Primary Teaching Ideas, Resources and Strategies
This is my 18th year teaching. Wow, that makes me sound old! (Notice I said that makes me sound old… not that I am old… 😉 ) Anyway, in all those years I have had just about every “kind of class” you can imagine. I have taught pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, second grade and ESE. I have taught in Title… Read More
You’ve heard the expression “If Mama ain’t happy – Ain’t nobody happy”, right? Well, the same thing is true for our classrooms. If you, the teacher, aren’t happy – you’re students won’t truly be happy either. And for the word “happy” we could easily substitute “calm”, “focused”, “motivated”, “enthusiastic” … almost any adjective works in that little scenario. When I… Read More
Let me start off by saying, I hope you don’t have any reason to read this post. I hope that your students are all happy, healthy and well-adjusted. In fact, I hope you are wondering exactly what I mean by “classroom meltdowns”… but I have a sneaking suspicion that you do know what I mean. If you have been teaching… Read More
So, if you read last week’s “wrap up” post, you know that our first game of Scoot went terribly, terribly wrong. In fact, it went so wrong, that I realized it was time that I sat down and wrote out my classroom management tips for “that class” (also known as how I try to make it through the day this… Read More
Exciting things have been happening! This week my friend Rachelle and I officially started co-teaching our kindergarten classes! It’s funny because things are happening very quickly and it feels a bit like a whirlwind…but when we stopped to talk about things last night, we realized that this has been almost 10 years in the making. When you think about it… Read More
So, this post is probably going to sound crazy. I am going to tell you about this “classroom management strategy” and you are going to think I’m nuts. It’s okay. It won’t hurt my feelings. I’m telling you, this is going to sound ridiculous but it WORKS and my kids LOVE, love, love, love it. Alright, here… Read More
I feel like the walls in my classroom are prime real estate. My little firsties spend six hours every single day surrounded by these walls! That is HUGE. I try to make sure that everything in our room is engaging, meaningful, and educationally relevant for my students. For the past few years I have felt conflicted about posting standards in… Read More