It's not cheaper per say, but it's sure a lot more fun. 

*Mind you I did notice that this student has the "+" symbol in the wrong place and an "=" sign where it's not needed. My hands were covered in shave cream and I was good to get one picture. 

We were working on inverse operations to see/prove that subtraction can help us better understand addition. The kids loved it. Since I did a lot to prep the lesson this really hit home. They did this for about 20 minutes, cleaned up and and journaled what they found. Only one had cream all the way up to his elbows. None got any on the floor. Most surprisingly none got any on their classmates. 

It cost me $1.16 for a can of cream. Not bad. Tomorrow we may pull out the shave cream again and work with forms of energy. Might save this for the next time I'm being observed to either a) hit a home room or b) crash and burn in a blaze of glory. 

*Points to remember if you use this method

• Tell the class they're icing cakes. That will keep them from rubbing the shaving cream so much that it evaporates.
• I'd think that whipped cream would work, but it's sticky, the kids will try to eat it, and it might attarach bugs. 
• They don't need a big space. The size and shape of a legal sheet of paper is fine. 
• One can of shave cream goes a LONG way. Thought I was going to need like two, but ended up using 3/4 of one. That's with me re-upping many kids work areas. 
• Take your time wrapping up. As you're talking and going back over the steps, the shaving cream dries. This makes it very easy to clean up. 
• Have baby wipes on hand unless you want to send them to the rest room to wash their hands. 
• Don't sweat cleaning the table/desks until after school. Shave cream is soap and doesn't hurt anything. It just leaves a film on the desk, but it washes off quickly. 

The bet that my class could get 150 class Dojo points has been less than spectacular. As of today they've earned 80, but also have lost 79. That's not good. Going to do something special for those who are on track with 5 or more points tomorrow. Maybe they'll get extra center time or get to go as a small group to the media center. Can't focus to much and to long on those who won't do right. I have some Prince and Princess students who want to learn and are making the most of each day. Can't let a few ogre's ruin it. 

Off to Crossfit South Cobb. 

The heart of a teacher

When I get really beat down and don't feel like anyone understands what in the world I'm going through, I recite this to myself. "I have the heart of a teacher and I'm making a difference for many generations to come".  

Today I recited that little bit more than a few times. It was tough, but I had to keep reminding myself that I'm getting through to these kiddos. I chose to suspend Fun Friday this week. It wouldn't have been beneficial to only have a celebration for just a few kids. This week the goal was 11 ClassDojo points. Some of my kids not only weren't on track to hit 11, but they weren't on track to get 3 points this week. I let Monday spoil me since everyone was on their game. I reminded them yesterday during our end of the day reflection time that they needed to make sure they pushed to get as many points as possible Wednesday. To many misunderstood me and came in to get as few points as possible today. I don't think enough of them believed that I would cancel it. So they had to see that getting the core content was far more important to me than anything else.

I also threw my hard cases a curve. I called everyone of their parents this afternoon. Many was on the phone with me when the offender walked in the door from the school bus. I wouldn't have minded seeing their faces. 

This week has been good, even with today being a tough one. I'm ready to start tomorrow anew. Back to the grind. 

Great Crossfit workout today. I feel like I was run over from the heavy front squats Monday, but that's why we do it. 

Another great use for ClassDojo

I've told you how I'm a ClassDojo devotee. It so useful and fun. My student like it and when I tie some real rewards to it, magic happens. See how someone else is making magic happen. 

2nd grade the first recap

I'll talk about the ins and outs of 2nd grade a little later. In the mean time let's talk about The Whitaker Workshop

As I rolled into 2nd grade with a classroom theme. The theme is " Building the next Generation". So the decor is all about construction, building and workshop.  

This sign greets all who come to my room. The kids love it! I wish I had made it a little larger so the sayings around the letters could stand out more. Next time. 

This is a shot into my classroom. I have this mini-hallway before you get into the class. It's a great surface area to create "get ready to learn" space. Sometimes my kids use it as a run way to sprint through. We'll be stopping that Monday morning. 

This is a reverse shot of the same mini hall. 

This is what it looked like when I left Friday. We review the rules twice a day. I found out quickly that my room is to big for this small sign. So I finagled and wrote them out on two large sticky notes and posted them around the room. *Shout out to my secret decoration angel. She's the truth and very passionate about classroom decor. She takes your idea and RUNS with it. And she's not for hire. 

 

This is where I'll post some of the spectacular work my kids produce. 

I took a picture of each of my students with a hard hat and an apron on. I printed and cut the pic out posting each on a different gear. I continually remind them that they each work together to help us all reach out goal of 3 rd grade and a life time of learning. 

How my room looked before we started really digging into the theme. 

Our new class moto over the coat rack. Used an old tool box to set up the theme. It will also be my "treasure" box. I'm looking to fill it with things the students like. As they're caught being kind or doing good work I'll let them dig in the tool box for a reward. Thinking of some good rewards that they'll like and won't cause me to pull my hair out cause they've had candy and are now bouncing off the ceilings. 

 

How my word wall and tech area looked before. 

New Word wall area. Words will be going up this week. My plan is to make the words look like bricks to work with the building theme. 

A math station. I have clothes pins attached to the wall so I can swap in or out a center board or another math theme. 

This was again a shot of my class in the beginning. 

This is a shot of the room how it greeted the students on Wednesday. We made table caddies with the table number on them. When I pass out crayons or scissors they go into the caddy and they return to the caddy. The Table Captains are responsible for getting them back to me. 

I'm working on replacing that very unique and quite dingy rug. It doesn't work with the decor, but for now it's what I have. 

Every morning the kids come and get their apron for their specific jobs. This pic doesn't show the job titles on the apron. I did that a little later. I had the kids complete a job app based upon the job they wanted. It was very fun. 

The class jobs are:

• Apprentice (FKA Teacher's helper)
• Tool Manager (FKA Paper Passer)
• Runner (FKA Errand person)
• Foreman (FKA Clean up person)
• Architect (FKA Line Leader)
• Engineer (FKA Line Monitor)

I was going to make hall passes, but I found that the kids LOVE to wear an apron around.  So, I started just giving them an apron to go to the restroom or what not. 

 

The classroom rules are simple: 1. We raise our hands to speak 2. We speak when we should. 3. We respect others. 4. We follow all instructions. My plan is during a day or two day period as I see kids doing the right thing or doing great work I'll drop some kind of warm fuzzy in the bucket. Since I use ClassDojo I could easily tie this into filling the bucket daily. Of course as the kids get better at that one rule I'll just move to the next or the next behavior I'd like to see more of. 

So far I really think the feed back has been positive. I didn't get a pic of my mobile desk and some other things. I'll make sure to add them this week. The kids like it and that's the best part. Now on to the content and making sure each of them is best prepared for 3rd grade. 

My return to Crossfit South Cobb has been met with rewards. I feel MUCH better when stressed and I'm sleeping better. I feel strong. Albeit not as strong as I have, but I know that's coming. 

Day 7 sans sugar and coffee. I'm through the wilderness already. I feel great. I'm still gonna enjoy an iced coffee every now and then, but it will have to be sugar free and I'm pretty sure I won't want that everyday. 



 

My teacher's Christmas list

Got a little inspiration from another fun teacher blog.

My Teacher's Christmas list

1. A magic potion that transforms my classroom without me ever having to move a chair. 

2. Faultless technology. Nothing like starting a session and the tech not work like it should. Had a dance party during my End of the Semester Party and the streaming wasn't very hot. 

3. EVERY PARENTS correct and updated information. 

4. Air freshener that does. Nuf said. 

5. A teleporter that can zap me to anywhere in the building. Walking is getting old. Ok, can I at least wear roller skates?

6.  A scanner that scans the student's papers and automatically loads their grades into the system sans me having to do anything. 

7. Fantastic school lunch program. It would be awesome to see the kids eating natural and fresh foods more often. Matter of fact I think this is my #1 request. 

8. Magic lesson plans that just are done by themselves. I wouldn't mind little elves who set up my centers before the lesson, too. 

9. Copiers that wouldn't break down, ever. 

10. The super power to write lessons (just in case I don't get #8) that reach every student no matter what their levels, abilities, background and up bringing. 

Stocking stuffers

Classdojo adds new features to their great site

A metric ton of pencils, crayons and markers

Aerosol that I can spray to cause my students to desire to learn

I hope you all have a fantastic, restful Christmas. May 2012 be even better than you expect. 

An open letter to ClassDojo

Dear Class Dojo, 

I've been using your classroom management system for about a three weeks. I have to say it works to good. I've lost all excuses for why my class is off task and not focused. Your fantastic use of the Smart Board has single handedly pushed my class to self examine their behavior and focus in on what matters. Class dojo has taken some of my hard cases and helped them see that proper behavior will be rewarded while poor behavior will not. 

Thank you very much!