Last year my district moved from traditional grading to standards based grading. While I certainly see the merits of standards based grading, this has been an incredibly difficult process for me. There have been far too many days when I feel that I'm absolutely drowning in a sea
5 Tips to Pack Up Your Classroom
Anyone who has taught school knows that there is no tired like teacher tired, especially at the beginning and end of the school year. Even though the beginning of the year is hard, it's new, fun, and fresh. By the end of the school year, I'm not only physically tired, but I'm
Managing Work Stations
Just yesterday, my five year old put me on her Sunday School class's prayer list, because "Your classroom is so noisy! You must have a really hard job". (She's in kindergarten at my school.) I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but she's right. The noise level in my classroom is
Ready. Set. Go!
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
First Days of Math Workshop
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
Planning: Where to Begin?
Would you think I'm crazy if I told you that I actually love planning for the school year? I really do. I'm one of those people who needs to have a plan. I haven't yet decided if it's a blessing or curse.
When I am planning for the school year, I always plan with the end
Organizing Math Manipulatives
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
Math Work Stations
Several years ago, I would have considered myself to be an anti-centers teacher. I liked the idea of them, but I could not make them work in my classroom. I tried really hard my first couple of years teaching, but they added so much work for me, and I wasn't confident that my
Organizing Lesson Plans
There are so many aspects of teaching that can be completely overwhelming, so I'm always looking for new ways to simplify and organize. I think that my lesson plan binders have been the best organizational tool I've ever used, and I've tried out a lot! Several years ago, I made
RTI Notebook
In my school, classroom teachers are responsible for RTI interventions and progress monitoring for their Tier 2 students, and we have a couple different programs that we use for reading. However, for math we pretty much have to come up with our own resources. I've found resources
