B.A.R.F. Time | Management

I know.  Gross.  But I'm not doing a blog post about throwing up.  I promise.  There are also little to no pictures in this post.  You're welcome.

Some years you just have a class that has a lot going on and at the end of the day you stumble into your house and climb into bed and suddenly the alarm goes off and you're like "what happened, how is it morning already, I didn't even look at that pile of papers".  And in those years, you are scrambling for every management tip you can uncover.

This year I'm breaking out every management tool I know and love.  I'm counting down.  Counting up.  Giving magic numbers.  Showing ever-y-thing I'm doing for my English language learners and special ed kiddos.  I'm dancing around the room.  Standing behind students.  Perfecting my teacher look.  Giving kind reminders that mooning the class isn't a great idea.  Also, we don't pretend to beat each other up in line.  Spitting in someone's face is not ok.  And please, stop hiding under your desk for the entire lesson.  Remember to keep your hands to yourself!  Be kind!  Good morning!

Oh, children.  I love my job.  (seriously, that's not even sarcasm)

I'm not a behavior chart person.  I don't like having all that up on my walls.  I don't like classroom economies.  I know, I know... they teach all kinds of great stuff for social studies, but I don't like the whole management of it on my part.  That doesn't mean they aren't effective.  They just don't work with my teaching style.  Easy is key for me.

I feel like I've probably tried every management idea ever invented (haha no way is that true, but still) at some point in my ten years of teaching.  Some work well for some classes and some don't work at all for others.  It really varies by class, so I have to tweak it a little each year.  I even started a Pinterest board just to collect ideas for my future classes.

Follow Miss B.'s board Classroom Management on Pinterest.

This year, we compete to beat the teacher with our great behavior, and boy is it tough to win as a class.  And while I love my whole brain competition, I really want those individual students who are following directions and being so wonderful to feel the love.  Plus I want some of those who sometimes struggle with great choices to feel the love, too.  So I started Class Dojo up for this group.  I don't do this for every group, because to keep track of a whole class (I have just under 30 this year!) is A TON OF WORK.  And it's constant.  I'd like to be teaching instead, thanks.  I don't like that my iPad goes to sleep and I'm typing in my school produced password and reopening the app to give sweet Glenda a point for "following directions".  But this year, it's necessary.

I like Class Dojo.  This year I may even love it.  They have really upped their game, and I'm actually pretty fond of the parent connection opportunities that are available.  I love a free resource, and this one is getting better and better.  If you haven't checked it out lately, hop on over to their teacher resources and be impressed.

Any who.  Back to BARF.  We compete daily to beat the teacher with behavior points.  The class does great, the class gets a point.  If the class isn't following directions, the teacher gets a point.  It's actually a pretty great system and does motivate students to help each other out and get it together.  I still needed a bigger carrot to dangle than just "be proud that you beat the teacher today".  Lots of teachers do it differently, but if my class beats me, they get BARF Time.  They earn 10-15 minutes of BARF time at the end of the day.  That means when it gets to that time of the day, I stop teaching and they get to it.

They.  Love.  It.

I wish I could take credit for this.  BARF was not my idea.  I learned about it from a professor in grad school, who shared it from a friend of hers.

BARF means Be A Reading Fanatic.  It's glorified silent reading time (this year I let them creative write if they want to as well).  If the class beats me, they earn BARF time.  They can pick a place in the room to BARF.

While silent reading time may not have gotten all students fully on board, BARF time has got it going on.  By October, it's just rolling off our tongue (haha, ew) like it isn't even a disgusting idea.

"Do we get to barf today?"
"Can we barf anywhere?"
"What time do we barf?"
"Find a place to barf!"
"Guys!  Quiet so we can barf!"

It's our little classroom secret.  Sometimes I'll say they earned BARF time and kids will scramble to close the door so nobody knows (the other teachers already know I do this, but the kids don't know they know, you know?).  I don't have a classroom poster for it.  Can you imagine if the principal walked in to observe me and on my front board I had a big BARF sign?  Not impressive!  We can't just walk around the school asking the teacher when we can barf, you know?  People will think we've gone crazy!  They might even think the teacher is a little strange.  Really, I'm trying to save face.

The added bonus of BARF time is that it's also a little extra quiet time at the end of the day and that is glorious.

Just another trick up the teacher sleeve.

            

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Free Admission to National Parks (for 4th Graders)

Hi!!!  I'm going to be totally honest.  I'm in over my head right now with all kinds of good stuff and this sweet little blog hasn't been on the list.  But it will happen.  Once I get my school life settled.  I miss you, bloggers and blog readers (but hey, keep up with me on {Instagram} in the meantime to stay connected!).

I've been flying half way across the country to visit family and friends, prepping my classroom for a whole new GRADE, plus going through new math stuff to pilot THREE new programs.  AND I'm trying to figure out my NATIONAL BOARDS stuff.  I see lots of coffee filled weekends in my future.

BUT I'm jumping on here because I just learned of this super cool opportunity for fourth graders and their families (sorry, every other grader).  The National Park Foundation is inviting all fourth graders and their families (in one car) free admission to national parks for the 2015-2016 school year!  How cool is that?

I don't know the details (because they haven't been emailed to me yet), but you can sign up to support the initiative and get all the deets emailed directly to you by visiting the National Park Foundation website.

And just to entice you, here's a few snapshots from my visits to a couple national parks (and one monument- not sure if that one counts for the free visits...) in the past year...

Olympic National Park (Washington)

Olympic National Park (Washington)

Mount Rushmore National Park (South Dakota)

Devil's Tower National Monument (Wyoming)  ...not sure this one counts for free admission, though.

Once again, here's the link:  National Park Foundation 

There is no better learning opportunity than being right there in the middle of nature and historical landmarks!  Go explore!  

Be back soon once my life is together!  In the meantime, happy new school year to all and to all a good class!!

            

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New {free} Resources Page on RTL

In between summer adventures, I have these few chunks of time when I really want to buckle down and get some things on order for the new school year.  One of those things is having a catch all for the websites I love.  Do you have websites you love to use, and then you forget about them?  I will go on a website binge and then a few months later try to rack my brain for that same website and I can't remember it.  Drives me crazy!

Other times I feel like I've exhausted what I have off the top of my head and I'm looking for something that will provide a student a great challenge, or another resource to meet an entire standard, or something I can toss up on the active board as a new guided math activity, or a resource that will make my life easier, make learning better, etc.  I hate when I have that moment of "I know I've come across something that could be helpful, but I'm not sure where it is right now..."

I've tried lots of different ways to organize these websites and resources, from websites that organize them for me, to making a running list in my Google Drive, but honestly, signing into something is not what I want to do when I need a quick reminder.  I like Symbaloo for my students, but I don't love it for me.  Often times I pin these on my Pinterest boards, but sometimes the pins don't lead exactly where I want them and it gets tricky (for instance, it takes me to a blog with the link- which I love, but not during the school day or frankly any time I'm wanting to find a webpage quickly) OR I don't want to hop on my Pinterest account at school.  Then I figured if I'm looking for resources that I love, maybe other teachers are looking for them as well, so I decided on creating a catch all on my own blog.  That way it's useful to me, plus I'm sharing!  

So you may notice a new(ish) little tab at the top of the RTL blog.

This tab will take you to a list of subjects or teacher topics, and you can choose which topic you are looking for.  Then there's a list of websites I love to use or keep in my teacher toolbox of ideas and possibilities.  These tabs do not have links to products, but rather to online resources available.

I love free resources, and if I don't have to recreate the wheel, that's even better, so most of the resources I like to are FREE (although some may need a member account, but still free).  There are a few that I like that do have paid subscriptions, and I'm sure to mention that in my description.

I hope to keep this as an ongoing list of active links as new resources become available or are discovered.  If you ever find a dead link- let me know!

Do you see anything missing?  This is new and I'm just beginning to build these resources pages.  I'm happy to add resources that other teachers love in order to build a bigger-badder-better idea vault for all.  You can leave a message on this blog post, or just email me at realteacherslearn@gmail.com.

I'm super excited about it and I hope it's useful for you and your classroom!

            

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Spotify (vs. Pandora) in the classroom

Happy holiday weekend!  Since I'm living in the happy land that is summer break, I'm breathing music during the day rather than flipping on the television.  It's amazing how much more I can get accomplished with music on instead of the tv!  

I love music in my classroom.  When I student taught, the front office of the school had classical or instrumental music playing all day everyday and it was so relaxing when you walked in every morning.  I loved it, and I want my classroom to feel that way as well.  I don't play music constantly, but I do try to have it on at different points during the day.  

Like many, I was first a cd person.  Then I went iTunes for a short while (I still stick to my iTunes for my workouts, but not for classroom use), then I went Pandora.  And I've switched again, to Spotify.  I know Spotify is all the rage right now, but it was less about being trendy and more about moving away from Pandora out of unnecessary frustration.  

Pandora frustrated me for a couple reasons... One, it loaded S-L-O-W on my school computer.  When it finally did load, I'd get about one good song before it had to buffer again.  I'd play it on my phone, which was a bit better but that brings me to Two, it stops to buffer all the time!  I don't know if it's me or my devices, but it drives me bonkers.  It also stops to see if I'm still listening, which is also inconvenient, because I am almost always still listening.  And Three, I feel like the same songs come on over and over on the stations I listen to.  I could find new stations, yes, but even then it was similar.  So I switched.  Although both services appear to be very similar, they do offer some differences that I prefer in the classroom.  Here are a few articles pointing out the main differences in services:

Pandora vs. Spotify vs. Beats: What's the difference?

Forbes

Spotify vs. Pandora

Diffen

Spotify vs. Pandora: Which is better?

Mashable

Spotify is more expensive monthly if you want ad free music (I only use the free version right now).  The pros of Spotify in the classroom are that I can play an entire album if I want to- so if I find an artist I like, I can find more of their music and play it.  Pandora would just switch to a new song next. This also helps with the censoring I like to do ahead of time just in case anything sneaks in there.

Spotify has WAY more music selection, which is especially nice because I like to play instrumental music and there are endless options available.  I especially like to play instrumental pop music while I'm working on my own, because then if someone comes in (student, admin, parent, teachers) I'm not thinking about what the lyrics might be.  (Does that stay on anyone else's mind?  Just mine?)

Here are a few of my Spotify favorite playlists:

Back to School Piano Playlist (by Piano Tribute Players)

Instrumental Pop

Any/All Classical stations

A few of my favorite artists:

Smooth Jazz All-Stars

Nazareno Aversa

The O'Neill Brothers

Piano Tribute Players

Vitamin String Quartet (on Pandora as well- I love them!)

String Tribute Players

Robbins Island Music Group

Recommended Albums:

Songs for the Classroom: Instrumental Music for Reading, Studying, Study Music for the Classroom (by Robbins Island Music Group)

Relaxed Reading 

(by Nature Sounds Artists)

Disney's Greatest (all Volumes)

(various artists)

There are WAY more options out there.  I'd love to hear what you or your teammates enjoy listening to during the school day!  

            

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Let's Talk About the Money, Money, Money

Financial literacy is a pretty big deal, yet we don't really tackle it as a topic in schools.  Some high schools (maybe some middle schools?) do offer a basic finance class.  Not many people have experience learning about real world finances until they are in the real world.

The thing is... we are in the real world all the time.  Why not have kids learn some important financial tools young and then grow with them?

We do money word problems in school.  We add and subtract decimals.  There are some financial concepts that are being taught there, but I'm not usually teaching about money.  We teach economics and how money works on a large scale.  Students make and sell products and learn about supply and demand.  But what do we teach them about their money?

I like to offer parents some resources through our class website to put a friendly little bug in their ear to talk about money with their kids.  Some parents don't need that kind of reminder.  Some do.  I like to have my classroom website set up as a resource for both parents and students, because sometimes a teacher's job is to share resources with parents as well!

I found a great new resources that fills an otherwise empty niche as far as education goes for elementary-middle school kids, and I got a tiny bit excited (free resources do that to me...)!  Time for Kids just came out with a new monthly magazine all about financial literacy for kids.  It gets kids thinking about money.  Spending, saving, and lots of other things where money is important.  It's a really cool little resource.  They've provided a fourth grade level magazine, but also the same magazine for 5-6th graders, which is another awesome component!  I think it comes with a Time for Kids subscription, so if your class has that, then you may have seen it already!  The cool thing is, though, that the digital issues are up on their website totally free!

The monthly magazine is called Your $ and it just started in January 2015, so there are only two editions out so far.  Complete with teacher guides for each level if you use it in class!

In my quest to find some great resources, I gathered a few and put them here.  I've also added the teacher resources to my Social Studies page under the Websites/Resources tab up above.  Dive in!

$$$ Resources for Parents:

Money As You Grow

Teaching Financial Literacy to Kids: Introduction

S'mores or Sums?  Next Year Send Your Kids to Financial Literacy Camp

$$$ Teacher Resources for Kids/Students:

Your $ Magazine

Moneypalooza (A printable board game)

Economics/Money Vocabulary Cards

You have hit the economics vocabulary motherload here, download and print right now!

$$$ Just for Kids:

Rich Kid Smart Kid (games)

H.I.P Pocket Change {U.S. Mint for Kids}

            

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Reading Logs | BiblioNasium Website

Do you do reading logs?

I did them for about two years and then found it to be terribly ineffective for both students and myself as the teacher.  Maybe it was the way I did them, maybe it was because I, myself, didn't see a lot of value in them, or maybe it just plain wasn't working.  I gave up.  My students kept reading.  Those that would have logged tons of minutes still read all the time.  Those that would have logged nothing, still read minimally.  Those that lied to me about it still lied to me about it.

When I did a weekly reading log, I felt like students felt like they had to lie on it in order to turn it in on time and get the "grade".  It was so frustrating.

So I have a love-hate with reading logs.

Then I moved schools and my new school does reading logs.  So I jumped back on the reading log train.  You know what?  I still don't like them.

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL.  How do I keep track of what they are reading while still keeping them motivated to read?

So in true Miss B fashion I set out to find some resources to back up my stance on reading logs, or completely discredit my idea that reading logs are ineffective.  I'm open to whatever.  Here's what I found...

The Effect of Mandatory Reading Logs on Children's Motivation to Read

Journal of  Education Research (Princeton University) 

Students without mandatory nightly reading actually enjoy reading more.  

My Journey with Reading Logs

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 2005

Reading logs ARE EFFECTIVE when combined with ORAL SHARING.  Also, more effective with college students than middle school or high school students.  Go figure.  But I like the oral sharing part, and I'm going to start implementing that in my classroom.

Writing Across the Curriculum: Designing Effective Reading Programs

Sacramento State

Reading program ideas and ways to keep it relevant.  Short and sweet but some good stuff here.

So basically, students don't get anything out of just writing down their minutes each week.  However, they DO get something out of sharing their reading experiences.  We already knew that...right??

In my push to get out of reading logs and into AUTHENTIC reading sharing (no book reports!), I discovered a new website to get students interacting with their reading.

BiblioNasium and why it's awesome

*all opinions are my own and no one is giving me anything because this website is free anyway.

BiblioNasium is a way for students to log minutes, create personal bookshelves, share recommendations, and talk about books... in a safe and school friendly environment.  I'd say the best website to compare it to is Shelfari.

Once your students all have profiles, they can choose an avatar and get started.  You can set up weekly challenges for them based on books read or minutes read (I go with minutes)- and they can log their minutes and see how close they are getting to the weekly goal.  When they log their minutes, they are also logging the book they are reading and how much is read.  At the end of the week or month, you can run a report that shows you all student reading for the selected time.  

That's... no paperwork!  Minutes are already added!  Goals are either met or not met and I can see it at a glance!  Waaahooooo!

Students then have the opportunity to write recommendations and recommend books to friends (other classmates).  These show up in your live newsfeed on the front page.  The newsfeed usually shows a post from BiblioNasium- it could be a book recommendation or an article about reading or just a picture and caption for reading fun.  There is typically a new BiblioNasium post every day or so.  It's not overkill.  You can choose to delete anything in your feed after you read it (yay!).  

When you log in, you see your news feed and this tool bar- 

When students log in they see their news feed and this tool bar-

Students can earn awards when they log in, make a recommendation, etc.  Depending on your settings, they can share recommendations (I keep it to my class only).  They can log their minutes and books, create their own bookshelf of books they have read or want to read, and interact with their classmates for reading purposes.  

A badge on the right will keep track of their books and minutes read since they started logging.

This means students are not just logging their reading, but they are interacting with it as well!  I love when students walk in the room saying things like "I recommended a book to you last night!".  

Sometimes I'll log in during class time just so we can see some of the book recommendations that our classmates have posted.  It's a great motivator.

I didn't discover this website until late in our first trimester, so I only made it an optional way of logging our reading.  Plus, my students still have to write a weekly response so the original reading log still gets sent home every day.  I hope to revamp this for next year to slowly wean the written reading log and migrate to this more applicable version.  Since it's optional this year, I still have a good chunk of kiddos who don't use it because their routine is still with the paper ones.  Hopefully next year we will be using it more in and out of the classroom.  

Teachers can sign up.  Parents can sign up.  Students can log in.  It's good stuff.  Check it out.

I can't just use BiblioNasium and pretend it isn't just an online reading log.  It is.  But it does jump start the authentic reading interaction that I'm looking for.  I'm hoping to do more to provide authentic conversations and oral sharing in my classroom regarding books (not in book report form!).  If you have ideas, I'd LOVE to hear them!  Let's start chatting...about books! 

            

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