Teacher Evaluation

Anyone else with me that those two words, "teacher evaluation" just get you feeling all the nervous feelings humanly possible? I don't know why it always gets me feeling so nervous, but it does. I've been counting down the days until my first evaluation at my new school. And today it was my day! It went well and usually does and I try to keep in mind that my supervisor is there to help me grow. That she will find things I am doing well and things that I could improve upon. Here are my best tips for staying calm and sane under the evaluation pressure.

1. Prepare: If you are not prepared, you will look scattered and disorganized. Have a plan. Go over your curriculum and have the materials ready, including your lesson plans, copies, and supplies. Lay them out so that you can find them easily and not have to spend time shuffling through piles to get to what you need.

2. Don't wait until the last minute: If you wait until the morning of your evaluation to make copies and get things ready, chances are something will not go wrong....at the least, you will be stressed. You never know when that copier will run out of toner or paper. 

3. Get some rest: Don't burn the midnight oil trying to pull out your most amazing lessons. Plan a strong lesson that showcases your normal classroom routine and get to bed on time. Supervisors seem to know which teachers are merely trying to impress them and pulling out something out of the ordinary in order to do so.

4. Arrive at school early: There's just something about being early that sets me at ease. I do not feel ready when I am walking in just in time or late. I want to go over everything one last time. I want to feel rested and relaxed, not rushed and stressed to start the day.

5. Shine: Stay upbeat and positive. Get into your groove and try to overlook the fact that someone is watching you. The more natural you are, the better. Focus on the kids. It is another school day for them, much like any other. Don't let them sense your discomfort. Bring it for them!

So there you have it, five tips for feeling better when your evaluation day comes up.

Camp Share-a-Story

Imagine walking into your classroom. The windows have been covered and it is dark. There's a campfire in the middle of the room and tree trunk seat spots circling it. There is a camp chair and lights and a lantern. Woodland animals are watching from nearby. This is the spot where you will share your first story of the year in an author's celebration. On Friday, my class experienced just this. We called it, Camp Share-a-Story and it was amazing. From the moment the students saw the sign posted on our door and noticed the blackened windows, before they could even step a foot inside, there was excitement outside. And it was brewing as they waited to go in. 

Creating a magical environment in which to share our first stories of the year, was such a fun way to celebrate the learning that we have done. It is one moment that will stick with these students for years when they think back on all they learned and did in second grade. Here's a look at what we did throughout the day to create the magic.

First, we shared our original stories. Afterwards, we celebrated with s'mores pops. We spent time reading books from our book boxes at our campsite with flashlights and headlamps. After lunch, we went on a trail in our woods and did a scavenger hunt. You can find the one we used over here. When we came back from the woods, we used the nature we had collected to create artwork. 

T'was the Week Before Thanksgiving

The week before Thanksgiving can be an incredibly crazy time. The students are getting restless and ready for a break, and well, let's face it...the same happens to teachers as well. I've been thinking about ways to make this last week fun while keeping the learning going. How can I keep my classroom engaged? 

One of the things I have been doing for morning meeting this month during morning meeting's sharing time is to list the things we are thankful for. We are writing them on a pumpkin. Once we arrive at the end of the month, I have other plans for this pumpkin.

I have also been working hard to create some activities that can keep the students engaged. I've created lots of writing forms from letter writing to would you rather paragraphs. From writing poems to writing essays. I've focused on two Thanksgiving themed books that I can use this week. Balloons over Broadway is the perfect book to use for many different activities. You can find it on Amazon here  or on Youtube as a read-a-loud.

I've included some comprehension sheets and step-by-step directions to help your students create their own parade balloon.

The other book I have chosen to focus on is called Thanksgiving in the White House. You can find it on Amazon here or as a read-a-loud on Youtube. It is about a turkey that was pardoned by President Lincoln himself. 

To go along with this book, I have created comprehension sheets, a cookie making activity, turkey pardoning simulation, and a loaded bag of thankfulness activity. It is aligned with Common Core standards. You can see it all here. 

Give Thanks Loaded Bag

Loaded bag in color or black line

If you are struggling to find the time to create activities to bring in the season of Thanksgiving, I suggest you check out this activity pack. 

Making Magic Happen

Creating magic in the classroom does not have to take a lot. You can use what you have. I literally raided my garage to find some things from years past to create a special transformation for tomorrow. One of the things I wanted to put up, I could not even find...now I am wondering if I threw it out...and I am kicking myself over it just in case....

So we are ready for our first author's celebration and I wanted to make it special by creating an experience for my seconds. I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag yet, but maybe you can figure it out by looking at some picture clues. 

Can't wait to create a magical moment in my classroom. I'll be back to share the details of our day. What do you do to engage your students?

Pencils are Magical

Sometimes the simplest things make such a huge impact in the classroom. My class, like most,  does not like to clean up at the end of the day. Sometimes it takes so long that we end up leaving the classroom too late. One day, on the spur of the moment, an idea came to me. We have classroom supplies, and not individual supplies. We have lots of plain pencils, by no fun pencils. However, I have a stockpile of fun pencils from previous years that are just waiting to be put to good use. And so, I told the class that the group that cleaned up quickest (floor, projects, work, and table) would receive newly sharpened FUN pencils. I have never seen those students move so fast or be so thorough at cleanup time. Within about two minutes, everything was pretty much spotless and my first winning team, all smiles, was awarded the pencils to use the next day. 

Throughout the rest of the week, those pencils were switched off each day...or they could be kept by the defending team. Whichever team was the quickest to clean up got the pencils the next day. Cleanup time went from a drudgery to an exciting game where teams now work together to get it done! After a week or two, I introduced a new set of pencils and that sparked more excitement.

If you don't have a pencil stash, might I suggest the dollar spot at Target or Dollar Tree. Usually you can get a pack of 12 pencils for about a buck. My groups only have 4-5 students so I can use those packs more than once throughout the year. 

If you want some more cleaning solutions, check out my Making Cleaning Fun post over here. Make cleaning fun, ya'll!

Ultimate Engagement with Kahoot

I knew that Kahoot would be one of those things that my students would absolutely LOVE! It was chaotic in a good way, if that is even possible. My students could not contain themselves. They were just beyond excited the whole time. I am just starting to get over laryngitis and it was so difficult to be heard. I finally had to bring back the silent celebration we have used before instead of cheering wildly each time an answer is revealed. 

So here's 4 of my takeaways:

1: First, we will definitely do this again...and again...and again. They just loved it that much and it can be used for any subject area. I could see us doing it at least a time or two every month.
2: There is not a huge investment in time to set this up. It is super easy to type in some questions and possible answers. You can save your Kahoot games to use from year to year, so once they are done you will be able to reuse them in future years.
3: Some kids may not be able to handle the disappointment and competitiveness of this game. There can be some problems with some technology not working fast enough (that really upset one of my competitive students) and when a student does not win, that could set them off as well. I would still do it again, even with those challenges, but I think that if I had some students who could not handle those situations in a positive way, we would definitely need to do some prep work together about how to handle those situations that are sure to arise. 
4: It will take a while to set the students up on IPADS if you teach primary grades. My students needed help finding the website and some needed help with entering the code. They did like that they can choose a nickname to go by and they were super creative with that and enjoyed their new names.

As a side note, I did give a prize to the student who had the top score. I do not have a prize box, so I just had that student choose one of the flex seats that we have in the common area outside of our classroom and that seat became theirs for the day...BIG HIT!

So there you have it! If you want to try it out for yourself, sign up for a free account here. 

Kahoot!

This weekend we played Kahoot at an evening program for our church. It got me thinking about how fun it would be to use in the classroom. This year we have 1:1 IPADS and so it is possible for us to play as a class. I just set up for first game, a math one. Can't wait to surprise my class with this engaging way to review what we have learned this year so far in math. Have you ever used Kahoot in your class? I will check back in tomorrow night to tell you how it all went. Stay tuned! If you want to create a game of your own (over any topic) for your own class follow this link. For now, I will leave you with this great reminder. 

How will you create happiness in your classroom tomorrow?