Winding Down

The school year is winding down. At SCE we have CRCT retakes and Math Olympics this week. Next week we have the End of the Year AR Reward party, Field Day (2 days), and grade level end of the year awards and parties. There's so much going on!

My last official day of long term subbing is this Friday the 17th which is Math Olympics. I'm planning on doing something small with my kiddos this Thursday.

I can't wait to have my own classroom for an entire year and actually be able to doing something big for the end of the year. We've applied like crazy in our district and surrounding districts. I had an interview last week at the school I'm long term subbing. I made the top 5 candidates, but unfortunately they are only taking the top 3 to the next round of interviews. Now I'm considering taking the test to add middle grades certification.

Anyway, what do you do with your class to celebrate the end of the year? Do you have any really cool projects you do year after year or even for the first time this year?

~Steph

Classroom Seating Arrangements

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is having a good week. It is time for Too Much To Talk About Tuesday and this week I thought our topic could be seating arrangements. It use to drive me crazy in school if the teacher moved around my seat. Then other teachers kept the class in the same spot for most the year. Some teachers loved rearranging the room and throwing the whole room into craziness. It drove some students crazy and some students loved it.
Do you change your students seats around often? I have been wondering what kind of teacher I will be. I like knowing where everyone in my class sits because you can instantly tell who is missing when their is an empty seat. I think there are many benefits to keeping students in the same seat. On the other hand I completely understand moving students for behavior reasons. If students are not getting along then the easiest thing is separation. I just don't understand moving students around to rearrange the room or just to "mix things up".
Do some teachers just like the change? What about having a reason to the seating? Does anyone have a reason for sitting their students certain ways, such as ability grouping?

~Manda

Favorite TpT Products

Hey everyone! It is time for Too Much To Talk About Tuesday! I have been wanting to talk about TpT products! I have fell in love with TpT and making products for our store. I would love to hear about some of your favorite products. I want everyone to share their links to their favorite products. Tell us why its your favorite? Has it been a big seller? Let us know about it! :)

Our current favorite product is our Time Review Foldable. This product is new to our store. Steph used it with some third grade students that were struggling with telling time. It is a great review for telling time and even includes an assessment. I have provided a link to this product (Please do this when posting about your favorite product).

Thanks everyone in advance for telling us about your favorite products! :)

~Manda

Homework Debate

 

So here goes...we'd love to hear your opinion on the topic of homework. That's what we've decided to to discuss this week. Let's look at both sides...

All of these points are arguments we've heard, but not necessarily do we agree with them all. 

Giving Homework

-Students need to practice what they've learned at school.

-Meaningful practice will make a stronger student. 

-Spelling/vocabulary practice has to be done at home.

-Unfinished classwork needs to be completed at home. 

-Projects and papers cannot always be completed during class. 

-Middle & High school students will always have homework so they need to learn the habit in elementary school. 

No Homework

-If they can't do it at school what's the point in sending it home.

-Most parents don't help complete homework, don't know how, or won't because they're too busy.

-Teachers shouldn't be given the right to dictate how a family/student spends their evening at home.

-How do you know if the student did the work instead of someone else at home?

-They spend 7-8 hours at school; kids should be able to have play/free/family time at home. 

~Steph

Field Trips!

Do you still get to take your students on field trips? I know so many schools and districts have stopped approving field trips for one reason or another; so we're curious who still gets to take them.

At SCE, most grade levels are taking one this year. Kindergarten took an all day one, first grade took a short one and is getting ready to go on an all day one this week, third grade will be going on an all day one at the end of the month, and fifth grade will be headed on their "senior" trip to Washington DC at the beginning of May! The district requires that teachers write up a form for approval and submit evidence of how it ties to the curriculum and how it will be tied back into the instruction upon return to school. For instance, first grade will be going to the Atlanta Zoo this week. This will be part of the conclusion to their unit on animals. What better way to finish off this unit?

What's the most educational field trip you've taken a group on?

~Steph

Next Stop... Testing!

Hey everyone it is time for another "too much to talk about Tuesday"! The thing that is being talked about in our life right now is the end of the year testing. Everyone in the school is getting ready for the test. While administration is planning for the test and getting proctor training and things sorted out teachers are fitting in as many reviews as they can. What is your schools doing to prepare for end of the year testing? What types of reviews are you doing? Does anyone have a really great review activity they would like to share?
This is a short post for such a stressful topic but I want to hear from everyone and hear how everyone else is handing the end of the year stress?

~Manda

School Support Staff

Not sure how all of you feel about your school's support staff, but I love the staff at SCE (where I sub). The custodians and lunch room staff are great! And if you've never been told this before, these are definitely people you want to get in nice with! If you're in good with these staff members, you can get anything.

Well we just found out that the custodians in our county may lose their jobs this year. Part of the budget cut for the county is to cut these jobs and bring in a third party company to clean these schools. I know that a few surrounding districts have done this and it works well in means of the budget, but what about the people?

Maybe it puts more money in the schools, but doesn't it take money out of the community? These people (mostly elderly) are being put out of jobs...

Does your school/district still have employees for these support staff positions or a third party company?

~Steph

Classroom Behavior

Today I implemented a new behavior system with my EIP kiddos. I honestly don't have a clue what kind of behavior management system the teacher used herself. I know that a few of the kiddos have clipboards that they get checked off at different parts of their day to earn a given incentive, all of which is part of their IEP. Well, I've realized in the last week that several of the kids have asked if they can have candy when they leave. So I thought I'd use candy to help reward positive behavior as well as punish negative behavior. I'm only doing this with three of my groups (a group of four 2nd graders, a group of six 2nd graders, and and group of six 3rd graders).

Here's how the plan works:

Please don't think that I'm an awful person for the bathroom thing. The reason behind it is that I only have each given group for 30-45 minutes. Several of them make a habit of going to the bathroom during their time with me. Since this is a time they are suppose to be getting extra help, I feel that is is very important that they actually be in the room for instruction. My afternoon groups are coming back from recess when they come to me, and I have asked that they be given a chance to stop by the restroom on the way in before heading to me.

Here's the rules I expect them to follow (very typical):

Here's what my sheet looks like that I keep up with their Skittles on:

The first day went well and everyone kept all of their Skittles today. I'm very excited to see how it continues to progress as time goes on.

What does your behavior system look like?


~Steph

Routines and Procedures

Happy Tuesday friends! Let's talk...

Are your littles still following the daily routines and procedures? Do you believe it's important to have routines and procedures at all grade levels?

I know this time of year it can start getting wonky (Is that a word?) when it comes to students following procedures and behavior management. There's just so much going on. I've subbed in one class regularly that just doesn't seem to have procedures/routines. It's a first grade class, and they are a very diverse little group. I love them to death, but sometimes they make me want to pull my hair out! They come in and act like they have no idea what to do. They are the same way much throughout the day with different daily routines (exploratory, lunch, recess, etc). The first couple of times I subbed for this class, I thought it was just because I was a sub and they wanted to test me. However, I have subbed as the Special Ed teacher that goes in that class, and they behave the same way with their teacher in the room! I just don't get it!

How do you feel about routines and procedures? Have you found something that works year after year? Or do you find yourself changing things up part way through the year?

~Steph

STAR Testing

STAR Testing

Does your school use STAR testing for monitoring? What are your thoughts on STAR? We’ve seen STAR be used well and not so well. Our entire district uses Renaissance AR and STAR, but different schools determine to what level they use it. Some of the schools place a lot of focus on AR, but they don’t focus on using the STAR test. What are they using to determine student levels? Some schools (or at least teachers in those schools) focus on both strongly.

I spent time student teaching in a local school that placed a large focus on AR school-wide. Administration asked that teachers test their students’ STAR levels once a month. The teacher I was placed with at the time would have her students test every two weeks. She used this, along with another program the school had purchased, for progress monitoring. She met with the students and talked with them about how their scores had changed. Seeing what these scores and how it affected them encouraged the students to focus on the tests more.

However, some schools focus on getting AR points and they use the STAR tests to place students in groups. These groupings aren’t always beneficial to the students though. For instance, one first grade student has the second highest amount of points in his class, has the best ratio of test passes to tests taken, and the highest percent of comprehension on his AR test. However, this same student scores continuously early kindergarten on STAR reading and early second grade on STAR math. In this particular case, what can be done to motivate this student? He strongly dislikes taking these tests. He finds them confusing (reading) and boring (math). This student is very strong in math and has qualified for Math Olympics at school both in kindergarten and first. In reading he has simply been placed in the lowest group. The student and teacher both agree that the books in his guided reading group are too easy for him, but the teacher continues to keep him in this group based on his STAR score. What else could be done? What other assessment could be used? Why is he scoring so low on STAR if he’s able to perform well in group?

Again, what do you think about STAR? Do you or a fellow teacher use it? If so, how does it take effect in your classroom?

~Steph

Schedule

We're not happy with the lack of posting taking place. So we've decided to design a schedule of weekly posts to keep us on track, as mentioned in the Excitement post. (We're determined to start getting organized in life!)

Our posts will consists of information, ideas, stories, etc from Steph's adventure as a long term EIP sub, our student teaching adventures, things from our TpT store, and general experiences.

Here's what the schedule will look like:

Maniac Math Monday will consist of posts of math activities, worksheets, ideas, etc that we have seen, used, or made. Being an EIP math sub will play a big part in this. Also, both of us have spent a lot of time with math in student teaching! 

Too Much To Talk About Tuesday will be our random day. We'll talk about whatever this day! For things that don't seem to fit into a subject category such as classroom management or just the funny, crazy, and strange things we've seen and heard!

Tech Wiz Wednesday will be where we share ideas of how to implement different technology into your instruction. We'll also have weeks where we share technology tips from our many adventures. Computers, tablets, Microsoft Office, blogging, various websites, etc if it's technology you can bet there's a chance you'll find it here!

Through Time and Space Thursday will be our day to talk about all things Science and Social Studies. We'll discuss different activities and resources we've come across that help make learning (and teaching) these sometime seemingly tedious subjects.

Friend or Foe Friday will be our day to discuss Reading and Language Arts. Many people either LOVE or HATE one or both of these subjects. Teachers struggle with ideas for instruction and students struggle with remembering all the rules. Each week we'll discuss various topics for these subjects and you can decide if it's your (or your students') friend or foe.

We will be starting these posts on Monday, March 4th, 2013! If you have an idea for something you'd like for us to discuss, we'd love to hear it! Comment below or send us an email!

~Steph & Manda