Welcome to week 6 of the Learn Like a Pirate book study with The Primary Gal!
Chapter 6 is about active learning.
What is active learning?
Well, when students are actively doing things in the classroom!
This chapter was chock full of great ideas.
These are just a few of the cool things you could do in your classroom.
One thing about technology though...
Don't just use it to use it! It needs to have a purpose and be the best tool for the job.
This chapter got me very excited for next year-I'm think of ways to have more active learning in my classroom!
There are still some things that I might do 'passively'-I LOVE doing lectures on the American Revolution-and the kids get pretty excited as well because of the fill-in-the-blank foldables (and because I'm bouncing around the room demonstrating (sometimes with their help) acting silly :).
I can also incorporate some 'active' strategies to make this unit even better! (You know, depending on time and testing...this year we didn't have a lot of time to cover it)
Even fitting in one or two active strategies can make a unit/day better!
It's all about reflecting on our school year-and the second part will be about refreshing our teaching for the new year!
Communication
I've been sending home monthly newsletters to the parents (the kids also write in their agendas about the important things) to help keep the parents informed!
I also started out really strong writing positive notes in their agendas for 2-3 kids a week-but it petered out in November/December. I really want to get back to that-maybe maybe make some sort of schedule for me to follow! (This year I had 16 kids-next year will be 22ish! I think I'll definitely need a schedule to keep me on track!) Organization/Classroom Management
Once I got my iPad, I've bee using Evernote to help me track observations-it's come in very handy! (Especially when I have meetings about kiddos or when they switch classes).
I also started using GoNoodle for brain breaks-my 4ths even like to see the champions grow and think the dances are cool. :)
I've had a clip chart for a few years, but this year I really started focusing on the positive side of it. I hope to keep it working next year!
Content
We got a new math program this year, and while I survived and the kids ROCKED their Math MAPs, I didn't feel that I was meeting the needs of all my kiddos. I have some thoughts on how to change that!
I also want to use entrance and exit slips better-they're a great way to get quick info about the kids knowledge. You could use Plickers for this, paper slips or post-its!
Summer Project
This summer I'll be spending a lot of quality time with our math program! From mapping out lessons, I'll be creating entrance and exit slips for each lesson, as well as task cards and videos (I hope!)
I'll also be creating some quick checks for each chapter that can be used as a pre and post assessment.
A photo posted by Smiles & Sunshine (@smilesandsunshineteacher) on
This will hopefully help me run a much smoother math block!
I also want to tackle my manipulative storage again and reorganize the storage in my room. It's starting to look messy again!
It started like this 3 years ago...
and ended like this...
It's definitely not as messy as the first picture, but it's not longer as nice and neat as the second and third! Time to start purging and reorganizing!
Happy Monday! I only have one Monday left with kids (after today), and one Monday without kids! (They took away some of our in-service days to make up time for the kids during the year, but we still have to make them up as teachers.)
Over the summer, I'm planning on making exit slips, quick checks and task cards to go along with our math program. I've started by making task cards for the lessons I'm currently doing!
I had friends come for a visit last week, and we went to a paint night together!
I also did one back with another friend in March-but it's not one of my favorites (I let her pick:) .
I also worked on something for my blog (if I can get it to come out right!).
I crocheted a sun! (You know-for sunshine?! ;)
Now, if only I can crop the white parts out of it...
Even though I have 9.5 (+4 PD) days left until 'summer', I'm already thinking (and reading!) books for next year!
(End of June seems to be really productive for me school-wise-maybe because I have it fresh in my mind what I want to fix and the possibilities are endless?)
It was a nice, easy read, with some very interesting ideas about doing a student-led classroom. I enjoyed it (and took lots of notes!). I'll definitely be trying to incorporate some of the strategies next year!
I'm very interested in having more classroom discussions-and more thoughtful ones at that! I'm hoping this will be a good starting point!
I'll also be doing a reread of Guided Math, which I read for the first time 3 summers ago-and have a series of blog posts because it was a book study with Primary Inspired!
I'm not happy with the way my math block is running (and part of that was learning a new program this year), and don't feel like I'm reaching all the needs of my students.
I'm hoping to do an overhaul for next year, and I think rereading this will help me refocus on what I want to accomplish!
I'm sure that they'll be more books in there-after all, I'm a voracious reader (and wonder why some authors can't write faster so I can have new books! ;)-but those are the three I'm hoping to spend the most time with this summer!
T-20 (with kids) days left (and T-24 until totally done!) I think I can , I think I can, I think I can.
I've been working hard on my Math curriculum maps-it'll be awhile before I'm done!
We also finished our Colonial unit-we've started working on the Revolution. It'll be tight, but I think we'll be able to finish it before the year ends!
It's been a few weeks, but my goal to keep my desk clean is going strong!
A photo posted by Smiles & Sunshine (@smilesandsunshineteacher) on
We've been doing some argument writing in 4th grade (and yes, I know it's not a standard-but my class is pretty awesome :) I'll post about it next week!
Are you going? I'm super excited-only two weeks away!
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