Hodge Podge of Items

All year long I've taken pictures and told myself, this is definitely "blog" worthy.  However, my intentions are good, but the follow through hasn't been.  I updated our classroom blog a LOT more than this one!  In fact, there are PLENTY of fun ideas over there that I promise will make their way to this blog! :)

Anyways, for now accept my apologies and this hodge podge of ideas for you!

This is just a picture of my SHOUT OUTS I did before I left on a Friday afternoon.  When students arrived on Monday morning they were excited to see their names on the board for EXCELLENT conduct grades!  I'm always amazed at how far little things like this will go!

I always get the best ideas from other teachers!  Upon entering Mrs. Harman's room last year I thought WOW, why didn't I think of that?  This is just a LARGE clothes pin that is by my door.  It catches papers that need to be passed out or needs to go to the office.  It is the go to place if I'm looking for an important piece of paper!  I bought this at Target from the Dollar Spot!

So I blogged before about my classroom management system.  The pictures were old and I've definitely updated the look since then.  You can find the blog here.  In a nut shell, the three classes are competing for links.  When their links touch the ground they receive a prize and the game starts BACK over.  Originally I kept it going and each class wasn't really competing with each other.  However, this is CHEAPER, plus the kids are excited to earn their links!  Unfortunately, this year my homeroom hasn't won the classroom competition yet!  Mrs. Walters class has won the most! We voted on the 5 classroom objectives at the beginning of the year.

Close up, laminated so that I can erase the expectations each year and write new ones if needed.

Paper clip, 2 index cards, and hot glue hold it all together.

My students LOVE when they walk in my classroom and see this spinner on the board!  You can turn ANYTHING into a review!  For this particular review students spun the spinner and then had to point to the cell parts on a larger diagram of plant and animal cells.  If they landed on the free, they could point and name any part they wanted.  Here is where you can purchase this spinner, plus two additional ones.  

Lastly,  my timeline is something that I'm proud of in my classroom.  More about the timeline can be found here.  With each unit we've added the important events to the timeline.  This kept up in check all year long!  The only thing that I would do differently next year is to make the cards smaller, not the words, but just trim off the extra color on the back.  It got a bit crowded on the timeline!  I also might be moving this up front!  

Slacker, I know...

I haven't posted since the beginning of the year, which seems like just the other day!  I don't know about you, but this school year has FLOWN by!  I keep telling my students that and they look at me like I'm crazy, but all my teacher friends seem to agree! :)

Anyways, we've been totally busy this year.  The group of kids that I have are great.  We have a few issues, but for the most part they are doing their best.  In my county students must take a test every 4 weeks.  In elementary school, this is for grades 3-5.  The PARS (as they are called) lets teachers know how the students understood the concept that was taught, plus gives us an idea as to how they will perform on our end of the year state testing, CRCT.

Over the course of the school year students will take 7 PARS, which is actually 28 tests (Reading, Math, Science, and Social Studies).  I think the idea of the PARS is great, but for me in Science and Social Studies I have difficulty with going back and reteaching those concepts that were missed.  If I take time and go back and work with students who struggled on a particular standard then that will take time away from the next concept.  Yes, that is right EVERY four weeks the PARS is on different topic!

Overall my students have done well.  There are a handful of students who consistently are on the border of passing or failing, you know the "BUBBLE" kids.

Do you have something similar in your county?  Do you have suggestions for helping those students that need the reteaching, but will also need the new information?  How would you handle this situation?

Our state testing will be in the middle of April, so I've decided to start reviewing now.  We are actually learning NEW topics up until the CRCT.  In fact, last year I didn't finish my Science unit!  We looked at our Earth Science Standards, but I wouldn't say that my students were 100% ready on that topic.

So here is my plan of action...

1. Send home scores of all the current PARS.  We've taken 5 so far.  This will give the parents information as to what students struggled with.

2. Start having daily quizzes with old CRCT questions over the units we've already covered.  So starting with the older topics.  Hopefully, students will see the need for studying, plus will give me an idea what to spend more time on right before the test.

3. Extra homework.  Currently my homework isn't difficult at all.  Here is a video about my CURRENT homework.

You can also read more here, http://lazenbyclass.blogspot.com/2013/09/homework.html and here, http://lazenbyclass.blogspot.com/p/homework.html

The extra homework that I will assign will come from the CRCT Test Practice books for Social Studies.  If there is time, then we will utilize our Science one, too.  Students will be assigned so many questions a night. We will review them in class on Friday and students can keep the books to study with!

At the moment this is all I have.  Now once we are done with our lessons then we will utilize games that I've created for each unit and study.  What do you do to help students get ready for their big test?

Departmentalized Linky

I just want to start by saying that Linky parties are great!  I love being able to link up to other bloggers and share my ideas, but most importantly read their ideas!  I stumbled upon this linky party by chance and I jumped at the chance to read those that had already participated.

Polka Dot Lesson Plans has created a place for departmentalized teachers to share their ideas, tips, and tricks!  I hope that you take the time to check the others out!!

If you're a reader of my blog, you know that I'm going into my 4th year of teaching.  My first year I taught only Science, and there were three other teachers on my team.  My second year I started teaching 5th grade science, but got displaced due to numbers after a month.  I was moved to a third grade classroom and taught ALL subjects!  Then last year I was moved to 5th grade and taught science and social studies.  This will be my first year not moving, yay!  I will also be working with the same two teachers that I worked with last year!  I can personally say that team teaching has MANY benefits and is what I prefer. :)  Here are some reasons why, plus some ideas that I hope will help you out.

1. I have a TEAM of teachers that I can depend on!  We have each others backs in everything that we do, including parent conferences!  **We meet together with every parent.  We've also sat in one room and put parents on speaker phone to have a phone conference!

2. If Jimmy has a problem in my room and not in Teacher 2's room, then we can discuss what is working there and not here.  We can share ideas and help each other about the SAME group of students.

3. I have a team that I can send a student to if I need to cool down. :)  They know without even asking me what the problem is and why that student is there. :)

4. I feel as a teacher that we can each focus on our subject and truly become "Highly Qualified Teachers!"  I teach Science and Social Studies, so I have two to really look at.  However, two is better than four! :)

Tips?

1. Let the students know that you are team, which I read in another linked up blog! :)

2. Follow the same discipline plan.  I blogged about our conduct book, you can click here to read about it.  Students know that the conduct book travels from class to class, so all of the teachers will know what has happened. We have the same rules and same consequences from day one!

3. Set aside time to plan together.  Every week you should sit down and talk about what is going on in your classrooms, plus other events.  Be aware of days that your partner or partners are going to be absent!

4. Speaking of being absent, things happen and someone is going to have a day off that wasn't planned.  Make sure that you know where to find plans for the day, or even emergency sub plans.  It is suggested that you have at least three days worth of emergency plans.

5. Lastly, spend time away from school together.  It is always nice to sit down and relax with friends. :) Make sure you are making time for that.