Teacherof20

I've heard it said that cooperative learning strategies are hard to implement in the general education classroom. I believe that not only can it be done, but that it’s impossible to teach without these! Here     is a link on the research that supports these in the classroom. The research Marzano has done has greatly impacted my teaching philosophy. As he notes, it is important when utilizing these strategies to be systematic in their use. It is important to embed individual and group accountability, as well as ensuring the interaction and interdependence within students is positive.  I think teachers may shy away from these strategies because we can feel out of our comfort zone at times. Most of the teachers today were traditional students of yesterday. We sat in rows facing the teacher, and didn't have many opportunities to share our learnings with our peers. Even as teachers, the professional development we attend rarely implement the strategies they so adamantly ...

Hello there! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Happy Kwanzaa! Can you believe it is the end of the semester already? Fall semester seems to always fly by! We’ve worked so hard to build routines and procedures, and finally have started getting into some great content with our kiddos when…boom! The holidays are here! By this time of the year, everyone is ready for a little break. Here is a great little gem I made with my kids last year. This is where they took home all their goodies from our party: I also had them do some hand print art: It did not take long. I had the tempra paint set up in the morning. When they came in, as they were unpacking and doing their morning work, I called them to my kidney table and had them do their handprint. The next day when it dried, we drew our snowmen and glued a snowman poem to the sheet. I laminated them as placemats for them to take home in their goodie bag (seen above). Here is an easy template for the reindeer bag if you’d li...

My school is involved in the Creative Learning Initiative this year. Our got training at the beginning of the year, and CLI coaches come to our campus and co teach with teachers to help them implement the strategies we've learned. My big take away from the first session in August is that drama based instruction (which is what our trainers refer to it) is a lot like cooperative learning strategies. A strategy I tried this semester was the character x ray, where after reading a story you give students an outline of a body. They are supposed to write events of the story on the outside, and feelings the character might have felt because of those events on the inside. It was a very challenging activity because the characters don't always say how events in the story made them feel. We went to a follow up training a few weeks ago. Here are some strategies I took away: 1. People to people: students walk around the room. When the teacher says "people to people" students fin...

While most of the country is Common Core aligned,  Texas bases its standards on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, otherwise known as the TEKS. Our standardized test is called the STARR. In it, a vast majority of the questions require 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders to use their background knowledge in combination with what the author has told them to make pedictions, or inferences, about the text. The problem is, how do STARR test writers know what background knowledge children have? How do you write inferencing questions that ensure the background knowledge required to answer them is  the background knowledge that most 3rd through 5th graders have? As a reading specialist,  I provide support in a 3rd and 4th grade classroom this year. I have been on the look out for ways to make teaching inferencing easy. So many teachers have told me  it's a hard skill to apply, and that it may not be developmentally appropriate. Unfortunately, we still have to teach it. Here a...

I just finished my October Word Work packet and it's on sale on my Teacher's Notebook shop. Enter to win it by visiting my shop and clicking on "promotions." It has printables as well as interactive games that teach vocabulary related to the month of October. It is 65 pages long, and has enough activities to last through the whole month of October in your word work center! See it here. Also check out my October word work freebie here. It has select activities from the pack mentioned above. Watch for more word work packs to be posted soon! December is already posted and November is coming soon!

One Teacher's Adventures is doing a giveaway! Visit her blog to find out more!

I am today's featured seller in Ainse's blog! Check it out here. August is coming up. I hope you all are enjoying your last days of summer. Be sure to read my post about the five things to do before beginning the school year. It will help you get off to a good start. Also, check out my store. I just put my store banner up, and have added some new things to old products.