secondary classroom organization

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 made some. And then I made some more! Now I have a fun line of different themes tailored specifically to the various schedules in a middle or high school – in traditional and digital formats.

Choose a planner that works for you, and get comfortable with it. I like a planner that is only for planning because it helps me keep focused. Watch a quick Facebook live video where I explain how I set mine up, and I also wrote a blog post explaining how to get the most out of your planner. Read that post here.

My friend Lauralee over at Language Arts Classroom wrote about her process for classroom organization over on her beautiful blog. You can read her ideas here. And her back-to-school pack of goodies will establish consistency in your secondary classroom from the first day of school with this organizational bundle. Included are an editable presentation covering routines, procedures, and expectations; hallway passes; a parent letter; Google Classroom Backgrounds, and syllabus. The design is clean and simple and made with older students in mind. So pretty!

2) Classroom Decor: Decorating and organizing my classroom is probably one of my favorite things to do to get me in the mood for back-to-school. I don’t always do a lot with decor each year, but I always try to bring in one or two things new. I’ll pause here to address the camp of people that say, “It’s not about the room. The kids just want to meet you, the teacher.” That’s true… to some degree. However, I think the room needs to be as clean and organized as possible to create a welcoming environment, but I think the aforementioned sentiment comes from the place where teachers go regarding overspending and unhealthy comparing. To read more on that topic, swing by this blog post: How my trip to Magnolia Market helped me prepare for back-to-school. With that said, I’d love to share some cute student-centered and student-created classroom decor supplies and ideas. If an activity can double as classroom door (AKA – the kids create it and I don’t have to), then that is perfect to me. For all my secondary math friends out there, take quick trip over to Math in the Middle’s blog and read her post on setting up your middle school math classroom. She has tons of practical ideas and pictures! Scaffolded Math and Science does just that for her middle school math classroom with her back-to-school math pennants. Some pennants ask students to fill in information about themselves (name, birthday, favorite color, favorite class), some have numbers of the Fibonacci Sequence within the Spiral, and others are more open-ended for coloring or adding what you’d like to see on the pennants. Super cute!

O Some Great Stuff for English Teachers has her students create “Share Your World” globes that reveal their true identities. Perfect classroom decor and icebreaker all in one! I typically have my freshmen do a Soundtrack of their Life, but I think I’ll add this activity in as well!

The growth mindset trend continues to grow, and I think that’s because it’s actually something that makes sense and works! Chalk Dust Diva has a no-prep set of posters she made for any subject at the secondary level that you could use a million different ways! Promoting growth mindset is also an excellent way establish a positive classroom climate, and Chalk Dust Diva has a creative presentation and reading lesson that will teach your student what it means to have a “growth mindset” and how the views and beliefs they have about themselves impacts the decisions they make and the lives they lead.

Sometimes just putting a few posters around the room will help spruce things up a little, too, and I love reminding students that how we treat each other is so important. Grab my free anti-bullying awareness posters here. They are super easy to print and go!

3) Housekeeping: We all have to satisfy requirements from admin, ensure communication with parents, track data, make sub plans, keep attendance, and more. Here are a few resources to help make all that easier. Math by the Mountain keeps office hours, and she posts them for students and parents. This idea really helps students respect boundaries and take ownership. Elly Thorsen fixed up a parent and student survey in English and Spanish, which I think is awesome to already have that done! It provides information about how to contact family members, the strengths and areas of need of the student, and other helpful information to know as a teacher.

Unfortunately, a major issue we have to plan for is absenteeism. Free to Discover created a cute set of absentee slips to help students stay organized if they have been out. They are free; grab them here. I also write weekly assignments on the board each week and post the list on the Google Classroom stream. Having a method for tracking data is another item on our back-to-school list, and I like to set up a way for that to be student-centered. Take a quick look at a blog post I wrote about how I track data. It’s super simple, and best of all — it’s authentic and collected by students! Read that post here. Grab my data pack here… or get it in a money-saving bundle of other great back-to-school goodies for any subject at the secondary level here.

Sub plans are another item on my back-to-school to-do list as well. I usually grab the matching Sub Plans label (from the planners I make) and fix up a new 3-ring binder with the daily schedule, class rosters, seating charts, and school emergency plan. Then, I’ll add a few emergency lessons in another section just in case of an unexpected absence. In my high school English classroom, I typically use my Hot Topics Info Text lessons because they are no prep and have the substitute instructions sheet included.

4) Classroom Climate: From the moment students step foot in the classroom, they need to feel welcomed. Even though, we may not as secondary teachers do a hug or high five with each student who enters, we can set a positive and inviting tone. Icebreakers and team building games play a role in creating a welcoming environment for students. Teens love to talk, but they are pretty insecure when it comes to speaking up and out in class. These conversation starters from Pathway 2 Success are a flexible way to get kids chatting. The 170 task cards are the ideal mix of questions regarding self, home, friends, school, family, and beliefs. They would be awesome to help students share information, open up, and begin to form positive relationships.

Escape games are still really hot right now, and I know my kids would love to participate in one as an icebreaker on the first day of school. Presto Plans won’t let her middle school students zone out on the first days of school! Her back-to-school zombie escape game is highly engaging! It can be used in English class as it incorporates some ELA skills, but can also work for any other subject.

Lit with Lynns created one that will work with any class. Her game includes a crossword puzzle, a completely EDITABLE syllabus accompanied by a syllabus scavenger hunt, and a get to know other students activity. I love that it’s a quick 3-puzzle game, so it doesn’t take up too much time, but lets kids have a little fun! Barraug Books and Curriculum goes old school for her back-to-school team building game: Cup Towers. While students are racing against the clock to build the tallest cup tower, you are evaluating their strengths and interpersonal skills. It’s a win-win!

Since I’m not a science teacher, it didn’t even occur to me that part of setting up a classroom climate should include safety measures until I saw this science lab for teaching science lab safety from Strawberry Shake! This resource contains everything you need to get your students started safely in your lab or science classroom, and I think your middle school science kids would love it.

Andrea from Right Down the Middle has a cool idea for incentives, which an excellent tool for positive classroom management. Students are able to earn reward incentives through their kind deeds, actions, and performance in class, then they cash them in at various times during the year.

Bell ringers are probably the #1 activity teachers need in their toolbox to set the stage for class right from the beginning of the year. Part of classroom climate, to me, is structure and order. Bell ringers say to students: We are going to be serious about work and have purpose in this class. Content-specific bell ringers are meaningful for your subject matter, and they teach students to get busy and orderly right from the start of class. Spanish teachers can also set things up for each day of school with Angie Torre’s Spanish Bell Ringers. They are packed full of tasks to challenge your high school students. I love use to grammar bell ringers with my high school English classes. Ten minutes each day covers a lot of ground in grammar, and my students are working from bell to bell.

Last but not least, are the classroom rules… but going over classroom rules doesn’t have to be boring! I created these fun emoji puppets that I use every year with my high school students on the first day of school.

If setting up station rotations is more your idea of fun for addressing classroom rules and procedures, check out of a few of these ideas: With Tween Spirit’s back to school stations, students search the syllabus, take selfies, and more. Room 213 sets up stations, too, and she has students setting goals, meeting classmates, and learning rules.

5) Activities and Lessons: A teacher can never have too many back-to-school activities, in my opinion. It’s like a girl with her shoes – something to match each outfit and/or situation. If you are like me, once you do a few icebreakers and go over classroom rules, you are ready to get to work. A good place to start is with review. Real Lessons for the Teenage Mind has a bundle of review activities for English skills that would be perfect for your middle school students because they combine authenticity, movement, competition, and collaboration to make sure your students stay engaged and build a positive classroom culture in the first week. I like to use my 100 Words Every High School English Student Should Know list as a pre-test to see where students are with their Tier 3 Vocabulary. Science teachers can review key terms and even lab safety with The Lab’s Back to School Science Color by Number Activity Bundle.

If you teach middle or high school Spanish, you are going to love The Stress Free Spanish Teacher’s Spanish Llama Mystery Pictures. We all have that crazy picture day right at the beginning of school, and these are so clever. I laughed out loud when I saw them!

Once the first few days are over, then what? Start looking at long-term units and units that build on each other through the year. OCBeach Teacher has her students working on writing prompts that encourage students to think critically about situations requiring problem solving. Teacher of any high school subject who want to get in more reading and writing this year could take a look at my no prep Article of the Week Resource. Reading pedagogy suggests that students are most successful with a text when they revisit it more than once with a different and meaningful purpose each time. The “article of the week” approach does that. Get ready for standardized reading assessments and improve your students’ reading and comprehension skills a little at a time week over week!

I also love this email etiquette mini unit from Reading and Writing Haven. She said, “You might be surprised to learn that 91% of people check their email daily. It’s a real-life skill. Email is the #1 app used on a smart phone. In short, email matters. We need to teach students how to represent themselves well when communicating in this genre.” Melissa is passionate about helping teachers help kids gain the skills they need to function in the real-world, and this mini unit is the perfect way to set kids up for success during those first days of the year.

Luke Rosa from Students of History says, “As all teachers know, it is [going to be] a long school year. Over the course of [the next] 180 school days, there are bound to be point where both you as a teacher, and the students, are burned out, bored, or just otherwise not excited about the curriculum.” Bookmark his blog post, “6 Awesome Insta-Worthy Classroom Activities.” I plan to visit it throughout the year to give myself a little boost when the activity idea bank starts running low.

Here’s to a great school year. Please feel free to link up in the comments what you use and do successfully for back-to-school!

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Written 7/2019

Cover Photo Matt Raglan

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 we use GC for posting video tutorials and audio links to books. I still print worksheets for grammar each week, but I can use GC to send home virtual practice quizzes. I still lecture live in class with my PPT slides and students take notes, but with GC I can post key slides for review. Presentation days are streamlined now as students turn in their projects to the Assignment tab, but I still grade using a hard-copy rubric. In that way, GC as allowed me to enhance and improve instruction, organization, more. Here are five ways a blended traditional and digital classroom benefit my students and me in my secondary classroom.

1) Easy Set Up – I set up my virtual classrooms as soon as I know my teaching assignments. Navigate to your Google Apps, and find the Classroom Tab. Once inside, just click the + sign by your picture to add a class. You can customize those pictures at the top as well using the free pictures included! GC will automatically generate a code for each class (find it in settings); all you need to do is copy it or project it and go. I like to put that code on my syllabus, and on the first day of school, I have my students join my Google Classroom. If students don’t already have the GC and email apps installed on their phones, I have them do that then, too.

2) Communication – This piece is critical for me as GC allows me to communicate with my students easily and creatively, and it offers another channel for communication with parents – automatically. With GC, I can enter parents’ email addresses for each student (or your school might already have them entered), flip the parent/guardian switch to “ON,” and GC will automatically send email summaries to my students’ families…I don’t have to do a thing! If you don’t see this feature, be sure to ask your school admin to turn it on. Word of caution: If you are entering parent/guardian emails, make sure you are sending info to the correct legal guardian. The emails aren’t two-way, but I still love that families get a snapshot of what we’ve done each week.

Communication with my students through GC is the ticket. I can post to the stream reminders, notes, pictures, videos, weekly schedule/calendar, etc. and they get a notification when I’ve done so. I also like that with the students the communication can be two-way, if you set your classroom up like that. I do leave it open for students to post and comment on the stream, but you can decide what works best for you. I also use GC as an extension of my classroom for discussions. Using the Question feature or just by posting on the stream, students can have virtual discussions beyond the walls of my traditional classroom. They can ask me and each other questions, and since students are very responsive to notifications on their devices, they often get immediate answers.

3) Snazzy Features – I’m not really a gadget-lover type person, but I think of the features in GC as cool gadgets! The first snazzy feature in GC that I like – probably the most – is the scheduling feature. I am crazy, crazy busy during the day (shocking for a teacher to say that, right?), so being able to schedule several posts and/or assignments at once when I finally get (or make) some time makes my life so much easier. For example, I like to send home a “Flipped Classroom” grammar video on Tuesday nights for students to watch in prep for the worksheet on Wednesday. I already have a list of the videos I want to use, so with the scheduling feature, I can post several of those at once.

Another cool tool I like inside of GC is what I call the “Student at a Glance” sorting feature. When you click on the “People” tab, you see all of your students in a class. From there, you are able to click students one at a time, and all of the assignments, completion, grades, etc. show up. It’s perfect for conferencing, make up work, etc.

GC has made the movement to more digital/virtual resources a snap with the “Make a Copy for Each Student” switch. While most of my classwork is still traditional paper and pencil, GC has allowed me to move to a few virtual assignments. For example, when my students are researching for a major writing assignment, I have the computer cart booked, so the logistics work out for GC classroom to play a larger role during that unit. Since students are researching online, I created digital note cards on which they can collect their info. It’s easy to pull the file from my drive and “Make a Copy for Each Student.” That way we aren’t all making changes to the original, and I don’t have to change any URLs. The same is true for my yearbook bell ringer workbooks. I’ll schedule several weeks’ worth in advance, make a copy, and students will have them right in their own drive ready-to-go when class starts!

4) Organization – Keeping up with late work and dues dates is so easy with GC because you set all that when you create an assignment. I also love that all student work is submitted and stored in the assignment you create, so grading, responding, and presenting is so easy. GC also automatically makes folders in the Drive for each assignment, too. A new feature I love is the “Create a Topic” option, which takes the organization to a whole new level. Not to mention – the differentiation options that opens up: Create topics for varied levels of readers (with cute names/colors, etc.), post certain assignments in that topic, let them know what topic they are to click on, and set students on their individualized way.

5) Feedback – As a writing teacher, feedback is critical. However, with 75-minute periods and often 25+ students in a class, I can’t conference with all of them as in depth as I’d like – or as often as I’d like. With GC, I create an assignment for their draft, and then I can use the Suggestion feature in Docs or Slides to make comments. This is also a two-way feature, so students can respond and reply to me there. Of course, virtual feedback doesn’t replace traditional face-time, but it does help get the conversation going and allows me to provide very personalized instruction. You can read more about my feedback process on writing here.

PS: If you haven’t ever used the Comment Bank via Docs or Slides, run – hurry – use it! You can save your most-used comments, and I took that to the next level by adding links to videos and tutorials on the most common grammar and writing mistakes I see. Doesn’t that sound amazing? If you’d like to automate that process even more, take a look at my Essay Grading Annotations for Feedback in Printable and Digital format so all you have to do is copy and paste!

We are a Google school, so all of our teachers and students have a Google email address, and we had access to Google suite, classroom, etc. for a while before I was “ready” to give it a try. (I’m a little slow to jump on a bandwagon.) Once I did, though, #gamechanger. Share your best GC tips below!

Sign up for my monthly newsletter – “The Plot Line” – that is delivered directly to your email inbox each month. Each month you’ll get announcements, tips for teaching, updates on new and revised resources, and, of course, an email-only exclusive FREEBIE! Just for joining, you’ll receive a free gift: Worksheet Analysis Sampler for a Variety of Texts.

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Written 7/2019
Coffee photo created by freepik – www.freepik.com

Tips for Surviving the End of the Year in a Secondary Classroom

It’s that time of year when things are starting to wind down. It’s after state testing, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I teach juniors and seniors and that senioritis starts to creep in about March for the seniors who know their days in public education are just about over. Well, what if those feelings of apathy, tiredness, discontent, and general aggravation aren’t just coming from the students? What if you – the teacher –are starting to feel the summer slide, too? You know the symptoms all too well from seeing it in your students, so if you have that same diagnosis this time of year, here are a few ways to beat that senioritis bug and end the year strong. If you have any tips and suggestions that work, leave them in the comments below!

1) Clean. I don’t know about your classroom, but mine gets so dirty throughout the year with kids coming and going. I’m not talking about piles of papers here or general disorganization; I mean dirt and dust bunnies galore. My board is so smeared, and the desks are pretty much black. A couple times a month, I’ll take the time to wipe down the desks with a Clorox wipe, but at the end of the year, it’s a much better idea to go ahead and break out the 409 and paper towels and give them all a good scrub – mine included. I’ll even borrow a mop and scrub around the baseboards. I always feel much more refreshed after I’ve given my room a good wipe down.

2) Organize. Piles of papers. Folders stacked here and there. Graded work heaping up. Books waiting to be checked back in. This pretty much describes the scene in my classroom by May. A messy room and/or desk does nothing for my motivation to be at school, and it even makes me want to just throw it all away, which wouldn’t be a good idea since I would have to start all over again in the fall. I have a decent system for organizing and filing, but it just seems to get away from me this time of year while I’m working on closing out yearbook, finalizing grades, and planning graduation. Having a system in place is key, though, because when I do have a second to clean up, it usually doesn’t take too long. I think the major road block to getting organized and maintaining that organization is an over-complicated process. An over-the-top organizational approach eventually gets overwhelming, and in the fast-paced life of a classroom teacher, things need to be simple. When I think of classroom organization, my main concern is not cute caddies and containers for my pencils, tape, etc. (I do have a classroom design/style/theme that I love, though. You can see that post here). Rather, I think of my day-to-day routine, and what it takes for me to plan, teach, grade, and manage my classroom without chaos. I’ve tried many different methods for organizing, and after a while, I think I’ve got it down to what works for me. Even though I teach multiple grades – three out of three preps every semester – I still use the same system for everything. Here’s how I take my desk from chaos to clean in five easy tips that have truly simplified my life over the years.

Have a place for students to turn in work. I’ve seen (and tried) different folders for each class or each student even. I’ve seen accordion files or hanging files for students to turn their work in. I’ve tried having a different place for late or make up work. I can never keep up all of that sorting, and eventually, I just give up. What I’ve come to find is that the more places you store the “Grade Me” work, the more opportunity for it to get misplaced. And that method takes up a lot of real estate in the classroom, too. I’ve been using one basket as a place for students to turn in work for about three years now, and it has been the ONLY thing to stick – and work. Whether it’s make up work, late work, or daily work, it goes in the “Grade Me” basket. Whether it’s first period, second period, or fourth period, it goes in that one basket. Now, if I’m collecting work from one period, once everyone has turned in his/her paper, I’ll go ahead and paperclip all those together. If I have the answer key handy, I’ll even attach that to the pile as well. Then when I’m ready to grade, it’s all right there in that one place. Yes, make up work or work from other classes gets mixed in from time to time, but that’s ok with me. I know and kids know if their work makes it to the basket, I will eventually see it and grade it. It’s also simple for the kids, and we all know why that’s important. If they can’t figure it out, you can forget it.

Have a place to store graded work until you can get it handed back. You probably already have a space like this in your classroom, but again for me, it must be simple and not take up much space. I just use a magazine bucket, but a hanging file folder box would work well, too. All my classes do have a separate folder in that box, and when it gets full, I know it’s time to hand work back. Just be aware that students needing to do make up work, might go pilfering through that box for answers on work you’ve already scored.

Have a place for teaching materials that you are using on a weekly and daily basis. Again, this is something that I’ve struggled with for years and years, and I just now have a system that works. It also works for having materials handy for makeup work. It goes like this: one box, one hanging folder per class. The end. I think you might be noticing a trend. I like to keep everything in one place. This crate sits on the corner of my desk, and when I make my morning or afternoon copies, I drop them in the correct folders when I walk into the room. If I have multiple lessons going for one class – which I usually do in an honors class – there are smaller folders inside the hanging folders. And, I usually have a folder for the master copies (which came out of my binders and are in sheet protectors) and then another folder for the student copies. I actually have one crate for each prep, and the past few years, I have had three preps, so that’s three crates.

Have a place for master copies of teaching materials. I mentioned master copies in sheet protectors above. By master copies of my teaching materials, I mean one blank copy of any worksheets, etc. the unit plan overview, daily lesson plans, and the answer keys. These go in a sheet protector in a 3-ring binder by class: junior honors, senior dual enrollment, yearbook, etc. Any extra copies or ideas I find during the unit that I might use later go in a manila folder to be filed. As a side note, these sheet protector packs can get pretty hefty, so I use extra capacity sheet protectors that I get from Amazon. Those binders sit on the shelf behind my desk. When I’m ready to start a new unit, I pull out the sheet protector pack and move it to the daily materials box.

Have a place for teaching materials that need to be filed. Since I do have three preps out of three preps each year, this is probably the pile that gets the largest more quickly than any other pile. My “FILE Me’ box is big enough to fit file folders and several stacks of papers. Then, when I’ve finished a lesson and have extra copies or student work samples to file later – during my down time 🙂 – it’s all in one place ready to go in its long-term home in the filing cabinet. If I can, I’ll go ahead and pop it in the filing cabinet as soon as I can. But if it has to sit for a minute, at least it’s already in a folder.

3) Try something new and/or student centered. Now that you’ve completed those lessons that are tried and true to get your students ready for state testing, etc. try something you’ve been curious about all year. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut, which leads to boredom, behavior problems, and bad moods. I’ve wanted to try Kahoot – since last May – but I couldn’t fit it in during the year. Plus, I was just really uncertain of how smoothly it would go. Last week, I was not in the mood to do anything – specifically review for EOCs, so I decided it was time to shake things up. We still needed to review grammar before the state testing, so I decided to load some of my real world grammar fails images into Kahoot and just give it a try. Because I already had those made up, it was just a matter of loading those pics and adding the choices. It took me less than 30 minutes to prep it, and it was very easy to use in class. I put my students in groups and let them use one device per group to select their answers. The program basically walks you through the steps. You can also search public Kahoots for free and play with no prep at all! The kids loved it! I was in a much better mood after doing a little something different from the status quo!

More ideas for trying something new:

Another thing that gets me down this time of year being busy from bell-to-bell. At this point in the year, usually, there isn’t any new material to cover, but having nothing for kids to do – or giving them busy work day after day gets old. They eventually catch on and that leads to more problems. A student-centered short research project where students pick their own topic, manage their own product, and then present to the class is just what the doctor ordered. Check out my free Antiques Show and Tell Research Project.

Antiques Show & Tell Common Core MLA Research Project -Fea

4) Have a party. Kids beg for a party this time of year. I’m not against parties, but I do want them to be on purpose. I’ve shared about my Great Gatsby party before. Click here to see more on that idea. Last week, my seniors finished Fahrenheit 451, and we had a final party where all the food was red, orange, or yellow. These are the times memories are made, and, of course, some sweet treats are surely the perfect antidote for senioritis. Look at how creative my students were in preparing their “hot” dishes!

5) Plan ahead. What feels better than planning ahead and taking some of the pressure off those first few days of school in the fall? Where I teach, we don’t normally know our schedule or students until a couple of weeks before school starts, but I still always try to take time to reflect on what I did this year. If I have time, I’ll even ask the students to reflect and evaluate the class, so I have authentic feedback as I’m looking at next year. Take a look at ALL my planners – printable and Google-drive planners here!

Here’s to a strong end to the year and a great summer! Share your best end-of-year secrets below!

Sign up for my monthly newsletter – “Teaching Tidbits” – that is delivered directly to your email inbox each month. Each month you’ll get announcements, tips for teaching, updates on new and revised resources, and, of course, an email-only exclusive FREEBIE!