Tag: school

Conference List

Conferences are right around the corner–are you ready?

  • Have you contacted each parent, at least once, before conferences? Establishing a relationship is critical to conference attendance.
  • Do you have a conference schedule? Have you planned some make-up time–before and after your designated conference schedule?
  • Do you have snacks? Conferences can make the days long, snacks and water make the day manageable.
  • Do you have work samples? Work samples are excellent, critical, tools to demonstrate success and concern.
  • Do you have an up-to-date progress report? It can get lost in backpacks. Have one handy for families to review.
  • Do you have talking points? Having a concrete set of items to discuss, for all conferences or for particular students, helps guide the conversation and keep it focused.

Conferences are time-consuming endeavors. Staying organized keeps you organized and limits the amount of time wasted. Conferences are incredible moments of opportunity too. Being prepared, having clear talking points and examples, allows you to maximize this opportunity to further your partnership with families and to continue working towards a year of optimal learning and growth—for your students and your practice.

Things I never knew . . .

Installment #13:

Five things I never knew . . . until I became a teacher:

  • November is a short month
  • November competes with February for the least amount of school days
  • November has a nickname: “No-school November”
  • November comes and goes quickly
  • November is a great month 😉

 

Extracurricular Activities

Learning does not begin, or end, within the walls of our classrooms.

I’m here to say: encourage your students, encourage your child, to find an extracurricular activity whenever possible.

Extracurricular activities provide:

  • new learning experiences
  • added motivation
  • a chance to meet new people, and make new friends
  • added time and opportunity to process classroom learning
  • remediation
  • enrichment and extension
  • homework help
  • added exercise
  • more time outside, more play
  • an outlet for the imagination
  • a safe place and space for kids to do something productive until someone can pick them up from school

There is so much to gain, so much to learn, outside of the classroom. Find the right one to share with your students. Create new ones. Advertise the best ones. A classroom, a school building, is not the only place for learning–or fun.

 

Classroom Tip #2

You have picked a theme. Now it’s time to think about how this theme can manifest itself in your classroom.

I will be providing color palettes, and/or suggestions for free items, to gather for decoration that apply to many of the themes mentioned in my original post.

  • Animal (pick one animal, animals from your region, etc.)
  • Amusement Park
    • Ask families and co-workers to donate stuffed animals to display or use in the classroom (think carnival section of an amusement park)
  • Black & White
  • Comic books/Superheroes
    • Red/White/Blue
    • Go to the library and see if there are any leftover comic books to rip apart for accents on boards
    • Go to the local comic book store and see if they have free comics (mine did!) or old advertisements for classroom decor
  • Desserts
    • Pastels
    • Ask people to donate old cookbooks, or get some from the library, and have those pictures be your accents
      • Turn some cookbooks into a creative play center or a writing center
  • Disney
  • Gardens
  • Harry Potter
    • Must be house colors: blue (Ravenclaw), yellow (Hufflepuff), green (Slytherin), scarlet (Gryffindor)
    • I would ask around to see what items people have in their closets, there are plenty of Potterheads that bought a bit too much
  • Museum(s)
    • Contact a local museum and see if they have posters or brochures you can line your boards with
  • Ocean
  • Pixar
  • Social Media
  • Space
  • Sports
    • Color palette of your college/university
    • Color palette to match your favorite team
    • Color palette of a local college/university or professional team
    • Ask around for old jerseys to staple to the walls
  • Travel
    • Go to AAA and take every free map possible
    • Ask friends for maps when they travel: city maps, museum maps, national park maps, etc.
  • Zoo

Once a theme is picked, the fun begins. However, make sure that fun stays focused (keep to just a few colors) and make sure to spend carefully. A classroom can be beautiful without breaking the bank.

This added follow-up, as well as a few others, is meant to provide guidance and support so that all classrooms can be creative vibrant spaces for learning. Stay tuned for more!