Chocolate for the Teach

In my last post, I detailed why a calm, organized start to the school day or class period is necessary. I made it a priority to always get this down, and as a result had really effective starts and positive feedback from administrators. Here I hope to cut through the vagueness and give you concrete ideas on how to implement this.  Actually, when I implement anything, I follow a similar pattern. First, you have to realize that the set-up and practice is worth the long-term gain. You have to change your mindset-- this time of day isn't just something that passively happens. Something that just occurs. Sometimes it's great, other times, not so much. Reframe it to be a crucial part of your classroom learning time. It's worth the work up front.   1. Solidify the steps in your mind, first. Sit down and visualize, in detail, what a quiet start looks like to you. I encourage you to have high expectations for your students while also acknowledging age-appropriateness. It's prob...

I'm sorry to say it took me so long to realize it was possible. It was halfway through my college internship year. I was tasked with watching our class of second graders that morning while my mentor teacher was in a meeting. The morning started pretty typically. The group of eight- and nine-year-olds were meandering, chatting, sharpening pencils, reading books, sharpening pencils again until they were unrecognizable pointy nubs, playing by the water fountain. This was our normal scene. I assumed this behavior was age-appropriate and therefore fine to settle with.  Then the teacher next door walked in to ask me something. It was her last year teaching, and this veteran could not hide her horror.  “Why are they walking around? Is it always like this?" This was one of the pivotal moments in life when I realized it didn't have to be this way. Really.  So when I started teaching full-time in my own classroom, I sought to implement what the veteran teacher had expected all alon...

Starting when I was 15, I was a camp counselor for five consecutive summers. I realized it taught me a lot about being a teacher! Here are a few reasons why: 1.       1.    That threshold of embarrassment was crossed really quickly. When working with children, you learn to get over any embarrassment at doing something you wouldn’t normally do in front of adults. At summer camp, that comes even quicker. It seems like you are parading from one hilarious thing to the other, and you must be their fearless leader in all of it. For example, as you can see in the picture below, one night in the cabin, the girls and I decided it would be a good idea to pull our shirts over our heads and draw mustaches on ourselves while dancing to Jason Derulo.                                                           ...

Whew. I’m finally accepting that it is the end of the year! For teachers, we know that the term “end of the year” is not simply the last day of school, but an insanely busy season that more than likely encompasses all of the following: awards, gifts, parties, tests, good-byes, summer homework, cleaning, sorting, labeling and hair-pulling as you witness the slow erosion of a well-trained class into a gaggle of circus monkeys. I’ve said this phrase so many times already in the past few weeks that people may as well start considering it for the quote on my gravestone: “The end of the year is actually busier than the beginning of the year!” I don’t really know if I can accurately compare both time periods, because I do sort of forget the dreadfully tedious and busy moments that fill up the beginning of the year…but I digress. If you’re like me, you have a lot planned for the end of the year and also some slots that you can fill with other things that were previously filled with cu...

I posted a while ago about my real-life teaching heroes. Recently, some fictional teaching heroes have been brought to my mind, and here they are: 1.       Jessica Day Her quirky, unconventional ways are a strength to her teaching practice. She always seems to care more than the other employees at her school, and she fights hard for her kids (except that time she ruined the science project of a 6 th -grade bully…but that was also because she cared!). She also has a wonderful fashion sense and singing voice that I would love to emulate one day. 2.       Miss Honey Miss Honey is the only adult in Matilda’s life that believes in and advocates for her. Miss Honey stands up to Matilda’s deadbeat parents and the insane headmistress, Miss Trunchbull. Miss Honey actually loves children, and they love her.  “Miss Jennifer Honey was a mild and quiet person who never raised her voice and was seldom seen to smile, but ...

1.             1.   Children are important enough to invest in their social and physical well-being as much as their academic. Therefore, I believe in recess, and lots of it. I believe in playtime and group projects and using manners. 2.            2.   Just because something you do in the classroom isn’t measurable, doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable. On this I’ll elaborate: I’ve been stiffened by doubts recently about aspects of my practice that have been otherwise very natural to me. In a school environment that glorifies test results, standards checked off, and third-grade passing rates, it’s easy to buy into the lie that only what can be tested on paper (or computer, or iPad…) is worth doing. That’s just a simplistic and one-size-fits-all method of determining if a classroom is “effective”. As an example, I read fairytales to my class for about 10-15 minutes daily. I allow them to squish playdough and...

It is my aim to occasionally share with you readers some of my favorite lessons and projects. These become my favorite because they are interesting to both me and my students. For example, each winter, I like to read aloud “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” by Richard and Florence Atwater to my firsties. This book is a classic. Though it was published in the 1930s and includes some outdated terms, I take the time to explain those things, and the students wind up loving the story! I think it gives them a fuller picture of life through a different context than usual. Why would I want to limit them to only modern novels? I think it’s great exposure to some of the concepts, beliefs and troubles of the time. Reading aloud this book for about 10 minutes a day took about five weeks this year. I like to take it slow in order to check for understanding with the students. Along with this read-aloud, the last two weeks of the book, we dove into a full-fledged study on Antarctica! This is a...