Search results matching tags 'lessons' and 'classroom management'

Boring Lessons? Revamp With Videos!

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:37:15 GMT

(Updated blog post) I wanted to spice up my lesson on fact and opinion, but I wanted to make sure I was in the upper echelon of Bloom’s Taxonomy. At this point in their schooliverse, my students are well versed in writing F and O on a worksheet. Not because of me, because you know [...]

Work as Play! Kids Just Want to Have Fun!

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:20:41 GMT

My team teacher and I were standing in the hallway this morning when she walked over and whispered, “If I were a kid with all this testing, testing, testing, I wouldn’t want to come to school either.” Gasp! No, actually, I know exactly what she means, school has become the most boring place in the [...]

Yawn, Yawn, Go Away! Little Johnny Wants to be Engaged!

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:24:55 GMT

I sat with my small group today and listened to my students, and smiled. They had finished sharing their writing prompt about an imagined device that would make their lives easier. I listened to stories about a teleporter , a robot, and a pen, that can do the unimaginable. After they shared their stories, and [...]

Collaborize Classroom! Creating Critical Thinkers!

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:27:53 GMT

We always strive for our students to be critical thinkers, we want them to think outside the box. As a matter of fact, we want them to think beyond our classroom doors! We promote collaborative teaching among teachers, and we welcome it in our classrooms among our students. As you know, I am a fan of [...]

A Life Saving Suggestion

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:09:03 GMT

The very first day that I taught my elementary class was probably the worst 40 minutes of my teaching career. There were five behavioral students, all about third grade or so. When they walked in, I really thought that they would sit still while I went over rules and expectations. Boy, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Within five minutes they were out of their chairs, running around, going through my drawers, asking (yelling) “When are we gonna do art!?” So I abandoned my “plan” and scrambled to get them back in their seats. I shoved some salt dough in front of each of them, and tried to explain what I wanted them to do. Unfortunately, I had prepared the dough wrong, and it stuck like taffy to their little fingers. One boy started crying and screaming “Get it off! Get it off!” The assistant, who was looking at me like I was an idiot, shook her head and took the boy to the bathroom to clean up. I couldn’t even organize the other four kids at the sink without one of them trying to wipe dough on another boy’s back. When I say it was a disaster, it really was a disaster. The worst part of all was that there was still about thirty minutes left until I got to send them back to their classroom (where their teacher, I assumed, must have had magical powers.) So we played Simon Says. We played Duck Duck Goose. We played Simon Says again. Finally, the bell rang and the kids ran hitting and screaming into the hallway and back to their classroom. Clearly, I had to make some changes.

I was completely overwhelmed, and I knew I needed help. Aside from completely revamping how I ran operations during a lesson, I asked my principal for some ideas on what to do if I had extra time at the end of the period. Her advice was “Bin Activities”, and for the rest of the year, Bin Activities were my savior. I went to the dollar store that very same day, purchased eight colorful bins, and plenty of activities to fill them with. I tried to keep most of them somewhat art related, but almost anything works. Coloring books, Memory, white boards and markers, magnetic blocks, play dough, you get the idea. The very next day, I told the kids that when they finished their project, they would be allowed to select one bin activity to play with until the end of the period. They would have to play nicely at their desk, and if they wanted a different bin, they had to clean up the first one. I switched out the activities in the bins fairly often, so that there was always something new and exciting to keep them occupied. I couldn’t believe it, but it worked! Bin activities saved me, hopefully they can help you too.