It's a Teachable Kind of Tuesday.

Calling all fellow teachers!! Or people with kids!! Or people who work in after school programs, or tutor, or babysit, or work with kids in any way!!!
I have a brilliant idea for you, brought to you by Tuesday. Tuesday is always a good day for a teachable moment, I think.
So, as a special education teacher the multiplication chart is  probably the number one tool in my arsenal for math. Keep in mind that I work with 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. If I was working with smaller kids I would probably say the 100s chart is number one. But for my kids, it's definitely the multiplication chart.
I use it for all kinds of stuff. Multiplication facts...obviously. Division, especially long division. Fractions.  Decimals.
So on and so forth. I actually have about 7 multiplication charts placed around my kidney bean table so that each kid has one to use when they are working in math group.
I know that you're all probably thinking that a multiplication chart is not a groundbreaking advancement in teaching. It's actually been around for quite some time now, so what's the genius idea I was referring to?
If you tape a multiplication chart to a table or desk with packing tape, or laminate the chart and tape it to the desk,  the students can draw lines with dry erase marker to find what they are looking for.
For example, if they are looking for the answer to 9 x 9, they can draw a line on each number until they meet.   Then they know they have their answer at the intersection.

After they find the right answer they can just wipe the chart clean and move on to the next problem!

Some of my kids prefer to count down a certain number of rows instead of trying to find where two numbers intersect. For these students, they can simply put a dot in each number  as they count down the number of rows they need.
So if they are looking for 8 x 9  they know they need to count down 10 (because of the 0's row) rows in the 8's column. When they've place 10 dots in the 8's column they know they've reached their answer.

It works really well and it takes some of the common mistakes out of using multiplication charts. Before I let my kids do this they would often rush through it and end up with a wrong answer because they didn't follow the row straight across or they miscounted how many rows they needed to go down. But this is basically foolproof - you can clearly see when you didn't draw a line straight with marker.  And the kids think it's awesome because it's an excuse to use dry erase markers. You know, just about the best thing ever?
So that's it!  It's funny because technically one of my students actually came up with this idea. I kinda laid the groundwork by taping down my multiplication charts and she just took out a marker one day and started using it to make it easier for her.
And voila! A genius idea was born. Ahh, what the minds of a 20-something teacher and an 11 year old student can come up with. The possibilities are endless. Happy Tuesday!

Walkin' In a Winter Wonderland.

I love the holidays.  I love snow. I love hot cocoa and snow days and icicles....I LOVE winter and everything about it.  So I wanted to share a bulletin board I just put up for the month of December.

This is a great lesson that can be adjusted based on the level of the students.  I do this with all my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders and I'm able to differentiate it enough to fit all of them. So here's how it came out:

Unfortunately the picture doesn't really do it justice so I've thrown in some close ups too.  The individual snowflakes turn out super cute!  The base lesson I use with all of my students is about nouns, proper nouns, adjectives and verbs.

For my third graders, I strictly stick to nouns and adjectives. We start by brainstorming winter words that are nouns.  Then they pick their favorite winter noun off our brainstorm and they think of four adjectives to describe that noun.  I have them cut out a snowflake and write their winter noun in the center.  Then they write all the adjectives they came up with on the arms of the snowflake.  We throw some glitter on it and there you have it!  A beautiful, nouny and descriptive snowflake!

I make it a little different for my fourth graders by making them identify whether the words are verbs, nouns or proper nouns as we brainstorm.  They also have to think of more words to describe the noun they choose for their snowflake.

My fifth graders do the entire brainstorm and then choose two winter words to work with.  Those become main topics for them in a writing piece about winter.  They write about why they like those things and what they can do with them.  It's a pretty great lesson overall because we're talking about parts of the English language, the seasons and doing some writing.  All things that my students need constant reminders for!  And you get a pretty bulletin board out of it. Love it!

Thriftable Thursday!

It's Thursday and that means two things are happening.

Tomorrow is Friday!! Woo!

It's Thriftable Thursday. Woo Hoo!!

Today I'm highlighting something I'm very proud of and it's ever-growing.  I'm constantly adding to this thriftable whenever I can. I'm not the only one who benefits from it either.  My students love this thriftable and other teachers in my school often ask to borrow it.  So? Have you guessed what it is yet?

It's my classroom library! I've built my classroom library slowly but surely over the last 4 years.  When I got out of college I knew I wanted a big library available to my students, so I started buying books from book fairs, Barnes and Noble and Borders.  Needless to say I was spending a small fortune and I wanted to find a way to buy lots of books and not go broke.

My home town has a huge book sale every year where everyone in town donates their unwanted books and the library organizes it like a book tag sale.  One year I was looking through all the books and it hit me - buy used books!  Duh!

I started looking everywhere for good deals on books.  I researched paper back exchanges in my area (who knew there were so many in existence!), I hit up every town book sale I could find and I found stores that sell the good books for cheap.  For example, The Christmas Tree Shop sells Magic Tree House and Junie B. Jones for 2 bucks each!  Big thrift stores like Goodwill and Savers are really good too. 

I've added and added over time and I have close to 400 books in my collection. I let my kids check them out by signing them out of my lending library binder.  Here's a look at my sign out form:

The kids are responsible for signing out with the title of the book, their name and the date.  Then when they bring it back they write the sign in date and I check it off.

And because my kids know they are my books and I'm letting them borrow them, they are super careful with them.  They take extra care to make sure they come back and are still in good condition.  In four years, I've only had a few books get lost. Which I think is a pretty good record.



If you decide you want to build up your classroom library and want to check out some of these resources my favorites are the thrift stores and the book sales.  At book sales I find a lot of groups of books because so many people are donating and they all tend to have the same books.  Popular books like Magic Tree House have tons of copies available, which is awesome because I can get enough copies to use them with a reading group.  But beware....the popular ones go really fast so get there early!

Desk Declutterization (it's definitely a word).

I'm always, and I mean ALWAYS trying to find new and better ways to organize my classroom. I think most teachers are.  So today I wanted to share something little that I do to keep my classroom organized.

One of my pet peeves in the classroom is a cluttered desk.  If you're a teacher, you know it doesn't take long for a desk to get that way.  Just a day or two of papers piling up can become a nightmare.  So the other day, as I was on the hunt for a new organizational solution, I had an idea.  My desk gets cluttered mainly because of extra copies or worksheets I never get to.  Usually, I file these things in the filing cabinet under their appropriate heading but sometimes it takes a while until I have a minute to put everything away.

So, I made a folder for each of the grade levels I work with and the two main subjects I see them for, Language Arts and Math.  I color coded them and everything!

Then, I simply stuck them to the wall behind my desk with some Elmer's Tac N' Stik and BAM! I have folders to organize all my worksheets until I have a minute to file them.  Such a simple solution!  It took me less than 20 minutes to assemble and I used oaktag to make these make-shift folders rather than use my good ones or spend money on new ones.

Here's a shot of my desk before and after:

Before                                    After 

One of the best things about this method is sometimes I don't get to a worksheet with one of my groups and usually it would just end up sitting on my desk until I got to it.  Now, I can put it in the corresponding folder until my group is ready to do it, I know exactly where it is when I'm ready for it and I've got a nice clean desk in the meantime! Also, because I posted them on the wall behind my desk and under my chalkboard they don't take up any physical space in my room. It just takes away some wall space and clearly, it wasn't wall space that I was using.

Just thought I would share this epiphany incase anyone is looking for a desk de-cluttering solution! Happy Organizing!

It's one of THOSE days.

We all have those days.  The day before Christmas break, the full moon days, the days where they announce that there will be an early dismissal due to inclement weather, the, ohmysweetbabyJesus I'm going to pull my hair out days.  It comes with the territory of working in a school or with kids.  And it's the reason we're always looking for new ways to manage our classrooms.

Today, I would like to share something I use to manage groups in my classroom.  I personally think it's the most fantastic classroom management technique ever.  I know everyone has their own things they use; some use the red light, green light, yellow light technique, some use colored cards, marble jars...there's a million different things to choose from.  And here's another:

I call them bracelet jars.  Here's how it works.  I work with special education kids in grades 3-5.  I'm basically a resource room teacher, so I see these kids in small groups throughout the day.  When a group comes into my room, all the students are working together to earn enough bracelets to fill their jar to the line, which I place based on the number of kids in a group.

At the beginning of the year the kids help me form some guidelines for earning bracelets. I work it into our school wide behavior plan where our goals are to be safe, responsible and respectful.  So generally, when my kids are demonstrating these things in my room they can earn a bracelet and they get to wear those bracelets until the end of group. When they are clearly not abiding by these rules, I can take bracelets out of their jar. At the end of each group anyone who earned bracelets places them in the jar.

I usually throw a few extras in there for awesome answers, someone who's having a particularly awesome day or whatever.  I use my judgement but I always make sure the kids know why they are getting them.

Believe me when I say, this has been a miracle worker for me.  Even my toughest kids LOVE earning bracelets.  It becomes a quick (healthy) competition to see who can get the most bracelets. And all I have to do to get my students back on track is mutter these ten little words "should I go take some bracelets out of the jar?" and they snap right back into place.  

Once they reach the line on their jar I usually let the kids vote on what they would like as a reward.  For my third graders  something as simple as picking a prize or getting a pencil usually does the trick.  My fifth graders are a little more challenging but they are always able to come up with great ideas.  

I will admit that it takes some practice at first, especially with the younger ones.  But it truly does work and it's fun for the kids, too.  Unfortunately I can't take full credit for this idea.  The school I did my student teaching in used it as a school wide behavior plan.  They worked to fill an entire fish tank!  Now that's impressive and it really goes to show that this can be modified for anybody to use.  I use it with small groups but give it a try in your classroom by using an In and Out jar.  The possibilities are endless!