Ten Pin Linky: Classroom Management!

I must say that as an Assistant Principal behavior can be a big part of my day.  However, I am EXTREMELY lucky that my teachers have classroom management high on their priority list, and thus are able to teach more effectively, and less of my day is spent removing students!

Ashley over at Just Reed! is continuing with her Ten Pin Linky, but this time it's all about Classroom Management.  What a great time to rethink how you might want to run your class.  Save this post for December too, when you're needing something new, novel, and necessary for the 2nd half of the year!

As a little bit of background, I think your most highly effective teachers typically have the least amount of behavior issues.  The key?  Student engagement!  The best classroom management tool is to design highly engaging lessons and tasks.  Therefore, most of my pins are about rewarding students or keeping students involved in lessons. I also have some that are specific to some student needs I'll have in my building this year.  Just like your core instruction doesn't always hit 100% of students, neither does you core behavior plan, so it's important to have some tools in your belt for those students!

So join me on my Ten Pin adventure!  Here are my top 10 classroom management pins!

1. My first one is the Decide Now! app. What I love is that it can be personalized for anything!  Enter different class rewards on here and students can either earn a spin at the wheel or even enter summer activities for your own kids to choose from! 

2. Class Dojo App - Okay I think this one is fairly well-known at this point, but what I love is that it easily sends info and data on a student to the parents (and administrators!).  We had a few students with high behavior needs and this was extremely helpful in knowing how their days were going.  I could touch base at lunch of in the hallway and reward or remind based on these updates!   

3. Pick Me! App - Remember how I talked about engagement?  Well cold calling is something I look for when I observe in a classroom because it keeps all students engaged and paying attention.  The Pick Me! app is great because it will randomly pick a student, you then ask them the question, and can record whether they knew the answer!  What a great formative assessment.  You could also use this when looking at students work and walking around the room.  

4. Warm Fuzzies - I added warm fuzzies during my last year of teaching due to Seusstastics great blog. I loved the system and that I could reward individual students rather than a class reward.

  5. Calm Down Jar - I'm picturing this in my office to help some of my students calm down.  Once they get to my office they are usually pretty worked up and it takes a while to get them to the place where we can actually talk through things.  Obviously not all students would need this, but some will benefit!

                                                

6. You Rock Because... - I like this sign because, again, it focuses on the positive.  A lot of times we start with a praise and end with something to fix (I really like the way you are using your time today, but your handwriting could be neater.).  With this sign it's ONLY praise!  What are your thoughts on having one of these outside of my office for staff member praise too?

7. Angry Birds - Well, we have an adorable 1st grader (soon to be 2nd grader) who absolutely loves Angry Birds.  We've used behavior charts where he earns birds, loses birds, etc. but I liked that he could relate to the birds and their actions.  Making behavior relatable is often challenging...this could work!

8. Pat on the Back - And again, a reward!  I loved the visual of this and how others in the building would be able to share in their success.  It's not distracting to them during the day, yet others will want to work toward a great pat on the back too!

9. 1, 2, 3 Fingers - This seems so simple that I'm mad I didn't come up with it, but great classroom procedures help with management.  In this way, all I have to do is see one finger and grab the pencil as I'm talking or get it while they are working.  With the tissue or bathroom, I can just give them a nod and they'd know.  Off task questions or comments wouldn't start when addressing these daily (maybe by the minute!) requests!

10. GROUPS Poster - These are free on TPT (which I LOVE!) and with PBL and collaborative work on the rise in my building, learning how to work in groups is crucial.  This will help them in their group endeavors.  I love the mini-posters as individual reminders too!

Whew!  Well, if you've made it to the end then Bless You!  Also, I know many of you are starting to get on the BlogLovin' train, so I've added a button to the top of my blog so that you can easily follow, or you can click the link below!

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Alrighty, gotta run!  Have a great hump day!

#TechnologyTwitterTuesday

I have to give a shout out to a great friend, Amanda, from Learning to the Core.  She planned a great weekend in Nashville for one of our friends getting married.  Amanda is in Illinois, and I wish we lived closer, but we're able to catch up via our blog and after school phone conversations.

 

Amanda and I are on the couch on the right and left, respectively.  You could say we like stripes!  Our friend, Rachel, top middle in the black, is also an amazing teacher, and we're trying to talk her into guest blogging!  

 

We were loving Elvis!

Amanda's blog is awesome, so head over for some great blog posts by both Amanda and her blogging buddy, Aylin!

Luckily, it's summertime, so heading back to the reality of "home" was a bit easier than during the school year!  It is a beautiful Tuesday evening here in Indy and I've been spending much of my day outside planting flowers, playing with the dogs, and oh yea, hiding upstairs for a bit when I was told a burglar was in the neighborhood (ahh!)!

Another piece of my summer is doing some reading from some great books and also tapping into the endless online resources through twitter.  My new district is big on Twitter and encourages its use for professional growth.  Now, I love bloggers who use Twitter to show their new posts or products, but I've tried to stick to the new learning part of Twitter.

One great part of Twitter are the twitter chats that you can be a part of based on your interests.   They are usually once a week for an hour.  The best part is that if you aren't quite ready to catch the twitter bug, then you can just be a passive reader and you don't have to "actively participate".  The topics of these range from 1st grade teachers to 21st Century learning to technology usage and CCSS.  @thomascmurray has put together a great list of these twitter chats so that you can find one that fits your niche and your schedule!  It's really a terrific list, and a great way to get started!

In order to stay organized on Twitter, TweetCaster is the only way to do it...oh, and do it on your iPad!  You can type in different hashtags and follow all of the tweets related to that hashtag...it's the best way to do the twitter chats too because it auto updates so you can read everyone's comments and responses.  Also, if you have multiple twitter accounts, personal and professional, you can toggle back and forth pretty easily.

Alrighty, well I gotta run and watch The Voice finale, but feel free to follow me on Twitter (@MBRileyNCE).  I typically post professional things, and I'm NO expert.  I'm just beginning to dabble, but love the links to websites, articles, and great professional ideas.  Happy tweeting!

Mentor Text Monday (from Sunday)

Good morning!  I must say that this is officially my first week of summer, and I am loving it!  I might be loving it only because I've been productive. Remember, it's just the first day. The dogs and I went on a 3 mile walk (they are wiped out!-see below), the kitchen has been tidied, and now I'm blogging!

But for the real stuff that you all actually care about!  I'm linking up with Collaboration Cuties to share about a mentor text for math.  

 

I love integrating picture books and texts into math.  Not only does it add another read aloud into the day, but it gives students context for what they are learning.  It's not always easy to explain why concepts are important in the real world, and using books can certainly help.  With part of my job working with ELL students, books give students visuals alongside the content language.  So glad to be linking up and finding all of these great new resources! 

  

This book, by Bill Grossman, is a hilarious tale that will make your kids laugh and learn about counting.  The little sister eats one hare, and continues eating until she's eaten 10 peas.  In between though she eats snakes, bats, worms, lizards, etc.  It has a repetitive tone, and many students can relate to either their own little sister or a friend's little sister.  The book is fairly primary as far as the counting skills go, but the illustrations provide visuals too.  This book would be great to pair at a counting math center so that students could match the numbers with what they see in the book.  They could also continue the story by saying that she has eaten 11 of something, and then drawing a picture that corresponds with that number.  What a fun, and hilarious, class book to have!

My intro question based on the cover of the book, is why they think I would pick this book for a math lesson.  Some students mention the number one, but nearly all are quite puzzled.  It certainly draws them into the lesson, and keeps them on their toes.  We revisit the same question at the end of the book.

As a follow up to the book, I like to read it aloud and pay attention to the story structure.  It is a great mentor text for creating a similar story.  The students quickly catch onto the pattern, and I've never heard so many giggles during writer's workshop.  That whole line of, "wait until the end of writing time to talk with your neighbor about your story" doesn't quite work for this one!  

Shout Out to Miss V!
Miss V is celebrating her 1 Year Blogiversary and is having an amazing giveaway!!  Each day, for 6 days she is giving away 20, YES 20, items to one winner.  You can enter each day and do as many entries as you see fit.  I'm excited to be a part of her Day 1 Giveaway (which ends in 2 days!), and I'm giving away my Weather Unit to one lucky winner!  Click on the button below to enter!  For those of you joining me here from her giveaway, thanks for following me and joining in on the fun!

Alrighty, gotta run!  The pool (and my pale skin) is calling my name!

National Running Day and my 100th Post!

It's National Running Day!  What a great reason to make yourself go run today!  A cool website called RunNow is trying to log a million miles today in honor and remembrance of the Boston Marathon tragedy.  It's easy to join in on the fun, and it's really fun to see how all of the states rank.  Poor Indiana isn't the worst, but certainly can't compete with California and Texas!

I logged 2.3 miles (I know...a very strange number!) after work today and the weather was gorgeous!  I really couldn't have asked for a better day to run.  My run wasn't to train for anything or to set a personal record, but it actually felt better than most of the runs I did while training for the Mini!  Isn't it funny how when you set yourself up to do something in particular it can sometimes get in the way?  It's even motivating to just go out and run on a whim.  I didn't have my watch charged, so I used the MapMyRun app on my phone and only had it set up to give me updates at each mile.  The best part was that I had no idea when it would pipe into my head phones, and then I was surprised at the stats it was giving me too!  When these types of runs come along, they are motivating and keep you going.  It was a welcome run to start off my summer.

Ahhhh...and even better than that...tomorrow is my last "official" work day until July 15th, and did I mention the weather is beautiful!?!?  I got to hang out on my back porch after my run, look at the flowers, and just enjoy being at home.  

My 100th Post
Holy smokes!  100 Posts!  That doesn't even seem feasible!  Well anyway, it has come, and in honor of you all who have stuck with me, just joined me, or befriended out of courtesy, I'm throwing a sale just for you!!!  Click on the link below and enjoy 20% off my entire store through Saturday!

You can start your work on organizing Data Binders or Reader's Workshop activities or fun math review games.  Get them printed, copied, 3-hole punch, laminated, whatever you need to do and be ready for the fall!!

Gotta run and enjoy the rest of my evening watching the CMT Awards with the hubs!

Becoming a cart teacher and June Currently!

Wow!  It's June!  The kids last day was Thursday, and I work through this coming Thursday, but summer is on the horizon!  Can't wait!

As many of you know, my position is half time ELL teacher and coordinator and half time assistant principal.  I'll reflect on my first year in another post.  One piece of my June Currently, though, is that I'm needing to figure out how on Earth I'm going to take all of my supplies and condense them onto a cart.  The piece I'm struggling with the most is what to do with my books.  With my ELL kiddos I loved that I was able to offer a a large selection of books from my library.  Living and teaching from a cart is going to restrict those opportunities.  Have any of you ever taught from a cart, or seen someone do it with ease?  Talk about the need the get creative this summer! :)

I must say one thing I love about summer is that I get to piddle in my yard.  I love to be outdoors, so any excuse I can find to be outside is usually taken advantage of.  It might sound crazy, but I enjoy yard work, bringing color to my yard, and learning about new flowers/plants along the way!

Link up with Farley's June Currently to see what others are up to these days with summer just around the corner for nearly everyone!

Gotta run!

Indy Blog Hop and Post-it Template Freebie!!

Welcome to the Indy Blog Hop!  In Indiana, the month of May is always a a time of excitement!  As mentioned in a previous post this month, the Mini Marathon is the kick off to the month of May here in Indy.

If you're joining from Aimee's page over at Pencils, Books, and Dirty Looks, welcome to my blog!  I was so excited to join in on this fun Indy Adventure full of freebies.  Once upon a time I was an Indy 500 Festival Princess and lived the month of May through a racing lens.  It was so much fun!  Here are a just couple of pictures that give you a glimpse of the excitement!

Some of the princesses with Marco Andretti...part of the legendary family!  

                    

              At the track for some practice laps!      Yes, we even got to race!  Flame-retardant suits and all!


Okay, back to teaching reality again!  As a part of my job I have the great opportunity to do a lot of professional development.  Our district is trying to "retool" our RtI program so that it is more intentional and aligned to our core instruction.  As a part of this, I have joined a team of people to provide full day PD sessions for a variety of educators in our district.  To organize myself, I needed some sort of organizational tool to help me set up...the problem is that all of these are being held outside of my building, so setting up early was not an option.  Being a planner, I was trying to control as much as possible.  As I was organizing my handouts, readings, activities, etc. I began using post-its on file folders to keep all of organized and easy to follow throughout the day.  Then I realized...WHY am I writing on my file folders and not just using post-its as the labels!  I'm constantly changing these and needing them for different things, so post-its make it flexible.

Here you can see my bag getting ready to go for the next day.  I have my folders organized by each part of the day, and marked with post-its.  For my next session, I can remove those post-its and change the different pieces.
                                                                                                 On the file on the right, I wrote my agenda, the chart papers I would need to create, and the materials I needed to bring.  I added to these as I continued to plan my day.  I also included all of my original copies so that if I needed more I could easily do that.

Then I was thinking...rather than having all one color, I could type and print up decorative post-its, theme based, subject based, or just fun designs!  So here is your copy too!

Here are the 3 x 3 post-it templates that I have created for you to print, put your own post-its on, and then send through the printer again to reprint these images!  It's as easy as pie, and your files will be so much more fun!  I wish I would have thought of this when I was planning my RTI sessions...they certainly would have been impressed with the design.  Hmmm...what kind of clipart goes with RtI?

From one Indy Blog Hopper to the next, I hope you race through this fun freebie adventure and learn from us fellow Hoosiers along the way!  Thanks for taking a pit stop at Run Teacher Run! Speed on to Heather's blog Teaching through Turbulence for your next stop by clicking on our Blog Hop button below.  Buckle up...you're in for a big treat as you continue around the track of Indy bloggers.

Gotta run!

Mini Marathon, Teacher Appreciation Freebie, and SALE Time!!

Mini Marathon...
Put the 2013 Mini Marathon in the books!  My official 13.1 race is done and although, it wasn't quite what I wanted, I finished!  Part of the mileage is done on the 2.5 mile track where the Indy 500 takes place...the magical Indianapolis Motor Speedway!  Here is a photo of Flash and Spiderman in front of me on the track.  I was certainly okay with them passing me...after all it is the Flash!

I must say I am a complete sucker when it comes to motivational moments and crying.  At the start of the race there are over 30,000, yes 30,000 people waiting to start this race.  There was a huge tribute to Boston, our soldiers, and all that makes the United States the greatest place in the world.  I was running by myself, but really had to choke back some tears during all of the beginning festivities.  It gave me great motivation to start the race at a good pace and appreciate the ability to run!

Teacher Appreciation Freebie!
As many of you know, my new role this year has given me a completely different perspective on teaching, the demands teachers have, and the increasing accountability put on both teachers and administrators.  I must say, however, I am pretty darn lucky!  I have the best staff who is willing to do anything and everything for their students.  We are a decent size school with about 640 students, and we have a great amount of collaboration and teamwork that works together to increase student learning.  They truly are THE BEST!

As teachers, we need to appreciate each other as well during this week and thank those around us who have made this school year just that much better.  Here is a link to some FREE Teacher Appreciation labels I created last year.  You can also check out my blog post from last year too!

  

Teacher Appreciation Big Time Up-to-28%-Off Sale!

It's that time of year!  Where YOU deserve to be treated to something special.  Use this discount to get some things in your cart or make life easier for these last few weeks of school!  Some frequent purchases are listed below for you to check out!  

Graphic by Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (who has awesome graphics on TPT too!)

ake 

A simple but fun Vocabulary Game just for Weather! Get for $1.08!

A 57-page comprehensive weather unit with foldables!  Just $3.60!

78 pages of Data Binder fun and how-to documents for conferences...just $4.32 during the sale!

A great I have...Who has? game for addition with regrouping.  

This is perfect for the end of the school year.  $1.08. 

Poetry unit with 7 different types of poems, posters, and publishing paper.

55 pages for $2.88.  Wow!

Enjoy the week you have so richly deserved this year.  YOU ARE APPRECIATED!!  

Gotta run!