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Professional Reading
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Classroom Management
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Assessment
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Aimsweb.
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Bruce's Word Test. This word meaning test is an assessment of expressive volcabulary.
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Abecedarian Test. This test contains 6 sub-tests: Letter Knowledge, Phonological Awareness, Phoneme Awareness, Alphabetic Principle, Vocabulary
Decoding. |
Sylvia Greene's Informal Word Analysis Inventory. Reading decoding and spelling encoding.
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Close and MAZE.
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Math is Fun. A math website dedicated to teaching math concepts. Contains links and diagrams easy enough for your students to use.
Annenburg Learner. Interactives for all subject areas K-12 and even college.
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A Maths Dictionary For Kids. Helpful mathematical terms and concepts explanation with diagrams.
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Mr. W Songs
He is not a super trendy guy but I love his songs. All on topics that are hard to find. |
Annenburg Learner. Interactives for all subject areas K-12 and even college.
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Easy Science for Kids.
I found this accident and love the simple explanations for kids. Great site for lower level research. |
PBS Zoom.
A huge list of hands-on science activities and experiments.
A huge list of hands-on science activities and experiments.
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Title & Author
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Concept
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Best Practices in Literacy Instruction
by Lesley Mandel Morrow, Linda B. Gambrell 
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Literacy instruction, research, and resources. This book is easy to read and jammed pack with up to date concepts. My copy is a mess because of all the notes I highlighted and added in the margins. The best part of this book is the sassy, almost defiant edge, the authors write with in defense of quality teachers.
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Words Their Way
by Donald R. Bear, Marcia Invernizzi, Shane Templeton, Francine Johnston 
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An educators guide to teaching and creating active engagement with words. I was forced to buy this back in college and glad for it. I use the resources in this book to create centers, games, and independent practice activities.
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Daily 5
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Title & Author
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Concept
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Procedures & Expectations
In our school we use CHAMPS. This is great because every grade uses this classroom management system so the students always know what to expect from year to year. It is super easy to incorporate and there are tons of resources for free or for pretty cheap on tpt.
This one of my favorite buys. It is a sign I bought at Walmart a few years back but it really gets to the root of what your classroom should look like. I like it so much it becomes my classroom rules.
Rewards
Positive behavior sticker charts are where it is at! At first I thought sticker charts for fourth graders was too babyish but boy was I wrong. These charts changes the way I taught. Instead of always being on the lookout for kids misbehaving, this system forces the teacher to focus on the positive. More positive behavior I found the happier I became. I found out it was actually teaching the kids exactly what I wanted them to do. I was reinforcing the behaviors I wanted instead of shining a light on the behaviors I didn't want. I am a much happier teacher now that I focus on the positive and my students end up teaching each other what successful classroom behavior look like. Win win!
Sticker Reward Setup.
We use a 25 sticker chart. The stickers come from Amazon in packs of 5,000 for pretty cheap. The rewards are completely up to you. I am a big fan of cheap or free but feel free to go big. I took a binder and some plastic sleeves to showcase their reward choices.
Sticker Reward Setup.
We use a 25 sticker chart. The stickers come from Amazon in packs of 5,000 for pretty cheap. The rewards are completely up to you. I am a big fan of cheap or free but feel free to go big. I took a binder and some plastic sleeves to showcase their reward choices.
- Things like sitting in my rolling chair for the day,
- A free homework pass,
- Help another teacher for 20 minutes,
- Three pieces of candy,
- Two mechanical pencils,
- Freshly popped popcorn for snack,
- A free five minutes to tell stories to the class,
- One fun eraser,
- Have a fidget for the day,
- Bring a stuffed animal for the day,
Behavior Issues
I know it looks old fashion but hear me out. I stole this idea from a very successful teacher in my building. The whole idea for this chart is teach a growth mindset. We all start fresh every day. For the most part the kids never have to move their magnet. It is strategically situated at the back of class so that it does not become the focal piece in class.
So here it is... we are all good. Everyone! There are times that we need a little work but even when that happens it becomes a learning lesson. If I have to tell a student to stop doing something several times and there is no change they will have to move their magnet down. Here is the cool part - once the magnet is moved down they have the choice to keep or change the behavior. If a student shows me a change in the problematic behavior they can move their magnet back up to Good.
If the behavior doesn't change, we will have a one-on-one meeting at recess to talk about the behavior and how we can work together to make the necessary changes. This is not a punishment but a problem solving meeting. We quickly make a plan of action and the student goes off to play.
But it gets better. What about those kids who go above and beyond our classroom or schools expectations? They never really get their name in lights because we are usually too focused on the ones who needs every ounce of our attention and energy. That is where Awesome some in. When that student goes above and beyond they get to move their magnet up to Awesome. Every time this happens I make sure to tell the class what they did to deserve such and honored status. That way the students see how they too can succeed and reach for the stars. What is really cool is when those kids who struggle, start reaching and exceeding your expectations, make it to the top. It turns into a classroom cheers fest.
Celebrating success. When a student reaches Awesome they receive two stickers and a homemade award sent home to their parents. It may not sound like much but these kids it means everything.
So here it is... we are all good. Everyone! There are times that we need a little work but even when that happens it becomes a learning lesson. If I have to tell a student to stop doing something several times and there is no change they will have to move their magnet down. Here is the cool part - once the magnet is moved down they have the choice to keep or change the behavior. If a student shows me a change in the problematic behavior they can move their magnet back up to Good.
If the behavior doesn't change, we will have a one-on-one meeting at recess to talk about the behavior and how we can work together to make the necessary changes. This is not a punishment but a problem solving meeting. We quickly make a plan of action and the student goes off to play.
But it gets better. What about those kids who go above and beyond our classroom or schools expectations? They never really get their name in lights because we are usually too focused on the ones who needs every ounce of our attention and energy. That is where Awesome some in. When that student goes above and beyond they get to move their magnet up to Awesome. Every time this happens I make sure to tell the class what they did to deserve such and honored status. That way the students see how they too can succeed and reach for the stars. What is really cool is when those kids who struggle, start reaching and exceeding your expectations, make it to the top. It turns into a classroom cheers fest.
Celebrating success. When a student reaches Awesome they receive two stickers and a homemade award sent home to their parents. It may not sound like much but these kids it means everything.
