ABCs of Me a No Prep Icebreaker

Here's an easy no prep activity that students love and can be easily tailored to best fit your students' levels.

I don't know how your first day is...mine is CHAOTIC. Students are always switched out or moved in, or just added late. I really feel like I don't want to teach anything day one because I'll have to re-teach it for the following week.

Technology is usually working on the first day, so I have an Kahoot activity with my students for information on me. Students LOVE it. However, this year I taught summer school. I had no tech, no class list and had just moved into the classroom. Of course!

I wanted to get an idea of how my students were as far as writing level. This was a remedial English class, so I just wanted to know if they could write a sentence.

As such, I brought back an OLD ESL activity. "ABCs of Me" and threw it into a Snow Ball fight .

In the end this activity was such:

1. Students write down the alphabet (one letter on each line of their paper) and try to write COMPLETE sentences with the letter. 
2. You can adjust this according to students' levels. For more advanced classes have each sentence connect (so the entire page would read like a paragraph or story). For lower levels, just have them focus on a word per letter (adjectives or nouns).
3. I gave my students a few ways to do this. I let them write a word that starts with the letter and then the sentence, OR have the sentence start with the letter. I tell them NOT to use their name. I also walk around and help kids who are stuck on letters (or tell them to skip a letter)
• So, "A teacher is what I am." Good
• "Birthday: My birthday is in January" Good
• "Carissa is my name." Bad
• "Dad. My dad is a basketball coach." Good 
4. Once they’ve written as much as they can (5-10 minutes) I tell them to crumple the paper up and we have a two minute “snowball fight.”
• Make this fun! Play "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" or "The Eye of the Tiger" Students usually don't go too crazy with this, but if you notice they are targeting someone you may need to put a stop to it.
5. Once you stop they grab a paper uncrumple it and try to match it to the person who wrote it. 
• I have them put their name at the bottom if they found the author, but the author should NOT write their name (yet), so you can play again!
6. Repeat if needed / desired. 
• I like to play a few times. The last time they play the author write their name on the top and sits down with their paper.
7. Have students share something they read about someone else they thought was interesting OR about themselves.

This helps me because I can gauge what they think a sentence is as well as their vocabulary. I also learn a bit about the students.

Students are also eager to share because it isn't their information... they're sharing about their classmates. The pressure it way off.

It's an easy, no technology nor prep activity that students LOVE.

If you try it let me know how it goes.

Back to School Organization

I am joining Snazzy in Second and Notes from the Portable in their Back to School Link Up about getting organized and set up for the school year.

I  feel silly trying to give any advice on organization when this is only my second year with a classroom of my own. However, I really have put a lot of effort into my room this summer with organization in mind.

Here is my basic advice in just two tips:

1. Do what works for you!
• I have seen a lot of GREAT set ups that would not work for me because of my students...or my style. Don't try to do what someone else does if you know it won't jive with you once the school year starts.
2. Have some fun
• My parents were both teachers, but when I was little any school supply I wanted I (usually) got. Their theory? If the Lisa Frank pens made me a little excited about school it was worth it? Make your classroom a place that you feel happy, and it will show in your work.

My classroom isn't done yet, but I have totally planned with organization in mind! This is focusing on the teacher section since it is the part where most of my organization happens.

First off, I don't really have a theme in my class. Our school colors are blue and gold, and I found this black and white paper I really liked... so that's as "themey" as I get. What I do have is a whole lot of practical.

You can actually scroll over the first two pictures pictures seen here to get more specific information, but here's the gist. I am ALL about color coding and storage spaces. If there's an open space, I can use it to store something. This is why I am really proud of the fact my bulletin board is NOT full right now. I've learned this gets added to with time, so I am making space for future discoveries. I also have it set up with lots of clippies so when I want to put something up that I can take down and consult I can clip it inside of pinning it.

Backing up a but you can see I have quote a lot of storage space this year in cabinets and behind the whiteboards. I try to keep most of the "teacher stuff" (coffee, lesson plans, tissues etc.) near my desk and the "student stuff" (dictionaries, textbooks, library books, etc) closer to the door.  I also use a lot of mini bins to divide and organize all the little things I have.

I am a big fan of color coding since I teach five different classes students know that they have a color and that's how I keep their materials straight. I even keep class calendars in the back color coded so students know what's happening when.

My "hidden organization" comes behind the podium. I store the day's progressions of handouts or realia in order. If I can't make it then the sub just needs to find the podium to be able to follow the plan.

There we go! It may not seem like much but it is "home." I hope that this coming year the organization I took the time to set up over the summer will be worth it!

Back to School Blues: English Only

In a recent post I focused on how excited I am to be starting the 2015-2016 school year because we are becoming a 1:1 school! I am ridiculously excited, but I am also predicting the normal back to school issues.

To give some background, I am an English Teacher at my high school. I teach American Literature, World Literature, Speech, and Academic and Technology Literacy. My students are (mainly) the ones who struggle more with English (students with IEPs, non-native speakers, low readers, etc.) My school is very close to the Mexican border and many of my students cross the border every day. We are a diverse environment, but we have a lot of Spanish speakers. Now, I can speak Spanish, but I don't usually do it for two reasons:

1. I also have the foreign exchange students (Chinese, Vietnamese, Brazilian, Lithuanian etc.) in my class, so that would exclude them. (Sidenote: these students usually are pretty good at staying in English) 
2. These students speak Spanish ALL the time! In some cases their parents even tell me that they think the only time their children speak English is in my class. As much as I would love to teach bilingually, that really isn't fair to these kids. 

Some of the memes I've used in the past

I am sure at this point you can guess what my biggest back to school issue is. My BIGGEST struggle at the start of the year is getting students to speak in English.

This is a problem year round, but at the start of the year I always find it one of the most predominant issues. Students have spent all vacation speaking whatever they wanted however they wanted. Switching back into English is something that does not come naturally to them.

I always start by explaining I love languages. I studied Tagalog and Arabic in college. I've lived in Mexico, Spain, The Netherlands, Korea, Turkey, Vietnam and Singapore. I LOVE being surrounded by a language and learning as much as I can. I am so envious that most of my students are at least bilingual in high school (I was still struggling with the subjunctive when I was in high school). However, they are in my class because English is not their best subject. As a result, I need them to only speak English.

I have positively reinforced speaking English as much as I can. I have also thrown in some punishments for not speaking English. Mainly, their class participation grade goes down. In extreme cases I e-mail or call home to ask for parental help. Since, "English Only" is a rule, I can give detentions if students speak any other language. I never have and I am afraid this is the year I will have to start. I feel AWFUL doing this. As a Mexican I feel like I am betraying my heritage, but I also know that to improve their English they need to use their English (just like i had to speak Spanish in my Spanish classes).

My class is a safe environment where we don't laugh at anyone's mistakes, but they have trouble switching to English. In some cases it is a habit (like I said they pretty much speak Spanish all day). In other cases they don't want to put the effort into describing something. If they don't know the word they just want to switch back to Spanish. I usually share my light bulb story to show that they can communicate with a bit of effort, but they are either unable or unwilling to do so.

I am the first teacher in years who has stayed at this position for more than one year. My hope is that now students will realize I am not going anywhere and maybe take the rule more seriously. However, I can only hope. Any advice is appreciated :)

Check out what other Secondary Teachers are preparing for as the school year approaches by checking out the Down and Dirty Secondary link up at Edison Education

Teacher Fashion- Back to School Earrings

Post by The Magic School Bus.

In July I posted about my obsession with DexFlex shoes. This post is about my other obsession... one that isn't as sophisticated as my flats.

Here are some pencil earrings you can buy

 I've always been one to embrace a Ms. Frizzle attitude. I like my students to do things rather than just read about them. Thus, is is any surprise that I also like mimicking her sense of style? I wear my skeleton earrings when my students are learning about writing outlines (because an outline is like the skeleton of an essay).

I also buy a lot of a lot of teacher related earrings. For example, I have a pair of earrings that look like little books (complete with the title Dracula!). I also have two pairs of pencil earrings that I wear when my students are doing a lot of writing.

For the record, no. I do not normally wear two rather loud earrings at the same time. I tend to do just one, or one and a small stud, but for the pictures I decided to go all out and show the earrings matched. That way you can see two earrings in just one photo. What a time saver!

Grab your own dinosaur earrings!

Do you teach any dinosaur stories? If you have your students learning about fossils, or reading something like A Sound of Thunder then these dinosaur earrings are right up your alley.  I bought these back when I was in college, but I still wear them today. Often students overlook my earrings, but never when I wear the dinosaurs. These guys always hog the spotlight. 

Perhaps more subtle than my big red apples!

To be more traditional (but not too  boring) I have two earrings that are apples. Perfect for the first week of classes when I want to ease students into my odd fashion sense. Alternatively, these are cute earrings for parent teacher night, teacher appreciation day and all those other random days when accessorizing with teacher apples are appropriate!

Curiosity gets the best of my sometimes I admit. I wonder if I am the only Ms. Frizzle out there? Do you plan your outfits or accessories to match what you are teaching? I know this is a small thing, but I hope it sends a message to my students that I really do plan their lessons and it isn't just, all last minute sporadic ideas.

To make this blog relevant to teaching, here is my favorite pirate joke which mentions earrings! Plus, it is a great example of connected speech!