8/21/2014
I hope you all enjoyed reading my tips last week! Since we did not have a lot of people link up last week, I'm offering a little incentive for those who link up this week!
Find out what it is at the end of this post.
Last week I got to visit my mom's cousin's (I think that makes her my 2nd cousin) classroom. She is an amazingly talented preschool (Young 5s) teacher who has been teaching for 31 years and has LOTS of great ideas! She was so kind to let me explore her classroom and take pictures which she said I could share with all of you. So...here is one of her great ideas. I've shared the idea before to run off all the copies you will need for the week and place them in a filing system labeled with each day of the week (see it on Pinterest). Well, she has a similar system but takes it a step further. She has these bins labeled with each day of the week. She not only puts copies of papers she will be using but also all the materials she will need for that day. So for example, if on Monday she will be teaching about ladybugs, she will put red and black construction paper cut-outs that she uses for constructing a lady bug, googly eyes, pipe cleaners (and any other materials needed for the craft), a book on ladybugs, a ladybug puppet, etc. She keeps each tub filled for an entire week out. On Monday after class she takes out the Tuesday tub and sets out all the needed supplies for the next day. Then she refills the Tuesday tub for the following week Tuesday's lessons. Now she is all ready to go for the next day and set for the week! She says this is such a huge help if she is sick and needs a sub because she
doesn't have to do any extra work!
This idea is one that I used with my 4th graders. It was an incentive idea that I used as part of my reward system for completing a certain number of logic puzzles. If students correctly solved a set number of logic puzzles they would get to use one of the teacher's fun pens for the day! They loved picking out a pen and using it on all their classroom work (except penmanship). This idea could be used as an incentive for anything you choose. You could use it for a reward for good behavior, as a reward for receiving a certain grade or improving on a test, and so on. I tried to pick pens that weren't too distracting! My mom bought me a pack of those pens that have games on them but I thought those would be WAY too distracting so I didn't include them in my "Fun Teacher Pens" collection.
I have been a long-time PC user so when I finally made the switch to a MAC there were a few things that really bothered me. First, I just have to say that for the most part I really LOVE my MAC it just takes some getting use to. One thing that drives me nuts about it is that when you download anything it goes to a folder called "Downloads" and doesn't give you the option to choose which folder to save it to. I don't know about you but I download a TON - mostly TpT products for homeschooling! I know that you can go into Preferences in Safari and choose a different folder to download to but then you have to do that every time you download which is kind of annoying. It wasn't until recently that I discovered that if instead of just clicking on "Download Now" (which automatically downloads to the "Downloads" folder) you can right click and select, "Download Linked File As". This is just like doing a "Save As" on a PC. You can now choose which folder you want to download it to! YAY! This is going to help me be so much more organized with my files! So simple, yet it took me over a year to figure out! You probably figured this one out a long time ago but if not I hope this tip will save you some time and frustration!
Use the element of surprise when teaching! Students love surprises! As teachers, it can be
hard to come up with new exciting ideas for lessons each day and we can quickly fall into the "same 'ole" routines. Don't get me wrong, routines can be/are a good thing but why not add some "fun" and "surprises" to your routines? These don't have to be anything big. I found that my 4th graders loved visuals so if I just brought in a new object to introduce a lesson they got excited. When I taught a unit on seeds I would wear a necklace and earrings made out of seeds and see if my students could guess what we were going to be studying.
Introducing a new novel? You could...introduce the new book by saying, "Okay class, today we are going to start a new book, "Mr. Popper's Penguins." OR... "Boys and girls we have a special visitor today who is going to reveal the next book we will be reading!" Then take out the "Book Monster" and have students ask him questions about the book. "Is it fiction or non-fiction?" "Is it about animals?" You could have your "Book Monster" talk or just whisper the answer to you which you then reveal to your class. OR give students clues and see if they can guess the book. If you're wondering, a friend made me one of these for each of my kids. They are called "pajama eaters" and you can find a tutorial on how to make them here.
Painted Watermelon Seeds Necklace & Earrings from Costa Rica.
Have you ever had to put a sleeping baby into a car seat? You either need to have one person hold the straps up while you gently place the child inside or you end up digging the straps out from under the baby and hope you don't wake him up in the process! Well my dad came up with this great idea! Simply place a small piece of velcro on each strap and the outer rim of the carseat - problem solved! Just be careful not to get the rough velcro that could scratch your baby. I found that this works great on the shoulder straps but not so great on the bottom buckle. Still, just using the velcro on the shoulder straps is a huge help!
Everyone who links up this week will receive a free copy of my Arrows clipart set!
Linky Tools subscription expired. List not available.Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. - Psalm 89:14 (KJV)
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