WOW! The summer went faster than I can even comprehend. And here we are, already one week into the new school year.
There are a lot of things I'm doing different this year. I'll make a post at some point once I get pictures to make the post complete.
We gained both a New Principal and a new VP this year. We lost our outstanding 8th grade Science teacher (whose last year scores were 91 freaking percent). Lots of logistical and operational changes.
As a part of this new direction, the admins dictated that we not just go over rules on the 1st day of school. There was no way for me to put it off, so I DID go over rules, but I did a few little fun things on day 1 to balance it out.
Here is what we did on this first week of school:
Monday:
1. I started out showing the kids this site: http://www.boredpanda.com/dangerous-journey-to-school/
They were amazed at how hard kids around the world had to work just to get to school. So I'm hoping when they start complaining about HOW HARD life is, I can say "remember the first day of school?"
2. I went over rules. Yes, a slideshow. However, I incorporated memes! Kept em laughing.
3. I introduced ClassCraft. I wanted to do something different this year for reward/behavior tracking. If you've not heard of it, it's like classdojo, but dungeons and dragons style. So far it's working well.
Tuesday: We talked about my class procedures
1. Science journals
2. Warmups
3. Homework
4. Makeup Work
5. NOISE level and letters
Wednesday: We set up our science journals. Here's what we put in there:
The very front page is a dedicated Title page. They are allowed to go back and decorate it at any point when they have free time in class.
The back of the title page is page 1. We write our page numbers in the bottom outside corner. This page starts our table of contents. Last year I had them write their TOC. It was a huge waste of time and some couldn't read what they wrote. So this year, since I know what we're doing, I typed it for them.
We left 2-4 blank for future TOCs
Then we discussed how the journal is organized. Input on the left, Output on the right. The kids answered a few questions about their journals as output practice. This is page 5-6
Page 7 is a list of prefix/suffix that I wrote in excel. I taught them how to look up word parts they don't know. I used the example Audiologist. They found Audi and Logy, and BOOM "Study of Hearing"
Page 8 is a list of sentence stems. I used this one from the Science Penguin
Thursday: We went over general lab safety rules, and I taught them how to use the Fire Blanket, Eye Wash station, and Fire Extinguisher.
We only did page 9 today. After we talked rules, I gave them this Where is Safe-T worksheet. They worked on it today and Friday. I can't find the actual downloadable site anymore...odd.
Friday- We did a fill-in-the-blank exercise to review safety rules for Before/During/After lab. This went on page 10.
The kids finished up their Safe-T worksheet and we graded it. I also showed the Lab Safety Rap that I always show.
It was really a pretty good week. These kids are pretty sharp. We dont' have nearly the Special Ed/504 load we had last year. It's like drinking a glass of clean water after drinking salt water for a year.
I'll try to find some time this weekend to tell you all about the little changes going on.
Until then,
Ms. Kat
There are a lot of things I'm doing different this year. I'll make a post at some point once I get pictures to make the post complete.
We gained both a New Principal and a new VP this year. We lost our outstanding 8th grade Science teacher (whose last year scores were 91 freaking percent). Lots of logistical and operational changes.
As a part of this new direction, the admins dictated that we not just go over rules on the 1st day of school. There was no way for me to put it off, so I DID go over rules, but I did a few little fun things on day 1 to balance it out.
Here is what we did on this first week of school:
Monday:
1. I started out showing the kids this site: http://www.boredpanda.com/dangerous-journey-to-school/
They were amazed at how hard kids around the world had to work just to get to school. So I'm hoping when they start complaining about HOW HARD life is, I can say "remember the first day of school?"
2. I went over rules. Yes, a slideshow. However, I incorporated memes! Kept em laughing.
3. I introduced ClassCraft. I wanted to do something different this year for reward/behavior tracking. If you've not heard of it, it's like classdojo, but dungeons and dragons style. So far it's working well.
Tuesday: We talked about my class procedures
1. Science journals
2. Warmups
3. Homework
4. Makeup Work
5. NOISE level and letters
Wednesday: We set up our science journals. Here's what we put in there:
The back of the title page is page 1. We write our page numbers in the bottom outside corner. This page starts our table of contents. Last year I had them write their TOC. It was a huge waste of time and some couldn't read what they wrote. So this year, since I know what we're doing, I typed it for them.
Then we discussed how the journal is organized. Input on the left, Output on the right. The kids answered a few questions about their journals as output practice. This is page 5-6
Page 7 is a list of prefix/suffix that I wrote in excel. I taught them how to look up word parts they don't know. I used the example Audiologist. They found Audi and Logy, and BOOM "Study of Hearing"
Page 8 is a list of sentence stems. I used this one from the Science Penguin
Thursday: We went over general lab safety rules, and I taught them how to use the Fire Blanket, Eye Wash station, and Fire Extinguisher.
We only did page 9 today. After we talked rules, I gave them this Where is Safe-T worksheet. They worked on it today and Friday. I can't find the actual downloadable site anymore...odd.
It was really a pretty good week. These kids are pretty sharp. We dont' have nearly the Special Ed/504 load we had last year. It's like drinking a glass of clean water after drinking salt water for a year.
I'll try to find some time this weekend to tell you all about the little changes going on.
Until then,
Ms. Kat
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