Weekly Routines {Monday: Weekly Agenda}

My friend, who also happens to be our school librarian, called me the other morning to tell me about something overheard at the gym.  A former teaching colleague of ours who subs was asked which rooms she likes to sub in.  I guess mine was one that she named and she said, "Her students could run that class themselves, they know exactly what to do."  

That got me to thinking....and I think she is right.  I could probably not show up for school tomorrow and my students would know exactly how to proceed with our day!  There are so many routines that we have and for many students that predictability is extremely helpful.  So...it sparked an idea for a new blog series...Weekly Routines That Make Life Easier.  I am going to share with you the routines that we go through on given days throughout the week that really help me stay organized, keep our class running smoothly, and keep students on track to meet their third grade learning goals!

Monday:  Weekly Agenda

One of the things we have heard from the fourth grade teachers at our school is that our kiddos come to them and struggle with the increased independence and responsibility.  In fourth grade they start using agendas and students are required to write in them daily.  In third grade we have always typed out a weekly calendar and put it in our students' Take Home Folders.  To help ease that transition we have switched to a Weekly Agenda.  

Each Monday, I help students fill in the front side of the agenda.  We write down the standards we will be covering for the week.  Eventually I would like to move to having the students copy the learning targets from the board for this part.  Students write the name of the book they are working on for A.R. to help their parents hold them accountable for reading each night and it helps me make sure they are making progress in their books.  

The next part of the agenda is their Weekly Academic Vocabulary.  Right now I am typing this in for them, but the goal is to have students start writing this part as well.  

There is also a progress check where I can let parents know if their child is missing any assignments from the previous week.  My grade book is up to date by Monday morning each week.

The back side of the Weekly Agenda is probably my favorite part.  It has space for students to write in any reminders, like tomorrow is P.E. or field trip permission slips are due.  But, my all time favorite spot is for our daily reflections.  We do a lot with growth mindset in our classroom and I think it is so important for students to reflect every day on what they did well and what they need to work on for the next day.

This part of the agenda is a work in progress and I love to see how much students improve at self reflection throughout the school year!

Ready to try a Weekly Agenda in your classroom?  You can grab an editable version on my Weekly Agenda for FREE!  

Just click HERE!  I'd love to hear how it's working in your room or see some examples of your students' reflections!  If you post a picture be sure to tag me @theblessedteacher on Insta or @TheBlessedTeach on Twitter so I can check it out!

Happy Veteran’s Day, A Linky Party, and Common Core Standards (this might be a long one!)

I just wanted to take a moment to wish all of those who have served or are currently serving our country a Happy Veteran’s Day!  I come from a family full of Veterans and couldn’t be prouder of them and of all of our military personnel.  Our NJHS at school sponsored a Veteran’s Day Breakfast on Friday and every year I am so moved by the sacrifices that so many are willing to make to protect our amazing country.
This evening I am linking up for a “teaching tip,” linky party.  You can click on the button below to go to Miss Kindergarten’s blog.

Tip #1
I use secret codes in my room for just about everything.  My kiddos love pretending that they are super secret agents when they are using their codes! Hey, anything to entertain them, right?  Anyways…. 1 finger in the air means “I have something super important to say.”  Two fingers in the air means, “I have to use the bathroom.”  This signal is great because I never have to be interrupted during small groups, when I am progress monitoring, or working with a student.  If I don’t see them from their seat they walk over to my small group table, flash me the signal, and I nod my head and they leave.  Three fingers in the air is our “911,” it means, “I need help!”  Students use this one when they are working independently and they can’t move on without help from me. Finally, holding their pencil in the air means that they need to trade in their pencil. 
Tip #2….”Show Me Boards”
Each year before school starts I make a quick trip to Home Depot for individual whiteboards for my students.  It costs about $14.00 for the large piece of board.  Home Depot will then cut it into individual boards for teachers!  Whenever I need to do a quick check for understanding, I will have my students answer a question, do a problem, etc… on their “show me board.”  They tip the board on their lap and lean it on the edge of their desk so their neighbor can’t easily copy.  After giving them plenty of think time, I count to three (we do this in various languages and they love it!) and say, “show me!”  They all hold up their boards and I can see quickly who might need extra practice, who needs to be pulled for small group, and who is just not sure at all!
Okay, lastly….Common Core.  I know most of you have probably been here for a while, but my district is finally adopting them and I couldn’t be more excited!  There are, of course, the grumblings from some about change, but I have found that most of the standards are things that we already do. I am excited to have more time to teach concepts with more depth.  As I was reading through all of the standards, the speaking and listening standards really caught my eye.  Several years ago at my school, we began working on teaching our students how to effectively dialogue and have conversations about their learning.  I have compiled a lot of things that I have created over the years and put them together in this resource pack.

The best part is that once students learn how to dialogue effectively you can use this across content areas.  It helps them deepen their understanding of topics and you know as well as I do how much they LOVE to talk to each other! 
I’m off to watch Disney Channel with my girls, (I love that they are just about teenagers and still love to watch Disney shows!) No school tomorrow so we get to stay up a little later!
Happy Veteran’s Day everyone!

The 5 Ways to Be

This summer I learned all about Whole Brain Teaching and I absolutely love it!  The one thing that I just couldn’t bring myself to do though was to give up my classroom “rules” to switch over to the WBT ones.  For the past 8 years, I have used The 5 Ways to Be.

There they are hanging from the ribbon in my classroom.  I love the 5 Ways to Be because they aren’t really “rules,” but more of a way of living life every day.  They cover pretty much any classroom or playground scenario a kiddo could think of.  We spend a lot of time at the beginning of the school year learning about the 5 Ways.  On the first day we do a carousel cooperative learning activity and make looks like, sounds like charts.  We talk about what each of the 5 ways would look like and sound like in our classroom and other places around school.  These charts then hang in a high profile area (near the drinking fountain) part of the room all year.  We spend a lot of time talking about them and getting gentle reminders throughout the year about being the 5 Ways. 
I have been playing around trying out some new things on my new laptop and created these colorful polka dot posters for the 5 Ways. 

You can grab them by clicking on the picture or downloading them for free at my TpT store!