Assessment is part of being a good teacher and while many think the only way to assess is through a paper and pencil test, I am here to gently remind those few that there are lots of ways to assess student learning. 

And running records are great not only for seeing growth, but also for having a paper trail to monitor individual student strengths and needs.

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The video below shows you a quick and easy way to set up running records that can be as formal or as informal as you choose!  Use different colored cards for different reasons:

• Reading workshop
• Writing workshop
• Math fluency
• Vocabulary Mastery
• Reading Fluency
• Behavior, and more!

Watch the video below to see the tutorial for making your own flippable running record assessment:

Prefer to read the transcript? I’ve got you covered!

“Hi guys, Charity Preston here from the Organized Classroom Blog.

Great to see you back!

Today, we’re going to do a fun little tip for assessment.

If you like to do running records and keep track of some things, these are fantastic for parent conferences. If you need to make a phone call it’s documentation right at your fingertips.

Now, if you’re a veteran teacher, you probably already know about this. But if you’re a new teacher, you may or may not have seen this before. And I want to make sure that all teachers have seen this idea.

This is my handy little clipboard that you could then hang on your wall somewhere. Obviously this says, do not touch. That is because it is going to contain some assessment information.

You don’t want students getting their googly eyes all over it. This is for your eyes only.

Another quick little tip: I was kind of disgruntled because I only had an ugly old clipboard that I didn’t really want to use for this video so I was going to go to the store and buy new one.

My daughter actually suggested to use packing tape to cover it up. So I did. Check this out. And it’s like a new clipboard. I’m so excited. So anyway, that’s a fun little way to spruce up a clipboard if you didn’t know that.

Alright – back to the assessment idea.

This is what it looks like under the Do Not Disturb sign.

You’re going to have notecards taped onto your clipboard.

Now I have two columns because I have 30 students in my class. So if you have many less than that, you could probably just do one column down the middle, but I wanted to go back and forth with them so that I would have enough on one side of the clipboard for all of my students.

Now, this is how it works. Basically you take regular note cards lined or unlined, that already have holes punched in them.

I didn’t have note cards with holes punched already, so I just grabbed a stack of them, threw them into my hole puncher and punched the tops of them on either side.

Begin by grabbing one note card and add a student name at the bottom of the card someplace.

Make sure each one of your students has a card.

Once you have a card created for each child, you are going to begin placing the cards on your clipboard.

You will be starting from the bottom, so if you’re doing it alphabetically (up to you the order), go ahead and start with your last student in the alphabet.

You’re going to add that card first right on the bottom edge and use a little piece of clear tape along the top edge of the card to secure it in place.

And then you’re going to repeat the process with the next student by adding the next notecard over top of the first, while still being able to see both students’ names. Add your little piece of clear tape to the second card.

Keep repeating that process until you add all student cards to your clipboard. Now you have an accordion that can flip and you can write on any single card.

So when I was talking to student #30 during their writing conference time for example, I wrote the date and that we discussed the rough draft of their current assignment.

You can add more details if you want to, such as something to focus on before the next conference.

Each student has their own individual set of notes and individualized instructional goals that you always have access to right at your fingertips simply by grabbing the clipboard for that topic. It even works for behavior management!

The great part of this is whenever your card is filled up on the front, you can even write on the back too.

When one particular card is full, just peel the card off, fold the tape over (don’t pull off as it may rip some of the documentation off the card), and you can file any way you like.

One option is to grab some binder rings. This would be an example. I’ve got two holes. So I have two O-rings.

Each student would have their own fancy little assessment card file here that you could then place into their student file, which would be fantastic.

You might also be interested in:

This program is 62 pages, and includes 26 templates that are completely editable so you can personalize your conferences to your liking! Also includes forms for having ongoing Data Folders – recommended for grades 2-12! Parent Conference Night has never been so easy! Discover for yourself!

See more pages here.

You can pull it out for a parent conferences, report cards, midterms, or whatever you want to do.

Another fun tip would be to use several clipboards with different colored notecards for different subjects. That way on the individual student document on their ring in their file would be easy to locate specific information for individual subjects or topics in which you had private conferencing.

The times when you would normally conference with a student one-on-one is when you’re going to want a clipboard, because then you can walk around with your assessment tool or have it handy for private conferences at your desk.

You’ll have this in front of you, you can sit and chat with the student, and write down your notes. And you always have record of that.

So then you can go back to the parents later and say, “On 8-22, we did talk about this. And yet he’s still having problems with this. And look, we talked about it five more times after that and we still don’t see anything different. So let’s do some kind of intervention.”

This is super handy for you to remember those individual student needs, especially when you’ve got anywhere from 15 to 30 students or more in a classroom.

Then whenever you are finished with it for the day, you can pop your little “Do Not Disturb” sheet on there and go hang your clipboard up someplace where students cannot easily gain access to it – or lock it up in a filing cabinet until it needs used again.

That is out fun little tip for today. Really easy assessment documentation flip cards.

I know that many veteran teachers have used this as it’s not a new concept, but it’s one that is important (plus it’s easy to implement and it’s super cheap). So I thought I would pass it on.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s tip!

If you have any tips to share with our readers, feel free to contact me at Organized Classroom. If you’re loving the videos, make sure that you click on the subscribe button on my YouTube channel.

Thanks so much and I’ll chat with you again soon. Bye.”

How would you utilize this simple setup in your classroom?  Please leave me a comment below to share – I love even more great ideas.

Need a clipboard cover? Download the one below and edit the name in either Microsoft Power Point or Google Slides.

Click here to email your freebie

Enjoy!

~Charity

The post Flipping for Assessment appeared first on Organized Classroom.

I explain how I keep track of all my files, and never miss an opportunity to teach that great lesson because I couldn’t locate it in time.

Supplies needed will include file folders, hanging files, labels, and filing cabinet, file crate, or jump drive.

You can check out the video below or read the transcript under the video – make sure to check out the added notes I thought of after I recorded the video.

Transcript:

“Hi, everyone! Charity Preston here from The Organized Classroom Blog. I hope everyone is having a fantastic week so far. It seems like forever since I’ve created a video.

So we’re here today because this is the video that you requested to see based on our poll results from last week.

File organization for teachers is what we’re up to today. I’m going to try to make it short, but I tend to ramble on and of course YouTube limits me at 10 minutes. So let’s get it in.

You’re going to need a few basic supplies when you go to set up your filing system. You will need basic file folders and hanging files.

You will also need labels, of course.

And you we’ll need a filing cabinet. If you don’t have a filing cabinet, another great alternative that I have tons and tons of are filing crates. You can find them very cheap even at the dollar store.

They are open at the top, but they stack very nicely especially underneath tables that have tablecloths so you can’t really see them.

Or you can put a curtain in front of them if they are on a bookshelf.

It has been pretty simple for me to make sure that I have all of my supplies in one place.

So when I sit down to plan my lessons for the week it is great if you have everything right in front of you.

There is nothing that I personally hate worse than two weeks after I’ve taught a great unit about rocks and minerals, and then I find something later that I had set aside to use specifically this for that unit and now the unit’s over with, and it makes me sad I overlooked a wonderful resource I had ready to go but didn’t have it accessible.

I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to make sure that everything ends up in that file so nothing gets overlooked the next time I teach that unit.

I like to first sit down and figure out how I plan. I personally planned by the week, so I always sit down on the Wednesday before and plan out my lessons for the entire next week. I also know I plan by chapter or stories.

Maybe you plan by units or by a specific standard. Maybe you work in themes. However you plan is how you need to create the labels and the files.

So being that I plan by story for my reading stories. I will sit down and type up all labels of all the story titles.

I have an entire sheet of labels that have all the story titles, I pull them off and then I stick them right here on the regular file folders. Then I place that file folder right into my hanging file.

Now I have a file with one story’s name on it, and I drop it right into my filing cabinet. Continue until all your subcategories have their own file in the filing cabinet.

If I sit down and plan for an entire week, I’ll pull my reading chapter, whatever math chapter I’m doing, and then either a science or a social studies chapter as well. That makes it super easy to do my lesson plans even when I’m not at school.

After you have created all your files, it’s time to start placing materials into those files that go with that specific story chapter or unit theme.

I will begin by placing the pre-test and the post-test for the story of the week.

Then I add any specific worksheets that perhaps I need the students to do. If there is a specific activity you like to do that goes with just that one story of the week, I would place that in there as well.

It gets a little bit more tricky whenever you have professional development books or maybe an activity guide or specific projects that can be used in a different bunch of different places. What I like to do in those cases is drop everything on the copier and I make enough copies to place that item everywhere that you might need it for that year.

If you have something that you do every other week or once a month, make that many copies and put it into that correct file.

If it is a trade book that you’re only going to use for that one story or that one chapter, if it’s small enough, drop it in the file is already there. If it’s one that you want the students to be able to utilize as well throughout the year, what I like to do is make a copy of the front cover and put that right in your file as well. That way you won’t forget that you are going to use it.

If there are larger manipulatives or a game in your supply cabinet that you don’t ever remember to go in there and look for, take a picture of it, print it off, drop the picture right onto a plain document, and print it off to add to your file.

You will never forget what materials and what items that you have to use. If you have a book that has lots of different ideas in it that you can use all over the place, just make a copy of that specific activity for whatever chapter unit lesson it is that you want to put it in.

Make copies of everything and just make a little note to yourself on the copy like, “Hey, make sure to go check out pages 56 to 58 in this activity guide.” That way you can go grab it when it’s time to do your lessons.

I have everything sitting in front of me. This makes planning a snap.

Now, the important thing to remember is whenever you are finished with that file for the week, don’t forget to drop it back into the filing cabinet so that way it doesn’t get lost. And you don’t have a huge stack of filing that you have to go back through again. Bonus that it’s already there for you to be used for the next year.

I hope you have enjoyed this idea and we’ll see you in the next video. Bye!”

Additional Classroom Filing Cabinet Thoughts…

After finishing the video I thought of a couple more points I wanted to add (I am always so concerned with going over the 10 minute YouTube time limit.)

1. If you have websites, SmartBoard files, or other electronic resources you want to be included in a certain chapter or unit file, just print off a quick copy of one of the pages or grab a quick screen shot to add to the file so that it is not forgotten in your saved favorites file on your computer or on a jump drive.

2. After thinking about how much paper will be used in these files, and knowing there are some teachers out there who are trying to cut back on paper consumption, another option would be to scan or take a picture of the same things you would have placed into the hard copy of the file.

Then, save your items into separate folders labeled the same way they would be labeled in the filing cabinet, but save them on a jump drive instead. For those with limited space, this would be a perfect solution. You may even want to check out LiveBinders.

Or use a sqworl or Pinterest to save them all in one place as well!

Would you like to know step-by-step routines that put teachers back in control in just 4 weeks?

Download the FREE Classroom Systems Starter Kit now!

3. As you find new ideas, even if you have already covered that topic, add them to the file for next year. All you are doing is compiling lots of ideas. It does not mean you need to teach everything within your file. It is nice to change it up from year to year and try new (and old) ideas. Your file will never go out of style!

If you decide to use old-fashioned file folders and labels, but do not know how to create labels on a computer, make sure to check out these two posts to see it in action!
How To Create Labels – Mac Version
How To Create Labels – PC Version

Need just some basic file folder labels to print and go? I’ve got you covered! This file includes both a page with the lines to cut on, or if you prefer to use labels, use the page without the lines.

Good luck and join us back at the Facebook fan page to add your ideas and solutions – or sound off if you have ever used LiveBinders – I would be interested to know more myself! Enjoy!

~Charity

The post File Organization for Teachers appeared first on Organized Classroom.

Some weeks coming up with new and novel classroom learning centers is extra hard.  Trying to find an activity that students will be interested in completing – and making it relevant to the curriculum – can be a challenge when you’re tired from everything else going on that week.

But there are other times when I see something as I’m out shopping and think to myself how easy it would be to turn a seemingly simple item into a new learning resource that children would love.

Even better when it doesn’t involve a ton of prep work or fancy color graphics or a bunch of cutting out little pieces of paper.

For me, simple and effective is the best combination.

Setting up a Simple Comprehension Center

I was at the Target Dollar Spot the other day (big surprise) and I just couldn’t walk away from this adorable chalkboard “laptop” without it jumping into my cart.  Seriously.  It jumped into my cart.

I swear I had nothing to do with it.  So now that it was home, I needed to come up with a fun idea for how to use it in the classroom.

Would you like to know step-by-step routines that put teachers back in control in just 4 weeks?

Download the FREE Classroom Systems Starter Kit now!

First up:  washi tape for the decorating win.  Anyone that knows me well also knows I am not crafty.  Washi tape is a medium I can get behind because it’s easy to change it up if I mess it up.  Haha.

For this project, I picked some pretty yellows for spring, but you could choose tape that matches your classroom theme or school colors.  The choice is up to you.

I placed the tape on the “laptop” cover and even inside.  Just to dress up the plain wood a little.  If you have students that are “pickers” you may want to use some Modge Podge to lock your tape in so they cannot pull it back up.

Next, I tossed together a few short comprehension ideas onto a PowerPoint slide, printed, and cut them out.  {I didn’t fire up the laminator as the image posted here would have had a nasty glare, but obviously for longer use, you would print on cardstock and laminate.}

The ideas could be differentiated depending on the reading level of your students.

Ideally, there are enough small descriptive words that requires students to read the passage carefully.

Reading and Language Arts Power Pack

11 reading and language arts resource sets that pack a punch!

This power pack includes the following 11 files:

• Beach Activities Pack (K-6)
• Chapter Book Reading Strategies Activities  (grades 3-8)
• Chrysanthemum Reading Packet (grades 2-4)
• Contraction Packet (grades 1-3)
• DI Spelling Menus Packet (grade 2+)
• Never Ride Your Elephant to School Activities (grades 2-4)
• Reading Bingo (grades 2-8)
• Space Theme Reading Logs (grades 2-5)
• Fiction and Nonfiction Story Maps (grades 2-6)
• Vocabulary Bingo (grades 3+)
• Writing Menu (grades 3+)

See more details HERE.

Last up – the fun begins!  I would probably grab about 5 “laptops” and line them up on a long desk for the comprehension center.

Tape the comprehension passages on the top chalkboard section.

Students read it, then draw a corresponding picture to match.

They could even write their names on the image, close the lid, which would then give you an accountability piece.  Or snap an image with a digital camera.

Higher functioning students could even come up with the comprehension pieces for you!

Super fun, easy, and students will love drawing with chalk!

Need the PowerPoint template I used to make your passages?  Easy peasy.  Click below to download it.  I used the font KG Be Still and Know, so if you don’t have that font, just pick another in your files instead.

What else could you use these cute laptops for in the classroom?  We love sharing ideas here at Organized Classroom, so leave us a comment below!

~Charity

The post Chalkboard Comprehension Centers appeared first on Organized Classroom.

Being able to identify synonyms – and their opposite partner words – antonyms – are super fun topics for any grade level 2nd-4th English class!  Sentence structure becomes immediately better when students are exposed to variations of common words they use regularly.

What if your teacher lesson plans taught synonyms like a word detective?  

The class needs to find the clues that lead to a hidden mystery word.  Each day, you share another synonym for a common word and place it on a word wall or anchor chart.  

The master lists of synonyms grows each day, as does the student guesses as their ideas are eliminated when a new word is added.

The look of excitement in their faces is so pleasing to watch.  The thrill of hearing their guesses while realizing that their word choice is suddenly so much larger than it has been before.  

Learning  has never been more fun!

School Bulletin Board Full Site Access

Create your bulletin boards in a snap with premade templates!

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Why teach synonyms?

The best reason to teach synonyms is honestly for a wider variety of word choice that expands the vocabulary library.  Isn’t our goal to grow students into better readers and thinkers?  By doing specific activities in school where students use their knowledge or skill to create more complex sentences, it enhances their ability to communicate with others and learn better.

After working on a classroom brainstorming list to pool together various words that can mean the same thing, make a master list of the words and photocopy one for each child to keep within his or her writing folder for easy reference while writing.

I guarantee if you ask students to swap out just one word from their writing this week for another option in their vocabulary book, you will start to see students using better words more often.  The bonus is that you will start to hear it in their speaking skills as well.

How do you teach synonyms and antonyms?

Usually teaching synonyms and antonyms goes hand in hand, much like peanut butter and jelly.  It doesn’t always have to be taught simultaneously, but they are certainly two pieces of the grammar pie that go together very well.

Anchor charts are a great way to teach this strategy too!

This one is super cute and shows how to connect the S in synonym with the word same.

Love that these are petals of flowers!   It would go great with the free synonyms worksheets I have for you below!

You just can’t have an education post about teaching synonyms without seeing cinnamon rolls – haha!

Another way I have always taught synonyms in the past is through literature.  A few great choices are:

• Pitch and Throw, Grasp, and Know:  What Is a Synonym? by Brian P. Cleary
• If You Were a Synonym (Word Fun) by Michael Dahl
• Stroll and Walk, Babble and Talk:  More About Synonyms by Brian P. Cleary

Need something more hands-on?   How about a free pdf printable pack?

I have created a fun version of a color-by-number activity:   Spring Color-By-Synonyms!  Super fun, right?

This completely free pack of printables includes 6 worksheets – 3 that are simple synonym choices for the K-2 crowd and 3 that are of a higher difficulty level.  {Did someone use the word rigorous?}

Of course, they are all included in the free set to use interchangeably with your students’ needs.  I know how you probably have a classroom full of students that could use either version, so they will all be at your fingertips for the taking!

A word of warning:  the higher difficulty versions do include some words not regularly used as synonyms as I specifically wanted to make it challenging.  Many students will need a thesaurus or dictionary to look up the meanings of the word in question.

This can be done in traditional book form, my personal favorite way to teach referencing skills in addition to the synonym unit, but students could also feasibly find help by using an online version such as dictionary.com or thesaurus.com to assist them in working through the words.

These free worksheets for synonym practice can be used during your lesson, as a homework assignment, morning work, centers, or even as an extension activity for your gifted students who might be ready to tackle something a bit harder.

All the answer keys are also included in the packet so you can check it in a flash.

Make sure to download your free Spring Color by Synonyms Printable Pack below right now!

How do you usually cover synonyms and/or antonyms in your classroom?   We love ideas around here!  Leave your ideas in a comment below!  #sharingiscaring

~Charity

The post Free Spring Color by Synonyms Printable Worksheets to Build Vocabulary appeared first on Organized Classroom.

Save your voice and allow the students to have a visual reminder of the expectations as well.  Enjoy!

You might want to check out:

Need some new ideas for classroom management? This 105 page digital book has you covered!

Includes 16 articles from Organized Classroom, including topics such as:
-Tattling
-Using Peer Pressure to Solve Behavior Issues
-Utilizing a Simple Plastic Cup for Your Mgmt Plan
-Creating a Simple Token Economy
-A Character Building Game
-Group Work Mgmt Tips
…and even more!

Now available in our Shop!  And the second copy to share with a friend is half price!  

See it HERE.

Here is the video:

Transcript for those who prefer to read:

“Hi Everyone, Charity Preston here from the organized classroom blog. I hope everyone’s doing well, having a great week.

Today’s tip has to do a little bit with classroom management. I’ve actually seen this in a cafeteria at a school that I worked at and it worked pretty well for there.

And I thought, you know, I hate whenever I have the kids working in groups in their classroom and they can’t so loud you can’t even hear yourself think.

And then I thought, okay, well a lot of, a lot of teachers use the Yak-ker trackers or whatever. They have lots of different ways that they get them to quiet down.

And I know some other teachers just can’t afford to buy something like that as well.

And why penalize the group that is working quietly and using the appropriate indoor voice with their group as opposed to the group that’s just being completely loud and just being crazy.

So, um, I’m going to adapt something I had from the cafeteria idea into your classroom and it’s really actually very simple.

All you’re going to need our three cups, a red one, yellow one, and a green one.

Super simple, easy to buy. I think I paid $3 for each package of these cups and you can then have enough for each one of your groups in the classroom.

Now you can even get fancy with them, which I didn’t, but you could even write on them and write teammate purple team, however you, whatever your team names are, you could create labels and slap some labels on there as well.

You can even just write on the bottom a, B, c, whatever group it is. Maybe it’s team one. You put the number one of the top of it because I can see certain students switching them out with other tables possibly.

You never know, but if you wanted to label them, you certainly could. It would be super simple to do.

So all you’re going to do is stack your cups. Okay?

You’re going to put these right in the middle of your teams and everybody starts out on green.

As you begin your group activity. If a group is just starting to get kind of loud, just walk over without a word and change their cup to yellow.

So now they know they’re saying they’ve gotten their morning, this one, this is what it is and it’s a visual and it’s sitting right in the middle of the team and they can see it.

And if they still just, you know, can’t seem to pull it together, they go to red and then red means your group time is over with. Get out your paper and pencil, you’re going to do everything individually by yourself silently.

And that’s what that group has to do.

I would hazard a guess to say after a couple times we get in a red, the peer pressure’s going to kick in because not everybody’s going to want to get off the paper and pencil. And once they get to this point, they’re going to say, okay guys, no, seriously, we don’t want to get to red because I hate getting off the paper and pencil and I hate having write everything down, so let’s just chill out. You know, and one person’s getting allowed the other.

Hopefully people in the group will quiet him down and of course you could even go the other way.

Let’s say they’re already on yellow. They could go back to green. If you feel like they’re doing a phenomenal job keeping up with what they need to, they could go right back to green.

It’s certainly up to you as to how the do you want to do it in your own classroom, but it’s a way that you don’t have to raise your voice.

You literally silently walk over and change the cup.

They’re going to see it. It’s a visual. You don’t need to yell. You don’t need to remind them constantly.

Would you like to know step-by-step routines that put teachers back in control in just 4 weeks?

Download the FREE Classroom Systems Starter Kit now!

Group five how many times we have to go over this quiet down. Use your appropriate voice. They’re sitting right across from you. You don’t need to scream.

You don’t need to say any of that. All you have to do is go over and change the cup when you’ve had it that you’ve had it, period. That’s it. It’s on red. They’re going to paper and pencil. Problem solved at that point.

So that’s kind of a fun idea actually that I got from another place and I have seen it work very well in classrooms and in the cafeteria.

So you certainly if you have cafeteria duty, I know how much fun that is. Uh, Eddie just gets obnoxiously loud, try to go with the tables and, and the team approach there as well.

Um, I just see this being more used in the classroom, uh, adapted over so it could be used both places.

All right. I hope you’ve enjoyed, as always, feel free if you have another great tip that you want to share with us. I know I’ve gotten some in, I’m still working on the videos for those ones.

Then feel free to send me like a nice little email at the organized classroom, blog.com right up at the top toolbar. You’ll see an about contact tab does click out and go to my contact form, fill in something that you would like to see if you have something in particular or if you have a great tip such as this, feel free to share it with the world. And I’ll make sure to throw your name into the video if you’d like.

And, uh, that’s what we have for today, guys. I hope you’ve enjoyed. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

Don’t have any cups handy or no place to store them?

Download the free handout below, cut apart on the lines, and then laminate (optional) to start using them right away!

Click here to email your freebie

How else could you use this idea in your classroom or school? For a parent night, schoolwide assembly, or signaling when recess is over? Other ideas? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

~Charity

The post Cup Management appeared first on Organized Classroom.

Pods of four desks in each small group are the traits of this seating arrangement.  Perfect for small groups of four and/or partner work with face or shoulder partners.

How else could you use this seating arrangement in your classroom?  Feel free to share in the comments below!

You might want to check out:

Want an AD-FREE resource book of all seating charts in one easy-to-print format?  188 pages in total!  Now available in our Bookstore!  And the second copy to share with a friend is half price!  

See it HERE.

Grab a printable handout of this seating chart!

Click here to email your freebie

~Charity

See ALL the Seating Chart options HERE.

The post Classroom Seating Chart: Cake Anyone? appeared first on Organized Classroom.

Yes, you purchase your teacher planner in the hopes it will help you to stay organized.  But a lovely side effect is the big smile on your face every time you pull your planner out of your desk.  If you aren’t smiling, you aren’t doing it right.   Let’s get you the teacher planner that brings your smile back.

Where Can I Find a Good Teacher Planner

There are several places to find your own best planner edition.   You can look online, in the physical store, or even create your own printable version.

I have found that what makes me happy is being able to customize my own cover, choose the pages I prefer from my template choices, have a matching lesson plan, and then print off as needed and bind together.

Maybe you prefer a thicker large book style shiny cover planner that has everything in it for the entire year and you are lost without carrying it around.

Some other teachers might go a completely different direction and choose an online teacher planner so that everything is digital and nothing needs to be carried.  Apps are useful for looking or changing to dos very easily on the fly.

Ready-for-you is convenient, but might not include everything in your planning wish list.

Want a ready made simple system?

Customize your very own editable teacher planner – change your theme all throughout the year with this mega bundle of choices!

See more HERE.

What Should You Look for in Your Teacher Planner

Here are some things to consider when looking for your dream classroom planner.  Most buy off the shelf planners won’t have the ability to customize your choices, while digital files that you print yourself allow you the option to choose your preference of pages, order them how you like, and pop in a binder for the ultimate best for you option.

Calendar:  Choose between a monthly, weekly, or daily format.  Personally I like a weekly and monthly layout in my planner.  The monthly is important for me to write down upcoming events, but the 2-page weekly spread allows me to document all the little things that have to get done throughout the upcoming week.

Layout:  Horizontal or vertical.  This might not matter to some teachers, but it is a deal-breaker for me.  I cannot work in a vertical weekly format.  For some reason it doesn’t feel right.  If it doesn’t matter to you, that’s fine too, but if it does matter, this is one of the first things I look at when deciding whether a new planner will make it through the year with me.

Lesson planning template:  An optional piece of course.  Some teachers prefer to have a separate lesson planning book from their calendar planning pieces.  Others want it all in one. The choice is yours.

Gradebook:  Another optional piece.  Keep in mind if you are carrying around confidential grades, make sure students don’t have access to snoop throughout your planning book at all.

Personalized custom cover:  I love having my name on my cover, but that’s just me.  And the cover design really does make a difference in my smile factor.

Extra pages:  Classroom management plan template, seating chart pages, substitute information, important dates, classroom roster, and more.

The sky is the limit.  You should write down really your must-haves included in your ultimate dream planner and then make sure whatever option you choose is as close to that dream as possible.

How to Create a Teacher Planner

If you are choosing to go with a digital printable in which you print your specific pages, there are 4 great options for putting your new personalized teacher lesson planner together.

1.  Use a 3 ring binder.   This option is the best for me because I am able to add in or take out pages easily without having to bind anything over from scratch.  I love adding in monthly tabs and  different sections of my planner for simple organization.

A 1.5 inch binder tends to do the trick for my needs – and there are so many different colors out there to chose from that you can match virtually any design.

Also having a clear insert front cover is useful for adding in my personalized cover with my name on it.

2.  Coil Binding can be a choice as well.  Many schools have a coil binding machine to make student “books.”   You can use this same machine to create your teacher plan book.

Print the pages you wish to include, along with your cover on top, and then bind them together to look like a professional planner you might find in the store.

3.  Comb Binding machines are a little pricier so you may or may not have access to one at school.  But you can still easily find one at the office supply store!   Take your pages to the copy counter at your local office supply chain and ask them if they can coil bind it for you.

Typically you can even choose whether there is a clear cover, no cover, a plastic or colored paper backing, and what color the coil is.  Even with these extra options, it should cost you less than a trip to Starbucks.

Coil binding is super handy as it allows the planner to be opened flat on the table when writing in it.

Want to save even more time?  Since you are at the office supply store anyway, take in or email your planner files, and use their printing services to have the all in one planner made for you on the spot.  That option saves you time and ink!

4.  One last way to display your favorite teacher planner is with a report cover with brads.  This option is good if you prefer to only print off your weekly plans no more than a month out being that the report cover won’t be able to hold an entire year’s worth of pages.

If you prefer to keep it simple by printing as you go throughout the year (thereby saving paper if you only print what you need when you need it), then having something lightweight to carry around is a nice perk.  And you can still show off your custom cover page.

Here is an option for a super cute printable planner you might like: Save the Drama for Your Llama Simple Teacher Planner!

This digital file includes:

• Divider tabs
• Monthly Customizable Calendar:  Form fields allow you to “type” in the dates monthly so you never need to buy an updated version
• Matching Lesson Plan Template:  Type right on to the form
• Meeting Notes Page
• From the Desk of Notepad Pages
• Custom Cover

All pages have typeable fields so you can choose to fill in, save, print, OR email the file.  This is perfect if you want to send a note to a parent – or share IEP meeting notes with a colleague who wasn’t able to make the meeting.

Pages are 8.5″x11″ standard page size for printing and adding to a binder.

Prefer a different theme with the same idea?

This 7 Teacher Lesson Planners Mega Bundle includes the following themes:

• Save the Drama for Your Llama
• Bright Flowers
• Busy Bee
• Cute Chevron
• Pretty Paisley
• Tree Love
• Zebra

Whether you choose to go old school planner, completely online, or a mix in between with a print-it-yourself option, knowing what you prefer really is the key to finding your planner nirvana.

You might want to check out:

Need some new ideas for lesson planning and calendar organization in the classroom? This 70 page digital book has you covered!

Includes 14 articles from Organized Classroom, including topics such as:
-Curriculum Mapping
-Setting Up Your Daily Classroom Schedule
-Digital Filing Cabinets
-Weekly Planning Resources
-Several To-Do List Templates
-Balancing Home and Work Life in your Calendar
-File Organization
…and even more!

Now available in our Shop!  And the second copy to share with a friend is half price!

See it HERE.

Need a sample calendar template from the Save the Drama for Your Llama Teacher Planner?

Download it below and add your own text boxes on the file using either Power Point or Google Slides.

Click here to email your freebie

What type of planner do you love best?  We would love to hear in the comments below!

~Charity

The post How to Create Your Own Custom Teacher Planner appeared first on Organized Classroom.

But, poetry is actually all around us.   And not always in the classical sense of Robert Frost.

Keep reading to see some tips and trick for new and veteran teachers alike to put in your teaching toolbox for your next poetry unit!

As a new teacher, this was one of the hardest curriculum I had to learn how to teach, especially to younger kids who don’t “get it.”  

Of course, we worked with Dr. Seuss books to learn rhyming, nonsense words, and other important literacy skills, but even those materials didn’t always translate into students understanding how poems were set up (they didn’t always rhyme and they don’t always look the same).

Finding new ways to keep hitting on poetry throughout the year was vital.  

You never knew when the standardized test would throw in a poem and completely freak out every student in your class.

Reading and Language Arts Power Pack

11 reading and language arts resource sets that pack a punch!

This power pack includes the following 11 files:

• Beach Activities Pack (K-6)
• Chapter Book Reading Strategies Activities  (grades 3-8)
• Chrysanthemum Reading Packet (grades 2-4)
• Contraction Packet (grades 1-3)
• DI Spelling Menus Packet (grade 2+)
• Never Ride Your Elephant to School Activities (grades 2-4)
• Reading Bingo (grades 2-8)
• Space Theme Reading Logs (grades 2-5)
• Fiction and Nonfiction Story Maps (grades 2-6)
• Vocabulary Bingo (grades 3+)
• Writing Menu (grades 3+)

See more details HERE.

Using music as a step by step solution to teaching about poetry

I love incorporating what students already know and like into learning lessons.  

And using popular music is a great method for effective poetry instruction.

Of course, you will need to watch out for inappropriate lyrics and innuendos, which can be really hard with some of today’s chart toppers.  But that’s when Kidz Bop Kids comes into play.

They have CDs, a YouTube channel, and even a tour (I took my 4th grade son to a concert at our State Fair and he LOVED it)

They take all the most popular pop songs and rework the lyrics (if necessary) and have kids sing them.  Pretty awesome, right?

Of course, for older students, such as middle school and high school, you could probably use actual song lyrics.

Find a song, print off the lyrics and have your class start analyzing those songs as poems.  

Sometimes they rhyme.  Sometimes not.  Sometimes they follow a pattern.  Sometimes not.

Might be a great strategy to practice one new poem (aka popular song) per week and play the song at the end of the week to wrap it up after discussing the features of the poem, vocabulary, and the message the author is trying to share.

Top Lesson Plans for Poetry Activities

Need some more poetry solutions?

I love integrating subjects, so what could be better than combining math and literature?  Check out THIS POST for a cool resource for multiplication poetry.  It is a hit with my students!

Having trouble finding examples of poems that DON’T rhyme?  I’ve got you covered!

Similes are a huge part of poems.  THIS POST gives you plenty of examples.  Challenge your students to write poems that include at least one simile before moving on to other types of metaphors.

Obviously poetry is only a small piece of your literacy lessons all year long.  And not all students love writing.  In fact, I have had plenty of students who loathed picking up that pencil to do any type of writing, much less something they personally created.

If you are in need of some student motivation ideas for writing, check out THIS POST with a helpful two-part video to get those pencils flying on the papers.

Free Poetry PDF Pack

I whipped up a super fun version of an activity you can do with them and have even included some fun templates for them to write on too!  The best part?  No rhyming required for this one.

Here are the directions for how to create the poems:

And here is a provided teacher example:

There are 12 total blank templates with the starting topic already listed for your students = oh yeah!  

This activity can be done once a month, as a fun center station, or even as morning work during National Poetry Month.  The choice is yours!

Download your free Poetry Pack below!

Click here to email your freebie

What are your best ideas for teaching children poetry?  We would love to hear them in a comment below!

~Charity

The post Free Poetry Pack for YOU! appeared first on Organized Classroom.