New year challenges! Using gimme 5! 95% begins!

Sometimes just being challenged to do something can get you going. A. J. Juliani challenged others to write everyday and blog more this year. I accepted the challenge and so here I am! (#30daysblogging)

This post is about an attention grabber called give me 5. 

The first day back from break I started re-teaching classroom expectations by reminding student what give me five looks like when sitting on the floor. We talked about each finger and what they mean-  

pinky= eyes

Ring = ears

Middle= mouth

Index= hands

Thumb = feet

Tomorrow we will talk about at seat expectations, especially working time and how to ask for help.

Academically we started 95% this week with closed syllables. I just have to make sure it takes only 10 minutes and doesn't take too much math time. All of the words are fake words and that always confuses the kids at first because it is like you are teaching a foreign language to them. 

Update on how my results were on 95%: 

I had about 60% passing scores after teaching it for three days. Not too bad! I wanted 80%, but it is just a beginning and it was the first week back from break. 

I will let you know what next week brings! Have a great one! 

Teaching Predicate

Whoa is this the 3rd week of school already!
Our school has been getting out early for heat several times in the last two weeks. Although I don't mind getting off work early, it is hard to build a routine and get anything done. In this post I wanted to take some time to show how we are teaching predicate to our 2nd grade students.

Many 2nd graders have a hard time figuring out the different parts of a sentence and this method of teaching it has been very benificial and I feel worth the time to teach it.

1. Show them what a subject is get them to ask the question "Who?" or "What?" is this sentence about.
2. Circle the subject in red.
3. Next discuss verbs (stick with action for now if possible).
4. When you find the verb put a red squiggle line under it.
5. In front of the verb put a blue vertical line.
6. Underline the verb and the rest of the sentence in green. This is the predicate.
7. Spend time writing their own sentence (it took our class a 30 minute period to get it done).
8. Use the same method on their own sentences.

Here is what it looks like:

Just remember it is not one and done! You have to continue to work on it to keep it forever in their minds :) Good luck! All for now!

We're Back!

Here we are the 7th day of school for us! Wow where did the summer go!
I spent the entire summer doing anything but schoolwork, crazy right. I think it is because I felt really good about the way my classroom was set up and being the start of the 7th year in the same grade, I know my stuff.
However, that being said we definitely don't want to get too comfortable that it becomes blah, blah, blah to me either. My class last year was challenging to say the least and I needed to just relax and be ready for the new year too!
Now, about the first two weeks of school words of advice:
1. slowly introduce new things being careful to teach it the right way the first time- one time I taught the kids to use the smelly markers for word work during daily 5 by using their name instead of the spelling words "don't do it" the rest of the year I battled with kids thinking word work was their names "ugh"
2. have a go to when the students are done because I personally can't think on my feet in the moment- this year I went with a binder idea from teachers pay teachers (Rise and Shine Binder by Reagan Tunstall | Teachers Pay Teachers https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rise-and-Shine-Binder-762792) All I have to do daily is put up a number and a word of the day and away we go.
3. Have high expectations at all times and give lots of positives the first couple of weeks- the kids have had a long unstructured summer and they are in need of expectations, they also need reassurance that they can trust you to be fair and stay positive

Guess I better head off to school! I have had a hard time adjusting as well since I had an unstructured summer too!

Have a great day and a great year!
All for now!

Using apps for vocabulary

I can't believe this is my first post of the year!  Crazy busy this year. Hope to post weekly from now on.

We have a set of five mini iPads in our classroom. I use them daily in RTI and daily five. 

This week our second graders used an app called Pic Collage for vocabulary during RTI time.

Pic Collage is my all time favorite app so if you haven't used it you just have to give it a try.

The students were instructed to use the vocabulary words and the app to find pictures on the web that show what it means. I saw a student use the word share and it had a cute teddy bear sharing an ice cream cone.

The next day I looked at the other photos and found the word suddenly. They had a picture of Suddenly Susan with a cigar in her mouth and a group of girls in bikinis with a saying on the bottom "suddenly she realized why men didn't date her".

Although it is a good activity I realized I need to see what pictures will show up when you type in the vocabulary word.
Lesson learned!

We just finished our final standardized fall test. RTI groups are in full swing and the students are settling into their weekly routines. 

Glad to be back in the school year and I hope to make it a good one.

Be sure to check back next week because I will share another app I use for vocabulary.

Wish I had 1:1 Ipads! It would make things so much easier. Until next time!

The first picture was done by a student to show the word City and the second one is from our welcome back night, both were created in Pic Collage app. 

End of the year thoughts

5 days left

Whoa, May sure went fast! We have 5 more days of school left. I think the kids have already checked out though. We have been working on a couple of interesting projects and that has really kept the kids on task but I think this week will be tough.

Progress reports

Finishing up my progress reports was such a relief and basically I felt pretty good about them.
What I really wanted to accomplish was to show what students know when they get done with 2nd grade. I feel like I have done that.
Some things to think about:

1. When doing standard based grading make sure you have a plan when it will be taught and how to assess it right from the beginning of the trimester/quarter.
2. If you pick a standard make sure you plan on guaranteeing that at least 95% of the students will know that standard when you get done with 2nd grade. All other grades above you are counting on that!
3. Make a plan right away if students are struggling with a standard. How you will pull them out if it is only a quarter of your class? How did you teach it the first time? How did the other grade level partner/s teach it? 
4. What percent do you expect the student to get on the assessment? How will you assess the students to see if they exceed the standards?
5. Make sure you only assess the standard at the level you expect them to be at when they finish 2nd grade. (we made that mistake and learned from it). 
6. Keep faith that the next time you teach it they will get it because they probably will. 

What the government should really look at. 

My favorite part of this week was when I got out the writing papers from September and October and had the 2nd graders compare and read what they wrote with a writing this month. One of my students told me that it was so embarrassing what they wrote in September. This shows so much more than the Iowa Assessments. If the government wants to know if students are proficient they should enter the 21st century and see what we see! I wish I would have copied a couple of those to post. One student at the beginning of the year wrote like a kindergartner and didn't use any spaces. Nothing made sense and what he wrote was off topic. What a difference a school year can make, I was truly impressed.

Internal Motivation

Sometimes it is hard for a teacher to understand what motivates a student to do a good job on something such as an assessment. The writing that we did on Thursday this week was simply write about your favorite summer activity. I told them when they get done writing I will let them see what and how they wrote at the beginning of the school year. This was motivation for many students to do their very best. I didn't say it goes in the grade book, or if you do a good job you get a sticker. Sometimes we don't give enough credit to students internal motivations. 

Final thoughts

Summer is almost here but teachers are never really disconnected from their job. I will spend a few days just watching movies or playing games but then I will think about what I need to do for next year. 

I am teaching summer school for 3 weeks so I won't really be done working until the end of July. 

Thanks for reading! 

Augmented reality space app

Spacecraft 3d app

Last week the story our class was reading was all about space. It was called Working in Space and we also read about space in small group reading.

In connection with the story our class used an app called Spacecraft 3d which is put out by NASA. The students were able to see many of the space things they read about in an image they could turn and explore. 

This was an awesome adventure for the students and if you haven't tried augmented reality apps yet you have to give this one a try.

Using QR codes in the classroom

For the first time I experimented with using QR codes in the classroom on Friday April 4th.

WOW! I really didn't know how much of an impact it would have on my students. They were all so engaged in this activity I was amazed. My 2nd grade partner experienced the same in her room so I know it was real. Even the students that always mess around during group activity time were engaged.

I have probably at least 4 ADHD students in my classroom so the movement kept them engaged and working the whole time.

The activity was simply a review of prefixes and irregular verbs for the reading test they would be taking that day. All students were working and helping each other with the answers. 

I set it up so that there were 3 students in every group. Then I made a rotation schedule so everyone had a chance to use the ipad to read the QR code, write down the answer, and the third person was the locator and found the next code in the room. 

We checked the answers together after the activity. 

Check out this video to see how engaged they were:

Making the QR codes was easy! Here are the steps to do this activity in your classroom:

1. go to classtools.net

2. click on the QR game generator

3. get started

4. When you put your questions in make sure to number them and put the answer

5. Either go to the answers and print them off or write down your answers 

6. print them and post them around your room

7. Be ready to be amazed!