You know how at the end the of the day, it looks like someone decorated your floor with pencils? And every student that day has probably said "I can't find my pencil!" Eliminate the drama with this easy hack!

HALLS Classroom Management Poster

It's back to school so it's back to refining all our little classroom management tricks. Here is a new FREE poster that you can download. Go over it each time before you leave the room and you will have some hallway HEROS this year!

CHAMPS classroom management posters

CHAMPS is a classroom management system. It's overall goal is to teach students how to be successful in different classroom situations by establishing clear behavior expectation using the chart. The CHAMPS system is actually very new to me, but I fell in love with it right away. 
I like this system much more than the standard color change chart that I have used in the past because it is SO clear about your expectations for the students. This makes it ideal for the primary teachers classroom. 

The posters describe the following... 

C- conversation - what should the voice level be?
H- help - how do I get help? 
A- activity - what are you working on? 
M- movement - how can I move around the room? 
P- participation - how do I participate in the lesson?
S- SUCCESS! 

It is also very easy to use as a teacher. Buy some circle magnets to put on each poster. Move the magnet along the poster based on what you need the students to be doing for the lesson. I found some HERE that match PERFECTLY with the posters

You can purchase these CHAMPS posters HERE. 

Back to School GIVEAWAY!!

Hello fellow teachers & friends! 

You will hear it a hundred times these next few weeks but what happened to summer? That flew by. My district actually goes back to school next week and I am in denial. in fact, back to school night is TONIGHT! In honor of going back to school I am going to give away my BEGINNING IF THE YEAR/ BACK TO SCHOOL FLIPBOOK! This is my favorite back to school tool for parents night because it gets the parents doing something AND they remember it. the BEST part about this flipbook? THERE IS NO CUTTING OR GLUING! All you do is print 3, double-sided pages and fold them. CLICK HERE to watch a youtube video to see how to fold the flipbook. 

Giveaway CLOSED! Thank you

Substitute Report

Here's a little freebie for all of you substitutes and guest teachers! I love making little personal reports to leave the teacher. It's so easy to fill out and I know as a teacher I appreciate feedback. This one is my favorite! It's so cute. It's so simple. It's so perfect. Enjoy!

Teaching Portfolio

Because we move around a lot for my husbands work, I have really put in some time to my teaching portfolio. A portfolio is a very personal thing. It reflects you as a teacher and as a professional. That being said, no two portfolios will look the same. My portfolio might not be just right for you. But, I wanted to share some of my ideas.

Why I Created A Portfolio- Interview Story Time 

I had an interview about a year ago when we first moved to our current location. It did not go well. My answers HORRIBLE. I knew after answering the first question, it was a bad interview. Here is what happened. There was a job posting for a reading teacher. Like most jobs, it was a generic posting so I didn't know exactly what the reading teacher would be doing. Is it in the room? Pull out groups? What grades? What curriculum? The first question I was asked (and of course it was a panel of teachers and administrators) was, "What is your goal for this program?" Um what? I don't know what the program is! So I asked if he would please explain to me what the program was. He couldn't. All I could gather was the it was a grant based position and that I would probably pull students out and sit in the hallway with them. I truly couldn't answer his question. I didn't know what curriculum, if any, they were using. He couldn't tell me the grades he wanted me to work with. Nothing. Needless to say my answer was truly embarrassing. This left me feeling so badly about myself and my interviewing skills that I knew I had to do something about it so that didn't happen again.

I should also mention that my greatest fear is public speaking. Not speaking to kids, but to adults. That makes interviewing a very hard task for me. This makes interviewing for another job after a bad interview completely overwhelming. I needed something to help me out during this next interview. Enter the portfolio.

The Portfolio 

I know that a portfolio looks good to interviewers, but my main reason for creating it was because I wanted a prop or something I could rely on if I got stuck or had a moment of panic. When I sat down to create the portfolio I asked myself the following questions.

1. What defines me as a teacher?
2. What kinds of questions am I most likely to be asked?
3. Can I provide examples from my past experience to support my answers?
4. What kind of data can I provide the interviewers?
5. What work am I most proud of?

So in answering these questions, I decided to include the following sections to the portfolio

1. Original Lessons
2. Student Achievement Data
3. Observations- both official and not
4. Classroom Management Philosophy
5. Sample Lesson Plans
6. Credentials

I also stuck a few random odds and ends in the back pocket of the folder such as examples of my classroom modifications.

Did It Work? 

YES! I spent a fair amount of time creating the portfolio so when it came time to interview, I already had specific examples and physical examples to back up my answers. It made me so much less nervous and I think the panel liked the portfolio. I walked out of the interview and called my husband and told him that I actually thought it went well! And you know what, it did, because the next day, I got the job!

Want to get these dividers for your portfolio? CLICK HERE

Classroom Rules Poster

Do you want to have a little fun and connect to your students in a relatable way? I know I do! By the time my students reached 5th grade, they have seen all the classroom rules before. My first 2 years in 5th grade, I did the same thing. We came up with the classroom rules as a class and signed an agreement to follow them. I often would refer to the contract that they signed if there were issues. I would also go over the classroom rules again and have them resign an agreement if issues continued. For my class, it just wasn't very effective.  So, I wanted to get a little creative with the usual classroom rules so that they really stuck with them when I had to refer to them again. Below, you will find my new and improved set of classroom rules..... with hashtags!

If you are interested in these posters, there are now 9 different styles to choose from. There are 1/2 sheets in case you are short on space. There are colored options- all of which are pictured below. There are also 2 black and white options. This would be great if you have a classroom theme that doesn't match my designs. You could print them and laminate them to colored or patterned paper that does match your room.

There are also some posters for our friends across the pond. They say, "Rubbish goes in the bin" and "No mobile phone use."

Finally, if you are a school that uses CHAMPS or you don't want the posters to say classroom rules, I have created options that says classroom guidelines, school guidelines, and CHAMPS guidelines and they all use the  hashtag #success.


I really have had so much fun creating these! Let me know how much you love them by commenting below!

                                                              

#iloveteaching 

Buy them here!

 

Black and white options are available too! Put them onto your favorite paper to match your classroom's theme and you would be good to go!