If your students are like mine, they are always hungry -- food is always on their brains. It makes sense, though, when you think about the basic hierarchy of needs. Maslow says that lower-level basic needs like food, water, and safety must be met first before higher needs can be fulfilled. Of course, students can't fully concentrate on learning when they are hungry. However, for many reasons, teachers can't be expected to take on the role of fulfilling that need for every student each and every day; that's not really the goal of this post. I … [Read more...]
Everything You Need to Know About Bell Ringers
Bell ringers are a staple in my high school English classroom. Even my yearbook students must complete a task at the start of the period. Without fail, each day my students have an assignment to do right after the bell rings -- every day! About my 2nd or 3rd year teaching, I implemented a system of top-of-the-period daily work, and I haven't looked back since. Along the way, I learned what didn't work and what did. Here I'm sharing everything you need to about bell ringers for class.What is a Bell Ringer?Also known as warm ups, … [Read more...]
Best Secondary Resources for Back-to-School
Planning for back-to-school just got easier with this carefully curated list of ideas, tips, suggestions, and resources for your secondary classroom - in any subject! 1) Teacher Planning and Organization: Calendars, planners, notes, Oh My! The list goes on and on for what the teacher needs to get organized and feel ready-to-go for the first days of school. For me, that's my planner and my high-level curriculum map. In the past it has been hard to find a planner perfectly suitable to the unique schedules of the secondary world, so I … [Read more...]
Benefits of Google Classroom
A second title to this blog post could have been: Benefits of Blending Google Classroom with a Traditional Classroom. To elaborate, I teach high school English in a rural school district in the south. Every student doesn't have his/her own iPad or Chromebook, but most have smart devices, and we have department sets of Chromebooks we can check out. We also have several labs throughout the school. So, when I use Google Classroom, it's as an extension of my own traditional, four-walls classroom. That means my students still have textbooks, but … [Read more...]
Ideas for Decorating a Middle-High School Classroom, Journey Theme
Last year I moved into a new classroom, and it was worth the wait. I had been hoping I'd eventually have the opportunity to move into this room because it was so much bigger. It has tons of cabinets and even an office! Once I found out I'd be moving, I knew I wanted to do a new theme - and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Over the past few years, I've been collecting journey-themed items because that idea just really inspires me. Hopefully this post of my classroom makeover journey - see what I did there ;) - will inspire … [Read more...]
The Power of “I Don’t Know” – As a Teacher
We’ve all been in that situation where we had something come up and we didn’t know the answer. Or we’ve had the nightmare of feeling like we weren’t prepared with all the answers. It all feels awkward, uncomfortable, or embarrassing. When I first started teaching, I would have nearly died when I had to admit to students that I didn’t know the answer to something. I’d like to say that I handled those situations with grace instead of stuttering around – or worse, making something up. But, I can’t be certain. I just know I didn’t want to say, “I … [Read more...]
Classroom Management Tips | Series: Creating Your Own Classroom Success Story
Running a successful classroom requires more than just being solid in your content; there are so many aspects that go into it. In this series "Creating Your Own Classroom Success Story," I’m sharing one piece of the formula at a time. The first piece to having a classroom success story is classroom management, and this might just be the hardest part of all. You could be super solid in your content knowledge and have the best lesson plan in the world but struggle with classroom management, and teaching will always be an uphill battle. The … [Read more...]
