Birth Announcement!

Today, I am taking a break from my usual blogging to give a special update!

I HAVE A SON!!!!

 

He is adorable! He was born on March 20, 2014 at 9:37pm. 

This is my lovely wife, Erin and our new baby boy, Austin James! 

Discipline Delivery for effective consequences.

Being the disciplinarian isn't always the most popular job of a teacher but it is part of the job. When you have to be that person just remember these ideas:

1. Keep voice level soft.
2. Proximity
1. Junior High is arms-length, one step closer
2. Elementary is even closer
3. Eye contact with student as you deliver the message.
4. Use touch
5. Move around the classroom
6. Privacy
1. Keep track of rule infractions on pad of paper.
2. Speak softly so no one else can hear.
3. Move to a hallway, private place.
7. Don’t embarrass
8. Be firm, anger free
9. Do not accept excuses, whining, bargaining
1. Keep repeating rule and consequence, go on with lesson
2. Have whiner go to time-out area. Most will only last for a few minutes.
3. Remain firm and calm for long whiners.
10. Assertive walk, assertive gestures.
1. What messages do you send?
2. Practice when no one else is in the room. Walk around your classroom, and ….
   
   
   
   Feel the power of being in control!

I just happen to know stuff..

As a teacher, it is common for people to look to you to answer certain types of questions. How do you work with this type of student? How do you plan and prepare for lessons? How do you deal with standardized testing? To all those types of questions, I look at them and say..a lot of hard work. I scour the Internet for all those answers and much more. I just happen to know stuff but I didn't always. I had to learn and read and still learn and read and do. It is easy to say that you have all the answers but much harder to admit you have to look for those answers. It is not uncommon for me to have a student ask a question and I put the task on them to find the answer. I don't know everything, just enough to get students to want to know more. What do you do to increase your knowledge and your students as well?

Tutoring Session Success!

Yesterday was a better day with my tutoring kids at the Boys and Girls Club! I found this game online through Teachers Pay Teachers called "Snowball!" and I decided to play it with them. They had a blast and it gave me a chance to see what they knew and did not as far as their computations skills.

A brief summary of the game: You have three dice and you can choose the level of difficulty to challenge your students. There are 3 different levels:

 Snowball 100 requires students to roll 2 dice and add the totals until they reach 100. The “twist”? If they roll doubles, they need to SUBTRACT that amount.

Snowball 200 requires students to roll 3 dice and add the totals until they reach 200. The “twist”? If they roll “3 in a row”, they have to dthe total
(ex. 3,4,5 or 1,2,3)

Snowball 300 requires students to roll 3 dice, add two, and multiply by the third until they reach 300. The “twist”? If they roll “3 in a row”, they have to subtract the total
(ex. 3,4,5 or 1,2,3)

I chose to do the Snowball 300 and the students had a blast! Throughout the game, I got a chance to test their multiply skills, their addition and subtraction skills and their understanding of positive and negative integers. I will definitely be playing this game again!

The Constitution

Short post today. I was in a middle school classroom on Monday and the class had to answer some simple questions about a few charts and tables about religions in North America. The final question was: "How does the diversity of religious groups in North America reflect the values of the American People and the principles of the U.S. Constitution?"

Out of 6 classes, only 1 student was able to answer the question without any prompting from me. It was amazing! Most of the students had no clue what the constitution was or what it said. Not sure what to make of this but what do you say?

When should we teach our children about the Constitution? Do you what the constitution says?  Post your idea in the comments.

I am a visual learner..your students could be too!

      

     I am a visual learner and I know that a good number of people out there are as well. It has been stated that VISUAL learners make up approximately 65 percent of the population. We need to be able to give students a visual to connect with as they learn concepts that are very abstract. I have created 4 MS Publisher files that are visuals for different Math Concepts (Order of Operations, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division, and Long Division) that can be very abstract for children to understand. Each visual explains the procedures to solves these types of problems. Check these resources out in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

Making a List and Checking it Twice

             

 (4th Grade)

      Today’s product spotlight is actually two products. Here are a couple checklists for introducing Common Core Standards. 

 We have a 3^rd and 4^th grade list available for download for a dollar each! 

          

    These easy-to-use checklists allow you to enter a date and see at a glance when you introduced or covered a standard in an easy-to-read format. 

    It is always a good idea to make sure that you are always ready to give an account for when you covered a particular standard in your classroom to your principal or Director of Educational Services. Check them out today!

(3rd Grade)