Summer Homework

Our principal asked us to write a reflection of our classrooms last year, here are the questions he gave us to focus our responses:

1. What do you think the motivational level in your classes was last year?

Last year in the majority of the classes I taught or co-taught the motivation level was on the low side. I do not believe that it was zero- however; it most certainly could have been higher. Of course there were students in every class who were individually motivated to succeed regardless of the opinions of their peers.

2. Was there a value problem? An expectancy problem?

I think that the biggest problem had to do with the students not seeing enough value in the subject and class time. This is something I experienced in study skills, if the students do not value their core subjects then they typically don’t value the extra time in study skills to work on their core subjects. This leads to a motivation problem in study skills. I think that our school does a good job mediating expectancy problems because we are so willing to offer help to students who need it. However, there will always be students who don’t believe they can complete work and thus their motivation is low- I don’t believe I experienced this type of problem as much as a value problem.

3. If you considered apathy to be an issue, what was your role in that?

I think that a teacher’s role with apathy starts from the very first day of school. Students can tell when they have worn you down to the point of you not caring either.

4. What was already working?

I think that I had consistent and high expectations for my students. I think when I conveyed them well they helped my students know how to be successful and succeed in my classroom.

5. What will you do differently?

One area I know I need to improve is communicating my expectations. I really liked how the CHAMPS book says to have guidelines for success which are separate from classroom rules. I am looking forward to having some good class discussions using the CHAMPS model for each activity and transition (Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Participation).

6. How will you monitor and assess the effectiveness of your new strategies?

Well for most of my students I will already be keeping track of behavioral data that can be compared to last year to see if the guidelines for success and classroom rules I use are effective. Part of making sure they are effective is using consistent consequences. These can also be tracked by a data collection method to ensure that I am fairly and consistently enforcing all the rules and their specified consequences.  Also if implementing the CHAMPS method is effective it will maximize instructional time which will lead to expected growth or higher than expected growth on the Student Learning Objective test.

Has anyone out there used the CHAMPS model in their classroom? Esp in the high school level?

Any suggestions on guidelines for success or classroom rules that you have used before that you liked?

Please feel free to post comments with any of your suggestions and ideas!

Teaching Supplies!!

My grandparents moved into a smaller house so they had an estate sale at their old place. So what was the first thing I went looking for? Things I could use in my classroom. First thing I found were these heavyweight sheet protectors. I figured I could put some graph paper in their or just white paper and students can use them like white boards! Totally awesome!

Next things were these magazine holders. Now either I'll just use them to keep my self organized or I thought maybe my students can keep their interactive notebooks in here (I'll most likely have less than 12 students). Also shown below i found some red card stock! Gotta start stock piling colored paper- esp colors that my school doesn't provide! Just like Math = Love. 

Erin Condren Teacher Planners!

I have always been someone who loves planners. I love color coding them, highlighting, and covering each page with sticky notes. I knew I was gonna need something awesome for when I became a teacher. My little sister, who is also a teacher, recommended the Erin Condren Teacher Planner.  Now, they are a splurge- but I think it was worth it. I took it everywhere and used it all the time.  Keep reading to see a pictorial review of my Erin Condren Teacher Planner. 

2014-2015 Planner

Above is my planner from last year. There are so many great covers to choose from that you can most definitely find one that fits your style and personality. I love color so I went with rainbow! Also you can customize it to say your name and school on the front. 

Pages I didn't really use :(

Above are some of the pages at the beginning of the planner that I didn't use. The first "all about me" page I did fill in with my info- just in case. But the "classroom events and volunteers" and "substitute" pages felt like they were designed for an elementary class room. I am not planning anything for those pages next year- they will just remain blank. The "year at a glance" pages seem like they could be really useful, but as a first year teacher not knowing what subjects I would be teaching- I didn't fill it in. I plan on trying to fill it in this year for my resource chemistry class.

Another page I didn't use- But I will!

Above is another page that I think was designed for an elementary class room where you only have 25-30 kids ever. This would be useful to track what the kids missed. However when you have 20-30 kids in each of your 5 periods- it makes using this section a little more difficult. SO my big plan for re-purposing this section for next year is to use it as a parent/student contact log. This will be very beneficial to me because while I was good about contacting parents I was really bad about logging it on our online system for parent contacts. This is important for special education because there are laws specifying how many times you need to attempt to contact parents and such. Also since I always have my planner with me, I can write it in the section and then log it the online system later! Great Idea! (well I hope it is anyway-

Not pictured: there is a section full of graph paper. I mostly used it just for notes and lists and things. But you could use it for seating arrangements. I imagine it would be useful for all sorts of other things too.

Monthly View

These were great because after each month are 3 pages for notes for that month. I also used this both as a calendar for school and personal. It was nice to be able to see when all the home football and basketball games were. Also I coach lacrosse so practice and game times were kept here too.

Lesson Planning pages! 

Above are the lesson planning pages! I love these. Even though we have to turn in electronic lesson plans, I really benefit from mapping it out on paper first. Although I do suggest writing in pencil otherwise you'll use lots of white out or sticky notes. Across the top are 7 slots, which works well if your are on a 7 period day- I guess. But luckily not all of us have 7 preps so we can combine blocks and have more space to write. Now it took me a while to figure out what my optimal set up was for my classes across the top. But one thing that I found VERY helpful was to have a section for my planning period where I could make to-do lists for everything that needed to get done. Also you can see in the picture where I've "X"-ed out some days for some classes. My high school is on a modified block so Mon, Tue, and Fri are 7 period days. Wed is Odd block day and Thur is even block day. So this planner is definitely customizable to your schedule- you will just have to play around with it.

Stickers! 

Who doesn't love stickers?!

Grade book- I think?

I think these pages were designed to be used as a grade book. For me this year I didn't think that would be useful because our grades are done online. However, there are some glitches with that and it is possible for students grades from all year to be lost (YIKES!). So next year I think I will try to keep a grade book, at least for the Chem resource class that I will be teaching. For my co-taught classes I don't think I'll be keeping track of all that. Above you can see 2 things I tried to use these pages for. The left was me trying to keep track of my students IEP goals. The right was me marking tardies. Tardies are a big problem at our school- not really sure why. I think it has to do with the fact that the building was designed to hold like 800 max students and we've got like 1100 students in. We are growing too fast!

2015-2016 Planner!

Lastly, above is my planner for next year! I decided to go with a positive quote on the outside to always remind me that I can do anything I put my mind to! Also in the package this year was another positive quote- so I stuck it inside the front cover!

Overall I would totally recommend the Teacher Planner to anyone. My middle sister and I loved the teacher planner so much that our youngest sister, who is a college student, got the life planner. She loves that thing too! Basically Erin Condren knows what she is doing! Check her out at her website!