I know the “rules” anchor charts are best made with students. It gives context when referring to the charts and provides students with ownership. I get it, but it wasn’t working for me. I didn’t want to sacrifice my students’ attention by breaking the momentum of my lesson to add to my anchor chart.

Plus, if I made them with my students, I’d have to do it twice, since I teach two groups of students. Chart paper gets expensive!

I found myself recreating everything at the end of the day. This was time-consuming and felt wasteful. I knew I had to find a way to simplify.

That’s exactly why I created this set of third and fourth grade math anchor charts—to save time, support instruction, and give students a go-to reference that students actually use. I speak from years of experience-they used these charts.

If you’re looking to upgrade your math visuals without spending hours at the easel, here’s why these anchor charts are about to become your new favorite classroom tool.

✅ 1. Covers Every Standard—Without the Stress

No more wondering if you’ve covered it all. These charts are aligned to every 3rd grade and 4th grade math standard. From operations and algebraic thinking to geometry, fractions, measurement, and base ten, every major topic is clearly laid out with age-appropriate language and visuals.

✅ 2. Print-and-Go Convenience

Forget about the markers and chart paper. These charts are designed to be ready when you are.

You get two size options for every standard:

• Large Posters (18×24) – Great for whole-class lessons. Print on 6 standard pages and tape them together or send them to a low-cost poster printer.

• Small Posters (8.5×11) – Perfect for math folders, stations, or one-on-one support.

✅ 3. Supports Visual Learners & Struggling Students

Let’s face it—math can be abstract. That’s where visuals become your best friend.

These anchor charts are clean, consistent, and easy to read. Students with reading challenges, visual processing issues, or attention difficulties benefit from seeing clear text, bold headers, and structured layouts they can return to over and over again.

✅ 4. Creates a Cohesive, Polished Math Environment

There’s something powerful about a classroom that looks put together. These anchor charts give your room that unified, intentional look—which not only helps you stay organized but also signals to students that math matters.

It’s a small change that makes a big impact.

Ready to Simplify Your Math Instruction?

These math anchor charts are the kind of resource you’ll use every day. And best of all? Once you print them, you’re set for years to come.

Click on what you need to grab your set now and give your students the consistent support they need to succeed in math.

3rd Grade Math Anchor Charts

4th Grade Math Anchor Charts

I had a lot of request for other subjects, so here’s more of what you may need!

Reading Anchor Charts

Social Studies Anchor Charts

Science Anchor Charts

Let’s make math visual, accessible, and a whole lot easier—for everyone.

The post My Math Anchor Chart Hack appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

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I image you only see this on days that end in Y. (My students never get that joke.)

This is a common problem in the classroom, and it appears to be getting worse. While I don’t think we can ever completely eliminate this lack of listening and following directions, there are steps we can take to help students become more independent.

I post this chart in my classroom, but I don’t stop at hanging it up. We discuss and practice each strategy. Then, I refer to it when students ask questions that indicate learned helplessness or lack of initiative. I don’t do this because I don’t want to help students or to prove a point. I do it to support students in becoming independent and confident in their ability to problem solve-not just academically but in day-to-day life.

Read the Room

Reading the room is a social skill that helps students understand the dynamics of a situation and adjust their behavior to fit in to those dynamics. It includes observing classmates body language, conversations, and the general atmosphere.

You can help students practice reading the room by creating scenarios for groups of students to act out-taking a test, playing a game, independent reading, etc. Have the audience (who doesn’t know the scenario) explain what they should do if they entered the classroom without hearing directions or knowing exactly what was going on.

You can also help students individually. For example, if you have a student who struggles with this instead of telling them what to do, quietly guide them into leading questions on reading the room.

I like to use the following for practice reading the room. In one example students are given scenarios and describe how they would read the room. In the other example, I display popular memes and have students describe what the facial expressions communicate.

You can download the practice activities here.

Look at Charts

Using charts can help with both academics and procedures. Almost everything in my classroom serves a purpose and is intentionally displayed.

Of course not all questions can be answered by these charts, but they do give students a good starting place. Many times if students see an example, their memory is activated.

A lot of times most of what is display in my classroom is based upon my students’ most frequent questions or areas of confusion. Let their needs guide you.

Look at the Screen

I like to display detailed directions on my big classroom screen. This can be something as simple as Google Slides, or you can get fancy with something like Classroom Screens.

I haven’t fully learned Classroom Screen, so I can share about it as an expert. I’m still in the learning phase!

Read the directions

It sounds simple, but it’s often skipped. The primary way I teach this is to redirect students when they ask a question with easily accessible directions. Rather than giving the answer, I direct students to where the answer to the question is located. This is typically more time consuming that giving students what they need, but we need to think big picture.

It’s important to remember that there are situations where the student may not be able to read the directions, or when students truly don’t understand the directions. That’s a different situation and will likely need modifications that will depend on the individual. Some may benefit from visual checklists, nonverbal cues, and other scaffolded resources.

Hopefully these ideas help you and your students out!

The post Solving “I Don’t Know What To Do” appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Do you ever wonder what 4th graders should know or be able to do? Changing grade levels is difficult. I still remember crying my eyes out the first time I had to change grade levels. It was devastating! It’s hard to sort through years worth of blog posts, resources, and articles to find just what you need to get started. I know how much of a challenge it can be when you’re new to teaching 4th grade, so I’ve written this post to help get you started. Even if you’ve been a fourth grade teacher for awhile, you’ll probably find something useful!

If you’re looking for a similar post for third grade teacher look here!

Classroom Set Up

If you’re a new(er) teacher, you can feel pressured to go out and create a designer classroom. That’s not necessary. At all.

The priority should be organizing, not decorating, your classroom. Of course, I’m not saying that having a cute or decorated classroom is a bad thing. I spend more awake time in my classroom than anywhere else, so I want an environment that makes me comfortable and happy.

But, you don’t need to go out and spend lots of money creating a Pinterest classroom.  Make sure your room is clean, not too busy or distracting, and organized.

You can see my classroom here! You can read more about organizing your classroom here.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Pacing Guides

It’s important to begin the year with a plan. Of course it’s necessary to keep in mind that it’s just a guide, not rules that are set in stone. Below are my reading and math pacing guides for teachers new to teaching 4th grade. You can download example fourth grade pacing guides here. If you want to map out the year on your own, you may enjoy this blog post on Planning For The Year. Either way, it’s a great format to what 4th graders should know.

COVID and distance learning has changed so many things for teachers. It’s incredibly hard to know how to get started when you don’t know what you’re planning for. It’s next to impossible to determine what 4th graders should know if their time in the younger graders was limited. To provide even more support, I’ve shared a First 30 Days for reading and math. What makes this plan special is that it can be used for in-class instruction, distance learning, or a combination of both. You can find that post here.

Fourth Grade Morning Work

A good morning work routine is one of the most important parts of the day. It’s also a great way to continuously review what 4th graders should know. It sets your pace and allows students to feel organized and prepared. This post shares some of my favorite ideas for morning work. It also mentions how to incorporate a soft start to your day. This morning work activity reviews all major content that 4th graders should know by the end of the school year.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Reading

After years of blogging, there is simply no way to narrow down all of my reading and writing blog posts to just one! However, I was able to whittle it down to just a few. Keep in mind, all of these lessons are available as a print and digital resource.

Reading Workshop-In this post you can get a good overview of what should happen during reading workshop. The post also discuss the differences between reading workshop, guided reading, and literature circles.

Integrating Science and Social Studies-This post shares several ideas on ways to integrate your science and social studies standards with reading. Time is always a problem, so this is a big help.

Making Sense of Reading Assessments-Depending on where you’re coming from, reading assessments may look different. They may also be quite overwhelming! This post breaks down the how and why of various reading assessments.

Upper Elementary Guided Reading Groups – Reading groups in the upper elementary classroom are complex to say the least. This post is a great place to start.

Introducing Reading Workshop – This post shares procedural lessons to allow your students get started on the right foot.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Writing

Introducing Paragraphs – This is one of my all time favorite ways to begin teaching writing! If you’re new to teaching 4th grade, I highly recommend starting the year by teaching students how to write paragraphs through these back to school books!

If you want ideas on how to teach writing, this Guide To Teaching Writing is just for you! Remember, even if you recognize what 4th graders should know coming to you, it doesn’t mean they will know it.

Personal Narratives-Here is a blog post that shares how to teach students to write personal narratives. I do have blog posts for other writing genres, but this seems to be teachers’ favorite genre to start the year with.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Math

When thinking about what 4th graders should know, don’t forget about math! Math Workshop/Guided Math-This post describes how math workshop can be used in a fourth grade classroom.

Upper Elementary Math Centers-You don’t have to incorporate math centers in fourth grade. If you do utilize centers, you don’t have to use them everyday. There is so much flexibility! This is a great post to show how to use math centers in an upper elementary classroom.

First Days of Math Workshop-I highly recommend this post! It’s SO important in order to have success during the year. There are step-by-step lessons to teach math workshop with routines and procedures.

Math Manipulatives-Math manipulatives aren’t just for the little ones. Big kids need them too! However, you don’t need to spend a fortune, and there are important things to remember when using manipulatives.

Multiplication Facts-There are few topics in math that cause more anxiety (for students and teachers) than math facts. This post helps take that away. There are TONS of fun ideas and freebies to make learning multiplication facts fun AND meaningful!

What 4th Graders Should Know – Social Studies & Science

Far too often social studies and science are neglected in third, fourth, and fifth grades. When you teach content heavy grade levels, it’s incredibly hard to find the time to squeeze it all into the day. This is one of the primary reasons I love integrating as often as possible. In this post I share a few ideas on how to integrate social studies and science into language arts and math.

Testing

Yes, fourth graders have to participate in state testing. I can say with 100% certainty that the best test prep is high quality instruction all year. It’s important to be extremely careful to approach testing with the right attitude with students. I don’t use it as a fear mechanism for motivation or over emphasize the importance of test scores.

While I can’t take away all of the stress relating to testing, you can make the year easier by integrating review into your instruction all year. You can see some of my favorite ideas here.

It’s definitely not possible to share all of my resources with you, but I would love to give you some ideas. The items below are my top 10 favorite resources for teachers who are new to teaching 4th Grade.

What 4th Graders Should Know

Top Ten Resources for Teachers New to Teaching 4th Grade

This Reading Workshop Bundle is probably my favorite product! It’s one of those that really does have everything! There are 180 reading comprehension lesson plans and printables to go with each lesson plan. I’ve also included fluency practice, vocabulary, and reading homework.

My Fourth Grade Math Units is a compilation of YEARS of work! This bundle includes 10 math units with hands-on lessons, skills practice, and task cards!

I honestly don’t know what I’d do without my Weekly Word Problems. I now use the updated version with the constructed response practice for my morning work. It’s one of my favorites!

Once again, I’d be lost without my Fluency Passages! I use these for weekly fluency and comprehension homework. The best part is that the entire pack is integrated with science and social studies!

My Language Arts Morning Work is an excellent spiral review. This will help keep tricky grammar and reading skills fresh all year. (I know the cover of this one says third, but I’ve linked the 4th grade version. My fourth grade cover is in the middle of being updated 🙂

Writing can certainly be tricky, which is why I love having the Writing Bundle ready to go! This contains three writing units  aligned to the Common Core Standards: informational, opinion, and narrative!

I love these Multiplication Facts Booklets! Teaching multiplication facts is a year long process, so I incorporate these booklets all year long. The are a great way to teach conceptual understanding and memorization of multiplication facts.

I use the Prefix of the Week packet along with my Homophone of the Week for weekly vocabulary and word work. This makes a cute bulletin board and comes with different booklets!

I use this Math Constructed Response packet at least once a week. This is one of those concepts that requires practice all year long, rather than taught as an isolated test prep skill.

I’m cheating a little here! I actually have a few 4th grade assessment packs, and I love them all! I especially like the language arts assessments, because it’s often difficult to find reading assessments that include the passage and assess one standard at a time.

You are going to love fourth grade! One of the best things about fourth grade is that students are young enough to still love school and have a desire to please their teacher. Yet, they are independent enough to participate in really fun activities. Plus, the older students are awesome at catching my corny jokes! Like all students, they need love, consistency, and strong procedures for optimal success. Don’t sweat the test! Your preparation starts from Day 1 and with good instruction your students will be ready!

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions! I’m always happy to help.

The post What 4th Graders Should Know appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Do you wonder what 3rd graders should know? Are you new to teaching third grade? Or, is it your first time teaching third grade in a long time? If so, you’re in the right place! If you’re looking for the same post for fourth grade teachers look here!

It’s no secret that changing grade levels is hard! As someone who doesn’t like change, it’s definitely not something I enjoy. Although, I do think the experience helps shape us into better teachers.

I’ve spent 10+ years teaching third grade, so I’ve accumulated a lot of resources and ideas. This blog post shares some of my favorite tips, articles, and resources for understanding what 3rd graders should know AND how to get them there. It’s definitely one of my favorite grades to teach, because the kids are still sweet but they’re also independent. At this age, they still love to learn!

Classroom Set Up

If you’re a new(er) teacher, you can feel pressured to go out and create a designer classroom. That’s not necessary. At all.

The priority should be organizing, not decorating, your classroom. Of course, I’m not saying that having a cute or decorated classroom is a bad thing. I spend more awake time in my classroom than anywhere else, so I want an environment that makes me comfortable and happy.

But, you don’t need to go out and spend lots of money creating a Pinterest classroom.  Make sure your room is clean, not too busy or distracting, and organized.

You can see my classroom here! You can read more about organizing your classroom here.

What 3rd Graders Should Know – Pacing Guides

It’s important to begin the year with a plan. Of course it’s necessary to keep in mind that it’s just a guide, nothing that should be set in stone. Below are my 3rd grade reading and math pacing guides, which gives you an idea of what 3rd graders should know. You can download a copy of the pacing guides here. If you’d like to develop your own pacing guide, you may enjoy this blog post on Planning For The Year.

Morning Work

Your morning work and morning routine helps set the tone for the day. It’s also a great way to continuously review what third graders should know. Over the years my routine has changed and will continue to change. I now implement somewhat of a soft start to the day. My students arrive in my classroom from 7:30-8:00, and they eat breakfast in the classroom. If I have 30 minutes worth of assignments, my students who arrive at 8:00 will begin the day behind, and my students who arrive at 7:30 will already have a lot of work completed. I now give all students must dos and then may dos where they have options.

This doesn’t mean that I no longer utilize any spiral review morning work. That definitely still has an important place in the classroom. You can read about those math and language arts morning work assignments here.

What 3rd Graders Should Know – Reading

In third grade students transition from learning to read to reading to learn. This is a natural transition for many students, but for other students this can be a real challenge. Students will continue to need support with guided reading groups. In this post I layout my plans and format for teaching reading.

To help make your transition a little easier, I’ve developed a Reading Workshop Starter Kit. It’s packed full of content and resources to get your started. You can download it for free here!

What 3rd Graders Should Know – Writing

When thinking about what 3rd graders should know, writing varies widely. I highly recommend starting the year by teaching students how to write paragraphs through these back to school mentor texts. Don’t assume that students will already know how to write a paragraph. Plan on teaching that step-by-step. You can read more about Introducing Paragraphs here. I like to teach students how to write a paragraph at the beginning of the year, because they will apply that skill consistently in science and social studies.

Once I teach students how to write a paragraph, it’s time to dive into one of the writing genres. Most teachers like to start with personal narratives, which you can read about here.

What 3rd Graders Should Know – Math

When thinking about what 3rd graders should know, math is always a popular topic. It’s is probably my favorite subject to teach. In third grade, multiplication facts will be a HUGE part of your year. In fact, I think I’ve written more content on multiplication facts than any other math concept. While facts are important, the concept of multiplication is just as important. It’s easy to favor one over the other, but your students will need both.

You can use this post for ideas on how to teach and practice multiplication facts.

Even though third graders are independent, they still need explicit instructions in math workshop and/or guided math procedures. I love spending a few minutes each day teaching math workshop with routines and procedures. You can read more about those lessons here.

Most teachers begin the year by teaching place value. That’s a great starting place, because it helps build essential number sense, and it’s the foundation of other math concepts. You can read more about teaching place value here.

I don’t know what I’d do without my RTI binders and progress monitoring assessments! It’s shocking to see hard hard these are to find! You can read more about math progress monitoring here.

You can read more about place value intervention lessons here.

What 3rd Graders Should Know – Social Studies & Science

Far too often social studies and science are neglected in third, fourth, and fifth grades. When you teach content heavy grade levels, it’s incredibly hard to find the time to squeeze it all into the day. This is one of the primary reasons I love integrating as often as possible. In this post I share a few ideas on how to integrate social studies and science into language arts and math.

Testing

When thinking about what 3rd graders should know, we can’t eliminate testing. Yes, third graders have to participate in state testing. I can say with 100% certainty that the best test prep is high quality instruction all year. It’s important to be extremely careful to approach testing with the right attitude with students. I don’t use it as a fear mechanism for motivation or over emphasize the importance of test scores.

While I can’t take away all of the stress relating to testing, you can make the year easier by integrating review into your instruction all year. You can see some of my favorite ideas here.

It’s definitely not possible to share all of my resources with you, but I would love to give you some ideas. The items below are my top 10 favorite resources for teaching third grade.

What 3rd Graders Should Know

Top Ten Resources

This Reading Workshop Bundle is probably my favorite product! It’s one of those that really does have everything! There are 180 reading comprehension lesson plans and printables to go with each lesson plan. I’ve also included fluency practice, vocabulary, and reading homework.

My Third Grade Math Units is a compilation of YEARS of work! This bundle includes 10 math units with hands-on lessons, skills practice, and task cards!

I honestly don’t know what I’d do without my Weekly Word Problems. I now use the updated version with the constructed response practice for my morning work. It’s one of my favorites!

Once again, I’d be lost without my Fluency Passages! I use these for weekly fluency and comprehension homework. The best part is that the entire pack is integrated with science and social studies!

My Language Arts Morning Work is an excellent spiral review. This will help keep tricky grammar and reading skills fresh all year.

Writing can certainly be tricky, which is why I love having the Writing Bundle ready to go! This contains three writing units that are aligned to the Common Core Standards: informational, opinion, personal narrative, and fictional narrative!

I love these Multiplication Facts Booklets! Teaching multiplication facts is a year long process, so I incorporate these booklets all year long. The are a great way to teach conceptual understanding and memorization of multiplication facts.

I use the Prefix of the Week packet along with my Homophone of the Week for weekly vocabulary and word work. This makes a cute bulletin board and comes with different booklets!

I use this Math Constructed Response packet at least once a week. This is one of those concepts that needs to be practiced all year long, rather than taught as an isolated test prep skill.

I’m cheating a little here! I actually have several No Prep packs, and I love them all! I especially like that many of the printables are much more than a worksheet. I’ve included several interactive games in each of the packs as well as many pages that require higher order thinking skills.

You are going to love third grade! One of the best things about third grade is that students are young enough to still love school and have a desire to please their teacher. Yet, they are independent enough to participate in really fun activities. Third graders should get to have fun too! Like all students, they need love, consistency, and strong procedures for optimal success. Don’t sweat the test! Your preparation starts from Day 1 and with good instruction your students will be ready!

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions about what 3rd graders should know! I’m always happy to help.

The post What 3rd graders should know appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

In this post, I share five common reasons for student misbehavior. No matter how strong our classroom management is or how positive our relationships with our students are, we are bound to encounter student misbehavior. As I’ve said before, I firmly believe the most important part of classroom management is our relationships with students. You can read a blog post on strategies to build relationships with your students here. I also believe that clear procedures and expectations are essential for preventing student misbehavior. You can read a blog post with strategies on introducing and practicing classroom procedures here. However, despite our best efforts, we will all still observe student misbehavior.

Over the years I’ve learned that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to misbehavior. Students misbehave for different reasons, and the way I handle that misbehavior depends on the student and the reasons for the misbehavior. In this post, I share some of the most common behaviors I’ve seen in my classroom and ways to help students showing that misbehavior.

Types of misbehavior explored in this post:

• Attention
• Frustration
• Desire for Power
• Boredom
• Revenge

Student Misbehaves to get Attention

This is probably the most common cause of misbehavior. Acting out by making fun of others, talking out of turn, or being overly silly are just a few ways students looking for more attention may misbehave. Many students who value or crave attention don’t care if it is positive (praise) or negative attention (reprimands). They just want attention!

With these students it is very easy to fall into a ‘reprimand trap.’ First, the student misbehaves. Then the teacher approaches the student and reprimands him or her for misbehaving. Because the student finds the negative attention to be reinforcing, he or she continues to misbehave. A cycle is established, with the student repeatedly acting-out, and teacher reprimanding him or her.

Helpful Strategies:

• ignore attention seeking behaviors (unless it interferes with other students)
• give positive attention that is unconnected to misbehavior
• ask students to help you with classroom jobs
• make small talk with the student
• physical proximity or a hand on the shoulder
• make eye contact and smile

Student Misbehaves out of Frustration

Some students would much rather see themselves as behavior problems than struggling learners. They feel frustrated because they don’t get it, and rather than treat frustration as a doorway into learning, they push it away. This results in the student acting out. I can still see one of my former students flip his head in the way he did when he was frustrated and give me that glare. As always, he followed the glare by snarling, “I don’t care.” I could see right through that. Yes, that was poor behavior, but that was his way of saving face in front of his classmates. Rather than escalating things, I would back off. Later, when he was calm, we’d step in the hallway and chat.

Helpful Strategies:

• foster a growth mindset
• differentiate and adjust work accordingly
• manufacture situations where the student will experience success
• reach out with heart to heart talks
• don’t overemphasize grades, focus on learning

Student Misbehaves out of a Desire for Power

Some students who misbehave are expressing a desire for more control in the classroom. Acting inappropriately makes them feel powerful. Signs of a power-seeking student include constant arguing and a refusal to follow basic rules. There are two types of this behavior – active and passive. The active power seeking student will be the student who throws tantrums or gives you bad attitude. The passive power seeking student will be the student who quietly is in noncompliance with you. Power seeking students can be incredibly challenging. I’ve found that many of these students have experience some sort of trauma in their lives. These students are often desperate to control some aspect of their life and that need for control is reflected in the classroom. One of the best resources for these students is Trust Based Relational Interventions.

Helpful Strategies:

• avoid confrontation
• respect the student’s personal space
• give redirection then walk away
• provide choices in tasks
• give student a voice
• speak in a calm tone of voice

Student Misbehaves because they are Bored

It can be annoying to hear parents complain that their child is bored. There’s simply no way teachers can compete with multi-billion dollar video game technology or the freedom of playing outside. The reality is that we all have to do things we don’t want to do. We all have tasks to do that aren’t fun. Graded any papers lately? But….boredom is a cause of misbehavior.

It’s not realistic for every single lesson, every single day to be full of bells and whistles. But, I do try to make my lessons as fun and as engaging as possible. I work to build student stamina and teach students how to find the value of learning and solving problems. It’s also important to include lots of variety in our lessons, as well as stories and hands-on learning experiences.

Helpful Strategies:

• differentiate to be sure the student is being challenged
• incorporate problem based learning
• don’t reward students for rushing through their work with free time
• for students with short attention spans, use lots of short tasks rather than one or two longer ones.

Student Misbehaves because They are Looking for Revenge

Thankfully, I have not experience a great deal of this behavior, but it is a root cause for more serious misbehavior, so I felt like I needed to include revenge in this post.

Some children lash out in the classroom as a response to hurt feelings they experience. By misbehaving, they feel they are getting back at those responsible. Students who misbehave as a motive for revenge may enjoy acting cruelly towards others. Revenge seekers are likely to perform bullying acts, such as pushing, shoving, and excessive teasing. Passive demonstrations of revenge behavior can be withdrawal, uncommunicative, sullen and remote. Active revenge behavior is displayed through direct or indirect physical attack (destruction of property), or psychological attack. Revenge behaviors are difficult behaviors to manage, because it stimulates intense emotions.

Helpful Strategies:

• avoid consequences that are retaliative
• focus on making amends
• teach appropriate expression of feelings

It’s important to remember that we’re teaching young children, even if we’re teaching upper elementary. I never, ever expect or want perfection from my students. I want to give them a little wiggle room and the freedom to be a kid. It’s also incredibly important to be aware of sudden changes in a student’s behavior. If you have a student that has a dramatic change in behavior that is often a signal of something going on in their lives that’s giving them trouble.

Knowing and understanding these five reasons for student misbehavior will allow you to become more efficient with your classroom management. This understanding allows you to continue developing that all important relationship with your students.

The post 5 Reasons for Student Misbehavior appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

As a teacher, I felt like one of my weakest areas was dealing with what is often called “girl drama.” When I saw this as a teacher, I struggled to find the root of the issue, to have time to deal with the problem, and to know what to do about it. I was also uncertain of where to draw the line between normal friendship issues and problematic behavior. My tendency was to encourage the student to find someone else to play with or to ignore the situation.

However, as I saw these behaviors increase in frequency and intensity, I couldn’t ignore my instinct that there had to be more I could do as a teacher. That’s why I made it my mission to learn more about “girl drama”. Each of the lessons I describe below can be used on its own. I have created accompanying printables that you can see here.

One of the first strategies I learned is to not discount these behaviors as “girl drama”. The behaviors can be serious issues with lasting effects, and it’s certainly not limited to girls. Many of these more serious behaviors can be labeled with relational aggression. Relational aggression is behavior that is intended to harm someone by damaging or manipulating his or her relationship with others. Examples of behavior aggression include:

• gossip and rumors
• alliance building
• taunting
• social exclusion

Below are seven lessons I teach my students to prevent relational aggression and to equip students to handle conflict, as well as stand up for themselves.

In this post:

• Lesson 1: What Not To Do
• Lesson 2: Gossip and Rumors
• Lesson 3: Building Alliances
• Lesson 4: Taunting
• Lesson 5: Social Exclusion
• Lesson 6: Refusal Skills
• Lesson 7: Conflict Resolution

Lesson 1: What Not To Do

Not all conflict is relational aggression. If the action or words are rare or accidental, the conflict is probably not a result of relational aggression. However, many children struggle responding to ANY type of conflict with peers, so it’s important to discuss what NOT to do.

• Overgeneralize – make a broad conclusion based on a single incident.
• Catastrophize – put more weight on the worst possible outcome that makes sense.
• Mind Reading – infer another child’s thoughts based on behavior or facial expressions.
• Predicting Outcomes – assuming you already know what will happen. “I know they won’t let me, so I won’t even ask.”
• All or Nothing – she didn’t play with me today, so we’re not friends anymore.
• Magnifying – to make a big issue out of something small.

As I work with students on these thought processes, I encourage them to reframe their thinking into positive thoughts.

Lesson 2: Gossip and Rumors

In my next relational aggression lesson we begin to talk about gossip and rumors. It’s normal for students to be involved in each other’s lives, and curiosity is a natural part of childhood. However, there is definitely a line that can be crossed. I love using Trudy Ludwig’s book Trouble Talk to introduce the topic of  gossip and rumors.

After reading the book, I define the terms gossip and rumor. Gossip is information about the behavior and personal lives of other people. A rumor is information that has been passed from one person to another person that has not been proven to be true.

I ask students to share experiences where gossip or rumors hurt them. Caution-please preface the conversation about NOT sharing anything their parents wouldn’t want them to share. I also share personal experiences of when someone gossiped about me. I also share about a time I gossiped and how I hurt a friend by doing so. It’s important for our students to see that we all make mistakes and what we did to correct those mistakes. We also discuss what to do when we hear gossip or rumors:

• Refute the rumor.
• Meet the negative with a positive.
• Say something kind to the victim.
• If needed, get help from an adult.

It’s so important to allow students to practice this with role play. If I’m short on time, I may break a lesson into two days, but I think it’s worth the time. Here are a few role play ideas:

• You walk up to a group of people and find that they are saying things that are untrue about one of your friends.
• You receive a text message with an embarrassing picture of another student in the class.
• Two of your friends come up to you at separate times to complain about each other.
• Your parent tells you personal information about one of the teachers in your school.

Once again, I follow the lesson with some application practice.

Lesson 3: Building Alliances

Close friendships are not a bad thing. We all want relationships with people who will stick with you through thick and thin and offer support, empathy, and understanding. The problem with alliances comes when they result in social exclusion of others. Once again, Trudy Ludwig has a great book called My Secret Bully for discussing alliances with students.

After reading the book, I define an alliance as a relationship between two or more people with an intention to exclude or act aggressively towards another person. We then spend time discussing alliances. I explain that it is a problem to get other friends mad at someone who has hurt them – to take joy from punishing someone with the help of our friends. It is one thing to turn to your friends when you have been hurt or are angry with someone. It is another thing to get your friends angry with someone else or turn them against someone else. After discussing and sharing, we role play to practice noticing and stopping alliance building.

Some topics for role playing include:

• One girl in the class tells you to avoid another student because that student said something mean about her.
• Marcus tells you that if you play baseball with Antwan then he won’t be your friend anymore.
• Henry says he will unfriend anyone who goes to the birthday party he wasn’t invited to.

Lesson 4: Taunting

As I researched, I learned that good-natured teasing is a healthy part of a relationship and growing up. The problem occurs when teasing turns into taunting. It is also relational aggression when children try to embarrass others and throw in a “just kidding”. Regardless of how it’s done, public humiliation is never okay. Trudy Ludwig did it again with Just Kidding. However, reading the book on it’s own is not enough. You have to follow the book with conversations.

When defining teasing and taunting, I like to make a list of both, because it’s very helpful to see the difference between the two.

Teasing:

• lighthearted and fun
• switches roles
• words are not hurtful
• intended to make the other child laugh
• stops when asked

Taunting:

• one sided
• doesn’t stop when asked
• humiliating or cruel
• intended to harm
• wants others to laugh AT target

It’s important that students also understand that they may think something is just teasing, but the target is still hurt. Some people are more sensitive than others are or they are having a bad day. If our intent is to just kid around, then we should immediately stop when we see it hurts and make it right. It’s also important to remember that we cannot assume the other person is taunting us until we ask them to stop and they do not.

We should also point out the taunting isn’t always with words. Our body language and actions can also be a form of taunting. For example, if a student makes gestures or rolls their eyes behind someone’s back, that is taunting. It’s also wrong to make a joke of hiding personal property.

Once again, we follow the conversation with discussing social situations and role playing. Some topic ideas include:

• One student makes fun of your best friend, but always says, “Just kidding.”
• When you make a mistake on a group project, another student calls you stupid.
• A student trips in the hallway and everyone laughs and calls her clumsy.

Lesson 5: Social Exclusion

Social exclusion, otherwise known as cliques, are nothing new. But, they do seem to be forming at younger and younger ages. This is a topic where I certainly try to clarify that no, you won’t be close friends with everyone. However, it’s not kind to leave anyone out. To introduce the concept of social exclusion, I read Cliques, Phonies & Other Baloney. This isn’t a book that I read cover-to-cover. Instead, I preread and pick and choose what I read aloud to students.

After reading the book, I define the terms clique and exclusion:

• Clique: an exclusive peer group
• Exclusion: where a person or group of people do not permit someone to be a part of a peer group; can be intentional or unintentional

We discuss how friendship groups come together for the same basic needs, but are not exclusive. Positive friendship group speak to others in the halls, allow others to sit with them at lunch, and include outsiders in the group. Role play ideas include:

• A new student comes to class, and you know he does not know anyone.
• You do not play on the school’s basketball team, but you would still like to play basketball with the other children at recess. They tell you that you are not allowed because you are not on the team.
• Two students cut in line in the cafeteria saying, “Cool people go first.”

Lesson 6: Refusal Skills

After teaching about the types of relational aggression, it’s important to teach students refusal skills. It does not come easily to many children to speak up for themselves, so many students have to be taught how to speak up for themselves. Some strategies I teach include:

• Broken record-choose a stance and say it over and over until the other person gives in or walks away.
• Ask questions-ask questions such as, “why do you want me to do that?”
• Keep the door open-I don’t want to do that, but if you change your mind and want to do something else, let me know.
• Call it like it is-Let the person know that what they’re saying or doing is mean.

In certain situations, students must use assertive communication. When communicating, students should stand tall, make and hold eye contact, and use a clear voice. Students should also be able to speak with confidence and without guilt. Some students may need considerable role playing with refusal skills, and you may discover that some need to learn the difference between assertive communication and aggressive communication.

Lesson 7: Conflict Resolution

Despite our best efforts or our students’ best efforts, there is bound to be conflict within friendships and peers. Our students must be equipped to independently handle these conflicts in an appropriate way. Many times, our students revert to negative behaviors, so I like to teach this lesson with relational aggression Dos and Don’ts.

Do:

• talk about how you are feeling
• use I statements to avoid the blame game
• take responsibility
• be calm
• listen
• consider your friend’s perspective

Don’t

• exaggerate to make the situation bigger than it is
• gossip
• build alliances to get others friends in the conflict
• use the silent treatment to retaliate
• pretend you don’t care with “whatever” statements
• dismiss your friend’s feelings

Conflict resolution is not something that you can teach in a day. Instead, it helps to make an anchor chart that displays these steps. As students encounter conflict, guide them as they navigate through this process until they are comfortable with conflict resolution. If you’d like to see more of the printables, you can click here.

I completely get that this won’t fix everything. I also understand that ideally, relational aggression issues would be taken care of outside the classroom. But, our reality is that our students need these lessons. I want to equip and empower my students to be confident in who they are, how to recognize and avoid relational aggression, and how to stand-up for others. You can find each of the lessons here.

The post It’s Not Just Girl Drama appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

I don’t know that it’s possible to overstate the importance of empathy in the classroom. It is pure joy for me to watch children who are naturally empathetic work with their classmates. I watch them carefully weigh their words and actions as they think about how those words and actions will make their classmates feel. Just this year, I saw a student consoling another student who had recently lost his dog. I’ve also taught students who significantly lack in empathy, whether they’re unaware of how they make other students feel or if they’re aware and choose not to adjust their words and actions. I see intentionally and unintentionally exclude each other, and other students joke and tease past the point of being funny. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Everyone is born with different levels of empathy, but it is a skill that can be learned and developed. This post shares six methods for teaching empathy, so it can be developed and promoted in the elementary classroom.

1. Teaching Empathy Through Modeling

Teachers can be role models who show students the power of empathy in relationships. Children learn empathy both from watching us and from experiencing our empathy for them. Be a consistent example of empathy, and exude a caring, compassionate, understanding attitude.

2. Recognize Emotions

Because of today’s digitally focused world, students’ abilities to recognize human emotions is steadily decreasing. However, before students can empathize, they must be able to read emotions. When a student is displaying their own negative emotions, ask them to explore and identify their feelings. “What emotion do you think you are feeling right now?  Help students make connections between their emotions and their reactive behaviors.

The great thing about teaching emotions is that this ties in with my inference lessons in reading. One of my favorite games to teach emotions and inferences is through this easy to prep Taboo-like game. I write a list of emotions on a large piece of chart paper, and for each one, I make an index card with just that word on it. One student selects an index card, and does not look at the word on the card. I show everyone, except the student selected, the emotion card. Like in the game Taboo, the selected student tries to select the emotion they may be feeling. Their classmates may give them clues about how they may look or act when one feels that emotion. When the student accurately guesses the emotion, we select a new player.

3. Active Listening

There are five key active listening techniques students can use to become a more effective listener. The first is to pay attention. Good listeners give the speaker their undivided attention, and look at the speaker directly. The second technique is that the listener should also show that s/he is listening with their own body language and gestures. A third technique is to provide feedback and to try to understand what someone else is saying. This may require the listener to reflect on what they hear and to ask questions. The fourth technique encourages the listener to avoid interrupting with counter arguments. The fifth step is to respond appropriately, as the listener should be respond openly and respectfully.

4. Point of View

Perspective taking is crucial for today’s students. Whether it’s debating an issue from various sides, or seeing an event from point of view, perspective taking can  lead students to question assumptions. Stepping into another’s shoes helps kids understand others and is helpful for teaching empathy. During our American Revolution unit, students write two newspaper articles about the Revolution: one for a patriot newspaper and one for a loyalist newspaper. This works with almost any major historical event or scientific discovery.

You can also encourage perspective taking with current events or issues within the classroom. For example, every year one of my students has a birthday party where not everyone is invited. Even if the invitations are not passed out at school, word still gets around, and feelings are hurt. Before such incidents, I like to think of real-life examples and have students analyze the different perspectives of each person involved. You can download the form below here.

5. Literature for Teaching Empathy

I consistently read mentor texts in my reading and writing workshop. I love finding books that can also be used in teaching empathy and lend themselves to discussions about how we could have handled a situation differently. A Cambridge University study by Maria Nikolajeva, professor of education, found that “reading fiction provides an excellent training for young people in developing and practising empathy and theory of mind, that is, understanding of how other people feel and think”. Neuroscience backs this up. Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta, US, say that fiction tricks our brains into thinking we are part of the story. The empathy we feel for characters wires our brains to have the same sensitivity towards real people.

Understanding the perspectives of people who we don’t like very much is a key element of empathy, so I often choose books with non-favorable characters.  I also select books where students will find both similarities and differences between themselves and the main character. I want students to be able to relate to the text.

Invisible Boy – This is one of my favorites! Meet Brian, the invisible boy. Nobody ever seems to notice him or think to include him in their group, game, or birthday party . . . until, that is, a new kid comes to class. When Justin, the new boy, arrives, Brian is the first to make him feel welcome. And when Brian and Justin team up to work on a class project together, Brian finds a way to shine.

Those Shoes – All Jeremy wants is a pair of those shoes, the ones everyone at school seems to be wearing. Though Jeremy’s grandma says they don’t have room for “want,” just “need,” when his old shoes fall apart at school, he is more determined than ever to have those shoes, even a thrift-shop pair that are much too small. But sore feet aren’t much fun, and Jeremy soon sees that the things he has — warm boots, a loving grandma, and the chance to help a friend — are worth more than the things he wants.

One – Blue is a quiet color. Red’s a hothead who likes to pick on Blue. Yellow, Orange, Green, and Purple don’t like what they see, but what can they do? When no one speaks up, things get out of hand — until One comes along and shows all the colors how to stand up, stand together, and count. As budding young readers learn about numbers, counting, and primary and secondary colors, they also learn about accepting each other’s differences and how it sometimes just takes one voice to make everyone count.

Last Stop on Market Street – Every Sunday after church, CJ and his grandma ride the bus across town. But today, CJ wonders why they don’t own a car like his friend Colby. Why doesn’t he have an iPod like the boys on the bus? How come they always have to get off in the dirty part of town? Each question is met with an encouraging answer from grandma, who helps him see the beauty-and fun-in their routine and the world around them.

Each Kindness – Chloe and her friends won’t play with the new girl, Maya. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her friends, they reject her. Eventually Maya stops coming to school. When Chloe’s teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship, and thinks about how much better it could have been if she’d shown a little kindness toward Maya.

Amazing Grace – Grace has a marvelous imagination as well as a strong flair for the dramatic, she acts the stories out, always giving herself the most exciting parts. Thus, it is natural when her teacher announces a classroom production of Peter Pan , that Grace wants to play the lead. One classmate says she can’t because she’s a girl and another says she can’t because she’s black. When a saddened Grace relates the days events to her mother and grandmother, they tell her she can be anything she wants to, if she puts her mind to it.

Fly Away Home – A homeless boy who lives in an airport with his father, moving from terminal to terminal trying not to be noticed, is given hope when a trapped bird finally finds its freedom.

Thank You Mr. Falker – Trisha could paint and draw beautifully, but when she looked at words on a page, all she could see was jumble. It took a very special teacher to recognize little Trisha’s dyslexia: Mr. Falker, who encouraged her to overcome her reading disability.

Be Kind – When Tanisha spills grape juice all over her new dress, her classmate wants to make her feel better, wondering: What does it mean to be kind? From asking the new girl to play to standing up for someone being bullied, this moving story explores what kindness is, and how any act, big or small, can make a difference—or at least help a friend.

6. Explicitly Teach Kindness

Many classrooms build community and use that time for developing and teaching empathy through morning meeting. I believe in complete transparency, so I will say that I am FAR from an expert with morning meeting. I had not considered implementing it when I was self-contained. This year, for the first time, I teach three groups of students, so I only have one hour and 15 minutes to teach my math and science lessons. There just isn’t a way for me to make it work. However, I absolutely see the value in morning meetings, and if/when I go back to a self-contained classroom, I am definitely going to use the approach.

When using morning meetings, students and teachers gather together in a circle for twenty to thirty minutes and interact with one another during four purposeful components: 1. Greeting: Students and teachers greet one other by name. 2. Sharing: Students share information about important events in their lives. Listeners often offer empathetic comments or ask clarifying questions. 3. Group Activity: Everyone participates in a brief, lively activity that fosters group cohesion and helps students practice social and academic skills. 4. Morning Message: Students read and interact with a short message written by their teacher. The message is crafted to help students focus on the work they’ll do in school that day. I’ve created a collection of morning meeting cards that you can download here.

It sounds like a great way to start the day. From what I’ve read, it is possible to whittle the time down to about 15-20 minutes. You can read more about morning meetings here.

Hopefully these lessons will help your classroom become a more caring and empathetic community of learners. What strategies have you found to be successful in teaching empathy?

The post Six Methods for Teaching Empathy appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

I was able to see evidence of this over the summer when one of my former students faced an enormous personal tragedy. Despite all of the obstacles in front of her, the first person the child called was her teacher. That’s powerful to me. It reminded me of the powerful role we play in our students’ lives and the opportunity we have to make a life changing difference.

Maya Angelou‘s famous quote fits here:

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

When it comes to teaching, no truer words have ever been spoken. The number one thing our students will remember from us is how we make them feel. I think I could extend this idea further by saying that no one will remember how many likes our classroom got on Instagram or how Pinterest worthy our lessons were. I don’t say that because I think those things are bad. Instead, I say that as a reminder to myself that I have to prioritize and keep things in perspective. During this time of year, I have a tendency to become overwhelmed and stressed about all the things I see others sharing on social media. I have to keep perspective that those things are fun, but they’re not what makes the biggest impact in our classroom. Our relationships are what matter most.

We all want to feel cared for and valued by the significant people in our life. When students feel that you value and care for them as individuals, they are more willing to comply with our requests. Developing positive teacher-student relations is also one of the most effective steps we can take to establish a positive climate in the classroom. Over the years I’ve also found that when I have a positive relationship with my students, they are much more likely to give their best effort academically and respond in constructive manner when we have to handle behavior issues.

All of this is exactly why I consider building relationships the most essential classroom management strategy.

Classroom Management Strategy Tactics

Be Authentic

It’s important for us to be our authentic selves. Children have an uncanny way of seeing through anything that’s not real. I know that singing and dancing, especially on top of desks, is the thing to do right now, so I thought I’d give it a try. Unfortunately, I am the most uncoordinated person in the world. In fact, I’ve fallen simply walking down the hallway — more than once — each year. I’m also super laid-back, so being ultra peppy is not something that comes naturally to me.

Despite those obstacles, I still wanted to try. However, my students kindly told me to stop, because that just didn’t work for me. The point of that embarrassing story is that we shouldn’t try to pretend to be something that we’re not. If we want to connect with our students, we must be ourselves— quirks and all — and allow students to be their authentic self.

Take Interest

It’s critically important to get to know our students at a deeper level than emergency contact information and test scores. We should take interest in what’s going on in their life, as well as their concerns, interests, and hobbies. I’ve found that one of the best ways to do this is to listen to stories from my students. I know this can be difficult, because most stories tend to go on forever, and I’m always limited on time.

However, I do try to find time to listen during times like arrival, walking in the hallway, lunch, and recess. Then I ask follow-up questions later in the week. Questions such as, “How’s your baby sister sleeping this week? Is she still waking you up?” This lets students know you actually listened and cared about what they had to say. I also try to go to student events such as recitals, concerts, and sporting events. Yes, this takes up time, but it makes a HUGE impact on students and their families.

Respect

We all want our students to respect us, but our students also want and need to be respected. Even though I don’t always agree, I try to listen to my students and value their opinions. I may have to teach students how to appropriately disagree or share their opinion, but I do try to give them the opportunity to be heard. I also allow myself to be swayed by their reasoning, because I feel that this empowers students and begins to prepare them for life outside of school. Of course, I don’t change decisions just to make students happy. Instead I try to be reasonable and not rigid when dealing with my students.

I’m also extremely careful in how I talk to students. I try to never sound condescending or belittling, because it’s hard to imagine a faster way to lose their respect and trust. I have to watch myself with sarcasm, because I do think it can be hilarious. However, I never want to use it in a way that would embarrass or negatively impact a student.

Humor

When it comes to developing relationships, humor is my best friend and a key component of my classroom management strategy. I want my students to laugh everyday, even if it’s at my expense. It’s okay to be silly and goofy with students.  I can’t tell you how many times I was able to deescalate a potentially bad situation with humor. Sometimes, rather than pressing an issue with a particular student, I try to say something funny to lighten the mood. Then once the student is calm, we can talk about the issue calmly and reasonably. Sometimes it’s smart to back off and to revisit the issue later. This is also a great way to teach students basic social skills, such as when it is and is not okay to be silly or tell jokes.

Stories

My students love it when I tell little stories about my childhood or my own kids. Naturally, I keep appropriate boundaries, but I don’t feel that there has to be a complete separation between my personal life and school life. This allows us to form connections and to share special moments together. I also try to acknowledge and share my mistakes, because students need to see positive responses to mistakes to recognize that it’s okay for them to make a mistake as well. This helps to create a safe and relaxing environment for students.

Something Special

My daughter was talking about one of her favorite teachers, and I asked her what made this teacher so great. She though for a moment and responded with, “He makes me feel special.” What a great thing to say about a teacher! There are many things we can do to make a student feel special. Some teachers create individual handshakes for each student and greet students with their special handshake. I’ve known of several teachers who give students fun nicknames, and students always seem to love those names.

Last year I asked one of my most challenging students to get me a Coke from the vending machines, and you would have thought she had won the lottery! It’s funny how asking a student for a small favor means so much to that student. Another way to make students feel special is to spend time with them. Students LOVE it when we eat with them at lunch or play with them at recess. Even if you’re teaching fifth graders, they’re not too big to play with their teacher. Although I will admit that it’s getting harder and harder as I get older. Last year was the first time I ever lost in a race with my students. It was devastating! I don’t do random “student of the week” awards, because I avoid turning things into a competition where it’s possible to “lose” or to miss out with something.

What to Avoid

Even though it may be extremely challenging, I try to always remain calm. Nothing good will ever come from me losing my temper and/or yelling in the classroom. Positive relationships are not formed from fear. I also avoid backing students into a corner where the student has no choice but to rebel or lash out in order to save their pride. I try to give students an out and a choice to give them a sense of control and empowerment. We have to remember that many of our most challenging students have experienced trauma in their life and are desperately seeking some sort of control in their life.

While positive relationships alone will not give you a perfect school year, they certainly make the year more enjoyable for you and your students. This is why I feel so strongly about how essential relationship building is as a classroom management strategy. These relationships have the potential to change lives, and I can’t image a more important job than that.

The post Essential Classroom Management appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Classroom organization plays an enormous role in classroom management and ultimately saves you time and energy. This post shares a few classroom organization tricks of the trade that I’ve picked up over the years that makes your classroom run smoothly. I don’t pretend to be an excellent classroom decorator, but this that’s not the purpose of this post – I’ll leave that to the experts. Instead, I hope to share a few ways to simplify and streamline often time-consuming aspects of classroom organization.

Bulletin Boards

Bulletin boards play a role in classroom organization. I love the idea of bulletin boards much more than I like actually making them. Once I get a bulletin board set-up, I have no desire to take it down anytime soon. I like to display bulletin boards that can be used all year, and I like for my bulletin boards to be interactive. Two of my best bulletin board tips are two use fabric and thumb tacks. Using fabric makes it so much easier to avoid the dreaded bubble. Fabric is also more forgiving when it comes to holes from staplers and thumb tacks. To position things on my bulletin board, I use thumb tacks, because it’s much easier to move things around. I don’t staple until everything is ready, centered, and where I want it to be.

I like to have at least one bulletin board for displaying student work. This is an idea I discovered from Teaching in High Heels. I clip student work to the board throughout the year and try to regularly switch work samples out for new work samples. This certainly simplifies classroom organization!

I also use one bulletin board for a Focus Wall. Here, I display my standards, essential questions, and essential vocabulary on my focus wall. You can read more about Focus Walls here. While this may appear to be a decoration tip, sometimes simplifying goes along with classroom organization.

Student Supplies

Classroom organization includes having a plan for student supplies. The student supplies you need will vary depending on the grade level and subjects you teach. I don’t need a lot of binders, notebooks, and folders, but I do use a ton of crayons, markers, colored pencils, and glue. When I departmentalized in a two-way switch, I placed baskets inside my students’ desks. My homeroom kept their things in the basket on the left, and my partner’s homeroom kept their things in the right basket. While your classroom organization may be on point, students will likely need help.

I’m on the fence about community supplies. If a student has something special, I never force them to use that/those items as community supply items. For the past several years, I’ve used caddies like the one below to organize our supplies. It’s very effective, but it gets SO messy. We also run out of nice crayons and markers WAY too soon. This year I’m storing the extras that we don’t use every single day in a pencil case that is labeled with each table number. I’ll just pass them out whenever we begin the activity. I’m hoping this helps keep things a little neater.

This year I will be teaching math to three groups of students, so my desk trays aren’t going to do the trick. I’m using my storage drawers for my third group of students. I have one drawer for each table, and when the class comes on the room, students will take their drawer to the table. They will return it when we switch classes.

Since we do switch classes, I don’t place a name tag on top of students’ desks. Instead, I write it on a label and attach the label to the side of the desks with magnetic tape. I place our Interchangeable Desktop Helpers on top of students’ desks for them to reference throughout the year.

Classroom Organization – Technology

While I am beyond thrilled that my students have access to Chromebooks, organizing them isn’t always easy. I had to have a designated area to store and charge my Chromebooks. Since I didn’t want to give up valuable classroom space, I purchased two Belkin storage devices. I won’t say that I love them, but I do like them. I’m able to place my Chromebooks on a counter and have them all charge at once. However, the cords get SO messy throughout the year. I now have an IT Specialist (student volunteer) that regularly tidies up the cords for me.

Make-up Work

I keep my make-up work super simple. I do not require all students to make up all work that they missed. This is something I handle on a case by case basis, because there are some assignments that would not be effective outside the context of the actual lesson. I try to never give a child an assignment unless there is a clear need and purpose for that assignment. However, when I do have an assignment that must be completed, I write the student’s name on the paper on the paper and place it in this file folder. The file folder is magnetic, and I keep it on our dry erase board.

Classroom Organization Management

I am a huge fan of 3M hooks, as I use them all of the time. I hang my restroom log and behavior log on a clipboard that hangs on a 3M hook. If there is something I want to be able to keep up with, I probably have a hook and/or label for it.

I use a section of my dry erase board as a weekly calendar. I write due dates, events, and notes on the calendar, so that students can’t use the excuse of “I didn’t know…”.  My students reference the calendar all of the time, and I love that it’s dry erase, so it’s easy to change.

Classroom Jobs

I’m not one to use a lot of wall space or bulletin board space for classroom jobs, especially since I teach upper elementary. Instead I use hooks (again) and have daily helpers. The helpers are responsible for ALL the chores and jobs for the day. At the end of the day the helpers switch from their name to the next, so I rarely do anything with this. My students keep up with everything.

Centers and Manipulatives

Center organization is a whole other blog post that you can read about here. I’m pretty selective on the center or station activities that I actually have out and available to my students.  There are always a handful of activities for our current topic, as well as a few review activities from different units, but I don’t like to have too much out at a time. I organize these into different tubs that I bought from Really Good Stuff.  They were pricy but worth every penny.  I LOVE being able to stack things neatly! Each tub is given a number, and the number correlates to which activity students complete and where they complete the activity. Numbering the tubs makes them very interchangeable, so when I want to change station activities, I don’t have to relabel anything. Inside my station tubs is everything my students need to complete the station(s).  I occasionally like to include sleeves for recording sheets to save on paper and copies, so I have included wipes and dry erase markers in any storage tub that has a recording sheet. If the activity or game requires any manipulatives, I store those in the tub as well.

I’ve always tried to use my time with my students as efficiently as possible. Any random moment of down time is usually when I see student misbehavior, and I feel like I’m losing out on valuable instruction time. I’m always looking for ways to streamline procedures to keep my day running as smoothly as possible. One simple strategy that I love is how I organize my manipulatives. I used to store each type of manipulative in one large tub, which worked okay. I would just dump a handful out at each table for my students to distribute to each other.

Classroom Organization – Manipulatives

Then a couple of years ago, I had a summer of classroom organization, and I now store my math manipulatives in several small containers. I have one container for each group, so whenever we need our manipulatives, I don’t have to do anything! One person from each group gets the manipulatives from the bookshelf for their table, so that there’s no need for me to stop instruction while I pass everything out. I know it sounds so basic, but you wouldn’t believe how much smoother the whole process has become!

Classroom Organization Anchor Charts

I use a combination of my pre-made anchor charts and anchor charts generated with my students. I like creating them with my students, but when you teach the same subject to three classes, it gets a little problematic for me. My anchor charts are on hooks throughout the classroom. I group the anchor charts by unit, and students can access the anchor charts anytime they need to access it. You can find the anchor charts here.

Classroom Organization – Mentor Texts

I try to keep everything in my classroom accessible to students, so the things that are in my cabinets are resources for ME, not my students. For example, I keep my reading mentor texts in a cabinet, so I can easily find the books I need for each lesson.

Hopefully you’ll find a few ideas you can use in this post! What are your favorite strategies for classroom organization?

If you’d like to read about how I organize and plan for the year’s instruction, be sure to read this post on planning for the year.

The post Classroom Organization For Elementary Teachers appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Think Big Picture

I’m a big picture planner. I look at the year as a whole and determine where I want students to be by the end of the year and start from there. Then, I work my way down to units and weekly goals. You can find a detailed post on how to map out standards and create content area pacing guides here.

The intent of this post is not to share what lessons to use to teach different standards. (However, I hope that you’ll find plenty of those on other blog posts.) Instead, it’s a post that shares how to organize those plans and prep for you lessons.

Elementary Lesson Plan Templates

Let’s start by addressing the fact that almost all teachers have lesson plan requirements that are not necessarily beneficial to the teacher or students. I speak from experience when I say that I understand. In this post, I’ll address some of the strategies I use to streamline and/or merge lesson plan formats that you want with the lesson plan formats your administration wants.

It’s important to find an elementary lesson plan template or format that works for YOU.  It may take a little playing around, but eventually you’ll find one you like. This is one of my original lesson plan templates that I used for my general plans. It gives a brief overview of what I’ll be teaching throughout the week.

This weekly elementary lesson plan template give me room to list what I was doing in each lesson, and that’s about it. This lesson plan format reminds me to traditional-printed lesson plan books.

My lesson plan templates changed when I started to departmentalize. They also morphed into something a bit more fancy. It’s 100% not necessary-I just liked the way it looked. I kept these plans in my teacher binder (Happy Planner). You can download this format here.

To share my lessons with our special education teachers and my administration, I would take a screenshot of the lesson and add it to a new page in Google Slides.

I finally made the switch to completely transition to digital plans on Planbook.com. It wasn’t the most user-friendly experience or process. If it weren’t for the guides on Ladybug Teacher Files, I would have been lost. She teaches how to digitally design your lesson plan templates. To be honest, I would be happier if these were shorter, but it’s not a choice at this time.

Formal Elementary Lesson Plan Template

Many teachers (including myself) work in schools where there is a lot required in each lesson plan. That’s why I include formal lesson plans in all of my reading, writing, and math units. I want to help alleviate some of the extra burden and stress that comes with detailed lesson plans. My detailed lesson plan templates include the standard, materials, mini lesson, work time, closing, remediation, extension, formative assessment, and essential questions for each specific lesson. You can download an editable template of this elementary lesson plan format here.

If you use an online platform such as Planbook, you can upload these formal lesson plans as screenshots or attach them as PDF files. You can also copy and paste the lesson plan into the site. It is an extra step, but it’s far better than writing everything out!

Powerpoint vs Word

If you’re not using an online platform, I recommend Google Slides or PowerPoint over Word because of one feature: duplicate. You make everything in a slide the same way you would a Word document. It will even print the same as a Word document. However, everything is kept to one page. If you want a new page, you have to manually insert the new page.

When you duplicate a page, it is very similar to copying and pasting, except you don’t have to deal with formatting issues. A new page is created exactly like your previous page. If you make changes to previous pages, it doesn’t effect the following pages, which is amazing. This is also time saving, because many things in a lesson plan don’t change within a unit. For example, in my place value unit, I don’t have to rewrite the standards and essential questions for every lesson; that will be the same from lesson to lesson.

Keep a Binder

While I do write everything digitally, I still print my lesson plans. I organize them into 9-week binders. (Edit-As of the 2022-2023 school year, I no longer keep a lesson plan binder. If I were new to a grade-level I would probably keep one for a few years, but at this point it was no longer needed.) 

I have a divider for each week within the 9-weeks. At the front of the week, I include my weekly overview.

Then after the weekly overview, I include my detailed lessons and every printable that will need to be copied underneath that printable. You can see an example of my formal lesson plan template below.

While it does create an extra step, this makes prepping copies a breeze. Since I include everything that will need copies for the week, I can easily have a volunteer make all of my copies. I just tab the pages I want printed (everything except my lesson plans). When I have to make the copies myself, it’s still easy, because I just go through my binder one page at a time. Everything is placed in the binder in the order I teach the lesson, so that’s also how I store my copies.

Plan Ahead

There is a great debate on just how far ahead one should plan, and I absolutely get both sides of the debate. I personally like to plan ahead quite a bit in advance. I build a lot of flexibility into my lesson plans, so that I can remediate and accelerate as needed. A lot of my lessons require some advance prep, and I love to prep those materials WAY in advance…like over the summer. The positive thing is that once the materials are laminated and cut out, I can reuse them again and again, so a little extra effort up front pays off later on. I store all the extra materials in sandwich baggies and store the sandwich baggies in gallon Ziploc bags. I keep the gallon bags in a plastic container that fits on one of my bookshelves.

This post doesn’t cover planning for guided reading groups, because that is something I don’t plan ahead for. You can read more about that here. Hopefully these tips will help you get and stay organized for your next school year! Be sure to grab your free elementary lesson plan templates!

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