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Back to School Blessing!

What?! Already?! Yesterday in church, we received the "back to school blessing" for teachers and students. It seems like summer just started, especially because we had a lot of snow days this winter. At any rate, I thought I'd share some ideas that I've been creating for this upcoming school year.

What does my grade mean poster?

On certain in-class assignments, I assign students a check system. It's something that I started doing, mostly because my cooperating teacher did this when she graded. I don't like to do this for everything, but when I was looking through Pinterest this summer, I saw this:

*please reference the pin above, I'm not sure who created this, so if you know, please let me know!*


It made me realize, this is basically what I've been doing. So I've created this . It reminds of a proficiency based scale at the bare minimum. I don't use as many numbers, as I use symbols, so here's what I came up with combining some.


I plan on having this made into a laminated sign, and posting this above my students' turn in bins. 

 ISNs (CIEs as I call them)

  • Table of contents- This year I'm using ISNs again. I dedicated way too many pages last year for the table of contents, so I'm using this which I've created. I use columns in Word, since I use composition notebooks, a 1/2 page fits on one page in our notebooks.   

Click HERE to buy this on my TPT Store. 
  • Assessing their notebooks- This  has been a struggle. I usually do this while they're taking a quiz/chapter exam as they won't be using them during this time. I found this idea from this great website (*Shoutout to Martha Hibbard & her blog http://fortheluvofspanish.blogspot.com/ ) My plan is to have students glue this to the BACK COVER of their CIEs. 
  • Labels & materials- I did have buckets, and a pretty ok set up last year, but all of my supplies got mixed up, students would put trash in with the materials, so I was super excited when I found this! http://thisteachersweatsglitter.blogspot.com/2014/08/supply-bin-labels-tpt-freebie.html  I left a comment if she'd be willing to share, and she put them up the next day! Thanks so much! Plus her pictures of how she has hers set up is a great help. 
Lesson Planning

I find myself a lot of times, spending too much time on a vocabulary concept, or not enough with grammar. I'm sure everyone runs into this problem, and my coworker who teaches Spanish at the other jr. high in our district, has a set amount of days to spend on vocab. & grammar. I knew I wanted to do something similar, but still have more flexibility than that, so I found this, and I'm beyond excited to try this! She uses a great format of 1 week being input, and the 2nd week being output! Such a great idea for my jr. high/middle school students. 


She also has a blog (http://www.throwawayyourtextbook.com/). I absolutely LOVE her blog, ideas, and especially her TPT page. I teach block scheduling, so I've manipulated the format to fit our needs a bit, I'll see how this works, and get back to you. 




I plan on going into my room this week, so I want to post more pictures, and ideas as they become reality. 

Enjoy your last week of break! 









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Comments

  1. HollyAugust 18, 2014 at 10:47 PM

    I am so glad you are going to try the Two Week Model! I know you are going to love it! Let me know what you think!

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    Replies
    1. Srta.August 19, 2014 at 5:04 PM

      Holly,

      Thanks! I'm a little nervous how it will work with block scheduling, but I'm excited. I think it'll keep me on track. I'll keep you posted after I get through this first week or so! Thanks for replying!

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