Breakout classrooms and escape room activities are continuing to grow in popularity in today’s elementary classroom. I too ventured into the world of escape classrooms, and my students and I absolutely love it! I’ll be real with you and acknowledge that I didn’t have a smooth start, as I had quite a bit of a […]
Escape Room Activities Read More »
Over the years I’ve read countless blog posts, social media posts, and comments over the debate of balancing cute and content. I think we can all agree that there is value to both, and it’s certainly possible to teach with both style and substance. The purpose of this post is not to criticize one or
Balancing Cute and Content Read More »
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. Since it’s such a challenge, I’ve written this post
Moving to 4th Grade Read More »
Now that it’s what I not so affectionately refer to as “testing season” directional vocabulary is more important than ever. I do want to throw out a disclaimer and say that I do not believe good test prep is, or should be, the same thing as “drill and kill” and/or “teaching to the test”. Those
Directional Vocabulary for Upper Elementary Read More »
It’s not a lot of fun to pack up your classroom. There is no tired like teacher tired, especially at the beginning and end of the school year. The beginning of the year is hard, but it’s new, fun, and fresh. By the end of the school year, we’re not only physically tired, but we’re
5 Tips to Pack Up Your Classroom Read More »
I’ve always prided myself on classroom management, but as my class size increases, so does the difficulty in keeping students focused and on task. Math centers (or centers of any kind) are no exception. I find that we start strong at the beginning of the school year. However, after we get into the swing of
Managing Math Centers Read More »
Tomorrow is open house for me, which means it has been crunch time in getting my classroom ready to go. It shouldn’t have been that difficult, because I decided to keep the same look from last year. I still really liked the bright colors, and to be quite honest, I didn’t feel like reinventing the
For your math workshop or guided math class to run smoothly, it is essential to explicitly teach your students the procedures you will use within your math instruction. However, before you begin teaching content area procedures, I recommend teaching general classroom procedures first. The very first day or two of school, I focus on more
Teaching Math Workshop Procedures Read More »
One of the questions I’m most frequently asked is about planning for the school year. That’s a big question without a quick or easy answer. It depends on the situation you’re in at the moment. Planning For New Teachers Don’t rush out and try to do all the things. It’s not feasible, and you’ll likely
Planning For The Year Read More »
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.
Organizing Math Manipulatives Read More »
