Open House Idea

I know many schools run an Open House Night for students, and that each school has a different definition of what Open House really means.

At my school, Open House Night means the teachers stand outside their doors and greet students and parents as they come by to see where their classes are.  We also help direct people to the right locations and assist with locker problems.  There is no specific plan or order to where the students/parents go and we aren't expected to sit down with anyone and "talk shop."  I think it would best be called a Meet and Greet night.

I came up with an idea for this year's Open House Night: I created magnets with my email, webpage, and directions for setting up Remind101.  The magnets were made using simple print-your-own business cards.

I hot-glued little round magnets (which I found at Walmart) to the backs after printing and tearing out the cards.

I would upload a picture for you, but my information is on them.  Sorry everyone!

They were a great little something to give the parents and students as I introduced myself.  One parent said that he could tell I'd been teaching a while.  I'm not sure if it was my confidence in introducing myself or the fact that I had created contact information cards.  Most parents flew right past me and stuck their heads in my door.  When I would go up to say hi, they would be startled and tell me they thought I was a student.  Looking young is going to be great for me when I'm sixty!

So if you are looking for a great way to impress people at Open House Night, think about creating your own contact cards.  They are super easy to make and are fairly cheap (100 business cards cost $13.00 and the magnets cost $5.36 for 50, so about $11 for 100).  Less than $25 for 100 contact cards; I have about 100 students and not all of my students took a card, so I'll have some left over for next year.

At less than 25 cents per card, it's much cheaper than having someone else make them for you.  They might look fancier, but the cards below, created by Purple Trail, cost .67 a piece!

Anyone else do something neat for Back to School or Open House Night?

Creating a Virtual Classroom Library

I have loved moving into the newly renovated school and having my new, beautiful room.  I will upload pictures to show you my classroom tomorrow.  One negative of being in a new building is that we aren't allowed to bring in any furniture.  As in, I'm not allowed to bring in my own bookcases that I bought at Target a few years ago.  They are nice; they are still new looking.  There's nothing wrong with them.  But the powers that be have said no.  Because of this, I can't bring in my classroom library.

For a while, this really, really bothered me.  I think it is VERY important that my students have access to books.  Students don't get better at reading without reading and they can't read without BOOKS.

I have found a way around the entire problem though (I think).  I found this program that will allow me to scan in my books using my MacBook's built-in camera.  It will visually show up on a virtual bookcase and, using Amazon, give me the price, a synopsis, basic info on the book (like page numbers), and the ability to check out the book to people on my contacts list.  The program is called Delicious Library and version 2.0 is only $10!  It is only available through Apple products, though.

I set up my actual bookshelves in my office with the books and I turned my list of books from the program into a PDF file that I uploaded to my classroom website.  This way students can see my virtual library.  I can electronically keep track of which student has which of my books.  I can even (supposedly) publish the entire thing to a website, but I haven't figured that part out yet as I am not technically inclined.

This way, I can still allow my students access to my books without having "clutter" in my classroom.  I'm hoping it will be a win-win.  I plan to give book talks about a few of the titles every few weeks so that my students remember that I do have books available for them to check out.  I also plan to make a poster to hang on my bulletin board that will highlight a few titles I think they will like.

Here's an image of part of the library:

How cool is it?  Any suggestions for me as I try the virtual classroom library?  I could take any help I can get!  Also, if you use this product and know how to publish to a website using v2, let me know.  I've gotten as far as putting it in a folder on my laptop.  I don't know how to do anything other than that!

Bringing Your Lunch

There's nothing like a teacher during lunch...racing around trying to make copies while simultaneously heating up your meal then running to the lunch room to eat and barely having time to hit the restroom before those twenty minutes are up.

When I first started teaching, I was naive and though that it would be easier to eat the school lunch.  WRONG.  First, it tastes awful--at least it does at my school, anyway.  They must not be allowed to season any of the food and I'm not just asking for salt here.  I'd be okay with some Mrs. Dash!  Second, I always have to elbow my way past a bunch of teenagers to get through the line.  As a teacher, I don't have to wait in line, but I feel like such a jerk cutting in front of the kids.  Third, whatever I make at home just HAS to be better than whatever mystery, overly-processed junk they serve.

To make my life easier, I've bought a few tried and true products that I absolutely need in order to have my lunch and eat it too.

This one is obvious--a lunch box/bag.  I like the ones by Built because they have such cute designs and they are made of this super-easy-to-wash material.  Everyone always thinks mine is a purse.  I must admit, I have two lunch bags--one for my breakfast and snack and one for my lunch.

And these little babies are snack sleeves.  They are reusable ziploc baggies.  They are made of the same neoprene food-safe polyethyline vinyl acetate material as the Built lunch bags and close with velcro.  I wouldn't recommend using them for long-term storage of your food, but to pack your lunch they are perfect.

I like these ice mats much better than the hard plastic ice packs that some stores carry.  These are less likely to squish my food.  Since the teacher's lounge with a fridge is fairly far away and I don't want to waste any of my precious twenty minutes with walking halfway across the building, I use these to keep certain lunch items cold.  We aren't allowed to have mini-fridges at my school.

I love storing my food in glass, as there is no chance of chemical leaking when I heat up my food in the microwave.  These are Pyrex brand and I love mine.  Just remember to be careful when removing these after being heated; they can get really hot!  I've had mine for at least five years now and they are great and don't leak.

Even though my Pyrex dishes don't leak, I don't take a chance if I'm bringing soup or stew to work.  Instead, I use a microwave-safe Thermos.  They are awesome.

I don't actually have one of these, but I saw them at the store and really, really wanted one.  If anyone uses these, let me know what you think!  It's cool that it comes with a spoon/fork (not a spork, those are different) and the thing is collapsible, which is great for saving space in my cabinets.  And I am big on my food not touching.  If I knew for certain this would fit into my lunch box, I'd already own it.

I must also admit that I keep a box of plastic spoons in my desk drawer. I don't know how many times I have brought some yogurt or pudding for a snack or as part of my lunch and then realized that I had completely forgotten a spoon.  It's so annoying!  Because I had done this way more often than I am comfortable admitting, I bought a box of spoons to keep at school just in case.

I am in love with my Tervis.  I own two and I keep them at school.  I fill them up at the beginning of the day and try to drink both of them by the end of the school day.  It keeps me hydrated.  Both of mine have my college and grad school (respectively) on them, but I thought this bird one was so cute, I had to pull it to use in my post.  Oh, and I made sure to buy the straws too.  It was very much worth it.  I am a notorious klutz and spilling would happen without straws.






I have loved bringing my lunches (and breakfasts and snacks) to school.  It keeps me eating healthier, it makes it easier for me to count my calories, and it tastes better.  If you have something you use that makes taking your lunches to work easier, let me know.  I'm always ready to use new ideas!

Planning My First Unit of the Year

Planning is hard.  It takes a long time, but doing all the work up front keeps you from running around like a chicken with its head cut off later on.  And trust me, you do NOT want that!

I always start my planning by listing my units, typically on a piece of paper.  Then, I look at how long those units typically take.  For new teachers, you are going to have to guess on this one or ask a colleague.  Always leave a few days as leeway--you never know when you're going to have a snow day, an unexpected pep rally, or you may just take longer on a particular lesson one day.

Once you know how many days each unit is going to take, you can make a rough pacing guide.  I had been using a calendar and I would just write the dates on the piece of paper next to my list of units, but then I read Stephanie's post at Eat.Write.Teach and I loved how much prettier it looked!

I had to try it of course:

This is just a rough draft of my first semester in one of my classes, but now I know about how long everything should take.  Now that I know this, I need to break down each of my units.  I usually take this one unit at a time, as this part is the most time consuming.

First, I list all of the skills I plan to cover in the unit.  Based on this list, I can create my Big Idea and my essential questions.

Then I list all the activities I do in the unit (or plan to do).  For example, in my first unit, I plan to: teach the plot chart and the terms my students should know regarding short stories (characterization, setting, point of view...); read Contents of a Dead Man's Pockets, The Leap, The Bass The River and Sheila Mant, The Pedestrian; plot chart a movie and a short story; analyze point of view; use textual support to answer questions over the stories; use context clues to figure out unknown words and make inferences; analyze author's choice in terms of pov, words, character actions, etc.

Finally, and this is where my philosophy regarding grading kicks in, I put it all together and make sure I'm adequately giving my students a chance to practice and have plenty of formative feedback.  Here's what that sheet looks like:

Let me explain the method to this madness!  Using my pacing guide, I plug in all the classwork, homework, quizzes, and tests I plan to give for the unit into a calendar.  I just make a table in Word.  Then, I color code it.  Blue is classwork or homework; Green is a formative assessment; red is the test.

I add up the points and then I list how it would be entered in my gradebook.  Yes, you will notice that even though one activity is listed as a formative assessment, I enter it as a classwork grade and not a quiz.  This is a philosophy of mine: not all formative assessments are quizzes.  Sometimes I just need to know where a kid is at in a particular unit and I don't want to count it as a quiz in the gradebook.

I set up my gradebook with 20% of the grade going towards classwork (aka practice); 20% going toward quizzes (aka What do you know right now?); and 60% going toward tests (aka You should know this now).  For each unit, though, I will have more classwork than what is listed in this chart.  That's because I grade things like bell ringers, articles of the week, and other in-class writing and participation that doesn't necessarily fall into the skills I am teaching for the unit.

But back to the chart.  I then list the Big Idea and essential questions.  Then I list the learning targets I have for the unit.  Finally I list how I plan to get the students there.  It ensures I don't accidentally leave out a skill I *thought* I was teaching.

I've only done this for a few of my units, as I started this process late last year.  I want to wait to finish it as I have a student teacher this year and I want her to walk through the process with me as she will be helping me teach my classes.

I feel like this post was more rambling than helpful.  If you got through this whole thing and need me to explain anything, please ask!  It makes sense in my mind, but I'm not sure if it will make sense to anyone else.