Tag: back to school

Are you ready to start a new adventure this school year ?

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Are you looking for a new kind of behavior plan that doesn’t sound like a plan? It didn’t start out to be a behavior plan, but a way to welcome back my new students after our school resumed face-to-face teaching with everyone wearing masks.

The word “ADVENTURE” become a part of my classroom that year. It began as a part of helping my students cope with the craziness of COVID-19 as my school made the decision to bring students back to the classroom. I wanted my students to see being back in school as an opportunity to do wonderful things, in other words, an adventure for the year. Let me tell you about it!

I explained to my students that they would be earning the letters that spelled ADVENTURE by their actions at school. Once a letter was earned, it could not be taken away. Letters could NOT be earned by only one or two students; it had to be a group effort. If students asked for a letter reward, the answer would be, “No.” I wanted their actions to happen naturally, not driven by rewards.

So what kinds of actions were students rewarded for? The first time our Science teacher shared with me, in front of the class, how the class had worked so diligently, using their time wisely, the letter A was earned. I watched as my class welcomed a new student and made her feel a part of the class, another letter was earned. I was late to class, coming from a meeting, and everyone was seated at their desk working on the math warm-up, a letter was earned.

So what happens when the class spells “ADVENTURE”? The reward was decided by the class. We had extra recess, no shoes in class for the day, a movie watched over the course of a week were just of the few the rewards that my students chose. I do reserve the right to veto an idea and the students know that right from the front.

It worked so well that year that I have continued to use “ADVENTURE” ever since! If you are struggling with what kind of behavior plan to use this year, why not give it a shot!! Let me know if it works for you!

Have a great year!

Sue Mescall

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Here’s My Secret to Building Student Relationships!!

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As teachers, we are encouraged to build relationships with our students. Great idea, but how do you do that on a daily basis? How do you make sure you connect to all your students? Good questions AND I may have the answer for you!!

A few years ago, my schedule had an open 30 minute block between two specials. What to do? Not really enough time to start a new activity and I make sure students have plenty of time to work and practice during scheduled lessons.

Most of my students have busy schedules when they leave school each day; sports, piano lessons, dance lessons, to name only a few. There is rarely time for them to read outside of school. I decided to use the 30 minutes for independent reading!!

As the students began their first day of independent reading, I was left sitting at my desk. That’s when I hit on the ideas to meet with 4 or 5 students daily, one-on-one! I called my first student and with their chair they came to my desk. I simply asked, “What’s going on and it doesn’t have to be about school?” To my surprise and delight, my student began to tell me about the soccer tournament he was going to be playing in on Saturday! My next students told me about her hip-hop dance class and it just went from there!

Such information made it easy for me to talk to my students about “stuff” that had nothing to do with school. That was my one rule for talking to my students; no school talk. These conversations take place each day with different students and the conversations don’t take more than about 4-5 minutes, so I am able to talk to 5 or 6 students each day.

I have done this for the past two years and it has had a really positive affect with the each class. Some of my students were a bit shy at first, but soon were telling me about such things as their passion for dinosaurs, their remote control cars, their judo class. I also have had students send me picture of their successes: earning a black belt, riding their dirt bike for the first time, and even a dance rehearsal video. The students love sharing their experiences with the class too!

If you can find find a block of time each day, give each student 4-5 minutes of your complete attention and you’ll be surprised at how students will WANT to talk to you.

Let me know how you build relationships with your students! I love hearing from other teachers!!

Sue

How To Begin The Year Positive

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Every teacher enters the classroom on the first day of school with high hopes and expectations.  I sure do!  Well, this year, instead of hoping the year stays positive, I decided take direct  steps to keep my students on the positive path and off the side  paths of negativity.  So what am I doing?  I’m so glad you asked!!!

*THE WRINKLED HEART activity :  A few years ago I saw this on  Pinterest and  “grabbed” this activity with both hands!!!  I wish I could find the person who first posted this idea because I’d hug them!!  This activity is a winner!

Give each student a sheet of red construction paper.  Have your students fold their paper and then cut out a heart.  Size doesn’t matter.  After their heart is cut out, ask your students to wad up their heart and WHISPER insults to the heart….just a short time!  Don’t want the students to get carried away.  After a minute or two of whispers, I ask the students to smooth out their heart and tell it , “I was just playing” or “I was just kidding”.   Have them continue to smooth out their heart.  Then ask the students if the marks on the heart disappeared after telling the heart they were “just kidding” or “just playing”.    Of course the marks are still there.  I remind the students that their hearts are just like the hearts they insulted.  While the words may be gone, the heart still shows the scars…just like our hearts can be scarred by careless or negative words.    It really got to my students…as I had hoped.  Words have power to scar and we resolved to make sure our words didn’t leave scars on anyone’s heart this year.

 

Let me know how you build community in your own classroom.

Thanks!

New Years Is A Time For Change

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Promises, Promises!

I’ve never been one of those folks who sit down on Dec. 31 and make all kinds of “promises” about changes I planned to make in the coming New Year.  So why the title?  Wellll…I can explain

As some of you may know, I have a store, Susan Mescall, where I sell lesson ready products.    While I personally may not be making any changes, I have started looking at my store products and noticing that one of my earlier products needed a makeover…in other words…A CHANGE!

Who’s That?

I’m a fifth grade teacher and my students and I often share what books are being read out of school or during independent reading.  Somehow the subject of adventure books were being discussed and I mentioned Kidnapped.  One of my students wanted to know who the author was and when I replied with Robert Louis Stevenson,  no one in my class had any idea of who he was!  Kidnapped was my first experience with a “classic” adventure book when I was a kid and it bothered me that my students had no idea who he was.

What to do? What to do?

It really concerned me that my students had heard of the book, but had no idea about the author.  I decided to introduce my students to people who had impacted the world around them, but because to time, had been “forgotten”.

I began to search for people and their words of wisdom.  I have included such well-known people as Oprah Winfrey, and Mohammed Ali.  I have also included lesser known people as Jaime Escalante and Marva Collins.

Cha-Cha-Changes!

(apologies to David Bowie!)

Imagine my dismay, when I took another look at my early product and discovered errors in grammar and the fact I no longer liked the look of my product.  So I have spent time changing, and hopefully you’ll agree, improving my product.

I changed the name to “Journal Responses for Students”.  I have taken out the clip art and made the pages and font larger.  I have also enlarged the author’s picture and updated information.

  So I guess you can say that Change is in the air today!!!

                    Let me know of any other folks you think today’s students should know about!

Journal Prompts for Students

 

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My Mistakes Will Make You A Better Teacher!

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And so it begins!!!

It’s Back to School time!!!  I am pulling out my list of things to get done before school starts and here is the first thing I put on my To-Do list!!!

Whether you are a brand new teacher entering your first classroom or a veteran teacher, there are always mistakes made, that if you aren’t careful, will  have you wondering if you chose the right career!!!  Read on…

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What Happened in the Classroom When I Posted the Schedule

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I was recently asked what advice I would give a brand new teacher.  Well, I’m not a new teacher but I felt like one when I moved to a new school last year.  After my experiences last year, I would always suggest posting a daily schedule!!   Who knew a classroom schedule could be a game changer and bring calm to a classroom of fifth graders?

Up until last year, I was a departmentalized 5th grade teacher with no control over my schedule.  All that changed last year when I moved to another school.  Suddenly, I had a lot of control over when and what I taught AND I was self contained… meaning I taught all subjects except specials and science to a fabulous group of 5th graders.  Wahoo!!! There was just one problem….due to the specials, not one of my days’ schedule was the same!

Looking back,  “Hello, Captain Obvious.  a posted schedule is the answer!”  Well, I never claimed to be the sharpest pencil in the box!  It was a rough couple of  beginning days….”What’s next?”, “What books do I need this morning?” “What specials do we have today?”  I could go on, but it is just too embarrassing!!!

About the third day, after answering way too many questions about “What are we doing today” or “What books do I need to have?”,  I had a moment of clarity after the students left!!! I literally walked over to the white board at the front of my room and wrote the next day’s schedule on the white board.  My classes were listed in one color; specials and non-academic activities such as assemblies in a different colors.

whiteboard

 

Nirvana!!!  No, not the grunge band…but perfection!   No more, “I don’t have my math book!”, “I thought today was computers, not media!”   No more clamoring from the students as to what the day would bring as students came in.  Suddenly there was peace in the classroom!

children-happy

graphic by http://www.mycutegraphics.com

 

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Let me know what you think.  Leave me a comment!

 

 

My Favorite Thing For Back To School!

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I am a part of a group of bloggers who are sharing their favorite go-to item for back to school.

My first thought, when it came to blogging about my favorite go-to items for back to school, was I need them all!  How can I narrow down my goodies to just one or two things?  How could I pick?  So I gave my list a hard look and chose my MUST HAVE favorite!

My flash drive is my favorite, can’t live without it,  back to school MUST have!  It carries my lesson plans, activities, and any other educational items I might need,  in a tiny item that is no bigger than my thumb.  I remember a time when, if I came across an activity or an idea that I might use in a future lesson, a copy would be made, put into a folder and that folder was labeled and  put into a file cabinet.  I would have to remember where that activity or lesson was located and pull it out to be copied.  It would be put on my desk (the less said about that, the better!).  I would then have to copy my chosen activity or worksheet.  That’s a LOT of remembering…not my strongest suit! Too often, the activity or copies would be lost in the “dark” area known as MY DESK!   As I would pack up for the summer, I might run across the folder, “Oh, I totally forgot about this!”  and back into the cabinet it went for next year and my remembering process would have to  start all over again!

Or how about this scenario…I would see an excellent resource on the Internet years ago and I would have to print it out…See above for what would happen next!  When I was first shown a flash drive and how to use it, I thought I had died and gone to heaven!  No more remembering papers or folder labels; I could search my flash drive for what I needed!  Not only that, I could simply create folders and put my ideas and activities in them.  No more papers to carry, file in a cabinet, or lose! No more forgetting copies,either.  I could simply plug in that wonderful little tool and make copies on my home or classroom computer.  My flash drive is almost the assistant I don’t have anymore!

My biggest school panic is when I cannot find my flash drive!  I kid you not, every night while school is in session and before I go to bed, I make sure I put my flash drive into a particular pocket in my purse, after I have finished working with it!!  I am not even that careful with my classroom key!  While school is still a few weeks off for me, I know I will be walking in prepared just about anything, thanks to my flash drive!

Be sure to check out the links below for many opportunities to win gift cards and also read what other teachers are sharing about their favorite back to school items.  Happy reading!!!

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