Progress Reports (Already)

In college I don't remember ever having a course that spoke about the trauma and drama of progress reports... Maybe it was covered, but in those classes I was so focused on creating cute lessons and not feeling like a kid during my student teaching that I really don't remember. Life experiences have taught me a few things over the years though.

*I am thankful for grading programs. I absolutley despised staying up late computing averages when it used to be time for progress reports. Technology is wonderful. 

*I have learned I am not a weighted grading type of girl. I see things in black and white, based on points- not percentages. In doing so I have learned the different point values that work for me.

For example in writing I grade with the district rubric. Paragraphs are worth 10 points. Multiple paragraphs are worth more, but it's based on the same kind of point system.

4 = 10

3+ = 9.5

3 = 9

3- = 8.5

2+ = 8

2 = 7.5

2- = 7

1+ = 6.5

1 = 6

*It's important to keep a hard copy of your grades just in case technology doesn't work as planned.  We have a new grade book this year, and already numerous teachers have lost everything as the system has been dealing with glitches.  I'm crossing my fingers and toes that my grades are safe!  

*I love categories in each grade book as a way for parents/student/me to see how the child is doing on assessments vs. classwork, etc..

Here's the categories I have in each grade book:

Writing: Final Drafts, Classwork, Projects, Spelling, Reading Logs.

Reading: Assessments, Classwork, Projects, Summaries

Math: Assessments, Classwork, Projects

Science: Assessments, Classwork, Projects

Social Studies: Assessments, Classwork, Projects

Notice HW isn't on there... On our report cards homework is an E, S, N separate thing (just like math facts)... So I still keep track but don't include in their letter grades.  For the most part it's practice.  Do it or don't do it.  Rewards for getting it done, consequences for not getting it done.... Things that I do grade/count as projects, or have their own category - reading logs, etc.

Here's how my typical grading system looks like:

1.  First I record the scores on my hard copy. I have one sheet per subject per progress section (so 2 or 3 sheets per subject per trimester). The kids are listed in alphabetical order, just like on the grading system.

2. As I record their scores on the hard copy, I write "Parent Sign _____" on the top of the student paper if the grade is less than 72% and I highlight it. In my grade book I circle that student's grade to give me a reminder. 

3.  On Fridays the papers go home and the highlighted papers must be returned with a signature the next Monday. When returned I highlight the circled score in my book. Easy way to see who brought it back and who to remind/email parents.

4.  After I record things on my hard copy I head to the computer and enter it into the different online grade books. On my hard copy I put a check mark at the bottom of the column after the assignment has been entered. 

For progress reports we just print the online reports and send them home for a parent signature. I staple the below note over the grade portion, leaving their name showing at the top so it's easy to send home.

Before I send the progress reports home I call the kids over (usually during some independent activity) and show them their grades on the big sheet and all the other information on this half sized sheet. They then go and write what they are proud of and a goal for the future.  I staple the half size on top and stick it to the side to pass out at the end of the day to take home.  Want the above note for yourself?  An editable copy of it is over on Google Docs.  The font above is Century Gothic (since I love it.) 

Kids have to return progress reports the next day with a signature. For extra incentive I give out our school "cash".  Since it is homework, if they don't remember to turn it back in by Friday then they will have to lose recess.  At that point I'll email home, checking to make sure parents saw the reports.

I also sent an email to parents today explaining that the reports are coming home with the extra note and that it's the same grades they have been looking at on the parent grade website. This year I had parents sign a separate note in my back to school packet, making sure they knew about the parent website.  I'm hoping the extra notification helps keep parents in the loop.  :)   

The first trimester is always so short that soon enough it will be report card time. Each trimester I take the grading sheets out of my binder and put them in a file folder to save for reference. Since every trimester starts over, it's just for reflection. 

I hope this helped someone. What do you do for grades?

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Monday Made It - Redoing magnet numbers

It's Monday!!!  Link up time with Tara to show you what craftiness I've been at lately.  

Remember this from last summer?  If you can't figure it out, it's my hall pass magnet thing.

C is for Classroom, M is Music, O is Office, and B is Bathroom.  

  

Well I loved it this past year - I loved the idea of magnets, of the clips, of it all... what I didn't love was the glass marbles being all the same color... hard to find specific numbers quickly (if the kids didn't put them back in order).  So I changed it up.  

Picked up a package of wooden stars and small magnets.  Everything else (like the paint colors I already had from past projects).  My paint colors are Apple Tart and Pool Blue.  I <3 them!  

I painted half the stars each color - since half of them are going to be for the even numbers, and the other half for the odd classroom numbers.  

I still need to hot glue the magnets onto the back of them, but that can wait since I guess I left my hot glue gun locked up in my classroom cabinet... I know, I know - WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!  August 1st will be here soon enough though. :(  

Easy little fix to make it work better this next year.  :)  

As for my old numbers - I'm still planning on using them on my whiteboard 

for class needs since they work and are super strong.

Have a great day! 

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Revisiting the Plink

Hi Everyone!  Today I'm supposed to be getting off the boat.  I wanted to share one last revisit with you before I get home and get back to internet. :)

At the beginning of last school year I showed off this picture.

It's my team behavior system.  The power of the plink.  During the past school year I used it on a daily basis.  Some months I only had 2 teams, other times 5 or 6.  It worked the same though no matter the circumstances.  

I have glass marbles/gems that I drop inside the plastic cups.  Those plastic cups are located on my metal whiteboard.  Even one marble drop makes a loud "plink" sound, which gets so much attention.  I change up my team/seating arrangements every month, so at the end of each month we count the team points from the cups and the winning team gets a prize.  Sometimes it's a box of donut holes, sometimes it's a homework pass or school cash.  They buy into it. 

How do the teams get a point?  For being on task, being quiet, doing their best, cleaning up their area, having their books ready to go after transitions...  simple stuff.  

I will definitely be using this again next year. 

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with pictures from the trip.  :)  If not, then definitely for Five for Friday!       

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Motivating Students

Good Morning!

What a beautiful Saturday it is.  I'm linking up today with Head over Heels For Teaching and her Spark Student Motivation Saturday Linky.  :)

I do a lot in my classroom regarding motivation.  I figure today I will share my lists of rewards, and then in the future weeks I can talk more about it all.  Most of these things I have mentioned in the past as well.    

At the beginning of the year the students and I talk about all the rewards in our classroom.  I break them down into Whole Class, Team, and Individual Rewards.  

Whole Class = entire class is working toward a goal.

Team = Group points

Individual = each student 

Warm Fuzzies are given when students are doing a great job walking in line, we get a compliment from other teachers, etc.  Sometimes it's in class, sometimes it's not...  Mystery Hero is when I choose a random child and keep who I picked a secret.  The point is that since the kids don't know who I chose, they are all doing their best thinking it's them - to win a treat at the end of the day for the entire class.  All day long I make remarks about the "Our Mystery Hero is doing a great job" or "Our Mystery Hero needs to step it up a notch."  It works, though there are times that the mystery hero didn't do a great job and the class doesn't earn a treat.  Incentive Banners are phrases that as a class we are trying to spell.  I go back and forth between the 3 of these programs to keep the kids on their toes - especially this year.  

 Even though we don't always sit in tables, we do have team points.  No matter the seating arrangement, there are certain areas of the room that need to work together to stay on task, keep their area clean, etc.  I give marbles in cups, and the plink makes the kids take notice.  I have loved this system better than my past tally marks since the teams don't give up.  It's not really noticeable to them who is in the lead until it's counting day.  The team with the highest number of points at the end of the month gets a prize.  (We switch seats at the end of every month, so it corresponds with that.)

 Individual rewards are for each student.  For 13 years I have given out tickets and had a ticket store.  Kids would gain tickets for great behavior and those tickets they could cash in for small prizes or bathroom passes.  That all changed about a month ago when I found out that this class was holding ticket wars.  I know, I know... ugh!  They missed the point of the tickets, so I took them all back and we didn't do anything for about 3 weeks regarding tickets... This past week I started giving them back out for hard workers.  Instead of hoarding them they are writing their names on them and are placing them in a raffle, to which I draw 3 names at the end of the day.  

Desk Fairy only visits nice, clean desks.  I have little paper awards that the room monitors award to the kids, but these bigger awards are ones that I give out.  They get to keep them on their desks for the day. Homeworkopoly helps motivate them to make sure everything is turned in on time every week.  Beads are for staying on green throughout the week.  They add a bead to their lanyard if they stayed on green for the entire week. :)  

I hope you have a great day!

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Discipline, Read Alouds, and Fraction Penguins!

It's been this kind of day.  I love my class, I love my class... 

I am just so tired of being tired.

I'm tired of discipling.  I know it's important and I'm not going to be stopping anytime soon, I have the other students in the class to think about - their well being, learning needs, etc... and my own sanity to deal with in addition to the behavior. I think I need to bring out this book again...

We need to revisit it!

My voice is almost gone after today.  Maybe I should blame it on the wind... or yard duty... I don't think I was talking anymore than normal.  I better not be getting sick again! 

This Friday is the end of the trimester - can't believe the longest trimester of the year is coming to a close.  We are busy retaking district math assessments, celebrating Chinese New Year, starting our Survival unit for Reading, and finishing up the read aloud of From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Today in Social Studies we reached the point in history that discusses the Gold Rush.  The kids are excited about learning about it.  I'm excited to have them get started working on their mining journal.  I'll share more about it later - but it's a fun book that they create.

This is Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher's picture - mine looks like it, but of course I forgot to take a picture...
Click to head to her blog for directions.  She has templates.
 

This week we also have started fractions.  Not just reading fractions, but identifying equivalent fractions, finding simplest form, comparing fractions, etc...  Yesterday my class made Fraction Penguins to begin the unit.  Usually I'm all about creating a pizza, but I just didn't feel like pizza...Hope you had a great day! 

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Parent Survey - Conference Time!

I'm updating this post to link it over at 3-6 Free Resources for their linky party about Parent Conferences.  Maybe it could help someone else too!

Parent communication is so important.  I feel pretty confident about all the information that I send home to the parents on a weekly basis (VIP folder/behavior/reminder emails almost every day/monthly newsletter/etc), but sometimes I don't feel that I'm getting their input as much as I would like.  (You know, since hardly anyone ever responds to my reminder emails...)  

Since it's Parent & Teacher Conferences this week, I created this survey for parents to fill out during our time together.  I usually have 2 chairs outside on the "patio" of my portable for them to sit and wait if they show up early.  I made a class set of these surveys and have stuck them into a manilla envelope for them to work on when they are waiting for me.  I've invited the children to come along to the conferences in order to create game plans for the remainder of the year.
The areas that I want their feedback are pretty simple.
*I want to know their opinions on what area they see at home that their child is struggling and the area they think I need to challenge their child more.  
*I want to know if they are getting the class emails, and what level of Goldilock's communication they would rate it at:*Too much  *Just right   *Need more
*I want to make sure that their contact information hasn't changed since the beginning of the year.
*I still need help with some basics and wishes - like having more copy parents and water cooler parents... I want to put it out there for them that we need help.
*Last I want to make sure that I get their opinion if their child is taking responsibility at home with their nightly homework - you know, the stuff they do EVERY night.  I want to encourage their child to be more responsible, but almost every 9 and 10 year old that I have met needs a parent to remind them to practice their math facts, their math IXL skills, their nightly reading, and their spelling practice.  I want to make sure that their parents remember all the resources that are in place to assist their child with their academic success.  With the children at the conferences, it's an easy way to remind the families that continued practice is important.   
Hope you had a good day!  

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Student Observation Sheet

A parent emailed me last week and wanted to come in on Tuesday afternoon to chat.
I love working with parents - heck, I am a parent - but when I'm not sure if the conversation is going to be a good one I get nervous.  
I second guess myself and my abilities at times.  
Since parent/teacher conferences are right around the corner in a few weeks, I wanted to create a "cheat sheet" that I could record on for each child.  You know... just something that I could make sure that I knew exactly what I noticed about that one child in the different subjects (at this moment in time) - how they focus, how they learn, etc - before I sit down with each family.  Just something to have in addition to all the assessments that I will pull out to show.  
Since this conference was happening earlier than normal, I created the following sheet so I could test it out by filling it in over a couple of days.

It was a hit with the parents.  In fact, they wanted me to make a copy so they could take it with them to share with a doctor and a tutor.
Just be warned if you download - they might want a copy too. It's over at Google Docs.  By recommendation I saved it as a PDF so the font would remain the same.  Here it is a .doc format as well.  Hope it works!  

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Christmas in Sept, 9/11, and Character Venn Diagram

What a day!

It was just like Christmas this morning as we opened up the Scholastic boxes. The kids were so excited they could hardly contain themselves. These 3 huge boxes totaled over $450 for our order, as well as 2 extra class sets of books that I purchased with bonus points and that free money they gave us. Since we raised over $350, they told me to split the order into 2 separate ones to get more bonus points ($350 and $100).

How do I pass them out? I line everything up on the floor and then go shopping to gather each child's books. I usually can get it all done during recess time, but this order needed recess and my prep to get done. I am thankful though. So many opportunities to get more books in their hands!

So, yes it was just like Christmas for my students this morning. After this joyful moment we discussed the importance of September 11th by showing a Brainpop video and my students brainstormed adjectives to describe heroes. It was difficult this year to know how much to discuss with them. They weren't alive at that moment in time. It was a good discussion though and the students who knew about it were able to share their prior knowledge with the group.

Later on this afternoon we began our new read aloud. We finished up Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing last week and began Beezus and Ramona. I started making up an anchor chart to compare and contrast the 2 sets of characters. It's my first year leaving a venn diagram up on the board for a read aloud, but between that and a list of interesting words we come across I think it will help their understanding.

The giveaway is still going on if you haven't entered yet!  :)

Hope you had a good day!

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Behavior and Carpet Squares

The honeymoon has been over with my class since the 2nd day of school.  This has already turned into being a tough year - of course my grade level has been warned since this group of kids was in Kindergarten...  On Fridays I am reminded how great overall my class is as I update their behavior charts. I do have some sweet gems in there.  For example, here is one of the cards that I received yesterday. (Yes, I was extra loved yesterday.)  

She loves the fact that I sing random songs.  I told the class that if they catch me singing that means I'm in a good mood - and they want to keep me in a good mood - so they are my audience as I sing about turning in homework, capitalizing their proper nouns, and other odds and ends that happen throughout the day.  To be honest, most times I don't even know that I'm singing until after the words leave my mouth... 13 years into this job, guess some things are just second nature!  

Of course we have already had a couple of "moments" as well.  So for those students who need a visual reminder, I made up a little letter that I will post near my behavior chart.  Just a reminder that I am there to help them learn, and that I won't put up with students that aren't allowing others to learn.  So much to do, not enough time in the day to deal with distractions.  

In other news... I found some great deals today at an outdoor store.  We were advised to go there to pick up Cub Scout materials. (I'm a new Tiger and Bear mom.)  They were selling shag carpet squares for 99 cents.  So, naturally I bought 18 of them.  I mean, if something is going to be so cheap and wonderful - well it's something that I thought I had to have.  My entire class does not need their own, but for silent reading & working on the ground they will come in handy.  Maybe now they won't worry so much about having to get a t-shirt pillow.

Hope you have a wonderful long weekend!   

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Reading Assessments, Daily 5, and my Future Sanity

I did some assessments this past week - the STAR assessment through Renaissance Learning and a beginning of the year Fluency test. The results were more spanned than any I can remember of previous years. Out of the 30 kids that I tested (2 new ones came on Thursday and Friday that I haven't had a chance to get to), 21 of them are reading below grade level. The other 9 are either at grade level or advanced. Basically the range in my class is from preschool level to middle school.  Remember, I teach 4th grade.

At least I have taught primary grades before and had the materials to pull out of the garage. I knew what resources to ask to borrow from the primary teachers at my school. This weekend I need to get organized.

Daily 5 is going to be the perfect resource in my classroom this year. I see no other way to tackle all the needs other than working with individuals and small groups. So far, in the past 2 weeks we have built our stamina with Read to Self, Work on Writing, Listen to Reading, and Read to Someone. This next week we are going to start Word Work activities. It's still going to be a while before I can set them free to make choices with all the areas- but this class loves being able to make choices when they have 2 or 3 options.

Read to Someone is something that I do only on Wednesdays when we reread our weekly story (with the checkmarks), and again on Friday afternoons when I give that option during Read to Self time.  I won't be giving them this option anymore than this amount of time because it gets too distracting for the other students that are doing an independent option. 

As for Listen to Reading- well the choices at present only include the mp3 players with our weekly story, or working on the computers. I haven't pulled out the Kindle Fires yet.

Work on Writing is only an option if they finish the required writing assignment - but it's motivation to get going.  This past week we were working on a Summer Sandwich story - it's a 4 paragraph essay that gets stuck together in a sandwich looking format.  I'll share more about that on another post.  Some kids just finished it yesterday, and others are only half way through.  The finishers will get to choose their own option next week.  I'm excited to show them everything they can do.  

Lastly, Read to Self is working beautifully. We started it the first day with our anchor chart and the shoe lesson (IPICK), and we are up to 20 minutes after 10 days of working hard at it.  We started at 3 minutes and add 2 minutes each time if they complete it without issue. They seem to love laying on the ground curled up with a book, relaxing with my t-shirt pillows, or lounging in the random seating that I have throughout the room. I'm giving them the option of keeping their book boxes under their desks throughout the day - so they always have a book handy to read when they have a free moment. (Thanks Book Whisperer!) Reading is the only option if they finish something early.

So what do I need to prepare this weekend? Well I have fluency stories that are 4th grade reading level, but I needed to borrow some to scan/copy material from the 2nd and 3rd grade intervention books. The kids that scored pre primer & first grade will tackle the 2nd grade passages, the 2nd will tackle the third, and the 3rd and 4th levels will start on the grade level stuff.

I also need to print out specific sight word lists, and make special folders to hold all the materials for the 4 different groups in the classroom. I'm thinking of using the names of the 4 regions in California to name the groups. Doing that mainly since we have been tackling regions for the past 2 weeks and the kids are so excited about them - we are making our Salt Dough maps this coming Friday!!  

The Desert will be my group that needs a lot of extra "water" and resources to thrive. 

Mountains still need extra assistance as well to grow though they won't need it as much as the Desert.  

The Valley group will be the group that is at grade level - it is "home" to us and are producing a lot of "crops" already.  

My Coast group will be the group that is able to relax a bit since they already know the basics.  They get to "sail" the ocean with what they have already learned.  I just need to challenge them this year.  Of course I won't tell the kids all this stuff - all these puns are just for me to have a picture of what I need to do to get them all as far to the Ocean as possible.  I really do love the Ocean.  :) 

For my advanced readers I need to pull material that will challenge them without making more work for them to do.  I'm so used to intervention that this is something a little new for me.  Any advice of activities that will get their minds working?  I know I posted the same question on Facebook - I need help please!

Yeah, I have my work cut out for me this year.  It's going to be a good year, though a challenging one.  At this point in time I'm really not worried about the spring test scores - I know I will do my best, and I will push them as much as I possibility can.  Start praying for my sanity!

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The Power of the Plink

It's all about positive reinforcement in my classroom.  Yeah, I have a behavior chart, but I'd rather reward the good behavior and have the kiddos want to be on their best behavior than discipline the unruly ones.  Not that I don't do both.  I'm just saying how I feel...

So, behavior wise I have a lot of positive reinforcement going on that I love for my class.  We've gotten it all started the past 4 days, and it's working so well.  My class has been staying on green (well, almost all of them).      So, what am I doing?
*Tickets for individual praise
*Team Points (glass gems in a cup) for group praise
*Warm Fuzzies for whole class praise
*Mystery Hero
So, what's with the power of the plink?  When the class has been doing any independent work coming off of summer, they start to chat.  I think it's in their DNA.  I'm not against chatting as long as they are moving forward with their work and as long as other students are still able to concentrate.  It's when students start getting distracted that I have an issue with it.  
So, PLINK!
I drop a glass gem into the plastic cup and the sound echoes throughout the classroom.  In past years I have used tally marks on the whiteboard - it works too, but that doesn't have the sound aspect to it.  A drop of the glass bead into a plastic cup that happens to be positioned on the metal whiteboard tray gives off a lovely noise that stops the chatterers in their tracks.  
You can almost see their minds start to whirl with questions - "Who won the gem?"  With the immediate follow up thought of - "I want one too."  It's such a little thing that has made a big difference this week in my classroom. 
Happy Moments!     

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Copy Parent Help Folders

With all the budget cuts, I need help in providing my students with any "extra" copies.  At this point in time I can cover the assessment copies myself, but all the extra review or fun activities would have to be pushed aside due to not having copy money.  4 years ago I began asking parents to help copy at Back to School Night, and they have responded graciously.  The past 2 years over 10 families (each year) have been kind to copy a class set of paper at home each month for me.  I only send home something every 2 to 4 weeks, I don't want to overuse their generosity.  If you are in the same type of boat as I am, you might want to consider asking for help.  Here is the document if you want to use it.  I use the penny portfolios - one per family to send materials home.  I have never had an issue that papers did not come back.  If it goes a week without seeing the copies, I just send home an email just telling the parents that it's completely okay with me if it's not an okay time to copy, that I just need the masters back.  Not a big deal at all. 

Hope this helps!  

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Monday Made It - Multiplication Toss Game and Warm Fuzzy Clip Chart

Another Monday to link up with Tara - only one more until I'm back with the kiddos at school!  I could cry because summer is almost over, but instead I'll be happy that I can finally move all my stuff out of the dining room and garage, and back into the classroom.  We get our keys tomorrow!


This week, the 2 projects I'm sharing are my multiplication fact toss game and my warm fuzzy clip chart.  First up is my multiplication fact toss game.  I saw the idea on Pinterest to use a shower curtain to create a bean bag toss game - so when I saw shower curtains at the Dollar Store, I grabbed one.  
Here it is.

How did I make it?  I laid the shower curtain on my tile floor.  I have 12 inch tiles, so I tried to just lay the duct tape down following the lines of the tiles to make a 5 x 5 array.  Then my oldest son helped me by choosing a font and we did 2 or 3 of each number from 2-11.  There is only one 1, and I tried to have 3 of the higher numbers (6, 7, 8, and 9) since my students usually really "get" their multiplication facts below 5.  It's all about increasing the probability of getting a higher number to have to multiply.  When the numbers were all printed, we stuck them into sheet protectors, then used clear packing tape to tape the top and bottom of the sheet protector onto the shower curtain.  The numbers are randomly stuck down.

For my other project I decided to turn my compliment bucket into a warm fuzzy clip chart.  So here's how I made it - please pardon the mess of a table that I have all my stuff on...

*I needed another one of my dollar store pizza pans

and some fun scrapbook paper.  Other than that it was just the basics - hot glue, letters, ribbon, clothespins, and puff balls. 

Okay - it's pretty simple to make.  

1. Lay the paper upside down on the pizza pan and trace the edge.

2. Then cut it out, and hot glue it right side up on the pan.

3. Add letters.

4. Then take clothespins and hot glue the "warm fuzzies" on the edge.

5. I put ribbon on the back so I could hang it on my white board.

 The point of making this for me was that filling up a container didn't really work - I couldn't remember how many I'd already stuck in there, and trying to get it to the top for a class prize was taking too long. I wanted an easy way to see how many more were needed as a visual reminder for the kids.  On the pizza pan about half way I added little lines, and the bottom edge says "When all moved we get a prize".  For my 4th graders I have 15 warm fuzzies that need to be moved before we get a class treat.  I'm mainly looking for compliments from administrators and other adults that compliment my students throughout the day (hint to any of my teammates that are reading this).  I want my students to do their best - all the time - and if it takes a little extra motivation to do so at the beginning of the year, then I am willing to give it!

Have a great day!  

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