Monday Made It (On Wednesday): Branching out with a Bullet Journal

Well, I haven't blogged in awhile... Anyway, one of the nice things about summer is having more time to do things like blogging and reading and napping and eating lunch with grownups.

On Monday morning I was reviewing over the Monday Made Its at Tara's blog (including the ones from last week). I have enjoyed surveying everyone's creations for Monday Made It for the last few years. It is always inspiring and gives you ideas to get you thinking about getting ready for the school year.

I felt completely inspired by Nicole's guest post from last week where she shared her bullet journal. I have seen bullet journals on Instagram, but I hadn't given it too much thought yet. Nicole shared her bullet journal and this blog post, which had been her inspiration.

So for my Monday Made It (shared on Wednesday) for this week, I decided to start my own bullet journal. I actually use an Erin Condren planner that works pretty well for me for keeping up with grad school homework and due dates. I have used both Plum Paper planners and Erin Condren planners. I prefer to horizontal weekly layout; it works better for me. At work, I tend to keep a little task list on a small notepad I found at Staples last year for a $1. On one half, it says "To Do Now" and on the other half it says "To Do Later."

The part I have struggled with keeping organized is more for long term goals and ideas. I liked the idea of trying a bullet journal to organize other parts of my life like lists of books I want to read, long term research goals, projects for grad school, projects for my classroom, etc. I had a cute journal I bought at Barnes and Noble a couple months ago that I hadn't used yet. I love this size journal. It is slim enough to fit in a purse or backpack easily, making it even more portable than my planner.



I have always kept an "idea journal" (hence, part of why my blog is named the Idea Backpack). I am someone who is always coming up with ideas and finding the need to record them somewhere. My idea journals have never been very organized though or necessarily easy to locate things later.  So I liked the idea of creating a bullet journal to organize different lists of goals and ideas with a table of contents.



Below are a few more pictures of some of the pages I started. Of course, one of my first priorities was making different "To Be Read" pages. I love keeping track of my reads on Goodreads, but I also like the idea of a physical list I can add to by genre.



I haven't added any doodles or artwork or done creative lettering yet. I was more just trying to get it started and begin organizing goals and ideas for this summer. Hopefully over time I will branch out and be a little more creative with some of my entries.

Once 2016 is over, I might also try incorporating the planner aspect into the bullet journal as well. How do you organize your ideas and goals? Do you use a journal or planner?

Why We Need to Be Prepared in Order to Be Flexible in the Classroom

Did you have a good Monday?  I had a good Monday.  We always want to have good days, but it is even better when a Monday is a good day because...well, it is Monday.

I am generally a very organized person, and I try to be very prepared.  When I am organized and prepared, I feel better.  I feel calm and confident, ready to tackle what may come my way.  When I am less prepared, I am stressed and more likely to frazzle.  (Is frazzle a word?)  As a full-time teacher and doctoral student, I do not need to add extra reasons to my life to be stressed.

This weekend on Saturday, I remembered at 3pm I needed to go to the library this weekend.  Of course, the library would be closed on Easter.  So that meant I needed to go on Saturday right then before they closed.  I made it to the libraries (plural) because you know the stacks of books I wanted existed across two locations to get everything I wanted.  (Note: For next year to be more prepared I am going to make lists of all the books I want for specific activities and then I can just request all those books be delivered to the library I want ahead of time. So next year I will be more prepared.)

Anyway, I got all the books I wanted.  I decided to take them all up to school on Saturday so I wouldn't have to deal with them Monday morning.  Then today, I got to work about 15 minutes earlier than I needed to. You sometimes forget what a difference 10-15 minutes can make.  I got a lot done this morning and was confidently ready to go. Now, I often try to have everything copied by Friday for the next week anyway.  However, just getting to work a few minutes early on a Monday still just allowed me to have a few minutes of quiet to set the right intention for the day.

The rest of the day continued in the same fashion.  I accomplished a lot.  My students accomplished a lot.  I was able to get several big assignments graded. I gave my students important feedback they needed.  We started a group project this week that the students were enjoying.  Often as teachers if we take the time to be prepared...to feel confident...then our students feed off of that.  If we have a good day, they usually have a good day.  If we start out frazzled, then they are more likely to be less productive that day. We set the tone in our classroom.

Tonight at my Implementation and Evaluation of Curriculum class, we also were discussing a study that looked at differences between effective and less effective teachers for improving student performance.  One of the factors that made the biggest difference was the instructional planning of the teacher.  How well do you plan?  How prepared are you?  I often have said some of the best classroom moments I have experienced is when I was inspired by my students' ideas and questions, and we had an impromptu discussion or impromptu activity. However, I feel confident to be flexible...to be inspired...when I am prepared...when I have planned well.

How prepared are you?  How confident did you feel today?  How well did you plan your day?  Does it make a difference in how you set the tone for your classroom?

Form for Checking and Reflection on Grades - Freebie

We all can dispute the value of grading and what to grade and how to grade and when to grade. At the end of the day though, most of us take grades and hand out report cards or progress reports on some regular basis.  Many schools use some type of online system to track grades, and often parents and students have a way to check their grades.  I have used Engrade the last couple years. It is fairly easy to use and students and parents can have access to check grades. I have been reminding students and parents the last few weeks to check student grades and check to see if they have any missing assignments to get turned in since our grading period ends soon.  With my students being 7th and 8th graders, I think they are old enough to find out what they missed if they were sick and to remember to turn assignments in when they are done.

I decided to make a form they all are going to have to fill out this week.  Despite my reminders, many of my students have not checked their grades and are going to be surprised if their grades are lower than they realized. This time of the year it is easy to have a lot of students with various missing assignments due to cold and flue season. So I am going to make them fill out a form to record their current grade and whether they have any missing assignments.  They also will have to fill out a separate form to track any missing assignments for any class for which they had missing assignments.

You can get a free copy HERE. How do you help hold your students responsible for taking ownership of their grades and getting everything turned in.

Christmas in July: Organize your Guided Reading Resources

A lot of fabulous bloggers this week have been having Christmas in July sales.  Considering the unusual cool front in Texas for July, I think this is a wonderful idea.  It is 64 degrees outside this morning.  I had to grab a sweater before I left the house and put on real shoes.

For the rest of July, we will be celebrating Christmas in July here at the Idea Backpack.  I will be doing a couple of giveaways, so please keep checking back.  Also, I will have at least one product 50% off each day.

The first item I have on sale is my Binder Covers & Spine Labels for Guided Reading Resources.  

Do you do Reading Workshop and do Guided Reading with your kiddos?  Do you use resources from Reading A to Z, Razkids, Fountas & Pinnell, TpT, or Readworks?  Many of your resources may be organized by Lexile level, Fountas & Pinnell level, or Reading A to Z level.  The purpose of these binder covers/dividers and spine labels is to help you organize all of your resources in one place for easy planning each week.  I kept my binders on my Guided Reading table. 

Each cover includes the Reading A to Z level, as well as the corresponding Fountas and Pinnell Level and Lexile level.  This set will normally be $5.00, but for today it is $2.50.

Leave me a comment on your favorite Guided Reading resource, and I will choose one person to get these labels/dividers for free. 

Planning for Choice and Time in the Language Arts block for Student Engagement and Ownership

I'll forewarn you - this is a long post but lots of good ideas. Sometimes you just have to work through your thoughts...

This is my second year of working in a blended learning environment.  By utilizing online curriculum and student-teacher interaction, students are able to work at different paces and levels. It adds a whole new level to time and resource management as an elementary teacher.  I have a small-class size, but my students still cover a wide variety of reading levels just like with any class. In the past, I taught at a charter school and we used a Reading/Writing Workshop model with Guided Reading. Over the past two years at a private school with a blended learning model, I have worked more on getting adjusted to the Common Core Standards and figuring out the best way to leverage technology for elementary students.  I have done a lot of whole-group reading instruction based on the Common Core Standards to supplement my student's online lessons. 

I have found fitting in guided reading or small-group reading lessons a lot more difficult as I have also worked through what classroom management looks like when you add in a lot of technology and students working highly independently. I have found while technology is great, it also provides more ways to be off-task.  I have found that some students need a lot of re-directing to stay on task.  When students are used to all students working on the same task at the same time, they sometimes struggle to transition to an environment where everyone may be doing something slightly different.  They worry more about what others are doing then focusing on their own tasks. At the same time, as part of the 21st century learning skills students need to work on communication and collaboration.  I think learning to work in groups is important, but learning to focus and tune out distraction is also an important life-skill.

One of my goals for the rest of this school year is to do more differentiated small-group reading instruction, so finding ways to increase student motivation is important to freeing me up to have time to work for a block of time with specific students on reading skills.  It is also important to help my students balance out working independently, working together, and learning to use one another as a resource.

In the last month, I attended the iNACOL conference and the NAGC conference. At both conferences, I came away re-convicted on how important choice, rigor, and depth are for student engagement.  In the past, I have used a lot of choice menus for student assignments and projects. I have always been intrigued by the idea of doing project based learning for opportunities for depth and rigor.  I also always really enjoy reading blog posts from teachers who use stations or rotation models to differentiate for their math and reading workshop blocks.

I decided for now to work on the choice element of student engagement for my Language Arts block.  Because my students work more independently and may vary in the amount of time they need to spend on a task, a rotation model does not work as well for me. I decided to make a chart to plan out my Language Arts block in 15-20 minute increments.  I then designated times for certain whole-group lessons/activities and small-group reading meeting times. Wednesdays I marked off as Writing Wednesday where we will spend an hour on a more in-depth writing assignment (such as our monthly essay writing I mentioned yesterday).

 The rest of the blocks I left blank where they can work independently or maybe in partners or groups depending on the task.  My students will each get a chart where it lists the tasks at the top they need to complete for the week.  Some weeks it may even be broken into more of a must do and may do list of tasks.  Using the chart each week will give us a sense of consistency, while allowing for flexibility to make changes to time allotments and tasks/activities.

They then will be able to fill in those blank "Independent Work" boxes in the chart for which tasks they want to do when.  I made my chart for the week and a template for each reading group in PowerPoint.  I decided to call them reading meetings instead of reading groups, and I think I will change the names for different themes throughout the year. You can get a copy of the PowerPoint file here if you would like to make changes for you.

For now, I was playing with naming my groups seasonal names.  Another teacher today said she liked the idea of naming her groups by color and then color coding their handouts by group name.  I really like the idea of using color paper and color-coding the handouts, so I may change the names to my groups.

My hope is that if students have more choice of when they complete certain tasks, this will help them take more ownership to stay on task.  As we have been talking about getting ready for middle school and SMART goals, this also goes along well with taking ownership of setting and meeting goals.  This process will hopefully allow me to focus more on my goal of doing more differentiated small-group instruction.

As they get better at working independently and taking ownership for their time, we can add in more  group-work opportunities for depth.  I am intrigued by Jen Runde's blog posts on Genius Hour and passion projects.  I think this would be a great way to add in some inquiry-based learning. I need to do more research.  It seems like the projects may be more independent, but by encouraging students to do them in groups of 2-3 you could definitely work on communication and collaboration.

How do you allocate time in your Language Arts block? 

Math binder covers for common core math resources - freebie

Congratulations to Jodi for winning 3 items from my TpT store.  I will be emailing you in the morning.

I am going to keep this quick tonight.  I already should have gone to bed.  I am teaching multiple levels of math this year, and in the past I have primarily tought ELA and Social Studies.  I definitely needed more math resources.  So I started purchasing lots of stuff on TpT.  Some pictures below show some of what I purchased. Basically, I found lots of common core related assessments and activities for grades 4 and 5 and middle school math.

I printed it all out, stopped and bought more ink, and printed some more.  (So I went to Walmart for the teacher basics - you know: water, Toilet paper, computer paper, and ink).  Then I had to organize it all in binders.  I started with the 4th grade assessments and put them in all in sheet protectors.  I prefer to organize this way.  However, it was taking too long. 

So for the fifth grade stuff I put the title pages of the sections in sheet protectors and hole punched the activities and assessments to put behind each title page.

 
I decided as I continue to gather more math resources, I want to organize them in binders by grade level with sections for each of the standard domains.  Then, I can put the various activities and assessments from lots of resources in each domain's section.  I made some binder covers/dividers and spine labels to organize my own stuff.  I thought I would share them with you.  Click here to download.

I would love some feedback if you end up using them.  How is your mission organization going?  I have been putting new materials in binders, but I still need to organize all my old stuff from the file crates to binders. 

A Giveaway and a Freebie for Long Term Planning with the English Common Core Standards Grades K-5

So, I wish I could say the last three days had been as successful with my fitness goals.  Oh, well.  I did walk the dog a few times though.  Thursday was a long day with work all day and the "meet the parent night" in the evening.  My classroom is almost complete, so I look forward to sharing some pictures with you.  I enjoyed meeting some of the parents I had yet to meet.  The kids start September 4th;  I am really excited about this year and having a small class (about 10-15) and the ability to utilize technology.

Last night I went to a Greek restaurant with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and enjoyed a relaxing evening out.  Wednesday and Thursday evening were crazy between trying to make sure I had my classroom ready and my house clean for house guests.  The gamer hubby's LAN party started last night.  He came home at 5am and crashed and is yet to waken.  I am about to leave and run some errands. I need to pick out the paint color for the legs of my new farm table that is being built. I also need to find some games like Scrabble and Chess for my classroom.  I am going to head to Toys 'R Us just to see what they have.  Any fun board game recommendations?

Later this evening and tomorrow I am working on completing my partially-done classroom decor sets.  I really appreciate the great suggestions and comments I received the last couple posts.  If you are interested in possibly winning a free classroom decor set, leave me some feedback here. 

I also appreciate those that have emailed me expressing interest in helping out with my 400 follower giveaway.  I am going to keep working on planning a big giveaway.  In the meantime, I want to do a small giveaway to show my appreciation to all my followers.  Enter below in order to win 3 items of your choice from my store in order to help you with Back to School.  This giveaway will run from now until Wednesday. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I want to focus next week on some long term planning by looking at what novels I want to use this year for whole-group and small-group.  I can't fit them all in.  I also want to make sure I cover the Common Core Standards for 4th and 5th when using novels and various non-fiction texts. (I am in Texas, but my school uses the CCS).   I created these charts awhile ago with the intention of putting them in my store.  I never quite finished adding the Language Arts and Math Standards.  For now I have decided to share these charts with you as a freebie to link up with Freebie Friday on Saturday.

  It includes 27 pages of charts to help with long-term planning for most of the English/Language Arts Standards for Grades K-5.  I hope you find them helpful.
Long Term Planning With ELA Common Core Standards Grades K-5

Binder Covers and Spine Labels for Themes

As part of my effort toward organization, I want to move all my files to binders.  I have been working like crazy to create binder covers and spine labels for every possible topic under the sun.  So far I have themes, tons of ELA topics, Math topics, Science topics, Social Studies & US History Topics, and Holidays. I think I have made like 200-300 binder covers.  I just have to finish adding all the graphics, so they will be coming over next few days. 

My first packet to be posted is "Binder Covers and Spine Labels for Themes."  There is 67 pages of covers and labels for over 50 themes. Here are some pictures to give you ideas. You can get it at my TpT store.

The themes included are:
Penguins
Snowman
Insects
Spring
Groundhog Day
Dr. Seuss
Gardens & Flowers
Frogs
Bees & Butterflies
Life Cycles
Picnics
Rainy day
Ice cream
Popcorn
Ocean and Sea Life
Beach
Patriotic Symbols and Holidays
Dinosaurs
Zoo
Farm
Pirates
Back to School
Alphabet
Numbers and Counting
All About Me
Family
Scarecrows
Space
Aliens
Monsters
Apples
Pumpkins
Leaves
Spiders and Bats
Harvest
Supermarket
Bears
100th Day
Teeth
Nutrition
Weather
Fairy Tales
Transportation
Communities
Polar Express
Happy Holidays
Snow and Mittens
Gingerbread Man

I would love some feedback of what you think or if you think of some other themes that should be added. I will give away a copy free to the first person to comment.  Please also email me at ideabackpack@gmail.com if you have requests for specific binder cover topics or color requests.