First Week Feels Scoot

I try my best to get to know my students, let them know I care about them, and that they have a voice in our classroom the first week of school. One way I do this is by finding out how they feel and allow them to express themselves and feelings. We know students can have many different feelings and emotions that first week.

While introducing and explaining our blended learning rotations at the end of the week, I incorporate a First Week Feels Scoot. It has questions for students to respond to about how they are feeling. It gives me a peak into their thoughts of our classroom, school, and tap into their social emotional side. And I love to get them up and moving! Post the scoot around the room and students can go to the questions in any order. There is also a recording sheet you can print front to back or any piece of paper works fine.

I do ask studens to write down their answers on paper for two reasons; as a writing teacher it gives me insight into their strengths, and I want to be able to respond to their thoughts and questions in my own handwriting.  I believe their is power in personalized, handwritten notes and hope to make a connection with them right away.

Grab a copy of First Week Feels Scoot here. Feel free to make it your own.

What activities do you do the first week of school to help you get to know your students?

Bold School- Book Review

I just finished reading Bold School by Weston Kieschnick, and I highly recommend you add it to your summer reading list!! His book is an engaging, fun, and easy read, but one that still leaves you self reflecting and challenging yourself!

I found myself saying YES! and AMEN! over and over as I read Bold School. "Blended" instruction + "Old" school wisdom = BOLD

Blended Learning can be scary and feel overwhelming, but I love how easy he makes it to implement blended learning in your classroom. He begins the book with breaking down the Bold School Framework that will be used with all of the high yield instructional strategies he shares. ALL teachers can benefit from this book!

The Instructional Strategies covered in the book are:

1. Interactive Video Method

2. Questioning/Socratic Seminar

3. Vocabulary Programs- One of my favorite chapters, especially since we are ALL literacy teachers!

4. Direct Instruction

5. Peer Tutoring

6. Concept Mapping

7. Worked Examples

8. Self-Assessment

9. Reciprocal Teaching

10. Problem Solving Teaching

11. Spaced vs Mass Practice 

Each chapter explains the strategy, has real life examples, tips for teachers, questions to make you think and reflect your craft, and Tech tools to move to Blended Learning in your classroom. I love the focus he also puts on rigor and relevance and pushing our students to Quadrant D. 

"Becoming a Blended Learning Master means knowing how to use technologies to move toward academic goals." Kieschnick makes this seem like an easy task and left me feeling empowered to teach others to do the same.

Do yourself and your students a favor

and go read and apply Bold School wisdom to your classroom!

Using Surveys to help you Reflect on Our Year

As another year comes to a close, I like to spend time reflecting on what went well this year and what I can improve, tweak, or change for next year.  

As I reflect on my goals, I also like to gather feedback using surveys from my parents and students. Surveys are a great way to elicit feedback anonymously. 

I always send parents a link to the survey the last month of school asking them for their thoughts on classroom activities, communication, academic learning, flexible seating, and any thoughts they would like to share with me regarding the year and their child.

Since you can't please everyone and some parents think I have the power to make decisions regarding the campus, I analyze the the data and look for trends and areas in which I can improve. 

This year, thanks to Lauren Bohm, I also had my students fill out a survey about my subject area, classroom activities, classroom culture, flexible seating, their feelings, and thoughts. My 4th graders did a great job of expressing themselves, and I loved their honest responses. 

Google Forms and Survey Monkey are both easy ways to create and send surveys for feedback. I love how you can look at results both individually and as a summary. 

The main take away from me from both my parent and student surveys is that building relationships is the most important!!! Which I knew! :) It was the main thing students and parents commented on. Take the time to get to know your students, their interests, and what makes them unique and then find ways to highlight and let them know you remember and care!!

Five Reflections from my 13th year as an educator:

1. Relationships are still Key

2. Writing Celebrations make writing relevant and are fun for students- I will definetly continue this!

3. Classroom community is best created spending time together discussing real world issues and allowing students to share what is happening in their life- MAKE time for it!

4. Blended Learning has transformed my classroom- I also want to improve and work on relevance and rigor of the activites students are completing 

5. Students crave for read alouds and independent reading- Grant this wish for them and allow them time to just READ

Make sure to take time for yourself this summer! Relax and recharge for next year!