Let's Get This Party STARTED! 2016-2017 Beginning of the school year!

So a new year is about to about to begin and I have changed positions.  Although I will miss teaching English, and the grading, I will be a full-time French teacher this year!  Overall I am super enthusiastic about this change.  Instead of teaching 7th grade English, 6th grade Language Arts, 7th grade World Languages, and 8th grade French 1, I will be teaching French 1 to middle schoolers and high schoolers!  I am pumped to have essentially 1 class!!!  The timeline has been a crunch, (I just dropped my stuff off in my classroom today!) but I am stoked anyways.

Now because I do not have the curriculum yet, nor do I know the exact expectations for the class, I am trying to work on classroom routine information that won't change.  Hear are the items I have been working on:

1. My Syllabus

So this year I wanted to do a foldable syllabus.  As I plan to do an interactive notebook this year, I thought that this format would best suit my needs.  I bought a syllabus from  The Marvelous Middle TPT store here.  After looking at this great syllabus, I decided to create my own and take only parts of this one.  I really liked some of her pages and added very little.  I will only be posting pictures of my foldables, as I used some of her wording in my syllabus and don't want to break any laws!  I will give you a blank template though that I created and that you may fill in on your own!  Here are the pages I have in my syllabus:

- Cover (cool design that can be colored in by the students.  Also requires the signature of the parent and the student.  I will be sending home a "quiz" with the student to do with their parent as well to ensure that they have actually read it!

- The Basics: This includes items they need everyday, my contact info, best ways to contact me, order of consequences, and the big NoNo's in my classroom.  (I took most of this from the syllabus I bought).  I added the contact info and the best ways to reach me part.

 - The Curriculum: This page shows students what they will be held responsible for throughout the class and gives a general timeline of the units we will cover in the class.  I changed the format of this, but the idea came from the original syllabus I bought.

- Grade and Work: I changed a lot on this page as my grading this year is mostly proficiency based. (Or I hope it will be!)  Included on this page is: homework/classrwork grading policy. late work policy, vocab quizzes, final assessment, redo info, and classcraft expectations.

- Expectations:  Here I kept a lot from the syllabus I bought.  I added an email etiquette section as this is one of my biggest pet peeves as a teacher.
 
        Here is my Email Etiquette section that I included:

Teacher is not your slave!  She is a professional and should be communicated with as such.  When you send an email to her, please include a subject line with your class hour and name.  Also, remember to include an appropriate greeting and farewell to your email.  Being able to email your teacher is a privilege, please request help; don’t demand it.   If you send an email before 6pm, teacher WILL respond before the end of the day.  Weekends are to be enjoyed by both student and teacher.  Please respect that teacher may be busy on the weekends.  If you email her during the weekend, do not expect a response right away.  If she can, she will respond by 6pm Sunday on most weekends.  Please check your messages to see her response.  Not following these expectations will result in your loss of this privilege and teacher will not correspond with you via email.

- Policies and Procedures Page 1: I kept some parts from the original syllabus I bought.  Including: Entering the classroom, Tardy Policy, Two Minute Countdown, Exiting the Classroom, Getting Teacher Attention, Bathroom/Locker.  I tweeked each of these to fit my needs of course.

- Policies and Procedures Page 2:  Absence expectations, Device expectations, How to earn euros, sub expectations, and the cauldron.

Here is a link to an empty format for you! If you like the font, you will want to download the Villa font here.  And the Disko font here.

2. Classcraft Expectations

I loved using Classcraft last year with my French students!  The kids were participating not only because their participation grade was linked to it, but they also just liked the idea of it!  What started off as a "we'll try it, but it might not work" idea became one of the staples of my French class last year!  So, with my new understanding of the program, I plan to use it again this year at my new school!  Last year I created a poster that had all of my students' names on it as well as all the ways they could earn XP.  When a student earned XP in my class they went and put a tally mark in the correct column next to their name.  After school I would add up their points and then add them to their profile online.  The kids enjoyed putting tally marks on the poster, but eventually I fell behind on adding on the points because the task was a little cumbersome.  So, this year I had 1,000 business cards printed from VistaPrint and each card is worth 50 XP.  I will hand these out to students during class and then they will turn in their cards in a numbered shoe holder.  I will add their points every other day (or so).  These points will be what their participation grade will be linked to.  All students will be required to earn the XP points, but if a student doesn't want to play the game, they don't have to.   I created a Classcraft guide for students...but I just realized that it is still on my school laptop for my other job...  Hopefully the tech guy will come through for me tomorrow and save it off my laptop before it is wiped... if not, I will be recreating it I guess!

3. Purpose of My Euro System:

So with the use of Classcraft, my euro system becomes almost unnecessary, but I love having a class store and I know that the students love it too.  So, this year I will be using euros to pay students for doing a job well done on quizzes and tests, and for completing their classroom job satisfactorily.  I am hoping that this means that the store is a more treasured and that euros will be also be more treasured as they will be hard to come by.  Honestly, I thought of using the Gold pieces on Classcraft instead of euros, but I like that students must hold onto their euros and keep track of them.  It instills a little responsibility!

4. Classroom Jobs

Ok, so I know that a lot of teachers use classroom jobs in their classes.  I have tried it for the last 2 years and I am horrible at keeping up with it!  One major problem I had last year was that I asked students to apply for the jobs.  This was a mistake... the same kids applied every time for the most part, AND I often forgot to remind students to apply for a job.  So, this year I am going to just assign jobs and require that students do their assigned job.  Rather than doing something voluntarily, I will expect all students to pitch in to help my classroom run a little easier.  Here are the jobs I am thinking of using:
1 - Classcraft XP Treasurer: I will have 2 of these and they will be responsible for counting the XP cards in each pocket of the shoe holder.  I know this is a risky move, but my plan is to have them record the number of cards and then leave the cards in the pockets.  I will check random pockets to see if they are reporting correctly and if they are not, they will have a dire consequence!

2 - Class Secretary: This person will be responsible to track the absent students and to fill out the "While You Were Away" slip in my absent binder.  See my Absent form that I use here.

3 - Class Filer:  This person is responsible to get file all work for absent students into the absent binder.

4 - Class Photographer: This person is responsible for taking pictures of all ISN pages and of any fun activities that we do in class.  They can either email the pictures to me or turn them in on our Google Classroom.  I will have my personal camera available to students who don't have a device that can take pictures.

5. Interactive Notebooks

I loved my interactive notebooks that I created in my English classes last year.  My French one didn't actually work out so well.  Honestly I think it failed because I didn't have the same dedication to it as I did in my English classes. (That and there are way more examples of how to use an ISN with the English curriculum than there are in French!).  So one of my major goals this year is to make the ISN work in French class!  I hope to post examples of my ISN pages to this blog and reflect on its use in the WL classroom.

Things I want to include in my ISN:
- Student Proficiency Tracker
- Vocab pages
- Free writes
- Notes
- Stories
- Syllabus
- Bathroom pass
- Weekly Phrase to Know (bell ringer)

I'm not really sure yet how I want to grade these....

6.  Late Work Policy

Okay, last year I had training on standards based grading and one thing that really stuck with me is the idea of late work.  After thinking about it, I really think that a final grade should reflect the student's abilities in my class and not reflect their behavior.  I know that is annoying to have to grade late work, but I after the training from last year and eading a few books, I don't think that students should be penalized for late work (as long as they turn it in).  Now, of course you are going to say, well what about those kids who never turn in their work?  This won't change them!  I agree and I disagree,  I think that the reason a student doesn't turn in work can vary immensely.  Some students might not turn in a late assignment because some late work policies make it impossible to get a good grade on anything that is late, or a student might not turn in an assignment because their dog died the night before and they were too distraught to think about homework.  In the end, I want to know what the student can do.  So, this year, I will have students fill out a missing work log and turn this in at the time the assignment was due.  This will be my signal that there is a missing assignment.  The log will give students a chance to tell me why their assignment is late and what they need in order to get the assignment turned in.  They will also be able to give themselves a new turn in date (reasonable of course).  This paper will be kept by me and if I don't receive the assignment by the new return date then I will have to take matters into my own hands (after school detention, required study hall, etc).  But what about those students who don't ever turn in work?  Well, here is my solution to this,  A student cannot take the final assessment for a unit until they have completed at least 80% of the class/home work.  If a student has not done this, they will work on their missing assignments as the other students take the assessment, and then they will have to come in on an assigned day for a different version of the test.  This second version will not be harder, but it will not be in as nice a format.  For example, the first assessment may have given some suggestions or some sentences starters to help the students complete a written piece, or it gave options on how to present information.  The second version of the test will not have this.  The test will be on the same materials, but it will not be formatted as nicely for the student who has to take the test late.  This will hopefully encourage students to take the test at the same time as the rest of the class!  I made this form as well.. unfortunately I believe it is also on my old school laptop.  I am really hoping the IT guy can help me out!!  If he can, I will post it when I have it  (either I remake it or I get it back!)

Infographic Syllabus!

So after reading a ton of posts about these gorgeous infographic syllabi, I had to try one out for myself!  I stole a lot of ideas from this great blog here.  Thank you to Profe Tauchman for showing off your syllabus as I used your wonderful layout and most of your ideas of what to include!

So here is my new and improved syllabus!  I really like it, and it is interactive!  If you look at the one I have on Piktochart (click here) you can run your mouse over it and find the parts that are interactive!

Starting the year with Interactive Notebooking

First Few Activities for Our ISN

So we are going to start off the 7th grade year by focusing on reading strategies  and elements of narratives.  As I am trying to incorporate as much of the Reading Apprenticeship program into my classroom, the notebook is going to be used to help students come prepared to discuss the skills we are learning.  The left side of the notebook will probably have to be finished at home on some occasions (with only 50 minutes we are limited!)

Week 1 plans:

Day 1 - students are going to discuss and reflect what it means to them to read.  They are going to create a definition of what it means to read.  I plan on keeping these definitions and having them reflect later in the year on their definition.  Students will also be doing a student interest survey and learning about me!

Day 2- We are going to create a class set of norms this day.  I want to focus on what students need to feel safe to make mistakes in a classroom atmosphere.  They will have a reading history assignment to complete as well.

Day 3 - Students will be starting their notebooks today!  My plan is to have at least 20 notebooks and just ask that students bring one in to replace the notebook that I gave them.  Or they can pay me for the notebook as well.  We are going to setup the beginning of our notebooks today.  If you would like to see what I am doing to start the notebooks click here.

Day 4- Students will continue to build their ISN and they will share with a partner their reading history assignment.  On this day, students will have been asked to bring in a text that they think this easy for them, but could be considered hard for others.  I am going to be modeling "Think Alouds" this day with the texts that students bring into class.  The hope is to show students that they are readers and what an experienced reader does to make sense of "outside school" texts.

Week 2 Plans

Day 1- Students are starting their daily grammar warm-ups today.  I use the book here for this.  Students complete the daily exercise on their own and then on Friday we go over the entire packet together and students ask questions about the ones they didn't understand.  They correct their answers as we go along and then the only day I look at is the "Friday" day.  Students will also be doing an activity with pipe cleaners that starts to get them thinking about their thinking.  This is the way I will get them start thinking about their thought process in a non-threatening way.

Day 2- Teacher models read-aloud for class.  As a class, everyone creates a reading strategies list and they fill this out in their ISN.  As homework, students will record their own read-aloud with a common text and post it to our Haiku wiki page and complete the left side of their ISN

Right side of ISN - list of strategies that the class comes up with together

Left side of ISN - student listen to their read aloud and fill in  the table about the strategies they use.  This will also be used for a discussion in class.

Day 3- Students will be introduced to their reading journal today.  They will do their first reading journal and share with their partner to make sure that their journal is meeting the expectations.  In class, students will listen to their partner's read-aloud and will identify at least 2 reading strategies that the speaker used.  The two will come together and discuss what they found and share their answers from their left side of their notebook.

Day 4- Students free read and journal.  Teacher models talking to the text for students with "7th Grade" by Gary Soto.  Students will practice in pairs as well on this.  I will go back and forth with student led TttT and teacher led TttT.  Students will fill out the right side of their ISN during this time.  For homework, students will practice TttT on their own with a short poem (left side).

Left side - students practice TttT and they recognize which types of comments they are making as they TttT

Right side - Students take notes about TttT as the teacher is modeling for the class.

Day 5- Grammar packets are due and are gone over as a class at the beginning of class.  (No free reading and journals on this day!)  Students will be meeting with book groups today to share their journal entries and discuss the books they are currently reading.  When finished, students will meet with their seat partner and discuss their TttT homework and what they marked.  The class will come back at the end and share how we are doing with TttT.

So these are my first 2 weeks of school for 7th grade English.  Coming up:

- QAR

- Narrative Elements with short stories

- Poetry and Figurative Language

Reading Apprenticeship and Interactive Notebook Beginnings

My summer will be filled with reading, planning and moving :)

I am currently reading the book Reading for Understanding by Ruth Schoenbach, et al.  It focuses on the Reading Apprenticeship technique and how to implement it into the classroom.  My school is very big on the reading apprenticeship method and as I read I can understand why.  What I have read so far (I am about half way through) is that this program is about focusing on the process students go through to read, rather than the decoding process.  This has been eye opening for me both as a reader and as a teacher.  As I have been reading this book, I am starting to pay attention to my own reading habits/struggles.  It has already helped me get through parts of the text that were dry or it helped me to build stamina as I needed to reach certain parts of the book to reach my daily reading goal.

I am already trying to find ways to incorporate the 4 main qualities of this method.

Ways I hope to incorporate what I have learned so far:
1) During the first few weeks of school, we will be focusing on creating an awareness of metacognition in each of the students.  They need to see how they make sense of texts and what trips them up and WHY.

2) We will also be building a community in the classroom where students feel secure enough to share their struggles with reading.  As I read, I find that RA relies on the ability of the students to share how they struggle and also how they worked their way through that problem!

3) Create classroom made anchor charts to guide students and to remind them of the topics we have covered as a class.  These anchor charts should also portray the strategies and terms we have learned in the process!

4) Give credit for the process rather than the product.  I really like this idea and I am trying to come up with ways to put the emphasis on the process rather than on the final product,  Students are always graded on their final product, but in these middle level classes, the important part is that they know HOW TO GET TO the final product!  Let's face it, those middle school grades are not as important as the ones they earn in high school or even college.

Along with reading and studying the RA program, I am also researching and working on implementing interactive student notebooks (ISN).  Overall, I am super excited about creating these with the students and hopefully creating a resource for the students!

For English, this is what I have planned out so far:

#1 - Cover sheet - students will create a sheet that has their goals for the year and they will decorate it to reflect themselves.

My example that I created this summer

#2 - Rubric - This will be where students tape in their grading rubric.  The plan is to collect the notebooks once a trimester, but I will be doing random, timed pop quizzes that test the organization and neatness of their notebooks.

#3-5 TOC (I might need more space than this, but I figure we can always tape in more pages)

#6 - Give me 5 page - this will be the student reflection on the course syllabus.  Students will trace their hand and then in each finger they will pick the 5 most important rules/procedures that they found in the syllabus.   They are to decorate and make the hand reflect them as a person as well.

#7 Course Syllabus - taped in! (picture to come)

#8 2 :) and 2 ?'s - I found this idea on this blog http://mrshester.blogspot.com/ (I highly recommend it if you are looking into ISN!)  Students will go over and read the ISN expectations in class (they will also sign it with a parent this is on the next page) and then on this page, they will write 2 parts about the notebook that really excite them and draw a picture to go with it and 2 questions/concerns they have about the notebook and draw a picture to go with each picture.

#9 - ISN expectations contract - This will be a sheet explaining what students are responsible for when it comes to completing their ISN.  The bottom of this sheet will need to be signed by the student and a parent/guardian.

#10 - Books I want to read - I am going to give the students a fun header and then they will use the pages of the book to fill in info on books they hear about or see that they might want to read.

#11 - Reading Log - Students will track the books they read here.  I have an ice cream party at the end of the year for any students who can read 25 books in a year.  Last year this system didn't work out too well and most students forgot to track their books.  With the ISN, I hope to have this be a little easier for me and for the students.  Parents will also have to sign and date to show that they really did read the book.

Other parts I am going to have but I am not sure where to put them:
- Glossary of terms - I saw a great idea about creating a glossary of key terms used in class.  I would like to try this, but at the moment I am not sure how I want to do it.
- Reading journal - Last year I started reading journals and I really enjoyed them.  I would like to do them again this year, but I haven't decided how yet.  Either the students will need a second notebook, or we will need to use a 3 subject notebook to include everything I want to do.
- Word Wall - Students are learning new words all the time, I just don't think they realize how many they are learning!  I would like to have a place in the notebook where students can track new words they find as they are reading!
- Partner sheet - I have created two partner sheets to make pairing students fast and easy, but I am not sure where I want to put this sheet.  I think I want them to tape on the back of the front cover, but I am not sure are this point.
- a Ribbon in the back to be used as a bookmark in the ISN.


At our open house, I plan to have a list of required materials for parents, and I will also have a "wish tree" where parents can pledge to donate needed items so that we hopefully have enough supplies to make this an easy process.  More info to come on my classroom setup and my open house materials!

Now to start planning the lessons and materials to go with the classroom content!!  Have you done ISNs in your classroom?  What worked for you and what didn't?

A Year Finished and a summer to reflect

2014-2015 IS DONE!!!

My second year of teaching is done!  Whew!  This year flew by.  As the last week came up, I couldn't believe that we were done!  I learned a lot this year about myself and about my students.  I wanted to reflect a little on my experiences this year and my goals for the following. (Oh and next year I will be teaching 2 levels of English and 2 different classes of French.. 4 preps... yay....)

English Reflections:
1) I enjoyed teaching English more than I thought I would.  There were even times I preferred it over my French classes (though this had more to do with students than content)
2) There is a lot of pressure on English teachers.  With testing and common core, this was a pressure I was not familiar with.  I'm not sure I did my best in preparing students to continue to 8th grade.  Whee many students did grow substantially in my class, I am not sure I am the reason they grew...
3) Time is not my friend in English class.  I had so much to accomplish and such little time.  I only get 50 minutes a day and by the time the students come in, settle down, free-read and we discuss the agenda, we are lucky if we have 35 minutes left for class/content.
4)  I did not feel as confident in English class on how to help my students.  I had parents and students coming to me to figure out ways to improve reading and writing skills and I found myself floundering in this area.  
5) I LOVED working with students all year and connecting with them during the year.  7th graders are fantastic! :)
6) I worked with a 12 year veteran teacher who has this class down to a science.  This was a pro and a con for me.  Her way of teaching is great, but it didn't always agree with my own.  In the long run I ended up coming up with some of my own materials as I either didn't understand hers or her materials didn't match my students' needs.
7)  Grading in English class is a B*****!  I fell behind so much this year in grading because I was just NOT prepared for the level/amount of grading required in English!  I enjoyed reading my students' work, but I was overwhelmed by the workload!
8)  Organization was a problem for me.  What I thought was a good system, slowly turned to chaos by the end of the year. (Funny part is when I asked my students what they liked about my class, my students told me they enjoyed how "organized" I was. LOL!)
9)  In the end of second trimester I started to have my students complete reading journals.  These were great!  I loved reading what students were thinking about while they read their books!  Grading them was not fun, but I did enjoy reading and responding to their entries.  

Goals for English next year:
1) Figure out a system where I can check in on students who struggle on a one-to-one basis.  This was difficult to do last year and I feel that this is very important.
2) Figure out a way to group students and keep track of their competencies in reading.  Maybe doing book talks of some sort where students are grouped based on similar needs.
3) Research how to teach reading and writing to middle school students!  I need more resources and help on this!
4) I would like to try an interactive notebook next year.. It is what I am currently working on!


French Reflections:
This was a tough year for me in French.  My students were fun but not studious.  This may be partially my fault, as I made their explore class in 7th grade "fun" and I think I attracted students who wanted to have "fun".  Don't get me wrong, I loved my students and they were a blast, but they also had a hard time focusing and getting to work.  By the end of the year I was essentially handing out notes and covering each topic for a day and then moving on as we had run out of time! 

 Some new things I tried this year:
1) IPA (Integrated Performance Assessments) - I actually really liked these tests.  They showed students what they could do with the language in real world settings and tested them on all levels (speaking, reading, writing and listening).  The difficult part is that the tests are 3 parts and I didn't have the time to keep doing them.  I did 2 of these and then went back to my original exams (mostly writing and listening).  I honestly ran out of steam to make these exams and to keep making new materials (as I was doing this in English as well!)  The other problem I had with IPAs is that our final exams don't match the purpose of the IPA.  The final is all multiple choice with little to do with true proficiency and the IPAs are completely proficiency based.  This divide gave me problems as my students were still responsible to take the exams and do well...
2) Student jobs - These were great at the beginning of the year!  I loved them and so did the kiddos!  In the long run I made the timeline too time consuming.  Students were only in a post for 2 weeks.  Next year I am going to bring them back, but have the students in each position for a month.  Less work for me and for the students!
3) Going Paperless- With every student having an iPad, I thought it would be great to go paperless this year.  Yeah... that ended up being a pain in the a**!  Students wanted paper copies, the internet would have issues, some students wouldn't have their iPad or it would be dead (French is at the end of the day).  In the long run, I ended up just giving paper copies of everything and then just posting the copies on our online learning management system (Haiku).
4) Extra Copies Binder - This is a must have for next year and I will continue it until our world goes paperless! :)


Goals for Next Year:
1) As we don't use the textbook much in class, I would like to create an interactive notebook for my students next year.  I want to do it in English as well, so this might be more of an undertaking than I can handle... but I want to try!
2)  I would like to get more IPAs going for next year and possibly talk the high school teacher into changing the final exams to better fit the IPA format.
3) Stay on schedule.  Although I want to give the students as much time as they need, this is unrealistic!  I need to create a schedule and stick to it from the beginning.

General Musings about me as a teacher:

I learned a lot about myself as a teacher this year.
1) I act tough, but when it comes time to bring down the hammer, I tend to be nicer than I should!  I let students get away with too much this year, and I forgave them where others would not have.  I need to be stricter from the beginning of the year and stick to my expectations!

2) I need to spend time on myself.  Most nights I would come home to work on school work for the majority of my night and then get ready for bed and repeat... This did not go well... My husband was very understanding and supportive, but I was burnt out most of the time and did not do my best...

3) Parent contact is my least favorite part of the job.  I need to force myself to do this!  Several situations may have been avoided if I had just called home in the first place!

4) Grading is a pain... I need to really be selective about what I collect to grade.  Sometimes I collected items and never really looked at them... Is this a waste of time for me and the students.. on that, I am still not sure.

5) ORGANIZATION is a must!  I need to come up with a better system for next year!  I lost papers, calendars, quizzes and so much more this year!  I was about ready to cry by the end of the year!  Lucky for me, I won a $300 grant for a classroom makeover and I hope to use some of that money to organize my room!

So my plans for the summer are this:
1) Read several books on reading strategies.
2) Study and plan interactive notebooks for English and French
3) Create IPAs for at least 2 more units in French
4) LEARN THE 6th GRADE CURRICULUM!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you all had a great year!

Year End Review

The end of the year has finally come and I am soooooooooo (maybe a few more o's...) glad it is summer!  I was really blessed this year to have such great students and will miss my 8th graders tremendously next year!  With the end of the year came some great (yet stressful) news!  My principle let me know that I will be offered some English courses next year and this will bring me up to full time!  I am super excited to be full time but also nervous about teaching English classes next year.  I student taught in an English class but have not stayed current on the methodology or the testing that is used in the English classroom...

So this summer I will be researching and working on English materials AS WELL AS perfecting and getting creative with my French materials!

So here is summary of what I really enjoyed about my first year as a French teacher:

1.  The competition versus me and the students to see who could speak more French (I loved the cards they all had to write to me about how great I am because they lost the competition)

2.  TPRS story-telling with the students

3.  BINGO homework (the students hated it, but it really did produce some of their greatest work!)

4.  Oral Proficiency Interviews (mini-OPI's) - Again not a student favorite, but it was great to have an opportunity to just sit and have a conversation with each student in French.

5.  PBL - project based learning - my favorite project had to be the wanted poster project that worked with adjectives, preferences and the verb avoir!  I got some great posters for this project!

6.  Free Writes- giving students 10 minutes to write a story all in French and see the growth in my students!

7.  Freeze Frame - although I only used it once, I LOVED this activity and it really got the students speaking!

8.  End of the year movie trailer project - KIDS LOVED THIS!

9.  Sharing French popular music and having kids tell me they bought French songs on iTunes!

10.  My small class size (won't be small next year....)

11.  Stations - loved having games and differentiation available to my students with station days

With so many great activities and memories from my first year, I also see many places where I need to grow.

1.  I need to focus on quality rather than quantity.  I wanted to try so many new ideas this last year that I often didn't give students enough time to actually benefit from each activity.  Next year I need to whittle down what I do each day and give the students more time to complete activities.

2.  I need to be harder.  I have high expectations for students but I let them get away with too much.  Next year I need to start off harder and stick to my guns so that by the end of the year I don't have so much of a problem.

3.  I need to stick with my classroom management procedures.  I started the year with certain ideas on how I would run my class and then changed those ideas several times when my procedures weren't working out.  Next year I will have my knowledge of my faults and preferences for my classroom procedures and I will need to stick them!

4.  Grading... this year I often got behind and did not keep a regular schedule for grading papers.  I really need to get a system into place and stick with it!

5.  More listening activities!

6.  More culture brought into the lessons.  I don't know that I want to do "themed" units, but I would like to bring in more history and culture into my class with authentic resources!

7.  Give a daily objective to students and do more exit tickets/pop-quizzes to enforce the importance of those daily objectives.

8.  USE MORE TECHNOLOGY!  All students will have iPads next year and I am pumped to find as many ways to utilize these great resources in the classroom!

So here is my goal for the summer.  Each week I would like to blog about one of these goals and how I am progressing in researching and planning for next year.  I will do my best to stay on track and hopefully have a weekly blog!  I also joined a great Google group that will be doing some fantastic sessions this summer and I plan to blog my reflections for each session I attend!  So here's to a summer of blogging and planning (and hopefully house buying!)

 

Open Ended Drama

Photo from http://bit.ly/1jXEHWx

So I have been a little overwhelmed here at the end of the year and have relied on the textbook more than I care to admit.  Of course I can see the engagement in my classes going down and the students getting that "zombie" look on their faces but I just haven't have the energy or time to create authentic and creative lessons.  Last week I told myself I needed to get out of this rut and try something new. We haven't had a story lately and we didn't do much with the reader that we just finished so I wanted spice up my presenting of new vocabulary with story-telling methods So I decided to bring a little drama into the classroom.   .

I had originally planned on creating an entire play for the students to act out and focus on the new vocabulary in the play.  This seemed like a good idea (and still is) if I had the time to do all that!  After realizing that the play was not going to be finished on time I started thinking of what to do.  I didn't want to waste all my work I had put into the play so far and I enjoyed the idea of having the students act out a play instead of just watching an old movie clip from our text or watching me present the new vocabulary.  Then it hit me!  Why does the play have to ended by me?  Why not have the students write their own ending to the play.

The play consisted of a few friends shopping for new clothes (our unit is on clothing and shopping vocabulary).  2 people hated each other and 1 of these two is a real jerk the entire play.  The other 2 liked each other but hadn't acted upon their feelings  The end of the written play leaves the reader saying "what?!" and leaves the story wide open for possibilities.  I didn't want this to be too overwhelming for the students so I separated the class into two groups (about 6-7 students in each group) and told them they must end the story.  I gave them 3 basic plot questions that they had to answer by the end of the play.  When they finished they were required to act out their play for the rest of the group.

Here are my thoughts on the activity:

PROS:

- Students had more fun reading the play and using the new vocabulary in context rather than just me presenting the new vocabulary and then us doing activities to practice it.
- Students were able to get creative and collaborate on the end of the play
- Culture was easy to introduce into the play as I wrote it.  I was able to get a few extra vocabulary words that the book doesn't teach as well as some common phrases that don't translate well from French to English.
- Students were engaged and enjoyed the play
- It had students speaking and reading in French for the majority of the hour

CONS:

- Next time I think I will use smaller groups for creating the endings.  6-7 was too many and not all students were helping with their group's new ending
- The focus on using the new vocabulary was lost when students started to re-write the ending.  Next time I will need to have a set list of words I expect to be used in the ending so that they focus on the key vocabulary.
- I underestimated how much time the students would need for this activity.  They were very much so engaged but they were only given 15 minutes to complete this activity.  To actually get quality endings I would guess the students need double that time.
- I had only one person write out the ending for the entire group, but I think that when we have iPads next year I will have the students create a googledoc and collaborate on the same document.   This way I can see who contributed what to the play.

Overall this activity turned out really well for a last minute lesson plan idea.  I plan to use it again and hopefully embellish and improve it next time.  The students enjoyed it and they were using the language for a creative writing assignment.

La maison et la mort TPRS Story telling

So last week I had one of those days that I left school unable to stop smiling!  I was just so proud of my FRN 1 students!  We are learning rooms of the house and I was at a loss for how to present the new vocabulary.  My first idea was to show a dream floor plan of my "dream" house and then comment on it with the students, but I really wanted to find a way to get the TPRS technique into this presentation.  We haven't had a story in a few weeks and the students have been asking when we would spin a story again.  So I changed up my plan.  I created a Prezi that focused on a "haunted house" and found creepy pictures of all the rooms I was focusing on.  I then put a small jpeg of a goofy/cute little ghost in all the rooms.  So I started out telling the class that we were going to visit/explore a haunted house.  I showed them a picture of the house and had them describe the house (we just finished adjectives).  From there I showed them the first room and the ghost in the room. Of course I hammed it up and pretended that it was really scary and I had one student go along with my acting.  (of course I rewarded this acting with a euro) and when the class saw that I would reward a gasping and scary look on their faces I had the entire class going along with it (so much fun!!!)  Anyways, it was their job to explain what happened in that room to the person (who is now a ghost).  They loved this!  One of their favorite parts of spinning a story is always the ending (deciding if it is a happy, sad, or weird ending).  Our main characters normally meet weird/funny endings.  So coming up with all endings of characters was right up their alley.  Both classes did a good job with this, but one class rocked it out!  They talked completely in French for the entire 50 minute class and the vocabulary they used during the story was amazing!  We ended up spinning the story for the majority of the class instead of doing the other activities I had planned.  Although it wasn't the TPRS method exactly, the students used so much French and their level of engagement was remarkable!  I really enjoyed the class and didn't want it to end!  The students did not focus completely on the rooms but when I went through the rooms and checked for comprehension, the students knew the rooms and could pronounce them and identify them.  They went home with homework of reading two "petites annonces" and using the new vocabulary to decipher what each house had in them.  I LOVED the ghost stories and so did the students!  Although we didn't get the repetition of the target words that we normally get in spinning a story, the students really connected with the stories and the "ghosts" and remembered the vocabulary!  I hope to have more days like this, as they make it all worth it!

New Trimester, New Unit Plan

I am so ready for this trimester to be over!  After so many snow days and poor planning on my part, I am done with trimester 2!  So after feeling quite lost after this last trimester at times, I started going through some of my books from my methods classes to look over methods on planning.  After reading/reviewing some of the methods I felt like quite the dummy.  I have been planning by lesson rather than by unit and I have been lacking on the student objectives.  Using the textbook has proven to be actually hindering rather than a help.  Instead of looking at the big picture and figuring out what I want the students to be able to do at the END of a unit, I have been looking at each individual lesson and not thinking about how they all connect.  To say the least the last unit I did felt haphazard and poorly planned.

To compete against this feeling I made a Unit plan for my next unit.  It has helped immensely!  Although I am using the textbook to guide me, I am looking at the big picture more.  In my unit plan I included the following:

1) The main goals (ACTFL language goals) that I plan to touch on in this unit
2) The standards I will be covering in the unit
3) What the expected/desired outcome for the unit is
4) Progress Indicators (what the students should be able to do)
5) The essential skills and knowledge the students will need to accomplish the desired outcome
6) The assessments I will use in the unit
7) Instructional strategies I will use throughout the unit
8) Resources I think will be helpful/necessary
9) And the Performance Task the students will complete at the end of the unit to show they have acquired the desired outcome for the unit

This plan has really helped my daily lesson planning.  I look back at my unit plan often to make sure that my lessons are meeting my own goals and when I look in the textbook, I can decide what pieces of the textbook are necessary to include and which parts are not that important to accomplish the desired outcome (which is often as my book is poorly designed!!!).  The textbook has been my downfall for the last few units.  I felt I needed to cover all material that was in the book, but I didn't like the order or the way that it presented the material so I got lost in how to present the topics in the order presented.  Having the unit plan is really helping me get-over this "drill and kill" rut I was in for the last unit.  I am looking to the textbook for a general guide of when to teach the necessary skills, but because I have the Unit Plan I can now change things up and introduce skills/vocabulary at a time that makes sense.  I lost sight of the comprehensible input method during this last unit and I want to get back on the horse and really try to get more authentic texts into their hands and provide more opportunities to get the students speaking.

I found a blog about a conversation circle that I might bring into this unit a little farther down the road.  Thanks you to amylenord for this great idea and rubric! (Check out her website!  It is FULL of great resources!!)  I have very small classes this year so this could be a quick conversation activity.  Maybe even a warm-up idea.... hmmm  I really hope this activity will help my students speak more.  They just completed their 2nd Oral Proficiency Interview and the problem I am having with some of my students is that they are very hesitant to answer any questions and to speak in the language still scares/worries them.  I want more natural conversation in my classroom instead of goal driven classroom questions/discussions...


FOLLOW UP on previous post about the competition (I talked about it here on another of my posts).  I had students fill out an Exit Ticket on their thoughts of the competition and I was actually quite surprised.  Where I thought students were not liking the competition, I found that all of my students liked the competition but had a few tweeks that I loved!
Tweeks my students suggested that I have incorporated:
1) Have an emergency escape card- student suggested that they have a certain number of "Emergency" cards that they can use in a class period when they need clarification of something in English.
2)  I win a point if someone asks me how to say a word they should already know - I REALLY LIKE THIS ONE!

The competition is going really well.  I lost the first week (my own mistakes....I kept saying the word "blank" in English...grrr) Students told me (via their Exit Tickets) that they really felt the competition was helping them and that it really pushed them to think about what they were saying and figure out a way to say it in French.  The level of French in my students has sky-rocketed!  I am just amazed at how well they can communicate in the TL when they want to!

Now on to planning and getting my next unit complete.  I will write a post soon about how the unit is progressing and how I am incorporating comprehensible input into my classroom!  Leave any comments or ideas you have!  Thanks for reading!

Teacher vs Students and Bingo Homework

So one of my goals recently has been to get the students to speak completely in French and for myself to speak completely in French everyday.  This is hard for me and the students, but I know we can do it!  So, I started a little competition between myself and the students.  We have one "police officer" in each hour that is responsible for the point giving.  The students get one point if I speak in English and I get a point when they speak in English.  It is really helping me stay in the target language (which is great for comprehensible input) but the students are now just not saying anything....  Yesterday (as we don't have school again today...) I told them that if I ask a question and no one in the class responds then I get a point.  This seemed to make an improvement, but I am not sure if I will keep the competition going.  Any ideas or advice would be welcome!

I like that I am speaking in French the entire class period, but I was hoping this would get the students to speak more French in the classroom.  I am getting into the grammar portions of the class now and I feel as if they are speaking less and less... Hmmm... I am getting frustrated.  Some of my students are accomplishing things I didn't believe a first year student could do, but others are really struggling to keep up.  I am trying my best to keep both sets of students involved and working but I am having difficulty with this.


One way I tried to balance out the levels in my students was to do BINGO homework.  (Download a copy here.)  I made a bingo sheet of homework assignments that focused on the content we are covering at this time.  Each column has a different focus
B - vocabulary practice
I - Reading
N - writing
G - speaking
O - random

The students must do one assignment from each column and the must have a bingo line when finished (loss of 1 point for every assignment outside the bingo line).

I LOVE this assignment because it produces some of the best work out of my students and the assignments are (for the most part) real world situations. The problem I am having with it is that my lower students are not doing the work so they fall farther behind...

I have assigned this 2 ways.
1) I have a due date for each column and check off each column as they turn them in (liked it because I knew students were doing homework and keeping up in the class, but I didn't like it because it took time out of class and required fast grading)
2) I have a due date for the entire bingo sheet and they turn every thing in at one time. (Liked this because it was easier to keep track of all the assignments, but I didn't like it because students left it to the last minute and didn't have any other homework for about a week and a half.)

I want to improve on the assignment, but I'm not really sure how.  Maybe make the bingo sheet smaller or do like a tic tac toe board instead....  Hmmm....

Anyways, things are going well in the classroom.  We are really getting behind though due to all these snow days!  We had a total of 2 days this week!  Crazy huh!? I keep trying to improve my methods and delivery but there are just some days that I feel like I am not going down the right road.  Mais c'est la vie d'un professeur non? :)

Le jeu de la bouteille (Spin the bottle)

Spin the Bottle in Class?  What?!

Photo from http://www.rankopedia.com/CandidatePix/30092.gif

So for my formal observation I had this last week I decided to go for two riskier activities.  This first being Freeze Frame (read about here) and the second being a simple review game that the kids love.  Of course the first time you play the kids are a little weirded out by the fact that you are going to play spin the bottle in class.  You can assure them there will be no kissing or making out in class today though!  

There are two ways you can do this for setup.

1.You make up the commands or questions. (Takes prep time but you are insuring the students are practicing exactly what you want)  Print them out in a large font and then cut each question/command into individual slips of paper.  Fold them up and put them in a container.

2. The students make up the commands or questions. (Takes more time but allows them to get creative and reinforces their writing skills!)  I usually have each student write 2 (but I have unusually small classes) but you could do more (probably no more than 4 though for sake of time)

How to play:

If you had students write their own commands/questions have them put them in the cup/container that goes with their group.  Sometimes I switch the cups up and no group gets their original questions/commands.  The students liked this as they get to see what their classmates wrote.  If you wrote the commands then just have the questions/commands separated equally into the containers before the activity.

Split students into groups of 5-6.  Each group gets a container with questions/commands and a bottle. (I prefer liter or 2-liter pop bottles and Perrier glass bottles)

Have a rule of who goes first.  I usually do birthday or age rules (they then have to discuss in French who has the closest birthday date or age and this reviews numbers and dates!)

Once they have figured out who goes first, that person spins the bottle.  When the bottle stops on someone the spinner takes a question or command and and asks their classmate that the bottle stopped on the question.  The other student must then answer the question in French or complete the action if it is a command.  If the student cannot answer the question or complete the command they can ask their classmates for help (in French).  Every question or command must be completed though!  The person that the bottle landed on gets to spin the bottle if they were able to answer the question or complete the command.  If not, the original spinner must spin again.  Play continues for as long as you would like it to.  I usually only play for about 15 minutes or so depending on how the students are reacting to the game.

Different Versions:

• To practice inviting people to events I had students write out 2 rejections and 1 acceptance.  They put these into the cup and instead of the spinner pulling out a question, the spinner would have to make-up an invitation for the person the bottle stopped on.  That person then pulls out on of the replies and reads it to the spinner.  If it is a rejection the spinner must spin again until they find someone who can go to their activity.  When someone accepts the invite they become the new spinner.
• Prepositions: Have certain props for each group and have students write 2 sentences about where those props could be in the room using prepositions.  The spinner reads one of the slips of paper and puts the prop where the paper is says it is at.  Then the spinner spins the bottle and asks the person where the object is at.  If the person gets it right they get to keep the slip of paper and then spin the bottle.  This is a competition to see who can win the most slips of paper by then end of the game. 
• Commands:  To practice the imperative, have students write funny commands for their classmates and play spin the bottle.  The spinner gets to read the command to the person the bottle lands on and that person must act out whatever the command is.  This could also be done as a competition and have students try to win the slip of paper as they play.
• Truth or Dare + Spin the Bottle:  To mix commands and questions for an overall review you can mix-up these two classic games into one game.  You will need two containers for each group though.  One container to hold commands (the Dare container) and the other to hold questions (The Truth container).  When a bottle lands on a person they get to choose between the two options and try to win their slip of paper.  

Well hope you like these ideas!  I will update the Different Versions section as I come up with more ways to change up this simple game.  If you have any ideas or comments or you try it in your classroom I would love to hear about it!

TPRS Troubles

So TPRS is a fantastic technique that I believe has great merits in the FL classroom.  On the other hand I have been getting bored and frustrated with this technique.  After having talked to my Spanish colleague I figured I would go out of my comfort zone and try to find or makeup activities that could extend the TPRS technique.  Here are some of the issues I was having with the method:

1. I am the one talking for the majority of the class period.  Students will get one or two word phrases for ideas for the story, but for the most part it is me that is talking (Which I know they need to hear the language as much as possible but in a 50 minute class the technique leaves little time for my students to talk after we spin a story together)

2. Students (and myself) are losing interest in the stories and the entire routine.  We have told 10 stories now and it is only half -way through the year!

3.  I have a hard time balancing the stories with the required content.  I get behind in the curriculum content often because we spend 2 or more days on TPRS stuff.  Luckily our stories do have phrases and grammar that show up later in the textbook so it is like front-loading, but I am behind at the moment on where I should be for the my class in the curriculum.

4.  We have pre-written stories and as the class and I spin the story I hate having to direct their story to be more like the written story as this does not really feel like their story in the end.  Also, I think the students are starting to think that it doesn't matter what they suggest for the story telling as I will direct the story a certain way anyways.

With that said, here are the things I really like about the method:

1. The students get to be funny and creative using the language in context.

2. Students get to hear a lot of target language in one class period and it isn't just grammar and new vocabulary the entire class period.

3.  It gives teachers a non-traditional method to do grammar highlights instead of having the students do exercises or worksheets out of a book.

4.  Students get to learn vocabulary that is important/interesting to them by asking for certain words to add to the story.

So after looking online for the knowledge and advice of some TPRS pros I decided to try to come up with an activity that would involve story telling but not have me do any of the speaking. Here is what I came up with:

FREEZE FRAME!

The activity is played as a class (but you could do it in small groups of 5-6).  You pick a random student to be an actor and another student to be the first narrator.  These two students stand in the front of the classroom and begin a story.  The narrator starts telling the story and the actor has to listen and act out whatever the narrator is saying.  (I did a practice run through of this activity in English so that they had an idea of what it would be like in French and this seemed to really help the students understand what was expected of them)  The narrator is required to speak at least 1 full sentence before anyone is allowed to interrupt them.  Why would people interrupt them you ask?  Because as the narrator is telling the story the class is listening and trying to find a way to insert their own ideas into the story.  They do this by calling out "Freeze!" ("Congèlez" en français).  When the student calls out "Freeze" the narrator stops talking and the actor continues to do the action that they were doing last.  The student that calls freeze then comes up to the front of the room and takes the place of the narrator and continues the story adding in new actions/details and the actor must follow along.  I required that every student in the class must be the narrator at least once and that when everyone has been the narrator it is the actor that gets to decide the fate of the story.  As a side note I did offer myself up as a tag-team helper if a narrator got stuck in front of the class and ran out of things to say.  The students were warned though that if a narrator had to tag-team me into the story the entire class would have a pop quiz right after the Freeze Frame activity.  This was just a little motivation for the class to not allow one of their classmates to get stranded up front without anything to say.  If a student came up front and could not put together an entire sentence and was just standing their I would start making my ways towards them to give them the opportunity to tag me in but this usually just spurred the student to get their thoughts in order and say at least one sentence. None of my classes had to tag me in.

My first group of students did a pretty good job with this.  They focused on the vocabulary that we were learning at the time so their story was not as cohesive or as interesting as I was hoping but they did speak all in French for about 15-20 minutes without my help.  My second group of French 1 students though rocked it!  Their story was cohesive and continued smoothly.  They used a lot of other vocabulary instead of what I was aiming for, but I didn't care about that when I had 4 students not using their note cards and just improvising completely in French! (I assigned them homework of writing a few sentences down that could be added to the story on a note card and then they could use that notecard if they needed when they went up to add to the story) This group spoke completely in French for about 30 minutes and really kept the story going!  I was giddy with excitement all the way home that night as I was so proud of my students!

What I liked about the activity:

1. This gives me a chance to hear everyone speak and grade their proficiency level.

2.  Everyone is included in the story telling process.

3.  It requires students to be able to listen and comprehend the story and then think of ways to extend what they are understanding with more details.

4.  It allows some of the more advanced students to push themselves (my improvisers!) but it doesn't put too much pressure on my students with special needs.

If you have questions about this activity or you do it in your classroom I would love to hear about it! I did this activity with a French 1 group about half way through the year but this would be a great activity for more advanced students so that they could practice the different tenses (maybe have signs for the actor to use to show past, present, and future)

Thanks for reading and hope to hear some ideas/feedback/or experiences with this method!

New School + Moving + New job = CRAZINESS!!

So after waiting so impatiently and having a few mental breakdowns, I passed my OPI!  I am now a certified Michigan Teacher!  AHHHHH!!!!  Now that I get to keep my job for sure I am going a little crazy and the nerves are starting to kick in.  I hardly slept last night and I am pretty sure it is because I did nothing to prepare for school.... In good news though my husband also found a job and has already started!  We are going to be way more financially stable this year than we have been in a long time!  Of course to get to the stability part we going to have to go completely broke... but oh well we will survive...I hope.  I am not excited at the fact that we are moving in with my parents for a few months to help us get stabilized... not because I don't love my parents and really appreciate them letting us crash with them for a little, but because I will have an hour commute to work everyday! YUCK!!  At least I get to drive our new car to work!

I had CLEAR training last week and am super stoked to be able to use it for oral tests/assignments.  My goal is to hopefully get a tablet by the end of the year to create more advanced lessons so that I can start looking at what"flipping" is all about.  Of course I'm thinking flipping my classroom might be a little too much my first year, but I figure as a part-timer I might actually have time to make videos, thus giving me a head-start the next year on flipping!

Research on Pinterest has been my thing lately and I have recently found a lot of information on Interactive Notebooks.  I would like to incorporate them into my classroom but I am not sure how to use them at this moment.  I think I am going to take notes on ideas for it throughout the school year and then have one figured out.  My first year students will hopefully be great guinea pigs and I can't wait to try some ideas and get creative!  With my first year and this blog I have one goal; share my best/worst parts of my week every week as a type of reflection on my teaching.

So come along with me on this crazy ride!  I will be learning about TPRS, teaching middle schoolers, and so much more!  Any comments, suggestions, or words of encouragement are welcomed!

- A CERTIFIED MICHIGAN TEACHER!!!! :)

Updated Syllabus Idea

So after having read a French blog (Chez Renée) it gave me the idea of updating my syllabus.  Although I haven't officially taught a class yet, I had my own syllabus for my class during student teaching.  My old syllabus was a standard template with all the necessary information, but to be honest it was just a syllabus.  I hated reading my syllabi in college and I know students probably don't enjoy them much either.  So why not make them look pretty and catch the eye?  So with a little help from Microsoft word and a bunch of clipart, I came up with the syllabus you see below.

New and improved 8th grade French syllabus

3rd page of new Syllabus

Here is the original:

Old and slightly boring syllabus

I am really happy with the change.  Now I just need to show it to my department head to make sure that it is okay and that all my procedures are okay as well in accordance with school rules/expectations.  What you do you think?  Stick with the original or kick it and keep the new and updated version?

TPRS'in it up!

So the school that I was hired into uses TPRS to teach the foreign languages.  Although I have heard about this technique and have wanted to learn how to use it, I do not know a whole lot about it.  I knew that you used stories to teach the target language (TL) and that you spoke in the TL as much as possible.  Other than that I was not sure on how to use it or how to teach with this technique.  So this week I have been doing some research.  Here is what I have found out:

There are 3 phases to the TPRS teaching technique
Phase 1 - Introducing the target words and ESTABLISH MEANING!
   - This is where you use signals and pictures and props to make sure students understand the words you are introducing.  I am excited about this part because it mirrors my own way of teaching the TL.  I love props and signals linked with new vocab!

Phase 2 - STORYTELLING
 - Now this phase is new to me.  You must use the students in your class to act out a story that uses the vocab you just established with the students.  You guide them and coach them through to act out the story as you are telling it.  This seems hard to me but I am excited to see it work and how students react to this.  As a student myself I hated being in front of the class doing goofy things, so I can see that this part will have to be planned well so as not to bring up a student that will not benefit from being an "actor"

Phase 3- READING
  -  Of course this part seems the hardest as I was not taught with this technique.  We read very small passages and exercises from the book, but we never read full out stories.  I didn't get to this level of TL use until I was in college.  Of course it excites me to think that young students can use the language so quickly and apply their understanding of the TL to read a passage and create their own!


Some questions I have about this technique include:
1. How long does the teacher "establish meaning"?
   - This seems to take up a lot of time and I am not sure I understand how to transition from one phase to the next.

2.  Is there room for games and other activities so that students may use and practice the target vocabulary?

3.  Is there a textbook I am following?

4. How do you help students to transition into using all TL in the classroom in the beginning levels?



I am still enjoying my research into TPRS and I can't wait for my instruction on how to use it in the classroom.  At the same time I have some fears that some of my favorite activities and my creativity might get lost in the TPRS technique.  CAN'T WAIT TO GET INTO MY CLASSROOM AND GET MY HANDS ON MY  MATERIALS SO I CAN START PLANNING!

Crafty Beginnings changing to Crafty Teachin'

This past year I have been working as a Title 1 paraprofessional, and honestly I loved it!  Although I was trained to teach either French or English, math has always been a joy of mine and teaching it in the younger grades was inspiring!  But, I still have a passion and love for the French classroom.  So with that in mind I set out to find a job as a French teacher. 

I sparked my passion once again for the French language and applied to several jobs.  One job was closer to home but was only part-time so I thought I had a good shot at it.  I got the call!  After 2 interviews and a sample lesson, I got the job!  I am super excited to start my year off as a French teacher next year!

With that being said my time for craftiness might decrease and my crafts might be more education-directed.  So... I have decided to change up my blog.  I think I am going to blog about crafts AND teaching from now on.  Although I enjoy my crafting and I love to share my ideas, I have found that my teaching ideas have inspired so many others and I want to share.  With a new year as a new teacher, I will begin my blog Crafty Teachin'.  I am super excited to share how my year is going and include any new techniques and ideas I find along the way! 

Stay tuned for my summer planning period as I am going to go education crazy!!!

Classroom Management Ideas: Punch Cards

So our Kindergarten teacher has been our for the last few weeks.  The dean had been planning lessons for the substitute, but she is gone now so we are all at a lost.  I am in the Kindergarten class for an hour everyday and I have been tired of not accomplishing anything these last few weeks since our normal classroom teacher has not been there.  So today I took it upon myself to plan a centers activity.  Each student got a packet that corresponded with the centers and on the front they had an incentive chart.  They had three boxes on the front that a teacher could put a smiley face in if they did a great job.  If a student is not following directions or not listening they lost their front page.  Now the front page is super important to them because each smiley face they received was an entry into the drawing for a "Right-On Ticket".  A bonus was if they filled all three boxes they received 4 entries instead of just 3.  Of course if they lost their front page, they could earn it back, but they had to refocus and get back to work.  It seemed to work really well.  Also, students are getting much better at applauding for their classmates when they win the drawing instead of crying or getting upset if they don't win.  This is a huge step for this group!  We have been doing the drawing now for about a week and it is a real great motivator for the class.  To start this routine, I started with every student having 3 slips of paper and when I thought they deserved to be in the "bucket" I would walk by and put the bucket down in front of them.  Of course if their behavior is not "1st grade ready" I told them I would dump every name into the trash and start all over again.  I only had to do this once and the lesson set in really fast.  I had a FULL bucket and then they just lost control and focus and I waited till everyone's eyes were on me and I dumped every name in the trash.  This was upsetting of course but behavior improved dramatically afterwards.

Now me are moving on to a punch card idea.  Students will get a punch from the teacher/para/adult running each station.  If there is no adult or para to give the punch, students will be given punches based on teacher observation.  I am hoping this discourages students from trying to draw their own smiley faces on their incentive chart.  If this was my class I might make the punch card a part of the whole day.  Have one for the whole day and then make the punch cards worth "class bucks" the students can collect in order to "buy" prizes.  But I am only in the class for an hour so this isn't possible.  I like the punch card idea though a lot that I am thinking of doing something like this for my own classroom in the high school setting (when I find a job).    Except I want to make it like a time card.  Their time card would have a warm up and exit ticket place and they must have it clipped while walking in and clipped while walking out (JUST LIKE A JOB!)

I will post the punch cards and the center papers soon!  Let me know if you have any questions as well!

Cheap But Thoughtful Valentine's Gift

Do you have one of those husbands that has a hard time thinking of date ideas and so you always have to plan the dates?  Welcome to my world...  My husband is a first year teacher and has little time to be creative or romantic, but he has looked in this box for a few hints (not that he has done one yet, but with V-day coming up I am thinking this little box might come in handy for him!)  With Valentine's Day fast approaching I have decided to share this little idea with those that might have agreed to a "cheap" Valentine's day or you just like to give your special someone something with a little thought behind it.

The gift is called a Hint Box.  I found the idea somewhere online last year as I was looking for gifts for my hubby.  I used a card board box I bought from Joann's and covered it with paper and mod podge to make the box pretty. Make your box as flashy or as simple as you like!  (You could also just use a mason jar or something like that to put all your hints into.)  I then took strips of paper and wrote date night ideas on each paper slip.  Some ideas cost little to no money and others would cost a little more.  After I wrote out each idea I folded up the piece of paper and wrote either "free" "$" or "$$" on the outside of the slip.  This way my man could look for a date night that fit our budget at that time.

Here are some of the date night ideas I included:
1.  Free- pack a picnic lunch and have lunch/dinner at the park.  Bring a book (or game) for each of us so that we can finish the date with reading or a game.
2.  Free - Wii night!  Line up an array of Wii games and prepare to have some fun!  Rent games or just use the ones we have!  Make it into a competition with some kind of prize ;)
3.  $$  - Take me to a store and give me $10 to spend in anyway I want (on something I want, not need) and give yourself $10 to spend as well!  Shopping trip!
4.  $$ - For a very special date, write me a love letter and give it to me at dinner at a nice restaurant.  Finish the date off with some flowers.
5. $ - Make a movie night.  Pop some popcorn, buy some movie theater style candy and surprise me with a movie rental!
6. $ - Setup a puzzle and snacks for a fun night were we can snack and talk and puzzle together!
7. Free- Take me to a park with a blanket and a board game and have a game night outside!
8. $ - Surprise me by taking me out to a great ice cream store!
9. $$ - Ice cream sundae night!  Get all the fixings and create an ice cream buffet for us to share!
10. Free- Clean the house and surprise me with a spa day.  Rub my feet, hands, and back with candles burning and soft music going.  Never know how this might end.. ;)

Of course you can always come up with more dates specific to you and your special one.  I love ice cream so it is often featured in my ideas :)  We also love games and puzzles so I included this in my ideas as well.
With the hint box I also created a list of 101 reasons why I love my husband.  I picked 101 because I thought this would challenge me to find very small and specific details... 101 reasons took me awhile but after about a week of really thinking and watching what makes me love this man so much, I came up with 101 reasons!

This gift went over really well and my husband loved it!  I have done the coupon books before but I never stick to them so I thought this was a better twist!  I am hoping to add a few more suggestions this year as part of his V-day gift!