Essential Classroom Organization

Along with compassion and general knowledge, the most important key to teaching is organization.

Now I know some of you might disagree with this, but I have found that I am not the best teacher I can be if I am not organized. Things like misplacing tests or loosing students' papers is unacceptable. There are a couple of techniques that I have found to be essential to my everyday teaching-organization:

1. A trustworthy filing system. The best thing I've found to file (not to mention de-clutter my desk) is a free standing file like this one found on Pinterest: 

I like to have at least four dividers going at one time (to teach, to copy, to grade, and extra copies). On a good day, I like to clean out my files once a week to move to a more permanent location. 

2. Labels. Can I just say I love labels? Not only are they useful to find things but they're pretty :)  Personally, I like to have a separate binder for each major unit I teach in the year (To Kill a Mockingbird, grammar, short stories, etc.) and for said binders to be labeled for easy access. Also, inside these binders I have MORE labels (assessment, activities, vocabulary, study guides, etc.). No more searching through folders or files to find what you're looking for. These are some of the labels I have made for easy classroom organization. Feel free to check out my Teachers Pay Teachers site for more labels like this. 

What organization techniques do you use in your classroom that are essential to your everyday teaching? 

New Teachers: The Joys and Challenges of 21st Century Teaching by:Patti Grayson

There has never been a question in my mind about the importance of teaching as a profession.

In fact, to me, teaching is a calling. It takes a special person to dedicate themselves to helping guide our youth in their academic, social, and emotional development.

After all, we know there is much more to the job than imparting knowledge. In the six hours a day children spend with us, we care for and nurture the whole child – not just their brains! As a boss of mine used to say: “We don’t teach science, math, and history – We teach kids.”

If you are new to the profession, I congratulate you on taking on this  joyful and daunting task!

Here’s the most incredible news, though – There has never been a better time to be a teacher.

I know, I know — it doesn’t necessarily feel that way as you read the news and follow the heated debates about teacher accountability, performance pay, high stakes testing and the like. But there are some  amazing, transformative changes happening in education now, and you are getting in on the ground floor. There’s a huge shift going on in the way the world learns and the way we’ll define “Teacher” in the future. It’s a shift that’s going to change the game completely and some of the current policy debates are going to seem totally outdated — even quaint — in the very near future. You have come just at the right time.

Just imagine . . .

No longer do students have to sit in rows, dozing while you drone through the pages of your teacher edition. No, in your class, students can be directing their own learning as you question and encourage them, guiding their learning experience. Students in your class can learn required content through a 21^st century learning filter that promotes the skills they will need to be successful in today and tomorrow’s world and takes full advantage of the connected learning potential inherent in the Internet and the World Wide Web.

What are these 21^st century learning skills? While you may find slight variations, these are the core skills:

• Creativity and Innovation
• Problem Solving and Critical Thinking
• Communication and Collaboration

The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills website breaks down each of these skills and provides valuable information and support for teaching and professional development. It is part of their Framework for 21^st Century Learning, which also addresses other important learning goals such as global literacy and information, media, and technology skills. The artful 21^st century educator teaches these skills while meeting curricular goals in the core subject areas.

Excited yet? I hope that you’re part of a forward-thinking school that encourages the development of these skills and supports the staff with appropriate professional development opportunities. However, there is a good chance that your school isn’t quite there yet. What can you do?

Don’t lose hope . . .

Stand by your beliefs and remember that it is all about your students. Igniting their passions and teaching them to become connected learners is a gift that will serve them well, no matter what the future brings. Keep finding ways to let students drive their own learning through inquiry and problem solving. Their energy and enthusiasm is contagious, and you will be there to show them that the learning opportunities are limitless. (If you need more encouragement, peruse the posts in this group blog by teachers like Shelley Wright and Becky Bair who are finding the courage to make the shift.)

Teach your students how to safely and responsibly use the digital tools available to pursue their passions and find their voice. Share your experiences with your colleagues and invite them to collaborate with your class. Those that have been there a while may be a bit resistant, but you will find there is much you can learn from each other. Build that bridge. Don’t be afraid to play and learn with your students. Expect to experience failure along the way – It’s a good way to show your students that mistakes are a critical part of the learning process.

Feeling alone out there? Never! There is an enormous support system for you…

• There are educators who are transparent in their practices. They readily post their ideas, resources, and lesson plans on Twitter, in Google Documents, or in their blogs. They are out there, eager to collaborate and connect with your classroom. (See my recent article on Twitter hashtag communities for educators for some more tips.)
• There are social networks like the Educator’s PLN and Classroom 2.0 where you can discuss best practices.
• There are opportunities to get free professional learning webinars through sites like Classroom 2.0and events like the Reform Symposium.
• There are websites that provide motivation, information, and project ideas, such as Powerful Learning Practice and 21^st Century Collaborative, Thinkfinity, 21^st Century Schools, and Powerful Learning Practice’s Voices From the Learning Revolution.
• There are videos by visionaries such as Sir Ken Robinson, Daniel Pink, Alfie Kohn, and Will Richardson.
• There are books such as A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change, and Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education.

So get excited. After all, teaching is the profession that creates all others… Can you believe they’re going to pay  you to have this much fun???

http://plpnetwork.com/2011/09/01/new-teachers-the-joys-challenges-of-21st-century-learning/

Advice for New Teachers by:Anna J. Small Roseboro, NBCT

Many English language arts leaders also teach classes themselves and are absorbed with the demands any classroom teacher faces at the start of a new school year. Consequently, during these first decisive days, even the most conscientious department chair may postpone the one-on-one meetings with the new or novice teachers until a week or two into the term. As an English department chair, I am often asked by beginning teachers to quickly tell them what they need to know to get a good start in their first year of full-time teaching. The answer is usually, “No, I can’t tell you quickly. But, here are a few things you can be doing now and some ideas to think about. We can meet in a week or so and talk more then.” By that time, those teachers already may be feeling swamped and discouraged.

To help prevent this demoralizing experience, I want to share some of the responses and advice I’ve learned to offer these new and novice teachers. While the comments probably relate to most secondary English language arts teachers, I’ve directed them to those who also may be teaching in the middle school because their issues can differ from high school teachers. For ease in reading, I’ve organized my remarks around the journalism format of Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?

 Who Will I Be Teaching, Really?

 One of the more important tasks of teachers is to get to know their students quickly. You see, teaching is more than dispensing information. Teaching is cyclical; it is not complete until learning takes place. So during the first few days of school, successful teachers use a variety of strategies to discover what students already know and are able to do, and then adapting their lessons for a wide range of students (Tchudi & Tchudi, 1999). The sooner teachers know their students—not just their names—the sooner real teaching and learning begin.

 Teachers, especially new ones, seldom have much say about whom they will teach, and the students who walk into the room arrive with varying degrees of commitment to learning. More than once I was assigned to teach three different grades requiring as many different preparations. I learned quickly that the more skillful you become at getting to know your students and assessing their specific needs, the more students you will reach and teach successfully.

 The primary challenges in teaching adolescents are the physical, emotional, and social issues that can overwhelm them in uneven waves from day to day and that distract them from learning (Caught in the Middle, 1987). Emotionally, with the hormone changes, both the girls and the boys can be manically mischievous one day and dismally depressed the next—from belle of the ball to ostracized pariah, from big man on campus to bait for the bully. Still, we must teach them.

In addition to these unavoidable issues, you may be working among a cultural population very new to you. It will be important for you to remain open to what you can learn from them that will help you make the understanding and application of the English language arts relevant to them and create a classroom environment that nurtures and respects them while building on their prior knowledge and experience. And with different cultures come different languages (see Shafer, 2001) and code switching (where students alternate from one form of English to another; see Wheeler & Swords, 2006). In any case, one key to a successful school year is your getting to know the students you teach and adapting what you learn from and about them to what you know about effective English language arts instruction.

 What Must I Teach?

 It’s more than reading and writing. If you’ll take a look at the English language arts standards published by your school, district, or state, you’ll find that they include both content skills and habits of mind. We ELA teachers are charged with presenting lessons in which students experience— read, talk about, write about—an array of literature, both print and non-print, fiction and nonfiction (Standards, 1996 ), and use a variety of resources: technology and library. With the new Common Core Standards that many states are adopting, the challenge heightens even for veteran educators(Common Core, 2010).  Ultimately, our common goal is to help our students expand their understanding of themselves and other, learn to appreciate how reading and writing, speaking and listening, viewing and representing visually can make them independent and productive members of society (Jackson and Davis, 2000), and to use technology skillfully and responsibly. Of course, we’re also expected to assess student learning and report these observations in a variety of formats to a variety of people—parents, other teachers, counselors, etc. A big task, but a manageable one.

 When in the School Year?

 Students in the middle and high school grades are expected to learn to read increasingly more demanding literature in a variety of genres and to write for a wider range of purposes and audiences (Parents’Guide, 2006). Your task is to determine what the students know already and then to move them along as efficiently as possible through the curriculum you’re given. But how do you use preparation and class time to achieve these goals? When should certain skills be taught?

 First, do your best to understand what you’re expected to achieve by the end of the school year, and then work backwards (Wiggins and Mc-Tighe, 2005). What kinds of lessons will allow you to meet your requirements? What literature and modes of writing must you teach? What resources are available to you? Which professionals in your school setting are available to assist you? You’ll want to block out the semester and then subdivide these blocks into units and lessons. Be sure to take into consideration the school calendar—assemblies, concerts, sports events, holidays, and vacations will impact the time you’ll have available to teach. Keep in mind that the time before and after these events will drain emotional energy from your students. Athletes and their fans may be totally consumed with thoughts of “the big game” or the post-season chances, so you, the skillful teacher, will plan class activities that make the most of your time with each class; some days, that will mean designing lessons that use physical activity to channel pent-up energy, while other days will focus on more cerebral activity.

 Where Will I Be Teaching?

 Believe it or not, the physical space in which you teach and how you organize it will have an impact on how well you teach . . . and feel. Few new teachers have much choice about the room to which they are assigned, but you can make the space work for you.

 If you will be sharing space, get to know your “roommates” and talk about access to desks, storage, and display space; determine which resources you’ll be sharing and which you must supply yourself. For instance, if those using the room are teaching the same grades or courses, you may be able to coordinate units so you can leave in the classroom those resources and supplies you share. When I’ve shared rooms, my colleagues and I usually split the bulletin board space, often designating a common space to post general notices we both want in view all the time. Reutzel and Cooter (2003) say, “classroom displays are intended to immerse students . . . in an environment of interesting and functional print” (p. 89). Surprisingly, we found that both the older and younger students enjoyed seeing what the others were doing. The older ones would reflect on what they’d done in earlier grades, and younger students would project to the future when they would have those more sophisticated assignments. Colleagues would see what the other had done and get ideas for expanding or modifying our own lessons. All can benefit when sharing rooms.

 You’ll also want to have an efficient way of storing and moving your materials from place to place. A two-shelf rolling cart worked well for me. On it would be a set of hanging files that I’d want to have in the room during classes and in the office during prep time—grade book, seating charts, lesson plans, textbooks, and other resources (dictionary, USB drive, etc.). I’d also have any supplies or handouts for the day’s (or week’s) lessons. Some teachers also kept a box of extra office supplies, such as pencils, staplers, scissors, tape and even a box of tissues.

Determine whether or not your room will have stationary or movable seats. Desks? Tables and chairs? What size tables? How easy to move? The more flexible the seating, the more configurations available for different lessons. Teach your students how to move the furniture quickly— explain it precisely or draw it on the board—and then give them until the count of ten to move the seats, reseat themselves, and give you their attention.

 How accessible is technology?  Do you have a smart classroom, already set up for high-tech instruction?  Are computer labs available?  Still using laptops on carts?  Are students assigned laptops?  Do they bring their own cell phones through which they can access the internet?

 If you know what have, what you want, and plan ahead, your clear expectations will usually get results. Of course, if things don’t work well the first time, simply rethink them, get advice, and try again. Also keep in mind the needs of the next class; I used a kitchen timer to go off seven or eight minutes before the end of class, allowing just enough time to reorganize seating, review the lesson for the day, and remind the students of the homework assignment. Just remember: Anticipate. Plan. Execute. The Golden Rule doesn’t hurt, either.

 Why Must I Teach a Certain Way? 

 Why plan multiple ways to teach the same lesson? First, because people learn and demonstrate understanding in different ways (Cunningham & Allington, 2006; Jackson & Davis, 2000; Tchudi & Tchudi, 1999). Second,  flexibility creates interest for the students and you. It is as important for you to enjoy teaching as it is for students to enjoy learning. Teaching is your job, but it also can be fun devising clever and effective ways to share your knowledge and love of the English language arts. Third, the new Common Core Standards are best taught that way.

You know that young adolescents have short attention spans (Developing Adolescents, 2003), are easily bored, and seek instant diversion. “. . . remember that we now have several generations limited to a thirty second attention span as maximum. If you don’t have their interest in the first five seconds, they are gone!” (State of Victoria, 2006). Many students are accustomed to controlling what they experience through television, DVDs, the Internet, ipods, and smart phones, etc. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that few teens are willing to give anyone or anything their sustained attention for more than 12 or 13 minutes. We, teachers, therefore, must develop lessons that address different learning styles and accommodate the attention span of contemporary teenage students as well as maximize their skill with a range of technology.

Consider, too, the work of Dr. Howard Gardner of Harvard University who has published research in which he proposes the “multiple intelligences” theory (Gardner, 1985). Try developing lessons that take into account the numerous ways that young people can be taught and assessed based on their specific age, maturation, and individual learning style (Gardner, 2000). That variety will interest them . . . and you. I thoroughly enjoy learning from my students and find that each time I offer them options to demonstrate their understanding of literature; I gain a greater insight into the topics, themes, or literary works we’re studying as well as a deeper understanding of the students and their ways of looking at literature and life.

 It is from the work of Louise Rosenblatt and Fran Claggett that you can draw inspiration to incorporate assignments that accommodate many of the multiple intelligences described in Howard Gardner’s work. The recent publications about incorporating twenty-first century literacies (Roseboro, 2010) also provide a wealth of knowledge for adapting lessons you developed as pre-service teachers and in your other school settings.

 First, Louise Rosenblatt (1938/1996) encourages us to rely on students’ prior knowledge to help them make sense of the literature. This approach can free you of the burden of “knowing what the book means” and will give you permission to let the literary works (fiction, non-fiction, graphic, video) speak to the students and to trust their responses about what it says to them. You may design lessons that encourage students to use art, other graphics (Claggett, 1992), as well as  technology to represent what they’ve learned but you’ll want to encourage them to ground their responses in the text to keep them from straying too far afield during oral or written discussion. Although digressions may sometimes yield relevant lessons, as a new teacher, it is important to keep your eyes on the curriculum goals so that you (or an observer) are confident that you are in control, even while permitting student choice.

How Can I Become an Effective Teacher?

 The truth is, you may not do it your first year. And maybe not even the second. But here are a few tips that will give you an excellent start:

• Learn ways to use prep and class time effectively.
• As you observe experienced teachers, ask questions so you can begin to understand why they do what they do and what makes their strategies work so well. Asking questions and listening carefully to good teachers will be  key to your early and continued success and satisfaction as a professional educator.
• Join a professional organization, like NCTE or one of its local affiliates and attend as many of their conferences and workshops as you can. Funds to attend conferences and workshops are available from a variety of sources. But, be prepared to pay the majority of the expenses yourself.  You’ll find that the financial outlays are worth the investment primarily because the people you meet and the friends you make will be crucial to your growth and development as a successful and satisfied educator.
• NCTE also has several online options through their Connected Community and Pathways Professional Development Program  that connect teachers who are interested in collaborating electronically.
• Stay connected with the professors you’ve had in college. Many are willing to maintain electronic communication with you or to direct you to retired teachers who would be thrilled to share their storehouse of knowledge and experience.
• Most of all, give yourself time and use that time wisely.

Every year of your career, students will look to you to provide engaging and enjoyable experiences while they develop the skills and gain the knowledge needed to be successful. Read the works and view the videos from the authors mentioned; mull over the ideas offered here—both will give you a running start as you assemble your own cache of strategies, activities, and develop professional wisdom for a lifetime of teaching well.

http://teachinglanguagearts.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/department-chairs-and-new-teachers/

What I Love About Teaching by: Heather Wolpert-Gawron

There's a lot I love about being a teacher. Teaching is one of those rare professions that keeps your brain young, allowing you to continue your own journey as a student and a lifelong learner. We as educators speak often about creating lifelong learners, but if we aren't buying into it ourselves, then our students don't stand a chance.

Michelle Pfeiffer once said that being an actor allows her, with every new character, to learn something new, immersing herself in a distinct universe with each project. Being a teacher is that and so much more.

Keeping It Real

Each school year brings new people into your life. Each unit and lesson brings new perspectives. Each failure, when looked at formatively, can help you solve new problems. Each success, when used reflectively, can be even greater the next time.

Sharing oneself, thinking aloud, and being honest about what's working and what isn't is not about making the environment "softer." It's about creating a classroom in which students are at their best in attitude and character. It's about classroom management being better because students want to be there, learning from a teacher who is also willing to learn from them. "The one who does the teaching is the one who's doing the learning," as they say.

Teaching is a job that encourages your own growth because to do it well requires your own continuous education. Some might say that's a bad thing, but growth is about facing your demons -- or just your imps -- and dueling yourself for greater knowledge.

Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

I believe true growth as a person can happen only by challenging yourself with situations that are not familiar to you. Throwing yourself into a job in which you can encounter people of different ethnicities and religions and with different philosophies, learning styles, and backgrounds can only cause you to grow as a person, and public education provides that environment.

And you never know how that will eventually translate. For some, it will mean a growth in empathy. For others, the fact that your brain learns something new every day becomes a means to fight old age. Remember those nuns from Wales featured in Time magazine a few years back? This group of long-lived nuns had theories about their own longevity as it related to their active brain activities. Learning, they believed, kept Alzheimer's at bay and helped their minds stay intact even while their bodies aged.

Whatever your beliefs are, the fact is that a good teacher continues to be a student. This could mean you continue to be a student in a graduate class, or you could simply be a student of your own school community.

In my ten years of teaching, I learned more from other teachers, my students, and their parents than I learned from any class in my teacher-credential program. (True, that's not difficult to do -- but that's another post.) In turn, when they saw my own enthusiasm for learning, students were more inclined to learn from me. And that's how my own happiness and growth has translated into the success of my students.

What impact has a passion for lifelong learning had on your teaching? Please share your thoughts.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teacher-lifelong-learner

Teaching, the most important profession by: Susan Straight

At a time when teachers and their unions are under fire across the nation, my eldest daughter just had a much-anticipated interview with Teach for America. She will graduate from college in May and hopes to be a teacher in the fall.

She was worried that I'd be disappointed she didn't feel a desire for graduate school.

But I was thrilled. Since graduating from college in 1984, I've taught GED courses, English as a second language, composition at a city college and now writing and literature at a public university. I have loved every year, and I don't think there's a more important profession.

Think about it: We aren't legally mandated to spend as much time with any other kind of person as we are with teachers. An American who graduates from high school has been taught by more than 20 teachers and has spent more than 10,000 hours in their company. It's no wonder almost everyone has a story about a teacher who changed his or her life.

Still, with all the contempt and anger being hurled at teachers right now, it's alarming to be sending a daughter into the crossfire, especially when new teachers are the first to be threatened with pink slips.

The growing scorn for public school teachers is at every level of education. Teachers are blamed for bad test results, for disrespectful students, for failing schools. They are thought to be lazy, draining public coffers with their monthly salaries and pension benefits (although they actually contribute to their pensions like everyone else).

Last fall, a video posted by blogger Shannyn Moore showedSarah Palin and her daughter Willow confronting a womanprotesting during the filming of Palin's reality TV series on a fishing dock in Homer, Alaska. When Palin asks the woman about her profession, she replies that she is a teacher, and Palin and Willow, who is of high school age, exchange knowing looks. Palin turns back to the woman. "Oh — a teacher," she says, her voice oozing condescension.

This kind of conservative contempt for public school teachers began decades ago with white flight (remember the private schools that sprang up in churches and homes in the southern states during integration in the 1970s?), and it continues today. In Southern California, it can be seen in the flight of so many families to religious schools — not just the traditional Roman Catholic schools but numerous new church-affiliated facilities. I've been told by parents of students who attend private religious schools that public schools are beyond redemption, and they resent their tax dollars subsidizing poor-quality education.

Meanwhile, parents often consider their kids' teachers as mere service providers. Last fall I met a teacher at an exclusive private school on New York's Upper East Side who told me parents pressure her to ignore bad behavior, missed assignments and cheating, in the belief that nothing is more important than their children's success. One of my best friends, a second-grade teacher at the public elementary school I attended, told me about a student who consistently returns math work undone. "I don't do math," he said. "My mom says I don't have to." My friend explained: "The state says you have to do math." But the child was adamant: "My mom says I don't."

A teacher at my youngest daughter's public high school told me parents often call and email to protest assignments. My child just "isn't feeling Dickens," one said. "He needs to be reading something he can relate to."

At the very moment my daughter hopes to become a teacher, Detroit is talking about closing half its public schools. In Rhode Island, teachers are being laid off wholesale. California has issued thousands of pink slips.

All over the world, people sacrifice to send their children to school. Afghan girls are threatened yet still walk to school; Chinese children are sent to schools in faraway cities by parents desperate to give them better lives; Kenyan students study by kerosene lamp in one-room schools built by grateful parents.

Here, access to a free education is an essential part of the American dream. I was sent to kindergarten at 4 by my mother, a Swiss immigrant. She taught me to read when I was 3, worried that the school wouldn't admit me unless I was already literate. I went daily to a kind teacher who let me read advanced books in the corner. I remember her hair, her lips when her mouth moved, and her fingernails. Decades later, she remembers me, and says I told her stories.

I believe it. Because teachers are often therapists, friends, mentors, coaches, sometimes providers of food and school supplies or holders of secrets. And in that way, they are some of the most important people in children's lives.

And sometimes, despite all the disrespect that's out there, teachers are appreciated. Last week, I got an email from a Cambodian American student from San Bernardino who now teaches English in South Korea; she was writing to say thank you.

My students, many of them first-generation immigrants, have brought me gifts and invited me to their weddings and New Year celebrations. I have gotten calls of thanks from their parents. And sometimes they have called me not by my name, but by the most reverent word they could summon: Teacher.

I try to imagine my daughter in a classroom this fall, looking out at the faces of children who are thinking of numbers and letters and secrets. I remember the woman who taught me to form the alphabet, the man who taught me long division. I remember my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Wolf, playing Cat Stevens songs on the guitar. And I wonder about the children who may one day remember my daughter's teaching, and in what ways she may have changed their lives.


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-straight-teaching-20110403,0,4000050.story