Dollar General is for Losers

Alas, Spring Break is over.  Even though I loved the time off, I can honestly say I was ready to go back.  I realize that you probably do not believe me, but it is true.  All I needed was a little time away to miss them- just like in any relationship.  It is healthy.  Very healthy.

Over the break (ok...so it was the last two days of break) I made some changes to my classroom that I really like!  I have never felt like I really nailed the desk arrangement, but I think I have settled for the following setup- much like my mentor teacher from Keys. :)  The only thing I dislike about it, is that with my "larger" classes, I have to use the bottom left desk, which is basically in no-man's land.  So far I am using it to my advantage- I banished a student with a terrible attitude and another student who is a highly energetic talker.  Maybe someday I'll let them rejoin the tribe.  For now, however, it gives us all a little peace and quiet.

In addition to changing the seating chart, I also created a reading corner.  I had attempted this once before, but I never really committed.  I have MUCH work to do before it is complete/cute- right now it  is simply a bean bag, pillow, and a rug.  Either way, the kids think it is cool. I am hoping to use it as a positive motivator.  Focused readers get to hang out in the reading corner.  Hope it works!  On that note- if anyone is wanting to get rid of throw pillow or bean bags, I will take them off of your hands!  (Obviously color coordination is not one of my priorities.)

The next element that I added is not super neat or cool...it is just an assignment calendar.  I've been needing one for a while- not necessarily for the kiddos who are IN class- those are posted on the Promethean board- but for those who were absent.  "Did we do anything important yesterday, Mrs. Combs??"  

*Eye roll*  Of COURSE we did something important!  Even when I have their assignments gathered and placed in the "missing work" folders, they STILL ask me- most of them without ever checking the folder.  Hopefully if they see the calendar plus the assignments, I will receive few questions that drive me insane.  That is the goal.  Less insanity.

This bulletin board is definitely my most functional board.  Objectives, missing work, calendar, creed- they all fit.  The two strips that are circled in green are my magnificent Spring Break find!  I discovered these little dry erase guys at Dollar General for less than a dollar a piece.  I teach two levels of Language Arts, so this works perfectly and does not take up much room.  

Oh yes.  Apparently shopping at Dollar General is looked down on by some students.  I had no idea it was uncool to do before today.  I tend to go off on wild thought trails with my 4th hour, and when I mentioned that I had found them at DG, I was instantly ridiculed by a young man who scrunched his face up as if DG was beneath him.  Every day I get a little less cool.  Sigh.  At least I have a lot to lose.

I digress.  Back to classroom changes.  One of the biggest changes that I made was a change in procedures.  Until today, students would come in, grab their bell work notebook, and complete a short assignment.  After taking roll and drinking more coffee, I would walk around and give each student a mark IF they completed the work and worked silently.  After a week or seven, I would take up the notebooks and give them a grade based on the number of marks they received.  This worked really well and allowed us to refresh certain objectives.

Recently, however, I found out that some of my kiddos were not reading a book independently at all!  I spoke with my counterpart, and she suggested having each class read at the beginning of each hour.  Now, every student is already supposed to read during the first 15 minutes of the day.  We call this time MIRP.  Unfortunately, not all MIRPERS have ben MIRPING correctly.  I imagine that some of them sleep through it.  As a result, we are ditching our bell work notebooks and adding another 10-15 minutes of independent reading.

It.

Is.

Awesome.

With our old bell work routine, kids were required to grab their book and then put it away after they got a mark.  I would wager that I have said "Put your bell work notebooks up quuiieetttlllly" at least 17,803 times.  (That may not be an exaggeration.  I would say three times per class per day was the norm.)   Now that we are reading, however, the kids no longer have to get up all at once, which eliminates so much talking and rowdiness.   Also, the reading calms them down, which allows us to start class positively.  Of course I have a grading system in place and have to monitor them, but it is honestly one of the best changes I have made.  At the end of the week, students who were not reading at all will have read over an hour, and my last nerve is still intact.

I believe I have rambled enough for one day.  This week is our second dress-up week, and I am determined to be the most Hawaiiany Hawaiian at school tomorrow.

Aloha `auinala (Good late-afternoon)

-Mrs. Combs

High Tech

I realize that this is my second post of the day, but I'm just so excited about my newfound technology. I'm sure it's been out for a while, but today was my day to discover it! What is this technology, you ask? It's ThingLink: A website that allows you to upload a picture and add interactive elements to it such as text, videos, sound, links etc. It may sound lame, but I'm all about it. My class may not have the most uses for it, BUT I did find a way to use it to my advantage.  Although I feel like I do an adequate job of giving directions and setting expectations, there is always room for improvement.  If expectations are clear, kiddos won't need to ask 100 questions after!   Not to mention, these are things that we are graded on as teachers.

OKTLE11. Teacher gives directions that are clearly stated and relate to the learning objectives. 12. Teacher demonstrates / models the desired skill or process. 

Using an example of a genre assignment that one of my kiddos completed earlier this year, I've created a great way to be able to show my kids next year EXACTLY the kind of work I'm looking for.  In some cases, it might even be helpful to create examples of unacceptable work (in writing, possibly?).  If you follow the link below, you'll be able to interact with the picture.

Check it out!!

It's so simple, yet so great.  If I were to ever teach high school, I would probably create a few of these and let them explore them themselves- maybe as a checklist for the format of a paper....Did you indent?  Is your heading correct?  Font size?  See where I'm going with this??

-Mrs. Combs

Grudgeball

Ahh!  Spring Break is here!

Even though we didn't plan a trip, these past two days have been extra relaxing simply because I know that I have this entire next week to work on school things.  The most I've done this weekend in regard to school is sort through a stack of papers and read a few chapters out of our next novel.  The rest of my time has been spent hanging out with Kyle, exploring Bartlesville, and reading the ridiculously amazing (and long) book, Unbroken: AWorld War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.  I'm not big into history, but I've learned so much about WWII by reading this biography of Louis Zamperini.  He was an Olympic runner, bombardier, and POW survivor.  Most biographies I've read are tedious and somewhat boring (Can I say that, as a teacher?), but this one has had me hooked!  More action than most fiction stories.  I cannot wait until the movie version is released in December.  If there is anything special planned for December 25, I may be out of commission.  That's not a big day, is it?

Anyway, there have been plenty of bloggable classroom moments come up recently, but I never seem to actually write the darn thing.  Some day soon I will write a blog dedicated to how awesome my coworkers are (seriously, though), and I'm sure I'll write a rant about state testing and how it has infiltrated every aspect of my brain/teaching.  I might even show off my Pre-AP kids' Holes projects. But not today.

Today I want to share possibly my favorite review game EVER.  (I realize that statement doesn't carry much weight, since I am "first year," but I do think I'll use this every year, for every grade.)  I found this game when I stumbled on to a fantastic teacher's blog.  We call it: GRUDGEBALL!

One of the things that many teachers struggle with is making sure that every student is engaged.  I've found that some hate working in groups, some don't work in the mornings, and some are way too cool for whatever is going on in the classroom at any given time.  I love this game because rather than encouraging them to participate, I was asking them to "calm down! Don't get so into it!"  The teacher from whom I stole this game said it perfectly, "What I needed to do was capitalize on the middle schoolers need to interact and torture each other."

The premise of the game is to answer questions correctly in order to knock other teams out of the game, rather than score points for your own team.  Hence, the name: Grudgeball.  I was worried that some of my kids might get really upset by it, but only 1/100 had an issue with it, so I'd say it was a success.  :)  The basic rules are below.  I could see this work wonderfully in high school.  Strategy would play a bigger part in who wins and looses.  In middle school, the only strategy is girls versus boys because "she said I like her and I don't so now I'm mad at her and her friends won't leave me alone and they keep texting me and saying that I'm dumb and so I snappchatted her and....." sigh.

Grudgeball

1. Divide kids into 5 teams.

2. On the board, make a chart that gives each team 10 Xs.

3. Ask a member of the first team a question.  If they get it right, they can erase 2 Xs from other teams.  They may split the Xs, or take them both from the same team.  No suicide!  (Make sure that the teams alternate who answers the questions.)

4. If they answer the question correctly, they also have a chance to shoot for an extra point.  I used my recycle bin and a plush basketball.  I made it a difficult shot so that very few made it.   If they make the shot, they can erase one more X!  (3 total).  If they miss, I still let them take 2 off.  Basically this step was just to get them out of their seats.

5. (I added this one) If a student doesn't know the answer, they can ask their teammates.  However, they can only earn 1 X if they answer collectively, and can't shoot for the extra point. I had to add this one after kids were embarrassed that they didn't know one.  It was too much pressure for some of them.

6. If a team is eliminated, they are STILL required to play.  In some cases, eliminated teams came back to win!  Here's how: Teams that have zero Xs still go through the rotation.  In order to get back on the board, however, they have to answer the question correctly and make the basket.  If they miss, they have to try again next turn.

Bumps will come up along the way, but just be creative in how you handle them.  Also, beware: the further along in the game, the louder the kids get- especially during the shoot-outs.  If a team has 3 Xs left, and their arch enemies are shooting to erase 3 Xs, the kids are very invested!

Welp, off to read more of my book!

-Mrs. Combs

P.S. If you're a teacher wanting better instructions and pictures, I'm sure the original teacher's blog is much more clear.

Subpar Subbing

You have not lived until you've called a young man's father and asked him to speak with his son about giving his friends "nurples" in the hallway.

That's how my day ended.

I'll admit- this whole day was one for the books.  The only reason I have the energy to write is because I'm lying down and my brain won't stop.  And this speech-to-text app is fairly accurate. #lazy

Fridays always start early.  I have duty in the auditorium before school, which means that I get to patrol all of the 6th graders as they trickle in and gather. All 200 of them gather together in the auditorium and try to break as many rules as possible. Or at least that's what it feels like. It's almost spring break, and kids still think that they can sneak their skateboards into their lockers without me noticing, and that it is proper behavior to throw people's belongings across the room.  It's basically me against the entire 6th grade, which seems a bit unfair. The only redeeming element is that Fridays are jeans days.

My classes went fairly smoothly, until the end of 5th hour, which is directly before lunch. While everyone was lining up, a fight broke out between a few of my students. It wasn't a full out brawl, but several kids were involved in a few punches were thrown. I marched them down to the lunch room to get their food and took them to the office.  It just so happened that the assistant principal wasn't in the office, so I spent the last five minutes of my lunch "break" babysitting three terrified, sulking boys. 

Earlier in the day I'd been asked to cover for an eighth grade math class during my plan and guided study, so I headed straight over to the room to find a nice, sweet 8th grade class. For a minute, I even had a breakthrough with a kid on a concept that I hadn't practiced in 5+ years. It wasn't half bad.  The kids even said I explained one concept better than their teacher did!!

Then 7th hour came in.  Within the first three minutes, I heard multiple students call themselves and their class dumb and stupid.  Obviously I'd found the low, unmotivated class.  And the talkative class. And the disrespectful class.  It was rough.

There is something terrifying about subsituting.  You only have them for an hour, and in that hour, you are no doubt going to be lied to and manipulated.  Even though I'm a teacher, I dread it.  You're not there long enough to build a relationship, so it's usually just a constant power struggle.  Procedures are a guessing game. You can record their behavior, but they will not be dealt with until later.  At one point, one of my 6th graders, who is an office aide, brought a note to the door.  I was so relieved to see him.  Even though he is a headache in my class, he is one of MINE- unlike the strangers I was in charge of.  (I'm going to have a rough time letting this group move on to 7th grade!)

By the end of the day I was so glad to be back in the 6th grade hall.  I know I could fall in love with 8th grade if I had them for a month or two, but there is something pretty special about 6th graders.  Especially mine. 

Now if only they would quit giving each other nurples!

-Mrs. Combs

Schizo

Today I noticed one of my super sharp Pre-AP kiddos looking a little down.  He is usually my most outgoing kiddo- very dramatic and likeable.  (Once I let him stand up and teach a 10 minute history lesson to our reading class simply because we had the time and he is hillarious.)  Anyway, I found out that the reason he was bummed was because he was absent the day that kids picked partners for their novel projects.  One option is to write a script and act out a scene with a partner, and this boy was BORN for this project.   But....he was absent, so everyone paired up without him. 

The moment that I told him he could be a one man show was probably one of my favorite teaching moments.   His eyes lit up and I could just see his brain explode.   Not only will he get to be the star of the show, he will BE the show.  I can't wait to see how he represents multiple characters.  He is likely going to try to portray a lizzard, a woman, and a boy, all in the same skit.

Schizo? Maybe. 
Awesome? Definitely.

Drama, Drama

Although I highlight mostly positive things in my posts, there are many things about my classes and certain students that stress me out.  For instance, we are currently dealing with a student who has been refusing to work for several days now.  He will look me straight in the eye and throw an assignment away, or refuse to read, even when I sit right next to him and point at the words.  Now, I would understand if he was incapable of reading or writing, but he can absolutely do both.  It's enough to make my blood boil.  I would feel better (still not good) about failing him, if I didn't know that his home life is a mess, and that he is considered homeless.  Trying to be sympathetic but tough is very difficult.  Hopefully we can turn him around soon!

Another thing that is a struggle from time to time is the constant blurting.  I would say I have decent classroom management, and my kids are definitely learning, but sometimes my kiddos translate my "coolness" as relaxed-ness.  I generally spend at least 5 minutes of each hour making ridiculous threats to hush them up.

"Logan, do you want me to become BFFs with your mom?   No?  Then do your bell work quietly."  See?  Ridiculous.

Anyway, I was thinking that it was too late to get the reigns back until...I talked to my new mentor and she recommended being completely dramatic about writing refferal sheets.  For the most part, I'd dealt with individual kids quietly, on the side, trying not to embarrass them.  I'm a softy.  Today, I tried her system, and it ROCKED!  Basically, here's how it works:

1. Set expectation: Example: No talking during bell work.
2. The first time someone talks during bell work, throw your hands up, stop class in its tracks and apologize to everyone for the delay, but there is something you MUST do!
3. Dramatically pull out a referral sheet, scrunch your brow and make it very obvious that you are writing something down.
4. Include the class by having them confirm details like "Today is the 30th, right?"  " Annndd....we're in 3rd hour?"
5. Don't laugh.
6. Once you are finished, apologize to the class once more for taking away so much of their valuable time, and continue with the lesson.

It sounds crazy, but it really works!  Everyone was so shocked that the rest of each hour was smooth and productive.  Even though I didn't start out the year this tough, I know that if I continue doing this from time to time, I will have so muh more time to teach!  Don't worry though, they are still my homies.

-Mrs. Combs

Totes Strange

Today I heard some rather strange things that really made me think.  The statements themselves are not strange, but the fact that they came from the mouths of sixth graders shocked me!

One of my students, referring to another of his teachers said, "I like her class.  She has high expectations, and it feels like we're learning!"  He is a very low achiever in my class, so hearing something so profound and hopeful come from him was awesome.

The second strange thing I heard came from a girl who has consistently been a behavior/attitude problem this year.  (She has great penmanship, though, so I value her greatly! ha)  We have been taking vocabulary quizzes every week or so, and today was our quiz day. She is usually a C student, but today she scored 100%!  When I congratulated her later in the day, she asked, "When is our next quiz?"  I assumed that my answer would make her sigh and stomp off, but instead, she sighed and said "Ahhh...I wish it was sooner.  I really like studying now.  It's fun!"

Say whaaat?

Once I re-formed my melted heart, I realized that she has been going on to our class's Quizlet website- the site that I religiously update and push for my students to use as a study tool.  I thought only 3-4 of my AP kids were using it, but I was wrong!  

These students made me realize that the ones who act like they do not care, just need someone to give them a kick in the rear and push them to do their best.  They WANT us to have high expectations for them, and once they feel any bit of success, will do just about anything to feel that way again.  Yep. Even study.

Even though that last line sounds like a killer end to this post, I thought I would list 5 of my favorite weird things to do in the classroom:

1. Play tic-tac-toe with a student during a quiz
2. Refer to kids as "Homeskillet" (Ex: "Hey, Homeskillet, will you run to the office for me?")  
3. Throw plush balls at unsuspecting students
4. Use the words "totes" and "cray cray" (This makes the boys face-palm)
5. Talk in vocabulary words for several minutes  (See below)

Homeskillet, it is not APPROPRIATE to talk during class.  You were tardy because you DAWDLED in the hallway.  Don't you dare SCOWL at me.  I'll EVICT you from this room if you keep tapping your METALLIC pen.  Don't look so FORLORN; you are just PARANOID.

By the third word, they have realized what I am doing and are begging me to stop.  So I don't. :)  I could go on for days.

-Mrs. Combs