The Bow Tie Teacher

T'was the week of Pre-planning

Twas the week of Pre-planning, and all through the school
all the teachers were scurrying with glue tools.
The bulletin boards were all hung with care,
In hopes that students would soon would be there.

Said students were at home enjoying their summer,
While visions of school starting in August cause them a bummer.
And I with grace and a diligent manner,
Sat down to do lessons in my handy dandy planner.

When out in the hall there a rose such a clatter,
I sprang from desk to see what was the matter.

*Stay tuned and I'll finish tomorrow. 

Classroom procedures and updated class supply list

Here's my classroom procedures for this school year. I'm planning to do a snazzy video and prezi for the 1st week of school.  I also plan to post them on my classroom blog and send a copy home with my Welcome letter by the end of the week. *Can't believe the Summer's almost over. 

I also updated my supply list. I think it looks good. 

 

Entering the classroom:   Whenever entering the classroom, please remain standing at the door silently. Form a line as 2 or more students arrive. Each student should stand with one tile square between them and the student in front and the student behind. The line should be on the “second square” away from the wall. No student need lean on the wall or touch another student while in line. Enter the classroom once the teacher acknowledges you and invites you into the room. It is the student’s responsibility to greet the teacher upon arrival. “Good morning, Mr. Whitaker” is a proper and acceptable greeting. Greetings should be spoken and not shouted. 

Getting to work immediately:  In order to be able to maximize the learning day students are expected to have their learning tools at the start of class, this includes three sharpened pencils and any homework folders out of their book bags once they’ve arrived in class. Book bags, coats, sweaters, jackets and hat all have their place on the coat hook. These items are not welcome on chairs, tables or desks. A prepared students gets everything they need from their book bag and places that bag on a hook upon arrival to class.

When you are tardy:  Follow the arrival procedures. Student must have a tardy slip and will place the slip in the teachers basket on his desk. Student will promptly follow the “Getting to work immediately” procedure.

Preparing for dismissal: In order to have an orderly dismissal process, students will be called by tables/groups to get their book bags, coats, any hand outs that need to go home, homework folders.  After retrieving their items the students will return to their seat silently to be called for dismissal.

End of /school dismissal:  The Teacher will acknowledge the end of the class and dismiss students. The office calls and lets the class know what students are able to leave, but the teacher allows the students to leave. The Teacher will inform the class that Car Riders, Walkers, After School and Bus riders are ready for departure. Students will quietly stand and push in their chairs. Each respective group will form a line at the class door. The teacher will dismiss each group accordingly. 

Preparing for lunch  : Our class will line up for lunch by tables. Wait quietly at your table. When your table is called take everything with you. There will be no returning to the classroom after we leave for lunch.  Once in line follow the Hallway movement procedure.

Walking in the hall during class time:  Students are expected to line up with one floor tile between themselves and their peer in front and behind them. They are also expected to line up on the row of colored tiles also known as the “2^nd square”. While moving through the halls the line must remain Single, Straight and Silent. The students must always follow behind the line leader or the teacher. The line leader must stop at every intersection of the halls. The line will move slightly to the left to pass by water fountains unless otherwise instructed. When the line comes to another class, the line will stop behind that line unless otherwise instructed. The line must always wait at the classroom door and not proceed into the room without directions from the teacher.

Responding to a fire drill:  When a fire or fire drill has been indicated, the students will cease what they’re doing and give their full attention to the teacher. The Teacher will call tables to line up at the door. The line leader will assume their position. The hallway line procedure is now in effect. The Teacher will take a brief survey of the classroom and give the line leader the all clear to walk out the door. The line will stop at the 1^st intersection in the hall and once the teacher gives permission the line will precede out the emergency door. The line will follow behind any line before them and stop when that line stops after reaching a safe distance from the building. The teacher will take a head count and use the Red/Green/Yellow cards to indicate that all are present, all aren’t present, I’ve lost a student. The class will remain facing in the direction away from the building until the “All Clear” has been given. At this point the line leader will move the back of the line, the line will turn around and follow the leader back into the building.

Responding to a severe weather alert:  When a severe weather alert the students will cease what they’re doing and give their full attention to the teacher. The Teacher will call tables to line up at the door. The line leader will assume their position. The hallway line procedure is now in effect. The Teacher will take a brief survey of the classroom and give the line leader the all clear to walk out the door. The Teacher will indicate where the class is to face the wall, sit down on their bottoms, and assume the severe weather safe seating. The teacher will give the class the “all clear” sign. The students will stand up and turn to return to the classroom. The Hallway procedure is in effect now.

Responding to a code red/lockdown:  During a school wide lockdown or Code Red, the teacher will follow his procedures. The students will remain at their seats, with their heads down until told otherwise. All talking and noise will cease. 

Indicating whether you understand:  Students are expected to give their attention to the teacher or other classmates. The classroom sign for understanding is the “thumbs up”. Students will give a thumbs up to indicate that they understand what’s been shared or asked of them. If they don’t understand

Listening to/responding to questions:  The proper response is to start/end all responses with “sir” or “maam”. All other forms of responses or questions not in this format will not be responded to. 

Participating in class discussions: The correct way to participate in classroom discussion is to give full eye contact with the speaker.

Coming to attention:  Whenever the teacher needs the entire classes attention he will raise his hand signaling “Give me 5” Eyes on teacher, Hands on table tops or desk tops, Mouths closed, standing or seated quietly, ready for further instructions.

When you need paper/pencil:  Supplies will be available in each table’s

 

When you are absent: If a student is absent it is their responsibility to check their own “While I was out folder” for assignments from the previous day. They will have until Friday to turn in any missing work.

Working cooperatively:  Working as a team is essential to success in this class. Every student is expected to work with others in a productive manner. Everyone in this class is valuable and everyone will be shown respect and value, especially in groups. Groups may work at tables, on carpet squares, beanbag chairs or at the computer center. Successful groups a) respect at all times b) share  c) treat others as they’d like to be treated d) respect all classroom materials.

Changing groups:  When the timer goes off each student will rotate to the next center that is designated on their Centers Chart.  

Knowing the schedule for the day/class:  The daily schedule will be posted on the front board every morning. Along side this schedule is the morning’s “Sharpen your skills” assignment. This will be collected after the morning announcements.

Finding directions for each assignment:  All assignments will be posted next to the schedule for that day.

Passing in papers: Papers will be collected by the Table Hero. She/he will then place the completed work in the “to be graded” folder.    

Moving about the room and Getting materials without disrupting others:  It is the teacher’s expectation that students move around the class freely without being a or being distracted. Whenever moving around the class find the quickest route to your destination that will limit bothering others.

Heading of papers:  Place your full name (first and last name) on the right hand side of the paper along with the date.

When you finish early: It is the teacher’s expectation that students may finish class assignments before the entire class finishes. In the event the student should check over their work to ensure that they’ve completed and done what was asked of them. They then may place their completed work in the table caddy and read a book silently.

Returning to task after interruption: Interruptions will happen throughout the day, when these happen each student is still responsible for their work and should make it their point to quickly return to the work they were doing before the interruption happened.

When asking a question: Questions are expected in class. It is requested that the teacher be allowed to give instructions before questions about the assignment are asked. Successful students should first look at the class schedule/board to get answers before they ask their peers.

When a school-wide announcement is made:  During announcements all students will give their full attention, remain in their seats and remain quiet.

When visitors are in the classroom: Visitors come to our class to see the wonderful things that our class is doing. Therefore when visitors come to class the students should continue to do their work, work in groups, read silently, working in centers. Noise levels should remain “inside voice” level. As long as the teacher and the visitor are talking the students should treat this time as if the teacher is out of the room.

If the teacher is out of the classroom:  If the teacher has to leave the class for any reason, he will leave the class in the hands of the Classroom Hero. (Students will be allowed to remain in the groups/centers or activities while the teacher is out.)  He/she will monitor the class for those who are doing what was expected of them. The Classroom Hero will take names on the front board. Students seen doing what was expected of them will receive an extra point for good behavior.

Saying “Thank you”: The expectation is that everyone is respectful to everyone in Perkerson Elementary School. A way to show respect for everyone is to say “Thank you” whenever necessary. A successful student looks for times to say “Thank you” even to other students and peers. 

   Download Second Grade Supply List 2012

 

Crossfit and my classroom do mix

You all know that I seriously heart Crossfit. Not interested in debating the merits of your dance class or your video series. If you like it and are seeing results, keep at it.  I've seen so many fantastic results when people are passionate and intense about their task. Whatever kind of pretzel you're contorting your body into, please enjoy. 

There are a few reasons I've tied my wagon to Crossfit as the means to drag my carcass off the couch. I've found that my reasons can be lined up with my teaching experience as well. 

 Nothing is ever the same.  Yeah, there are crossfit benchmarks that roll by every couple of weeks or so, but the scheduled WOD are always different. If your gym is doing good programing you'll se your favorites mixed in with your not so fav and that unknown keeps your growing.

This couldn't reflect the classroom any better. There are children who come to you daily and you expect them to return everyday. But they don't! Their evil doppelganger comes in and takes up shop in your room and all you can do it adapt and respond. Got to deal with the Child of the Day that showed up in your room just like the WOD. 

No matter how tough it is...you're getting better. There are the tough skills that you just don't seem to get, but over all you're getting better. Currently I'm expecting the Crossfit genie to bring me a muscle up. I've been waiting for his cousin Teaching genie to make this job easier everyday as well. But what I've noticed is I'm getting closer to my muscle up and I'm getting better at teaching. The more I use resources like Beyond the Whiteboard and ClassDojo the more I see that I'm getting strong and eventually I'll get that muscle up and I'll probably be a good teacher, too. 

Teamies are the best! I work with some of the best people. I'm very happy with my school. I feel the school has my back just as much as they want th best for the kids. That translated into my gym. There are some great people there. Most of our interaction is spent between near death experiences with barbells and burpees, we've really grown. 

Everything looks crazy until you give it a shot.

One thing about CF I've learned over the years is that it's not for most people. Once you start rattling off the latest WOD description and how excited you are, your co workers/friends/family immediately start calling Dial a Shrink. The same applies to teaching. May people don't see WHY we do it. Most of the time we talk about just how tough it is to get through to Johnny or Sally.  Many times we don't KNOW why we do it, either. We do know that we find fulfillment in this career. We just know that we're supposed to and somewhere in this hay stack is big, shiny needle. And we're going to find it. Kind of like 50 #135 power clean for time. "Why?!"

"Well because that's what was on the board today." 

 Planning leads to success. The more I plan and prepare for class the better lessons get. I feel that "break through" happening with my students. The worse prepared I am the more it shows in my students.  The more I plan and schedule crossfit into my life the more it fits into my life. Especially eating. When I plan my meals to compliment my workout I see great results. When I eat when and whatever I tend to derail my results. When I plan to hit the gym right after work, but before I pick up my girls I just works. That keeps me on track and on pace. 

Every second counts. Imagine a workout that goes on for 12 minutes. You're beat down. You won't want to pick up that weight one more time. You look over to your neighbor and they're feeling the same way, you can tell. You notice him looking over at the clock and he makes a mad dash to the weight and hoists it up. You do the same. You two are in an all out sprint. That weight it flying. TIME! You collapse to the floor in a total exhaustion. Afterwards you find out that you and your neighbor were within a few reps of each out, but you pulled it out. You didn't let the last few seconds fade away. You ended strong.  

Everyday in school is like that. When the 2 pm time comes around I can either lean off the the throttle or keep plugging away. Do I let off cause I've been working with these students for 6 hours already or do I keep pushing on? Whenever I push on and make the kids practice fact familes or spell something hard until the bell rings I have a much better day the next day. The kids will come back having thought about the book we read or have some new insight. Every second counts. 

Crossfit and Teaching need each other. The stress teaching causes me can only releaved through hard vigorus exercise. Throwing the weight equal to my entire class over my head makes it very easy to sit that class down and breath a sigh of relief. The exertion that CF causes on me really helps me to mellow out through the day. I'd be bouncing off the walls by 11:13 am if I didn't blow off a lot of extra steam during my 430 forrays to CFSC. 

PS. CF convinced me to leave Team Adidas! 

Wouldn't trade my INOV8s for the world! 

 Alright got to get hustling. Group warm up starts in 20 minutes. Here's a little video of a a 47.5 inch box jump. 

What the Hunger Games has taught me about teaching

I devoured the HG series this week. Amazon did me a huge favor by allowing me to borrow the 1st copy to get me hooked. Needless to say I ravished all three books in a week. While I was working with a small group of kids I realized even more how the students respond to Class Dojo. They want to get as many points as possible, especially when they know that Friday we're going to have a treat. It made me think about the HG and how Tributes responded to the parachutes during the games. Here are some things I'm going to implement in class. 

• I'm going to give out my classroom jobs by lottery. I've attempted doling them out by having the students write an application. This would be much more interesting. *Update, this worked perfect. I am going to have to change the classroom jobs more often. Allowing them to keep them for weeks and weeks isn't working right. Maybe 3 days top.   
• Drop little "gifts" on students during the lessons. Maybe a calculator during a math 2 min drill or a book to help give more insights during a science lesson. 
• I have to manage classroom supplies better. "3 pencils and that's all. If you need another I will have to start taking a Class Dojo point from you." 
• Push the kids to work in groups that grow and flex all the time. This is more of a planning issue than anything else. Need to find a way to reward them for successfully working together. The catty-ness is so old!
• The more we understand our situation to better we can make decisions and not have to repeat lessons. 
• Understand that it's easy to become the thing you despise even if you think you're doing a noble work. Don't sink in order to get what you need. 
• Going to have some kind of mid week reward on Wednesday not just Friday. 5 days is too long for my students. Maybe if the students get 1/2 of the points needed for Friday by Wednesday they can do something fun on Wednesday afternoon. 

Testing starts next week. I can't wait for this to be over. I'm not sure how well my class will do, but I'm just ready for them to get it over with. The stress on the teachers and the kids is immense. The desire to succeed is even tougher when it doesn't seem to be met with equal desire by the students. Just got to hope and trust for the best. 

Day 62 of the 115 Royal Burpee challenge. Been beating my up for sure. I have the lion share of them to still do. Joy! *I'll do 5 burpees for every comment I get about my comparison on THG and teaching. Almost got a muscle up yesterday at Crossfit South Cobb. Got to build off that momentum. 

Class BBoard is up

I'm quite proud of my classes work. We can always stand to focus and use time better, but there's hope.

Pulled a large map up on line and traced it onto some large butcher paper. 

After tracing it I cut it out and placed it on the board. 

Put up our Needs/Wants post cards. I need to take some close ups of these. They were a hoot. 

We labeled all the continents and used yard to pin point where various Needs and Wants come from. 

We made a nice banner "What we know about Needs and Wants" and called it a day. Pretty good class! 

Driving this week with the brakes on

Not sure why, but this week feels like it's going in slow motion. It could be due to the fact that I'm running sans coffee/sugar, but I don't think that's it. What it could be is that it's 80 lovely degrees out and I can't get outside because of the Yellow Scourge aka pollen running amok. *I'd to be the reason some kid swells up like a balloon because they have some crazy allergic reaction to this stuff. At 9000 parts per million that's pretty intense. It wouldn't be a good idea to make them go out and do 10 burpees this week.  

Thankfully, I had a great meeting with my admin about my performance this year. Even though I don't feel as successful as I'd like it felt good to know others who know what they're looking for see that I'm doing a good job. I got a list to work on and the most important it keep assessing my kids. I need to find a better way to assess and retest, reteach on a regular basis.

One thing I did get is that my efforts to keep my students on task are not going un noticed. The kids may/may not always response like they should but it doesn't always look bad on me. *I'm really conscious of the kids making me look bad. Needless to say I don't look as crazy as I thought I did. 

We're in crunch mode getting ready for the end of the year. I'm just taking each day as it comes and thankful for everyone of them. Can't wait to get in the gym today. I have a lot of stress to burn off. 

This week

All I can say is this week is "Job for Jehovah". There is a lot to do and I just don't see where/how I'm getting it done. Taking one assignment at a time. One day at a time. Making the most of each day.

My take away this week is not allow things to pile up. As much as it's easier to put it off I have to tackle things as soon as possible. Even when I know doing so might mean...that I have more to do. I have to jump in and get things that are important done sooner than later.

The only mental saving grace I have is that I'm learning that the more I look for the good in each situation the more good I find. The more I seek for a reason to say something good the more reasons I find. It's tough when some of the situations just scream and scream to get me to say something negative, but it's becoming easier. 

We're at the 9 week mark. We also have testing season coming upon us. So you can imagine the pressure. My school did well last year and this year the stakes have been raised so we have to get at it. 

It's been tough getting into the gym this week. Thankfully, I've overcome laziness so I can get in the basement and swing my kettle bell and work on more form. Not sure if this weekend will allot me time to get in there. It's more a time issue than a desire, but I'll get at it soon. There were some fun workouts this week that I'd love to get in sometime. Back to the grindstone. 

Do teachers ever clock out?

My return to teaching came with an agreement with myself. I agreed that I'd do some work at home, but I had to keep it in control. In the past I didn't want to and rarely did work after 4 pm. I still don't lose my mind, but I do put in after hours/weekend/vacation work. It just helps me do better each day so that time is well invested. 

I get kind of sad when I hear people on either side of the political argument going in on teachers. Now I do believe that a LONG, passionate discussion could be had about the system. I know what I do and I don't take it personal.  I just wish people would allow themselves to understand even a small bit of what we deal with on a daily basis. So many jobs allow you to clock out and not think about your work until you return. Teaching isn't like that at all. Many quality teachers put in late hours at school and still do work when they get home. 

Somehow people feel that saying something like,"Oh, I couldn't do your job. You must be superhuman." Allows them to in the next breath tear down that same person. But those same people would be in tall weeds if they had to do what we do on a daily basis. Never mind what teachers do off the clock, just what we do from 7:45 to 2:45 would sink many a pundit. 

*Jason steps down from his soapbox and goes back to grading papers. 

Call me Mr. Rubric

I'm not sure why I didn't roll these out earlier, but I'm so glad I did. I put the question out about rubrics on Facebook and the responses were pure gold. So I have a few rubrics for specific projects and some that can be used for general stuff.   For the latter I'm going to laminate them and allow the kids to keep these at their tables. The specific ones I'll have to print off as needed and I'll make a large one to go over on my promethean board. After the kids get used to it I'll have them help me make rubrics for each project. Going to laminate a large 4 x 4 grid on some chart paper. I'll use that to make new rubrics that the kids will be able to write the needed elements on. I know my students don't care that much about paper. They're not that into NOT wasting it. Matter of fact it's a big deal that I repurpose old lesson plans and scrap paper for them to do morning warmup work on the back. I'm going to have to drill and drill that this is what I'm going to use to help you get the most from each lesson/activity. Should be fun. 

It was one of those weeks

 We either rocked like Rock stars or we looked mighty odd.  I choose to believe that we rocked like Rock stars. 

This week was interesting. My class did A LOT of projects and class work I'd hoped to be able to display. The issue is that what the kids gave me wasn't remotely what I was envisioning. Not to say it wasn't good. It just wasn't what I had expected at all. Take the project below. 

I wanted the kids to draw a Fact Family of the basic addition facts. The plan was to use these to compile into a book for them to reference every now and then. (At least until they got the facts down like second nature.) So I put this up on the Promethean board for them to look at. 

I also did an example and passed it along around the room. 

What the kids gave me was less than what I expected. Such that I didn't even take pictures of them. On Monday I'm going to have them redo this project as well as a writing assignment they did. Thanks to a good friend making the recommendation, I'm going to post two rubrics one for each project and have the kiddos reference back to them as they do the work. All I can think of is that since I didn't have a rubric for them to reference I didn't give them a clear idea of what I wanted. 

 

I've done rubrics before. Not certain why I stopped, but I'll be doing these more often for sure.