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The Best Upper Elementary Read-Aloud Books
Reading aloud to students is so important. Even as students get older, and can read to themselves, they can still benefit from hearing someone read aloud to them. Jim Trelease wrote about this in The Read-Aloud Handbook. Students can benefit from reading books that may be above their reading level. They can benefit from having proficient reading fluency modeled for them. It can expose them to more vocabulary. It gives the whole class something to have discussions on, among other things. I gathered a list of my favorite read-aloud books for upper elementary students. Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling The Harry Potter Series is a personal favorite of mine. …
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How to Prevent Teacher Burnout
For me, I am less than a month into the school year, but it has been a long month! I am already looking for tips and tricks to prevent burnout. Work Out Taking a little time for yourself everyday is a great step toward keeping yourself calm and collected. I like the Rachel Hollis theory of making your body move for 30 minutes every day. Whether you do a half-hour intense workout, or you go for a 30 minute walk after dinner, just let your body move! Working out sends your body a rush of endorphins. This allows your body to feel good and also gives you something to be…
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Why You Need a Bell-Ringer
What is a Bell-Ringer? If you are new to teaching, or in a school where this isn’t a term that is used, you’ve probably seen something similar. Bell-Ringers are activities students do as soon as they arrive in class. It is usually something quick and typically I don’t give a problem that the students are not going to know how to do. Here are the reasons why you need to be using a bell-ringer in your classroom. Classroom Management Bell-ringers are great for classroom management. We all know that students do better when they have a routine that is expected. Ideally, students know what to do as soon as they…
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Using Positive Language to Empower Your Students!
Do you use positive language to handle behaviors in your class? As teachers, we have the power to set the tone in our classroom. Do you want students to walk into your classroom feeling like they are constantly making mistakes and failing? Or, do you want students to walk into your classroom feeling like it is a safe space where they can thrive? If you are taking the time to get advice and read articles, I think I know the answer to that question. You are obviously the type of teacher who wants to make your classroom the best that it can be. Reminding yourself to use positive language in…
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Finding Your Role as a Co-Teacher
Preface: Most of this post is going to be from the perspective of the special education teacher, only because that is my personal role and what I know more about. But a lot of these tips can be great for any co-teacher to read. Co-Teaching can be a delicate relationship. You walk into another teacher’s classroom and you’re ideally supposed to take over half of the power. It often feels like you are an intruder and you are not even sure if you’re welcome. A lot of teachers have routines and habits, they don’t want someone coming in and changing everything up. But, your district wants to move toward an…
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What to Do When You Have a Substitute Teacher
Being out of school can be stressful, I, like many others, have gone into school when I probably should have stayed home because it was just going to be more work to be absent. Here are some tips to make things easier for you and for your substitute teacher. Have an afternoon routine. If you have a daily routine where you leave your classroom ready for the next day, it will be easier for unexpected absences. Often the biggest issue with an unexpected illness is that you did not make the copies that you need to make the day before. You thought you would have plenty of time before school…
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What to Do When You’re About to Lose Your Cool
We’ve all had those days. The days where you are so frustrated at your class that you feel like you’re about to hit your breaking point. Don’t let this get to you, it does not make you a bad teacher or person. We are all human and sometimes we get frustrated with the situations that we are in. Working with students can be exhausting! Maybe you’re running off little sleep, and little Susie WON’T STOP TALKING during your lesson. Maybe you don’t feel good and your class just isn’t listening! There are so many situations that can bring out the worst in us and you can’t let it get you…
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Things to Include In Your Classroom Website
So you want to start a classroom website? Here are a few things that you should consider before you begin, and what information you should consider including. Tip to Consider: How Often Will You Update? It is easy to go into creating a classroom website and think that you are going to update it every day. But, you know yourself better than anyone else does. Truly, do you think you will be able to maintain that standard? For some people, it is easy. Just add it to your daily routine and BAM! But for others, it is just impractical. When you are planning out your website, keep your updating timeline…
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Special Education Guide: What is an FBA?
What is it? FBA stands for a Functional Behavioral Analysis. It is a fancy way of saying we take a LOT of data to figure out what is motivating a student’s behavior. An FBA can be done when the student is exhibiting dangerous behaviors, but it does not have to be. If a student is consistently falling asleep in class, or doing another task avoidance behavior you can do an FBA for that. You can use it to determine if there are specific situations or tasks that are prompting the behavior. When do we use it? We perform an FBA when we have a student that has behavior challenges. The…
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4 Classroom Management Tips for Middle School
Teaching middle school is tough, heck being in middle school is tough! Everything about middle school makes people groan when I tell them what I do for a living. But, even though I never pictured myself as a middle school teacher (I was convinced I would be Ms. Honey from Matilda), I LOVE my job. I love the age and the kids and even the girl drama makes me chuckle from time to time. But it is a tough age for classroom management. The students are no longer at the age where they want to please you, and all they care about is what their peers think. Here are 4…
