Timing with music

I've finally come to terms with the idea that I need help staying on top of time. I am a habitually late person in recovery, slowly learning how regular humans do things on time. Every year I learn a little more. This year, I made myself a budget of every minute of my school day, not that we are anywhere close to that schedule in these first weeks of school. The other day, I even bought a watch. My transformation is nothing short of amazing. Just ask anyone who ever expected me to be anywhere between 1998 and 2010.

So to help myself and my students to stay on schedule, I have gone crazy with timers. I have Kagan timers, which are perfect for timing turns, but then I have to have them open on my computer all the time, which I usually forget. I got a magnetic timer from Scholastic that looks great, but only works about 30 percent of the time. But what I really like is a way to keep time that also keeps my students quiet and gives them some indication of when time is almost up. So I've been timing them with songs.

The ones below I like because they are low-key enough to not be too distracting, but interesting enough to keep them listening. If you have others, please let me know. Ideally I would love it if GoNoodle had a category like this, but until then, you can just bookmark this page and I'll keep adding videos. I can't vouch for the video content on all of these, so I wouldn't display them for the students, just play them on your desktop.

Pentatonix - Daft Punk remix. Some familiar songs with a little twist. About 5 min.

Zero 7 - among my favorite bands of all time. Super chill music. The few I have hear don't have the soaring vocals of the ones featuring Sia, which you should check out on your time. ;) Both of these are about 5 min.

Regina Spektor - Eet. Something about this song always makes me focus. 4 min.

Groove Armada - Edge Hill. Very laid back and a nice long 7 minutes.

Five for Friday!

Happy Friday! You can tell it's summer because I have time to do a Five for Friday!

I just finished reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I am chronically disorganized and tried about a million things to get my house together. I don't think I realized how necessary it was to go to these lengths until I started.

You should really snap up a copy for yourself because the Kindle version is like $8 and you can read it in a couple of afternoons buuuut I will give a little synopsis. The author is a hugely successful professional organizer from Japan and has a whole philosophy of how to get nonsense out of your space so you can actually enjoy it. Basically, you purge everything from your home that does not "spark joy," minus a small handful of non-joyful necessities and the things you really want to have around. 

The first step is tackling all of your clothing. Getting started was intimidating, but once I piled everything on my bed and started handling it, I flew through it. After 45 minutes:

 Donate pile.

Keep pile. The few things on the floor were so beyond tattered I had to throw them away!

Ultimately I filled seven trash bags to donate and one to throw away. And my drawers and closet are still full! It was eye-opening -- even if I somehow managed to get it all clean at once, I could never put it away. Mount Laundry would never be conquered and I'd be pulling my outfits out of a pile on the floor well into my 30s. I can't wait to throw away more of my possessions.

I started using Words Their Way last year, and liked a lot about it. One area where we struggled was in our Data Binders. With so many different groups using different sorts (each with a different number of words) I couldn't find a good way for my kids to chart their progress.

This packet has charts that work a bit like goal sheets. There's a chart for each unit in what you might consider the first grade books (Letter Name Alphabetic and Within Word Patterns). On each chart is a space for each sort in that unit. Students can highlight, color in, stamp, etc. the space when they master the sort.

Last year, I assessed students weekly by having them glue down their sorts. For some that seemed to be a good indication of whether they understood the sort, but not for others. I'm not sure if I want to do it that way this year. How do you assess your students on their sorts?

Looking back on the last two months (during which I polished off my second class for my ESL endorsement and dragged my rear end into my classroom twice a week -- you know you're jealous) I've also watched a lot of TV. Namely Orange is the New Black and all three seasons of Inside Amy Schumer. It's going to take some conscious effort to clean up my language by August.

This is the home stretch of classroom set up. I don't foresee having a "big reveal" because it never seems fully ready. I tend to make a very long list of projects to complete over the summer and then scratch several off the list in the final weeks. I did manage to finish up a few things that I'm pretty excited about.

My anchor chart situation was a hot mess last year. I'll leave it at that. These graphic organizer chart pieces are from the Applicious Teacher and I also scored a cart that another teacher in my building no longer needed. It took a while to create and laminate all the charts, but now it's set for the year to fill and refill with sticky notes. Next to it I posted my I Can Statements for Speaking and Listening so we can incorporate those goals into our group discussions.

I also set up a space to hang the ones that we're currently working on. I'm really trying this year to embrace the idea of not filling every square inch of wall space and leaving some areas to hang current work.

That's also my idea behind my new focus wall. All I've hung are more I Can Statements and a pocket chart for math vocabulary. In the middle, I'm debating what to include. I'm thinking perhaps something that illustrates our current units for math and reading, such as a graphic organizer or small anchor chart/poster. I could also put formative data and goals from preassessments, but I'm not sure the best way to display it. But I knew for sure I wanted to keep it very simple. I don't think a board with 50 items on it could reasonably be called a "focus wall."

Every year I vow to devote more time to weeding my garden. Every year, something better comes up, such as not squatting in the dirt in the hot sun surrounded by hornets. But the monsoon rains of May and June did yield some big happy tomatoes.

If they could go ahead and just ripen simultaneously, they could become a big happy heirloom pasta sauce.

I Can Statements - Math

They're finally here! The I Can statements for math are designed exactly like the ELA statements, except with a herringbone pattern instead of polka dots. The math standards contain far fewer actual standards and most are closely linked. Working on these statements really drove home the idea that Common Core is designed to replace our "mile wide, inch deep" curriculum with something that really lets students dig deep into the important understandings.

I also plan to make a set of I Can statements for the Standards for Mathematical Practice. I think want to design them to be displayed all at once, though, so I need to tinker with the format.

In the meantime, grab these during the Back to School sale! Use code BTS14.

Five for Friday! {with a freebie}

Linking up with Doodle Bugs again for Five for Friday. Let's roll!

By Friday night last week I had both my new laminator and color ink in my possession. So I did what any young, energetic person with an exciting life does on a Friday night. I stayed up until (almost) midnight printing, laminating and cutting. I got some awesome goodies from A Sunny Day in First Grade and First Grade Fairy Tales, plus I finally got to print and hang my "I Can" statements!

Reading Literature and Informational Text standards near the CAFE menu.

Reading Foundational Skills near the word wall and some of the Word Work choices.

I also have a writing bulletin board where I hung the writing standards, but somehow my phone purged that photo. Still trying to figure out where to hang the Speaking/Listening and Language standards. I may split the Foundational Skills standards into even smaller groups so I can post certain standards near the word work students do to reinforce them.

I use these little magazine holders from IKEA for book boxes for Daily 5. They definitely are not as sturdy as plastic ones but are much cheaper and easier to find. I bought all the plastic ones on sale at Target today for $3 -- they only had six! And they don't seem to sell them except during back to school season. My amazing paraprofessional spent a ton of time reinforcing them with colorful duct tape. A lot of them held up really well, others needed more reinforcing at the end of the year. They had been taking up an entire countertop, so I bought these white shoe shelves at Target. They are $14 but you can get them for $12 with Cartwheel. I needed three to hold 25 book boxes. In case you're wondering if they are strong enough to hold an average sized woman while she hangs something up high...

they're not. Thank goodness for Cartwheel.

Added plus, they give me two extra sets of shelves below for storing Daily 3 math stuff, and I have that whole countertop to do...something with.

This year will be my fourth year teaching. Where I am, that means I have been pink slipped three times. This past year went a lot better than the others because I got rehired before the year was out. It's been amazing to have the end of the year and the whole summer to get ready for next year. And truth be told, my (fantastic) classroom paraprofessional did a ton of the work at the end of the year. The biggest project was a class set of OWL binders!

Cover

 

Rules and guidelines.

I can't take credit for the idea. The other first grade teacher and her former colleague had been doing these for years before I came along. She gave me everything she used, and I just put my own little twist on it.

Making these last summer was how I got really indoctrinated into the notion of an organized classroom. I always figured I was pretty organized, or organized enough. But these blew my mind.

They have a zippered pencil pouch, the planner that the school buys, and a homework folder. Then there are two sections in the back set off by cardstock dividers. One is for all the various calendars (behavior, reading, snack), the other is for sight words, quarter by quarter. And everything is labeled with freaking labels.

The kids have exactly one thing to pack up every day. The parents have exactly one thing to check every night. I have exactly one thing to check every morning. It has revolutionized a lot of what I deal with and don't have to deal with day to day. I am now debating what to have the kids do first thing in the morning while I stamp. What do you do to start the day?

Being at home for the summer never fails to impart some domestic lessons. Among these:

• Krazy Straws that go through the dishwasher cease to be Krazy.
• If the living area of your house is 50% carpet, and your cat coughs up a hairball five days a week, the hairball will be found on the carpet roughly 100% of the freaking time.
• If rain doesn't fall from the sky without provocation, you must actually step onto your deck and water your plants. 
• On the scale of difficult tasks, vacuuming a living room bursting with tiny plastic food, a rainbow of Duplos, and Thomas the Tank Engines of every possible size falls somewhere between alligator wrestling and nuclear fusion.

You made it to the freebie! Three cheers for stamina.

My district does Continuous Improvement/Quality Tools. The gist of it is that students are aware of and accountable for their own achievement. One of the ways we promote and track this is through Data Centers. 

A Data Center is a bulletin board with charts where your class tracks its achievement on various measures. Last year I had four charts: behavior, math assessments, weekly spelling tests, and reading (sight words). My room is owl themed (can you believe it?!) so these charts are too.

It's all in Google docs for you to play with.

The math chart is based on a 20 unit schedule. This is my master plan for next year, though I confess being frightened. Another teacher in my district has made some amazing assessments for each of these units, and you should really check out her blog while you're at it.

Have a fabulous weekend!


Mrs. F-W

Five for Friday

Today I'm trying out my first Five for Friday by linking up with DoodleBugs. I picked a crazy week to debut -- I can't say they'll always be this eventful!

A major upheaval in my worldview led me to the conclusion that my house needs a command center. I'll truncate a long and boring tale by saying that I lived a long time in denial of the fact that I needed any level of organization. We have a small house with an open floor plan, an unusual combination that has led to eight years of paper flotsam accumulating in the corners of all the countertops, on all unoccupied kitchen chairs, and even the bedroom closet. Something had to change.

If you're reading a teacher blog, I don't have to explain to you the power of Pinterest to inform us of all the domestic things we had no idea we were supposed to be doing. Don't get me started on how this targets women and the gendered expectations to which we are held. But the command center intrigued me right away.

I have looked and looked and looked at other peoples command centers, like this one and this one. I had to scale it down to my level (differentiating, you know). And this is what I came up with. Ta da!

View from above.

Organizing papers.

Lettering!

Basket o' bags.

Pens, coupons, etc.

I cannot believe I actually got it done -- and in one nap! This is why I only have one kid. OK, this and a few other reasons.

I got as much as I could in the One Spot at Target: buckets, letter stickers. The picture frame at the top (which still needs pictures) was about three dollars. I got this one for two dollars:

I just flipped the cardboard inside to the back and used the letter stickers, then stuck Command hooks on the glass.

The mesh cups and big file are from Staples (and way overpriced, but I couldn't track them down anywhere else). The whiteboard we'd had for years but was buried under a pile of papers on the fridge.

You may have heard this elsewhere, but it's really true: if I can do it, literally anyone can.

This one is from the parenting files. My son is just over two years old. Potty training has hit a serious wall, but hope springs eternal. I thought maybe it might be smart to move little man over to a toddler bed in anticipation of the day that he rises from bed, realizes he needs to go, and takes himself to the potty. WHOA dream big.

So on Tuesday night, this happened.

The point of no return.

Mr. W bought a camera so we could watch the action. At first, I couldn't tear myself away from the video feed on my phone. We'd never used a video monitor so I was unaccustomed to this much information about what went on after we put the little guy to bed. But time passed, he fiddled around...and then went to sleep. That's it! He woke up once with a bad dream, but just stood up in his bed and yelled just like he did when he was in his crib. I hugged him and put him back down and he went right back to sleep.

In the morning, he usually wakes up and sings and chatters long enough for me to hop in the shower. I wasn't sure how that would work out on Wednesday morning. So I turn on the video feed, then the shower...and he instantly wakes up. I watched and watched, and he seriously just sat there in bed looking around. I kept waiting and waiting for hijinks to ensue and they just did not. So I took a shower and eventually he started asking when we were coming. At one point before I was, ahem, ready to head into his room, Mr. W walked in to say goodbye on his way to work and told him he could get up and start playing. Only then did he wander over to his toy box and stand next to it.

I just hope this continues when school starts.

I finally dragged myself back into my classroom to do some physical work. I've been busting my butt from home in as many ways as I could think of until now. But it was time. The little man is going to a new day care next year, and I wanted us to try it out a few times before he goes full time. And I am planning some big changes for next year and needed to start doing the summer shuffle.

First up, Daily 5. Last year was my first in first grade, and my first with Daily 5. It took a lot of trial and error to get to a good place with it. One thing I never quite got how I wanted it was the procedure of getting everyone to whatever their choice was. I know some teachers just assign, some rotate groups, etc. But I really wanted to preserve the student choice aspect of it because I think it's really important. But I also wanted some control over how many kids ended up in one place and to make sure the kids were truly changing up their activities, without micromanaging.

I ended up putting a choice board up on the SMART Board with each kid's name and a certain number of spaces for each area. One student would draw names until everyone had a turn. I was able to start my strategy group while the others were choosing their area and getting settled. That was great. What was not so great was that the students in line would go bananas until they got to the board, where they would stand and stare for several minutes until they could finally choose something. And because it's a SMART Board, only one student could choose at a time and everyone else had to wait (and continue to go bananas with ever-increasing volume). I had a 15-minute timer on the board, and it could take up to 8 minutes for all the kids to get settled.

This year I am going low tech. I want kids to have a sense of urgency to choose their activity (before it fills up!) and I want several to choose at a time. So I'm still planning on having a student pull names on popsicle sticks, however, now students will take their popsicle stick where they want to work. Each activity is getting a little library pocket for the sticks.

These are the Word Work choices, with some of the portable (desk) activities right below.

The little pockets are in packs of 10 at Dollar Tree. I got some colored popsicle sticks at a garage sale, so I'm thinking of doing a color for each rotation.

I was very much hoping to have photos of my "I Can" Statements posted in my room in time for today. No such luck: I'm still waiting on the color ink I ordered to get here. I guess I'll just have a printing party this weekend, because I did get this:

Squee!

I don't know what having my own laminator says about me, but I guess I'll take it! I got a Word Work banner from a Sunny Day in First Grade that I'm really excited about, and plans for some other things I need to create.

So for my fifth thing, I will just have to casually remind you of the majesty of my I Can statements, and hopefully next week they'll be hanging up all over my room!

Written to make sense to you and your students.

I have reorganized my Word Work area, where I can hang the Reading Foundations standards, and my Writing area, phonemic awareness area...you get the idea! I have report covers galore and just need to track down some binder rings. 

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mrs. F-W