Summer School and the Olympics

School has been out for almost two weeks now. It is a bitter sweet feeling at the end of the year. I am in much need of a long break, but I really will miss many of my kids. Boy, I already don't know what I will fill my time with this summer! 

Hopefully my former students will be having a busy summer. I gave them a big summer homework packet and a book to read. It wasn't necessarily required, but they were very much encouraged to complete it. I talked with almost all parents about it and I am sure they will encourage their children to finish it too. 

Each student got the packet. They were catered by math levels: second grade, third grade, and forth grade leveled. The first grader who comes up for my math class also got one! Second grade girls got Junie B. books; boys got Captain Underpants. Third grade girls got Katie Kazoo or Amber Brown; boys got Goosebumps. I got all twenty-two books at the Half-Price Bookstore for 45 cents each! All were nice quality and hadn't felt like they had even been opened!

I will be teaching two-weeks of summer school. Its a short bit, but they are full days. Conveniently (or unfortunately), this will be during part of the Summer Olympics. I had every hope and intention to go over to London for the games. I spent summer of 2010 in a Catholic junior school in Southwark, London. It was fantastic and could have stayed with the woman I stayed with when I was there before. But alas, second best thing: I get to theme my summer school session around it!

We are an AP school. That's Accelerated Pathways. It adds about 300 hours of school a year for the kids who opt to do it. Two or three days a month are reserved for it and two weeks in the summer. During that time, AP days are guided by a focus. Mine will be the Olympics. So, almost all activities will relate in some aspect to the Olympics. Right now, I am creating and finding activities to use. We'll probably be doing one or two field trips as well. I haven't decided where to go that would best connect yet. One maybe to the YMCA or Lifetime, a state park, or a large, free playground for the day that would be great fun for the kids.

For writing, I will be going through Writing Process with them. We will be working on a "Gold Medal Story." They will get to write about how they would win a gold medal in the Summer Olympics. I am sure that at least a quarter of the class (if not more) will write about soccer (football). If you want a copy of what I am planning to use, you can get a copy for free here:

My Olympic Gold Medal Story

I'll post some other activities I have planned later on. I have a craft that we will do when displaying our final drafts too.

Hope you're having a great summer!

If my classroom was a deserted island, I would want...

I have only four days left of school; I can't figure out where the rest of this school year went! It must have been between staying late nights at school, pulling out my hair, and collecting items on teacherspayteachers without my notice. I haven't spend much time on the blog, but it was something to start for the future.

My tests all went pretty well. I have students that struggle; that's all classrooms for you! But, the growth of my students is undoubtable. All the same, I hope they continue to grow over the summer. They can use IXL.com and Raz-Kids.com over the summer through our school and I hope that they do. I considered sending homework, but I didn't have enough time to finally pull together a packet. I'm sure they'll be happy for the time off.

While stubbling through other blogs, I discovered a linky party. New to the blog sphere, I wanted to participate.

1. Smartboard (And thus my Laptop)

I  have no desire to ever go backward into a classroom with no SmartBoard. I have used this religiously over the school year. I have put together pages and pages of daily problems, themed units, and simple games. The interactive features keep my kids better focused and willing to participate. With the MCAs (our state testing) being online and interactive, it also allows good practice for moving things, putting them in order, and clicking on something instead of putting A,B,C,D. Plus, it adds color and ditches clapping erasers together outside on Friday.

We watch brainpopjr.com videos for science, do our Daily Word Problem for math and Daily Comprehension for LA, work out story maps, and use graphic organizers on a pretty regular schedule. When math starts or when Arabic ends, they know right away to head to the front and sit down. This sitting and staying in the same spot is something I need to reorganize for next year, but at least they got the schedule down!

2. The Organization System: Bins, Files, and Table

I have my week materials inside these bins with all my copies of sheets, homework, and take-home words. I also include books I'll read, supplies for activities (if they're too big, they get sent to the very bottom drawers that are not shown), and other daily materials. 

Inside each is a five-section binder, these hold my Saxon math sheets: facts for seconds, saxon practice for seconds, facts for thirds, saxon for thirds, and extra sheets for both or either. The binders were bought from Target this year in the $1 section. They came in pink, green, blue, and black and I bought a number of them. Despite having extra, they haven't come undone at all yet. I think some Targets have them in still, if so, I totally support using them!

The night before, I reposition all of the days work on the front trapezoid table in piles from homework, science, LA, to math. I clear the contents over the next school day. This way has made it easiest to grab what I need at what time. It also helps my students see where the work is and help if a sub is needed. 

3. My Scout Bag

I would have been lost without this bag (well, I have pink, green, blue, and black stripes). It is large enough to fit my laptop, a few days of grading, my gradebook binder, my purse, and more on the inside. The six pockets on the outside can hold my camelback waterbottle, coffee thermos, keys, cords, a snack, make-up, and other nick-nacks. Plus, it has water-resistant sides, a zipper on top, and it has remained sturdy!

4. MAP Reading Practice (And other free teacher-created resources)

Since we use the NWEA testing system, this has been a fantastic resource. We do Daily Comprehension from this website. It is divided based my RIT scores and by topic. I switch it up between practiced skills and try to spiral teaching to keep materials fresh. My average scores in reading (with second and third graders) is 197, but I teach up to the thirds with this and usually do activities from 201-210. 

You can click on the picture to take you to the site. It is a really complete and organized compilation of other websites and their games that relate to certain topics. Even if you don't use the NWEA, its a good practice sight and allows students to click things on the SmartBoard. Some are more work than play, but others have the kids very interested. 

Other free-resources are definitely a win. I love teachers-pay-teachers, http://exchange.smarttech.com/, dafont, and, of course, personal blogs. If anything else, they've inspired me to create new resources too!

5. Library and Book Shelves 

Five things is difficult with how much I use on a daily basis. Books though are obviously important. Unfortunately, this is not something that I have managed to get into a system. A number of my kids have no control to sit and read. Even with a number of reading chairs, blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals, it was not enough incentive to find a spot and just read. It ended up taking more out of me to stop fights, arguments, and unruly behavior during this time and I stopped "Quiet Time." Now, they only read if they finish early. Next year, I would love to implement the Daily Five or CAFE. I will need to learn more about them,  but it could easily help. Since I work with such a large ELL population, it seems like this would be the most important thing. 

I will need more and more bins and crates for next year though. I have too many boxes of books that haven't been unloaded. I am also a Half Price Books junkie and end up in the clerance rack at least bimonthly. For 50 cents a book and 45 when the 10% teacher discount kicks in, there is no turning back. Plus, they have great teacher resources too. I never (or very rarely) by any book for full price- last being The Hunger Games for myself. It kicked me up to the $100 mark for my scholastic book order too, so it wasn't for nothing!

Those are my top five; link up and post your own!

Standards and Curriculum Maps

I am a new teacher who went to school with teacher accountability and No Child Left Behind at the forefront of lessons. I had to write every lesson plan to target a state standard. My cooperating teacher when student teaching was a veteran teacher and didn't glimpse at them at all. Does my school force? No. We did do some training at the beginning of the year to help align teaching, but my school doesn't slap writs for straying.

The other day, I was chatting with another (more experienced) teacher and she asked, "Did you teach about rocks and minerals, yet?" Without any thought, I immediately, in an appalled way, replied, "No, it's not in the state standards, why would I teach it?" I think there was a moment of silence before she burst out laughing. I quickly tried to backtrack my words, making them sound less snappish. But, besides teaching the Solar System much longer than I needed, I haven't straying from this belief all year.

I set up curriculum maps in September to guide me through the year. I carefully plotted out Language Arts, Math, and Science/Social Studies to best fit my own teaching style. Besides using the Reading Street curriculum for reading books and Saxon worksheets for math work, I was free to do as I pleased. I am most thankful for this. In Science and Social Studies, we have been jumping around the textbooks and are FINALLY starting the textbook from page one with our last unit on plants and animals. 

My year, in essence, with Science and Social Studies looked like this:

September: Space and Solar System in Science and Communities in Social Studies

October: Inventions and Change Over Time to cover standards in both

November: Native Americans, Pilgrims, and Comparing Civilizations 

December: Force and Motion, Sound and Light

January: America- Maps, Customs, Important People, Symbols, Changes Over Time, Revolutionary War, Independence, Branches of Government, and Responsibilities of Citizens 

March: Matter, Weather, Temperature, and Seasons

April: Economics- Goods and Services, Resources, Currency, and Opportunity Cost

May: Plants and Animals

And then viola, all second and third grade standards were covered (or are being covered now). How could I have time to add rocks and minerals when I want to teach in depth lessons. I want my students to still be able to tell me what the main groups of Native Americans were in Minnesota. I want them to be able to burst into a rap about the Solar System and tell me what type of simple machine is leading up to a doorway. Even dates have stuck in their minds and they told the Arabic teaching that the Declaration of Independence was signed on what date (month and day given by a second grader and the year given by a third grader). 

Are they tested on this information? No. But whether or not I support strictly adhering to state standards or not, I understand it and do follow this. I am also happy that my students have developed a deeper understanding, rather than jumping around to one topic after the next to read the entire Science and Social Studies textbooks. 

Freebie for Science and Social Studies

We create a World Habitat Mobile when studying the Desert, Rain Forest, Tundra, Grassland, and Ocean Habitats. They turned out to be adorable and a good cumulating activity.

Get: World Habitat Mobile Here!

Islam and the Classroom

Outside of all that I am learning about teaching this year, I am learning more and more about the Islamic culture. All of my students are Islamic.

What I found hardest to do this year was find characters that my students could relate to in literature and lessons. So rarely are their Muslim characters in children's literature. Rarer still is to find a book with Muslim characters that is secular. I researched a lot at my local libraries and online. Yet I have wound up with only a few.

I am incredibly happy with two books I got through Scholastic this year: Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan and The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania Jordan Abdullah. The only other age appropriate book I found and read is One Green Apple by Eve Bunting.

Clip art images are just as tricky when putting together projects and packets. No, it isn't imperative that I have to use Muslim characters- but I have so many girls that do wear the hijab that it would be nice to show kids like them. So, to add decoration in my room, I look out my Everyday Paper Dolls Cricut Cartridge and created these:

I am happy with them. Each is based on a student in my class. If interested, let me know and I can help you to figure out how to create the look. It took a bit of trial and error to figure out how to make the hijabs!

One of the neatest things about working with students from a diverse background is the culture days we have had. I had a student bring in sambusa and dished me out some. I absolutely loved it! I tried to recreate it and ended up with these ones below. Although they looked far from the Somali dish, they tasted just great. I accompanied them with the Somali rice. Lovely dish!

It has been an adventure with these students. I am still struggling with finding more literature though, let me know if you have crossed books with Muslim characters with little stress on religion!

What Do I Do in the Classroom

As mentioned in the last post, I wanted to post what I have done in the class. Although I am no expert teacher, I am thrilled that my students have raised in scores (minus two, which one went down a point and another stayed the same). For working with at-risk categories of students, I have set my bar of expectation at that of any school with privileged students. I tell my students this. I tell them that I give assignments at higher levels and that I grade hard. My C is what an average student will get. You need to work hard to get an A. 

A number of parents have been unhappy that this is my teaching philosophy. In the past, many of the students, to my knowledge, received higher grade. Since the parents have realized my grading scale and teaching practices, students have risen to meet my standards. Over the year, more students are testing (on my tests) at B or A level than at the beginning. 

If it hasn't been apparent, I do teach at a charter school. I believe this is important to state. I believe charter schools take a different approach to teaching. Now, that be said, every classroom across America and the world, believes that each child should succeed. However, I think charter schools will take the approach to specify how they will do this across the entire school. Our school really stresses teaching all standards and having students know the standards and expectations.

Anyway, before getting off task, here is some of what I do already:

Areas that we have done strongly in, we have spent a lot of time on. In math, we have covered a lot of topics. I expect fact fluency. Each day, my students have either forty, 100, or 200 math facts to complete. My students also spend time on xtramath.org and use flashcards for fractions and the four operations when they finish the daily math assignments. I do not use flashcard games, but am hoping to implement some coming up. 

With the combined classroom, I taught the whole class at the beginning of the year on topics such as place value, rounding, and +10/100/1000s. When standards began splitting, I implemented four leveled math groups. Students went through rotations: lesson, Saxon (which we use the program), facts, and game (sometimes a center, sometimes an independent sheet). After winter break, I did grade level lessons with the other group doing all the seat work when not in lesson. Now, I am again teaching the whole group. We are covering geometry and I am giving third grade assignments and lessons to all students. 

In language arts, I teach each group separately for 45 minutes and have 30 minuets with both groups. This time is when the other group goes to lunch and have recess. I eat lunch during quiet time. We use Reading Street and I follow this, but teach additional activities in the progress of what I feel is right. I use literature circles, research projects, and standard-based lessons (especially with parts of speech and writing topics).

On that note, I do not find the writing portion of the Reading Street curriculum is all too impressive; so I stress creating writing assignments of my own creation. Sample prompts have included: What super power would you have? Write about what you would do with your super power. and An alien came down to Earth and you were the first human it saw. Describe Earth and humans to the alien. We do this almost every week. I do not grade them, but let the students know what I expect and offer comments. I always insist that they write two complete paragraphs at a minimum. We also do oral readings of works every once in awhile. This encourages students to write with purpose and write so they will be able to read the work later. 

We do a comprehension assessment every two weeks. This really gives the students practice with test-taking. I take full advantage or edinformatics.com, which allows public to look at old state tests from around the country. New York, Massachusetts, and Flordia have some of the best selections, and I print a passage and its questions for my students to take. I have all students take a third grade test (as this is what is available at the sites). 

I send homework daily (expect one similar day a week), which allows students to practice more at home. Each is a front-to-back page. There is typically math and spelling/language arts. I occasionally send a science or social studies sheet home, but I try to do these in school. The students are also expected to read at least 15-minutes a night. We subscribe on raz-kids.com, which is something that a number use at home. 

I have also used other resource books for language arts and math, including: Scholastic Success (Grade 4), Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills (Grades 3-4), Spectrum Spelling and Math (Grades 2-3), and a few others. I give a mixture of these to my students, regardless of the grade students are in. I do need to get a hold of a few second grade books, I do have one big book of curriculum topics, but I can't remember the name off the top of my head!

I hope these help for others to find success in their teaching. If anything else, take a look at the links, they are very beneficial! 

Finished With NWEA Testing

Fofta! We're finished with testing! I do have one student who I accidently put the wrong test on for, so he will have to take the right one. I'm bummed because he did well. Hopefully, he will score just as well. I'm sure he will be at proficient, hopefully above like the other one too.


One score definitely shocked me. I hadn't thought one of them was as high as he was. It blew my mind! But, it helps to know where he tests! He is one of the students who rarely turns in work. In the first month I had him (he came in near the end of October), he turned in two assignments the whole time. Hopefully, he will now start pulling in some work. In language arts, he is still very below, but at least in math his is above expectations!


So, my scores have now almost completely switched with how many were well below and how many were above- which is fabulous! Of course, there are still a number that I will have plenty of remedial work ahead for!

I'm very pleased with the number that have gone up, but I am very concerned about those that are very low. There is one that is a recent immigrant to America and I am thrilled that she has drastically jumped; but I will understand when she is still in the low percentile in reading in the Spring. The others in reading and all in math are a concern. To keep the post from being too long or off topic, I will post what I will do after learning results here and what I already do in a separate post.

I admit that I have a harder time teaching language arts with my class. Because of a split classroom, I haven't had as much time with the language arts block. If it were one grade, I would have a full one-and-a-half hour block. As it is now, I probably have an hour per grade and half-an-hour for a combo lesson.

What I will do:

Since I have seen the results, I have been looking for ways to build comprehension and fluency. I have opted to change the format of my quiet time. Working with an Islamic student base, I have quiet time in the afternoon. If they want to pray, they can use this time to do so. It has also been a quiet work time, draw time, or reading time. I have changed this to the only option (other than praying) is reading time (or if they really haven't finished work, work time). I hope this will open up more excitement for reading- since being an enthusiastic reader will help build fluency.

I am also planning to implement centers. I haven't done this much. Working with second and third graders, it is harder to create center activities (in my opinion) that fits with both levels. But, I believe my low second graders would very much benefit from centers. I hope to create challenging ones for my upper level students too. I already have comprehension giant jenga and sight word regular jenga, but I need more!I discovered: fcrr.org, which is a collection of activities separated from K-1, 2-3, and 4-5. Best thing? They're free!

In math, I will stress word problems even more. This will hopefully build problem solving skills. Data Analysis is the other area of which my students will need more practice. I have not covered this topic with my third graders, so it will be a topic coming up soon (after geometry and measurement, the other area my students struggled with most). 

We have also gotten an account with ixl.com, which will allow students to practice benchmark items in math. I aim to create remedial packets for my low students to take home and work on too. I will try to enlist help from parents to ensure that the skills expected of them will be practiced. I am a huge supporter of teacher-created items. I spend a lot of my time creating assignments and packets or of collecting items that will specifically allow students to practice benchmarks.

All of this will be quite a task, but I have a big focus on my class and trying to ensure each to succeed. I am crossing my fingers that the students will grow even more and all will rise up to meet the standards as best as they can!

NWEA Testing

If you are unfamiliar with the NWEA tests, google them. They are a fantastic tracking system used around the country. Coupled with the fact that it is the same test taken across the grades, you can really see grade averages and student percentiles. At my school, we take the tests three times a year: fall, winter, and spring. The percentiles are judged on each term of where students should be at the beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year.

My class is almost done with them. I have two left for math and four left for reading. I am sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for this to be over again. I am incredibly nervous! Yet, I'm enjoying it too. I love tests and assessments. I believe that is key to teaching to the test.

Right now, my predominately free and reduced priced, english as a second language, and minority ethnic group students have almost all improved. There was one that dropped a point in reading and one that stayed the same there too. Other than that, my math scores have rocketed!

I still have a few left that could add to these numbers- one of which that was not with us in the fall. 

There are a few kids that have a far way to go till they are proficient. That leads to this: who do you focus the most attention on?

I have read supporting evidence that for raising test scores, you should focus on the "bubble" students. These are the students who are just barely under the bar line. Of mine, that would be two in math and thee in reading. If they could manage to just catch onto a few more things fluently, they will be proficient and thus keep classes and schools with more students passing state testing.

But, there are also the students on the lowest levels. With a high-level of Level 1 ELL students, this is a harder task. These is one in particular that I am very concerned about. I try to set up a conference soon with the family and work on progress monitoring, additional comprehension assignments, and, hopefully, strong support system at home. 

Any other ideas, to keep students raising scores, please shout out ideas here! I'll share my own in the next future post.