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The author shares the challenges of maintaining an eye-catching classroom bulletin board. To help fellow teachers, they recommend creating designated spots for student work, using background papers with clothespins, and rotating displays by student numbers. The method ensures all students’ work is showcased, fostering a sense of pride. The author also offers free resources for…
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An effective teacher-parent communication relies heavily on consistency. This is particularly important in terms of student work and papers, which teachers need to send home regularly. Managed through “Thursday Folders”, a blend of newsletters, announcements, progress reports, and student work are given to parents. However, managing these folders could be overwhelming without a proper system.…
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The post discusses how having a consistent location for items can significantly diminish chaos at home and in classrooms. It provides a detailed plan for managing paperwork in classrooms by breaking it down into five categories: “To Be Used,” “Papers in Limbo,” “To be Graded,” “To be Sent Home,” and “Universal Papers.” The author suggests…
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Departmentalization in upper elementary classrooms enables a deeper understanding of content and effective lesson planning. Transitioning from a self-contained to a departmentalized classroom requires organization. Effective strategies include color-coding classes, assigning each student a number for class materials, having a large bin for student lunches, establishing specific locations for each class to submit papers, and…
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discusses the struggle teachers face trying to cover all academic standards within a school year, often resulting in hasty teaching and learning gaps. The author suggests a solution of ‘outsourcing’ standards: creatively integrating certain topics into other areas of the school day. For example, teaching symmetry in art class or fractions in music class. This…
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The playfulness of kids on a playground sheds light on the overlooked complexity of learning basic skills. On a separate note, a teacher shares her insight on teaching division, especially handling remainders in word problems, which students often struggle with. She explains three approaches: adding it, dropping it, or sharing it, and uses examples to…
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This math teacher shares a new approach to teaching division, called partial quotient division, which focuses on breaking problems into smaller, manageable pieces. It’s proved effective since students only need to master basic multiplication and addition concepts. However, the method can be controversial among parents accustomed to traditional long division. To ease this, sharing step-by-step…
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As a math teacher, one of the most frustrating conversations I’ve had with parents is about why a student who knows how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide keeps getting low scores on tests and quizzes covering those same skills. Parents are perplexed because they’ve practiced solving equations with their students over and over, making
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Remember your first teaching year, or first review game? It can be chaos! Here are tips to help: (1) Establish routines and procedures (no off-script running), (2) Use a warning system (monitor behavior), (3) Keep all students on task (use independent work time), (4) Strategically choose groups (to mix ability levels), (5) Avoid clear winner…
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The blog post discusses the significance of emphasizing and sustaining classroom behavior expectations. The author introduces C.H.A.M.P.S., a proactive classroom management technique that stands for Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Participation, and Success. It aids in setting precise expectations for different activities and transitions. To efficiently use C.H.A.M.P.S, the author stressed consistent application, with a clear…
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