Classroom Management

 This year I feel the need to require better classroom management strategies for my larger classroom size (25), flexible classroom, and 4th-grade to be a better educator. The students are wonderful, inquisitive, bright, and social. I haven't had a behavioral policy in place for many years because I have felt students need to have the freedom to make mistakes, not be shamed for making mistakes but learn from their mistakes. Do I need to have one this year?

My observations, realigning my seating, assigning seats for those who are having a difficult time with the flexible classroom seating, and classroom rules made as a whole group have helped already with the 2 weeks of school starting. I have assured the few students who have permanent seating at the moment it is only temporary during this time adjustment of settling into their new classroom. 

I will not change having a flexible classroom, but I do need to gather skills to fit this particular group of students who are amazing and fun to work with. 

Feedback on Formative and Summative Assessments

image by Peggy_Marco on Pixabay

I would like to focus on using immediate feedback in class, feedback on formative and summative assessments and positive feedback/communication with parents to try to improve classroom management and decrease in class disruptions. I want to reduce the amount of time wasted redirecting students and dealing with disruptions. I also hope the immediate and positive feedback will keep students on track and improve their assignment completion and summative assessments. JMC data and classroom observation show that some at risk students currently don't do any work. JMC will show if students improve assignment completion and mastery of content standards. It will enhance student learning by improving their mastery of content standards. I have already found some online resources, as well as some print material.

Social Emotional Learning in Preschool

 

Stock image in Canva

My ICDP goal for this year is focusing on the area of social emotional skills.  I have notice more and more each year that kids are coming to school without knowing coping skills to deal with big emotions.  I want to be able to better identify my students feelings as well as helping them identify their own feelings.  My goal is to have students be able to identify how they are feeling and ways to help cope with those feelings in a more positive way.

Currently students are quick to scream, cry and throw fits if they are upset or frustrated.  We practice taking calming breaths.  I would like to add in more options for students.  I would also like students to be able to identify that they are getting upset before it reaches that point.

Top 20 for Social Emotional Learning

 

I want to focus on using the top 20 language to help redirect students to the learning. I feel that using a common language that students are being taught will get them back on track quicker than normal, more naggy, interactions for the same reason. 

 I only have anecdotal evidence so far on this, but there is a large amount of time wasted in class trying to get a few kids back on track constantly.  For this reason, I want to look at how to employ self-reflection techniques in the classroom to increase student mindfulness of their actions. The goal is to get myself to use the concepts in the top 20 programs to help students be more in control. This should lead to more time on task and hopefully better classroom interactions with myself and students.

 I currently intend to read the Top 20 Teens and the Top 20 Teachers books to implement some of the ideas that the students are learning in their 21st-century skills class.

To track my progress I will be taking baseline data by the end of this week with Beth and informally myself. Then periodically as I progress in reading and through the class have more data points to see how often the students are being redirected and if it is using the Top 20 techniques or not. 

Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling

LETRS

 This year my ICDP focus is on reading instruction.  Our district goal is to have at least 80% of our students reading at grade level each year. Based on the spring benchmark data for first grade, all of my students entered second grade as “persistently at-risk” in reading.  I know that my core instruction must address phonological awareness (including phonemic awareness), decoding, and sight recognition with more intensity than in the past. 

 

I am currently enrolled in the LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) professional development course with several other teachers in our building.  I am excited to participate in a study group with them, and I look forward to going through the learning process together.   My research will focus on word recognition, which is the topic of the first four units of the course.  I am also using the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Program, Sounding Out Spelling Words, and Equipped for Reading Success as resources for instructional activities and strategies.

 

I am confident that by focusing on the word recognition skills of phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition, I will see improvement in reading accuracy and fluency.  As a participant of the LETRS training, I will complete a case study of three specific students in class, but as a classroom teacher, I am excited to help all of my students grow as readers.

Top 20 Teens and Teachers

 I am trying to implement the Top 20 teens and Top 20 teachers into my every day class routine. The students are learning this program with Mr. Boeve and he is seeing success. In order for me to be able to use the same lingo and philosophy in my classroom, I feel I need to familiarize myself with this program. It is something we hope is integrated into every class across 7th-8th. 

Check Ins and Exit Tickets

Created in Canva with Hand Drawn Back to School Exit Ticket Template

 I want to add a way for students to identify their emotions into my daily routines like check ins and exit tickets. I hope this will impact them by allowing them to understand how they are feeling when they understand a concept or when they don't. So they can realize that it is ok to feel that way and give them  a sense of relief, even if they don't "Get It Right Away".

Really Great Reading

 I am focusing on implementing the program “Really Great Reading” for my ICDP for this year. I chose this because it is something brand new that I have not used before. The school purchased this program over the summer and it was used during summer school.

I am excited to learn this program because it is “all there.” It will not require me to search for activities and lessons to help my struggling readers – the program is all laid out in sequential order.

I love that the program follows a scope and sequence so no aspect of acquiring reading skills will be missed. The lessons are fast-paced, have simple structure and are repetitive – perfect for the Title I reading setting.

I am excited to learn this program and hope I am successful in using it to help my students become better readers. Our school goal is to have 80% of students reading at grade level and I am hoping Really Great Reading will help achieve that.

Number Sense

I am planning to focus on “number sense” for my ICDP goal this year. Since I have focused on this topic before for grades K-2, I am planning to expand my research and implementation to cover grades 3-4 as well. I would like to implement more “number sense” activities for students in grades 3-4 because they often do more advanced computation but don’t really understand “why” they are doing what they’re doing.

As a school, we continue to work towards improving our math scores. By increasing number sense in students in grades K-4, scores should hopefully improve not only at the elementary level but eventually in the upper grades as well. For resources, I plan to use the Math Stackers Discovery Guide as well as numerous resources from Building Math Minds. I will also be implementing activities from the # Sense 101 and # Sense 201 courses presented by Christina Tondevold.

By researching and implementing number sense activities for grades K-4, I hope to see student’s understanding of mathematical concepts increase. In turn, their increased understanding should lead to improved math scores both in the classroom and on standardized testing.

Adding Assessments to PE Curriculum

 My ICDP for this year is to continue rewriting the elementary physical education curriculum.  The reason I am doing this is it hasn't been updated for some time. Part of my research is to find activities that I have not used in my classes.

My plan is to find and implement new activities to the curriculum.  I am going to add assessment pieces to monitor student achievement and growth.  I am also going to use student feedback. This feedback will help guide me in what is effective in the PE setting.

Small Group Reading

Royalty Free Photo of a Teacher and Student Reading. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 01-09-2009, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=193745&tl=photos. Accessed 20-09-2021.

I have chosen to focus on small groups in reading...again!  This continues to be a frustrating endeavor for me because of time and behavior management issues.  As a kindergarten teacher, I train kids to a degree I think my expectations are quite clear.  However, in reality, I get about two minutes of quality instruction before the decibel level is unacceptable.  I also feel like my small group instruction is good, but maybe I could get better results if I landed on the right routines and instruction.  I'm hopeful I have been led to the perfect thing.

This summer when I taught summer school, I was asked to use How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction by Sharon Walpole and Michael C. McKenna.  I used the program with 3rd graders, but it is intended for K-3.  My plan is to use the interventions in this book, along with the readers from my reading series, to meet the needs of all of my students.  I am still working on a plan for what the rest of my class will be doing, but I am planning to have at least three groups as I only have 11 kids right now.

My BIG WHY for wanting to work on my small group instruction is because I feel like kindergarteners have a hard time meeting benchmark by the end of the year.  Most of the students reach benchmark in the Fall and Winter, but Spring seems to be hard to reach for many of them.  I feel like my whole group instruction is solid, although I know there is always room for improvement, but small groups are where I feel I need the most improvement.  I will know if my small group changes are working if I can keep 80% or more of my kids at benchmark by the end of the year.

Group work and Classroom Management Research 

What did you learn about this topic?

As mentioned in previous posts, I have decided to focus on group work and classroom management this year.  I have noticed that students often have a difficult time working in groups and I hope that helping to improve these practices for them will also improve our overall classroom management.  I read an article about emotional intelligence in Edutopia that really opened my eyes to different things. Emotional intelligence includes information on students’ ability to monitor their own behavior and feelings.  This has a lot to do with the self-assessments I will have students do in class to reflect on group work practices. In addition, there was an article in Edutopia about transitions and this is an aspect that will also help facilitate better classroom management.

What resource mediums were used?

I read a lot of articles on Edutopia, but also decided to investigate Solution Tree. When researching on my own, I also found examples and guides for how to create self-assessment rubrics which is helpful.

How will this topic enhance and support student learning?

Classroom management, in my opinion, is the single most important thing in a classroom.  In order for students to learn behavior-related topics, the class needs to run smoothly.  In order for students to learn academic topics, the classroom needs to have certain expectations and procedures in place.  In order for students to transition well, they need to know what is expected of them and be able to do it quickly and quietly.  All of these things lead to more successful learning processes for all involved.

Submitted by: Leah Piper

Engaging Students through Bell Ringers

What's My Plan?

Young student is lying on the floor and looks his laptop. Isolated on white. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 15-06-2012, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=328814&tl=photos. Accessed 12-09-2021.

I would like to focus on bell ringers for my courses to improve classroom management and MTSS. I think having an attendance question at the beginning of each class will help build relationships with students. Then having them work on a bell ringer prompt will help keep them on task at the beginning of class so that class time is not being wasted. From past experience, I recognize that the days I have bell rings students are more focused compared to the days we do not have a bellringer. 

One of the areas I want to research is best practices for bell ringers. I want to make sure that my bell ringers are accessing students’ prior knowledge and that they are being used as a formative assessment. I plan on using a tally system to track what classes are on task at the start of the period from using the bellringers. I also plan on surveying the students about the bellringers to get their feedback on how well it helps keep them engaged.

Submitted by: Kelsie Engelken

Motivating Students to Work Independently

 

Excited Students Watching Robot Vehicle Move After Coding Lesson In Computer Programing Class. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 05-08-2019, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=1646622&tl=photos. Accessed 12-09-2021

SMART GOAL: I will learn about and implement strategies to motivate students to work productively and assume responsibility for their own learning during group work through SEMBH and academic rubrics in order to produce an improved classroom environment which will lead to better classroom management.

What are you wanting to change about your practice and how will that impact student learning?

Science and social studies are subjects that lend themselves well to group work.  Often students work on experiments or projects with a partner or multiple students to learn.  I want to be able to not only facilitate group work well for students, but also help students take responsibility for their own learning when working with others or individually.  

What do you see as your topic for research?

My topic for research revolves around both classroom management and group work.  I believe these topics are very fitting because many of my students have trouble managing their time well and also completing assignments when working with others.  Through rubrics and self-assessments I hope to help students in their ability to work responsibly and complete their work successfully. 

Where will you look for resources on this topic?

I plan to not only talk to other teachers about the work they are doing or have done in the past, but I also plan to find resources in a book study that staff members are doing this year - “Improve Every Lesson Plan with SEL” by Jeffrey Benson.

How will you know you improved in this area? What evidence will you have?

In order to note improvement or lack thereof, I plan to use rubrics for both SEBMH concepts and academic concepts.  These rubrics will include both self-assessment and the assessment of others.  In general, I hope that grades would provide a good indication of student work, as well.

Submitted by: Leah Piper

Elementary PE Curriculum

 This year I decided for my Individual Career Development Plan I would rewrite the Elementary PE curriculum. It has been a few years since I have done this.  I wanted to use this time to reflect and update what I did in PE class.  In the past I have lumped elementary into one category.  This year I decided to do each class as a separate curriculum.

I gathered as much research as I could find, past curriculum, state and national standards, and any curriculum online. I "pulled out" the artifacts that went with Kindergarten Physical Education.  This was the information I used to develop/rewrite the Kindergarten curriculum.

After I was done writing the curriculum I made a slide show to present what I had done to the curriculum director and my principal.  That slide show is at this link.

Kindergarten PE Curriculum

Rewriting the Kindergarten PE curriculum has been a good way to reflect on what I am teaching and it will lay the groundwork for rewriting the curriculum for 1st Grade through 4th Grade.  

If you have any comments about the curriculum please feel free to leave them.

Tony

Mindfulness & Technology

Module Mindfulness & Technology

After doing some research regarding teens and using technology/social media/texting/etc I came up with a mindfulness survey for students to complete hoping it would give them some awareness of how these issues affect their well-being. I also had them watch some videos regarding Mindfulness & Technology Survey.

Class discussion What was the first thing you do in the morning and what is the last thing you did before going to bed? Does it involve technology? If so you are like most teenagers around the world.

Module Activities:

1. Complete the Mindfulness and Technology Survey.

2. Take the Digital Distraction Test Write a short document to share how you scored and why you received this score. Turn in the document to share with Mrs. Schewe in Google Classroom.

3. Watch the video Mindfulness & Technology: Do They Mix?

4. Watch the video Is Technology As Dangerous As Drug & Alcohol Addiction For Teens?

5. Watch the video Technology, Teens, and Taking Responsibility.

Results to Mindfulness & Technology Survey:
 

What Worked/Didn’t Work:
In the first class, I gave them the Mindfulness & Technology Survey at the end of the module. I changed it to the first thing they did in the module. It seemed after they had viewed the video content it might have influenced their survey choices.

Moments of Personal Enlightenment:

When I have lunch duty I notice all the high school students I am monitoring are on their phones about 85% of the time they are in the cafeteria - some while they are in line to get their tray they are on their phone, even when they are eating they are on their phone, and the only time I see the majority of them socializing the “old way” was when they were talking to one another walking to their class after the end of lunch bell rang. 

Now that my husband and I have gone back to a restaurant a few times I am mindful of different people at tables. Such as a couple at one table were on their smartphones the whole time during their lunch except when they ordered and ate; another table three people socializing, one on an iPad, and one on a smartphone except then they were eating; table of an elderly woman and what appeared to be Apa daughter - the elderly lady was visiting on a phone the whole time other than when she was eating and not visiting with the other lady at her table except when they ate. Then I left my phone in my purse but then I did peek at my Apple Watch when I felt it vibrate that I had a text. So I am just as guilty as others addicted to technology.

Iowa Teaching Standards:

21.6-8.TL.21.6-8.TL.6

Essential Concept and/or Skill: Understand the underlying structure and application of technology systems.
  * Utilize technology for everyday use and understand how technology systems can be  

21.6-8.TL.5
Essential Concept and/or Skill: Understand the legal and ethical issues of technology as related to individuals, cultures, and societies.
    * Use technology efficiently and in a manner that does not harm them or others.