Throwback Thursday: Classroom Management

Since going BTS is slowly creeping closer and closer.... I thought a Throwback Thursday to do with classroom management would be helpful to some!  This is a post I wrote after going to an SDE conference in January and was able to see/hear/interact with the fabulous Debbie Silver! 

Thank you again for hosting such a fabulous linky, Cara!

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So I mentioned in my post Be the BEST you, you can be last week that I was going to start discussing/sharing/analyzing some of the information from the SDE conference I went to on the 10th and 11th of this month.  I decided to start with Debbie Silver, her sessions were great.  She was my favorite presenter, which may have had part to do with her humor, but mostly because I could relate with SO much of what she shared and I had about 1,378 "ahhh-ha" moments!

The first session, minus her keynote presentation, was about classroom management.  I think that this is something that EVERYONE has or will struggle with at some point in time.  In my three long short years of teaching, I can vouch for this.  Before I go any further, take a minute to stop and think about what classroom management means to you....

This quote from Haim Ginott is one that Debbie Silver shared with us.  I feel as though this quote encompasses so much of what classroom management actually is.  In the past, when I was asked what my classroom management looks like, I immediately interpreted the question as "how will you manage your kids?"  While I have always known that the relationship that I form with my kids is almost as important as the "managing" part, I didn't take the relationship into consideration when thinking about my classroom management.

While at D. Silver's classroom management session she gave three bullets under the term "Classroom Management"

• It is not just the rules
• It is the mindset
• It is an extension of who you are

Ummmmm.... WHOA, my first real "AHHH-HA" moment.  I mean how much sense does that make?!?!  Let me break it down a little more and share my interpretation of this...

• It is not just the rules .... Ok... Yes, rules are important, we all know that.  Without rules well our classrooms would be more of a zoo than they already are, HOWEVER classroom management is sooooo much more than just the rules. 
• It is the mindset... It is the mindset of you, the teacher.  If you come to school one day and you had the roughest of nights and you bring that into the classroom, what kind of day do you think you're going to have?!?! Probably a rougher day than your night.... Just speaking from personal experience.  Kids feed off of us... be it the kids in our class or our kids at home.  If you are dressed to a T everyday, but are completely broken on the inside... your kids will see past your picture perfect outfit and feed off of your inner feelings.  Some days we just have to tell ourselves that it is going to be a good day and actually believe it.  Yes, your day may not have been as "good" as you had hoped, but it will be better than it was.  Some days you just have to put on that smile, paste it on, eventually you'll find yourself actually happy.  If you're feeling blue, then wear something bright!

Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic, just as if you act mad, you will be mad. 

I can attest to this, before the break my kids got in trouble for something, for what I can't recall.  In turn I had to "act" mad/disappointed.... this acting turned into the real thing before I knew it!  I had to quickly pull myself out of it before I let it really it affect the out outcome of the day!  We really have all the power to determine the mood and climate in the classroom. 

• It is an extension of who you are... I feel like this one goes hand in hand with the bullet above.  If any of my friends outside of work were to come in and observe my class, the way we interact, how it is set up, and the clutter organized chaos of everything, I truly feel would say that the way my classroom is run is the way my life is run.  My sarcasm, humor, seriousness, laughter, playfulness, caring personality is one in the same be it in the classroom, at home, or out with a group of friends.   I consider myself to be a very optimistic person... probably furthest away from a pessimist that I can be.  I try to find the good in everything... now obviously I am not always successful in this, but I try!  Personally, to be a teacher, I think that you have to be... otherwise everything, every day could/would be a disaster.  Not that I don't have catastrophes and moments of panic in my classroom with my lessons or my kids, but I try to look at them more as a learning experience rather than  a moment of complete failure! 

I also feel that another  MAJOR component of classroom management is the relationship you have with your kids.  If you have no relationship at all with your kids, your classroom management is likely to be a hot mess!  If you don't know your kids, if you haven't taken the time to get to know your kids, then it seems as though you care nothing about them (in my opinion at least).  If you don't care about your kids, then why should they care about anything you say or do.  By knowing things about your kids, their lives, the things they like, the things they dislike, you are ultimately able to use this to your advantage, plus they just love sharing things about their life! This is my little addition, but for me a big piece of the overall structure to my classroom management.

All of this is just a teeny tiny bit of the information I have stored away from the conference, be on the lookout for more soon!  Also, I think I have taken a long enough hiatus from the TPT world, I am officially beginning my new unit of literacy and math centers tonight!  If all goes well and there are no computer problems or an unexpected emergency this week, I will hopefully have it done by next weekend!

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In case you missed my post yesterday, I have managed to get my Facebook Freebie button up and running!!!  Make sure you go check it out, if you haven't already!  

Also, Ironically when I blogged back in January about the above post, Irene from Learning with Mrs. Leeby was doing her 200 follower giveaway!! Well, this lady has just hit 600 followers!! Woohoo!! She's having an awesome giveaway, click the picture below to head over to her blog and check it out! 

Throwback Thursday

I'm back today for a little THROWBACK Thursday!  Thanks again, Cara for hosting this fabulous linky!!

****** Original Post 10/2/12 ****** 

Change is always something I have always craved...Not BIG, life altering change, but small subtle change.

I like to try new things, go new places, explore new ideas.  If I don't try to change, I will never know if it is the best. 

In college a small part of my craving for change was satisfied by simple things like constantly rearranging my living room, changing up my wardrobe, rearranging my room, trying different routes to places, going to eat a little hole in the wall places, etc... For me now in my personal life it is changing the flooring in my house from the nasty carpet and cafeteria tile that was in the house when I bought it, to a homier style ceramic tile and carpet. Yet, with this change I always thing of other ways to implement change within my life.

As far as teaching and my classroom goes....

My first year of teaching it was the arrangement of my room.  OH MY GOODNESS, did I ever rearrange my room, I felt as though every time my mentor peaked her head in my room, it was a different arrangement.   I am pretty sure I changed the arrangement of my room, the kids seating arrangement, and all of the other junk educational resources around my room around about 537 times before the first year was over.  My kids became used to it, as did my coworkers! Although, I'm pretty sure they thought I was crazy, but I blame a little bit of it on my pregnancy hormones.

Last year, I changed up my approach for classroom management and the way literacy centers were set up.  I went from a "token" economy to the use of the clip chart.  BEST. DECISION. EVER.  I was also introduced to Daily 5, I swear the ladies who came up with the idea for Daily 5 were GENIUS! 

This year, I kept my the idea for the clip chart, but I have added a few things.  I made a TPT (Teacher'sPayTeachers) pack that is a Chevron themed Clip Chart, since I am currently obsessed with chevron print, everything!  I made little certificates for students that reach the "TOP" of the chart, certificates to recognize how many times students made it to the "TOP" of the chart in one month, a parent letter for the system, as well as a behavior sheet for when students are not following the rules and have to clip down.

I also changed up my literacy centers, again.  After being asked to be one of the grade level representatives for my school, I attended a Balanced Literacy Institute that was put on by our district.  It was through this that I realized some of the Daily 5 rotations were not as meaningful as they could/should be.  I still follow the basic idea behind Daily 5, well not all the mini lessons between the rotations, but the basic 5 choices.  In addition to the 5 choices though I have added a couple others, I have changed word work to spelling and added word study.  This will give students the opportunity to work on more focused skills based in their reading and ability level.   I can proudly say, I have yet to change the arrangement of my room and we are ALMOST through the first quarter.  :) 

It seems as though I am constantly changing the approach to the way I teach things.  It is like I get a great idea..... take off with the idea and mid stream think of something else to add to it!  I've learned that sometimes, not all the time of course, these great ideas are better to write down than to immediately implement within the current lesson. 

Basically this post was all about change.... what got me into posting about this tonight?  Well I decided my blog needed a makeover, the 3rd one since I started this thing!   I L-O-V-E Fall, I love the colors, the smells, the cooler weather, and everything PUMPKIN (yes, I am aware that this is a repeat of what I put in my "currently" post).  Since I love Fall so much, I decided that my blog NEEDED could use a Fallish makeover.

 So here it is and now maybe you understand a little bit about my need for change.  

These make me think that my NEED for change is perfectly normal, however I don't always feel like it is!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend.  Mine will be packed full time with my baby, my family, church, a little bit a lot of  grading papers, and making lesson plans, but FIRST I will start off with a Jewelry party tomorrow! :)

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Welp, that is it for now.... I may be back later to share an award that I was nominated for by two lovely bloggers!

Throwback Thursday

Tonight I'm linking up with Cara Carroll with her amazing Throwback Thursday Linky!  LOVE!  When you think about how many new readers you've gained over time, it's a fun catch-up post for those readers especially! :)

After reading Ashley Sanderson's TBT post, this one IMMEDIATELY came to mind!  I wrote it on my birthday last year, enjoy! :)

*****************************Originally Posted August 9, 2012 *****************************

I have planned for almost 2 months now to blog about the AMAZING writer's workshop that I went to in June!  Melissa Leach is by far one of the most amazing presenters I have EVER had the opportunity to listen and interact with!  In June, two of my co-workers and I went to a writer's workshop where she was the presenter!  Basically, we all left there shocked and thinking... "YOU MEAN, TEACHING WRITING IS THAT EASY!!?!?!?!"  Well, my amazing friend and co-worker, Diana, had another workshop over Balanced Literacy with her these past two days!! I don't know what it is that Melissa does, but the manner in which she presents and teaches makes it seem SO very simple and easy for us to take it back to our classroom and implement it effectively!  YEEESHH, I can't wait for school to start!

Before I babble on, I have to share one of my teacher nerd moments with you!
Today is my birthday and Diana, showed up this morning with the BEST gift ever!! I was squealing with excitement!! :)

Some people might wonder what these little gems are..... Yes, they are PVC pipe... what makes them so special you ask?  Well, they are constructed in a way that students can use them as a phone... We call them phonics phones, but the purpose of them is for students to be able to whisper read/read quietly and be able to ear themselves nice and clear!! These are a wonderful tool to help students, especially the low babies!  My plan is to add duct tape on all of them like the ones in the bottom right corner before school starts!! I just need to find some super cute duct tape to use!  BEST GIFT EVER!


OK, OK... Writer's Workshop & Notebooks... Here I come!!

I don't know about you, but for me, writing was always the one subject that I hated, dreaded, was not entirely comfortable teaching.... I now know it is more so because I didn't know how to effectively teach it.   The ways in which I had taught it in the past did not get all of my students actively engaged in writing!!

The idea behind Writer's Workshop is starting off with a mini-lesson.  How does a mini lesson compare to that of a regular lesson, well... a mini lesson for writing should be a short 5-10 minute lesson with a specific focus.  You then instruct students to think about or apply what it was that was taught in the mini lesson in their independent writing...

For example: You are teaching a lesson about verbs.  You then have the students get out their writer's notebook or folder with their writing drafts, you have them select one piece of writing, and then instruct them to circle all of the verbs.  Once they have completed this, they go on with their independent writing.

What is independent writing though?!  Independent writing is when students have the opportunity to write about anything of their choice.  Now, this could be structured in a manner to where ALL students are writing a letter, but they get to choose who they are writing it to and WHY they are writing to that person.  This would obviously be something that you do after SEVERAL mini-lessons over letter writing though.  Ideally, after building the stamina, students will write for about 20 minutes on their own.

What am I, as the teacher, doing during independent writing?  Well, it is simple, this is when you are doing your conferences with students.  This doesn't mean that you are pulling students over to your table and marking up their page.  These conferences are guided in a way that you help them to realize what they need to add, change, clarify, however it is done in a manner and a way of which you ask the students questions guiding them to identify these things on their own.  You have the students make the corrections, giving them the power!

Once students have been writing independently for their 20ish minutes, it is imperative to give students the opportunity to SHARE their writing with one another.  Sharing is such a powerful tool and gives students so much confidence, something we really need to continually make a priority in our classrooms!

If you do not go through all of these steps, it is NOT considered writer's workshop! This may seem like a lot, but seriously, this is the SHORT and SWEET, condensed, no fluffs, no frills, version! 

With all of that being said, let me get into the Writer's Notebook!  

EEK, I LOVE the idea of the writer's notebook!

 So this is my writer's notebook, I have my cover, you can't see too many details because of the glare, but it just says "Ms.Pepper."  Then the other side of the note book is my "TWIN."  I didn't realize until yesterday that TWIN was an acronym for Teacher's Writing Interactive Notebook... Anyways... I will keep going...

The purpose of the writer's notebook is for students to have a place to write down their IDEAS.... only their IDEAS!! Melissa called them their "seeds" for writing.  Totally makes sense though, it gives them a place to reflect on when they are struggling to find a topic to write about.  The writer's notebook isn't something that will just be used in the beginning of the year, it will be used all throughout the year.  We will be constantly adding to the book.  Above are a few of the pages we did when we were in our workshop!  Sunshine = things that make me happy, Thunder = things I DO NOT LIKE!!

The top left is another one that we did about things that people call me!  I then googled and pinterested (is that  a word) for more ideas on the writer's notebook!! I have a lots of ideas, but have only done a handful of pages more than we did in our workshop!  There is a "things I wonder about", a quotes section, and an "I am a..." page!  My all time favorite though it "My Life's Playlist."

This one brought back so many memories as I was creating it, eeeek, I love!  The most awesome part about the writer's notebook to me is that none of these are finished products, none of these are extensive pieces of writing, and they are ALL something that I can continuously add to throughout this summer, year, and next few hours! 

The other side of MY notebook is my TWIN, this is my place to write notes, ideas, make anchor charts, reminders about writer's workshop, etc!  For my students though, I have decided after the Balanced Literacy Institute, the flip side will be their word study book, they will keep their personal word wall and different word study activities on this side!

I am not going to lie, I can't wait to teach writing!! :)

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I definitely hope you enjoyed! :)  I have thought of a bunch of new lists & idea pages to add over the year, I can't wait to share those later this summer! :)