RTI and Post-Its

One of my many uses of post-its  in the classroom is to help students with attention issues.  I cut  a post-it note into four strips and put on the  student's desk as a visual for monitoring attention. This is especially important during math as we are learning new concepts and procedures. 

 

  I am sharing the behavior plan that  I created to go along with this. It also gives data for the RTI process. As with any behavior plan, the idea is to gradually decrease the support to the point the student is able to self-monitor. After  reaching the goal  for two weeks, I will decrease the strips to three, and then  two, etc. 

  My Fantastic Fridaycoupons are used as rewards for reaching the  goal .

 That's how I use Post-it notes as a RTI monitoring tool.

 

 

Conference Confidence

You've got three choices in life: Give Up, Give In, or Give It All That You've Got.-unknown

   I can't believe it is conference time already! Preparing for conferences this year leaves me a little unsure as to what to expect. For the first time in my career, I have to inform parents that their child may not pass third grade based on results of our state mandated reading test. I have given a lot of thought about this and have come to the conclusion that I will approach conferences with the confidence of knowing that I'm a professional dedicated to my students' success.

   I know in my heart that I prepare each child to read using what I know works based on my education, experience, love for what I do, and what has proven to work according  to best practices of education. I'm the expert in my classroom.

  Armed with that knowledge, I can assure parents that together we will help their child succeed. 

  The balance here is to make sure the child is invested, the parents are informed, and the educator has confidence that he/she is the expert. (I know, easier said than done)

  I think it is easy as educators to lose that confidence when blaimed for every societal ill..  (That's as far as I will go on that subject for now.) Remember you are the expert in your classroom, you are the professional, you are the one pouring everything into your job to make sure your kids are successful. Approach each day with that confidence. 

   Whew. Time to stop my rambles.  I give my students a self-evaluation each grading period that I share with parents at conference time. Feel free to download

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   Remember to keep the perfect balance of what works for you in your classroom to help your children succeed. :)

                                                  

                                                                                                       

   

                                                                                

Rockin' Rocks

 

We wrapped up our Rocks and Minerals Unit this week with a rock share. My kids brought in their own rocks to show off. After identifying all the rock's properties, they drew a picture of their rock and named it. While the kids were busy being little geologists, I called groups to my back to table and introduced metric weight. The children weighed their rocks in grams and recorded the weight on the rock sheet that I'm sharing this week. 
  As a class we decided how to classify our rocks into 5 main groups according to their properties. We ended up with a brown color group, a dull luster group, a shiny luster group, a white streak group,and soft rocks (could be scratched with a penny). 
  We invited two other third grade classes to our room to show off our rocks. The classes rotated around my room stopping at each rock group. My children were responsible for explaining the property that their group represented. 

They did an amazing job. What a wonderful group of little geologists! 

 

                        

Wonderful Words

 You have to love post it notes. Among there many uses, my favorite is to use them during guided reading as tags. I cut them into small strips and distribute them to my readers.
   While reading the students "tag" or sticky note any words that caused them to stumble. If they didn't stumble, they must tag any new or interesting words. The latter is good for my high readers for vocabulary enrichment. The students then write the words on the Wonderful Words sheet and cut them out when the page is full. They keep the words in their Words Baggie. 
 My below level readers then having a growing stock of words to practice, and my middle usually have a mix of words they're learning with some extension. 
  Everyone once in a while I will have the children pull four-five words from their baggies to use in their writing. My high readers produced some amazingly vocabulary enriched stories last year.  They really had to stretch their imaginations with some of the words that were pulled, but the results were wonderful.
  I was pleased with the writing produce from all of my students. They applied the words at their level.  The perfect balance of active reading strategies, writing, and differentiation. 

   I will share how I use post it notes as a RTI monitoring tool soon. 
Now I am sharing my words sheet to download.