Teaching Students - What Does Good Work Look Like? Thursday Throwdown

One thing that I have really struggled with is getting my students to edit their work and to edit the work of their peers.  They want to glance over it and tell me how wonderful it is.  Then they turn it in and the errors are basic and glaring!  Usually sentences started with lowercase words, horribly spelling, run-on sentences galore - you know what I am saying? Right?  Please tell me I am not the only one who has problems with students not able to improve their work.

Well, I may have found the solution!

I ran across this video awhile back, and decided to show it to my students to see what their reaction might be. They were amazed to see what a six year old was capable of as an artist.  I asked them, what things stood out to you?

Their thoughts:

                       "He made six drafts."
                       " He kept working until it got better and better."
                       "He persevered."
                       "His friends helped him to make it better."

My thoughts,
                    "If a first grader could do this couldn't fourth graders?"
                    "Could we translate this to our writing as well?"



 They were up to the challenge.  We decided to add some scientific pictures to our animal reports. Once they learned how to critique each other's drawings (and how to use that feedback to improve) we would use those skills to edit our writing.

Some of the students were clearly inspired by the video to research butterflies.

I was blown away by the amount of care that went into their drawings (some even pulled out their cell phones to match details).  Their feedback was amazing and clear too.  No one said, "It's great." and no one said. "That's awful."  Instead the feedback was clear and direct, "You need to angle this a little more, look at it carefully."  No one took offense to the suggestions (not even my most sensitive souls) - they all reacted by saying things like, "You're right, I'll go try that!"

And they did!

Here are a few other animals in progress:

Sugar gliders

Coyotes

Scorpions

Jaguars

We are still working on the drawings and reports, so I will share more as they progress.  I just wanted to share what happened so far in case it is something you would like to use with your students. 

 I am linking up with Erin at Loving Lit for her monthly Thursday Throw Down.  I get some of the best ideas and inspiration from these posts - I hope you do too!

How to Determine Student's Prior Knowledge

I found this info-graphic and I just had to share!  I love all of these ideas!  I already have used a few of these, but there are definitely a few new to me ideas that I am going to try out!


Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

Tokens For Behavior - Tried It Tuesday

I have been loving learning about all the ideas other teacher's have tried in their classrooms (as I hope you have as well!), so I am linking up again this week with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday.

This year we have a new Vice Principal and she has been FABULOUS!  I may be a slightly bit bias since I worked with her at another school a few years ago, and she did write one of my letter of recommendations for my current position, but really having her at our school this year has been amazing!  When she first started at our school she asked us to complete a survey to see what our concerns and needs were.  What was already working and needed to stay in place thank you very much, and what we desperately wanted to change.  I really loved that she asked our opinion before making widespread changes as can sometimes happen with new admin.  Anyway, one thing we begged to change was school wide behavior.  Most of us had no problems with classroom management INSIDE our own classrooms, but, when the little sweethearts traveled through the school outside of our watch (cafeteria, hallways, bathrooms, recess, etc.) they did not always follow the rules or listen to other teachers or staff.  So, she shared an idea that she had used at our prior school and we agreed to try it, so this is my Tried it Tuesday share:

When students are out and about and caught following the rules a teacher or staff member gives them one of these tokens.  The trick is, we are only allowed to give them to students in classes that are not our own.  The student then brings the token back to the classroom where the teacher keeps them until they accumulate 100 tokens.

She got these tokens at Oriental Trading Company here.

We use this token jar in our classroom (to match this year's Peanuts theme). 

 I have added my own little spin by having the student share with the rest of the class what they did to earn the token.  Some examples might be:

                                      "I was walking quietly in line."

                                      " I cleaned up my place in the cafeteria"

                                      " I picked up trash on the playground without being asked"

I feel like this allows the other students to hear ways that THEY can be caught being good.

We also add some mental math practice by figuring out in our heads how many more tokens we need to get to 100.

When the students reach 100 tokens in a class, the class as a whole earns a special party with the Vice Principal during lunch where they sit at a decorated table and have a special dessert (ice cream, otter pops, hot chocolate, etc).  They also earn 15 extra minutes recess (that the teacher also earns extra time because the VP is taking that duty time! Woo hoo!).

I don't know if this idea would work at your school or not, but I could also see using it in the classroom as a rewards system.  I have seen Brownie Points ideas and this might work in place of that as well.

February 2014 Currently, Big Sales, and Big Giveaways!

Where is this year going?  I can't believe the school year is more than half year and that it is already February and time once again for Farley's Currently!

I think most of these are self-explanatory, but which one of the three things do you think is a fib?  Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see if you were right!

Did you know that Teacher's Notebook is having an amazing sale for SuperBowl Friday??  I have all of the items in my store marked down to celebrate.  I'm not a huge football fan myself, but I do Love a football sale!

(This adorable sales banner is from Teaching in The Tongas and she is having a sale at her store as well.  I LOVE her clip art!)

Teacher's Notebook is also having a HUGE giveaway where they are giving away 40 $25 Gift Cards!

The only thing better than a sale is winning a sweepstakes!

And speaking of Sweepstakes and Giveaways- I have donated one of my favorite items (Kicking It Math Multiplication Facts Fluency)  

for this giant giveaway from Rosie's Rambles and Joy in the Journey!

In addition, I am also hosting a giveaway soon in honor of reaching over 300 followers, if you would like to donate, please complete the form below.

And now, the truths and a fib - the fib is that I was the Student Body President in High School.  I did not start my political career until my 30's and I really am on the City Council in Fernley, NV! I was the youngest person (and the first woman) ever elected :D

5 For Friday January 31, 2014 - With A Freebie!

Can you believe January is already over?  This year is already flying by!  Time for another Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

If you give a 4th grader your cell phone to practice their math facts, they are going to want to take their picture.  And.. if they want to take a picture, you are going to end up with a few of these:

Maybe a book idea?  LOL!  Maybe not, but, I definitely got a laugh out of it when I saw these a few days later!

Last week was Luke's birthday, and we celebrated this weekend with cake at his aunt's, fun at a fun center, Dave and Busters, and shopping at the mall.

Too much fun!

I got happy mail this week with our newest funded project from Donor's Choose.  This project was a class set of How to Steal a Dog.  I love Donor's Choose!  Have you ever submitted a project there?  What did you get?  I am looking for new ideas for my next project.

I am also linking up for Freebie Friday with Teaching Blog Addict.

I have posted a new freebie, this I Have, Who Has, Groundhog themed mental math activity.  You can download it for free at my Teachers Pay Teachers store here or at my Teacher's Notebook store here.

I am super late posting this (it is actually Saturday!) but I have good reason.  I spent most of my night at Urgent Care because Cody has an ear infection and my hubby did this:

He tripped over some weights in our bedroom, and twisted his ankle pretty bad - luckily it is just a bad sprain, and he didn't break anything, but it wasn't a fun way to end the week :(

Don't forget to enter to win an Arc planner from Staples here.  You have a little less than 2 days to enter.  I absolutely love my planner!

And speaking of giveaways...

I am close to 300 followers on Teachers Pay Teachrs, bloglovin' and Teacher's Notebook, so I will be having a celebration giveaway.  I know that participating in other blogger's giveaways has had a big impact on my own follower growth!  In keeping with that, I would also like to collaborate with other bloggers and teacher stores for this giveaway.  If you would like to contribute, please fill out the form below.  As a THANK YOU for contributing, I will be giving everyone who contributes $10 worth of products of your choice from my store.

Get Organized and Keep It Together With The Arc Planner From Staples - GIVEAWAY!

                                                 

I have been working on reorganizing my planner for the new year.  I am always trying to simplify and improve the process. I was tired of spending money on planners with pages that I didn't need or couldn't use.  I also wanted more room for things I did need and different pages.  I decided to make my planner myself for the new year. a combination of pre-printed calendars, printables, and some office supplies from Staples.  I decided to use the Arc Planner from Staples. I love that you can add or delete things as you need.  I was tired of spending money on planners with pages that I didn't need or couldn't use.  I love the fact that I can make this planner work for me!

I also bought the punch so that I could add things that I print out as well.  It was a little pricey (but more cost effective than similar systems), but well worth it in my opinion.

 Here is what is in my binder now:

                                                             

Information Sheet:
When you open up my planner, the first thing that you see is my information sheet.  I took a planner class once, and the instructor said that this is one of the most overlooked but necessary pages in a planner.  If you lose it, how will someone contact you to return it?  I never worried about this before, but after hearing that suggestion, I will never forget to include it! My life is in this planner!

My Daily List


The next page is my Daily List.  I printed this one out from Andrea Dekker because it has space for both my work and home life. I usually keep about one week's worth of these sheets so that I can add items as they come up.  As I finish each task, I highlight it (I don't know why, but the highlighting makes me feel accomplished - don't judge!).  When the day is over I take that day's list out and add any unfinished tasks to the next day's list.

My In/Out Folder -
                                                           

 

My In/Out folder is a place to temporarily store papers.  I bought the pocket dividers and used my label maker to label In and Out. When I get a new piece of paper that I can't deal with right away, I place it in my in folder.  When I need to do something with a piece of paper (mail, file, deliver to the office, or make copies) I stick it in my out folder.

                                                     

     
Calendars
My monthly calendars.

I bought monthly labels similar to these ones so that I could label the months for easy access. I only keep four months at a time in my actual planner, the rest are tucked inside a folder in my file cabinet. This helps keep my binder from being too bulky.  That is one reason that I LOVE the arc, because you can add and delete papers to the planner whenever you want or need too because of these handy rings. I also love the fact that they come in various sizes so you can customize your planner to fit YOUR needs.  I opted for the larger rings because I use my planner for my household, school, and blogging and TpT needs.

Dividers

Behind the calendar, I have five divider tabs for each section of my life basically.

I have them labeled Meals, Household, Blog, School, and TpT.  The beauty of this system is you can label them however you would like to suit your own needs.

Meals

In the meals section I keep my weekly meal plan, grocery shopping list, and recipes for the week if needed.  Again, I really love the flexibility the Arc gives me to add and remove sheets.

Household



Because I am a list person, I also printed out these forms from The Confident Mom for keeping my household tidy. I love that she has both the filled in file and a file that you can customize yourself.  I like some of the suggestions she gives, but not everything applies to me (for example, I only have a one-story house, so cleaning the stairs is not something I need to have on my list).

Blog and TpT

At the beginning of this section I have my monthly blog posts at a glance sheet.  I printed this one from Productive Flourishing.  They have a freebie link for each month.


I also have some sheets that I have printed out from this Blog & Store Organizer for Teachers packet I bought on Teachers Pay Teachers from The Clutter-Free Classroom. These are divided accordingly between the Blog and TpT sections of my planner.

School
I keep just about everything school related in this section from my yearly plan, to our school calendar, to our duty schedule.  I also keep my student's passwords for AR, Study Island, etc. In addition to these items, I have also printed out several printables from The Together Teacher including the Thought Catcher and Meeting Notes. There are also several great articles and ideas for staying organized as a teacher. Even a blog post about the Arc.

Now, that you have made it through this EPIC post, it is time for a



                                                                Giveaway!  

Thanks to the AMAZING people at Staples, you can win an Arc Planner for yourself!  January is a great time to re-evaluate your organizational systems, especially with tax time coming up soon!  Get organized now!

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