Groups

One of my reading groups consists of a group that has just completed Stone Fox. The other books they have read are The Hundred Dresses, Molly's Pilgrim, and Donovan's Word Jar. We have discussed each chapter in some depth, had vocabulary words and spelling words, and written summaries of each chapter, resulting in an end of the book summary. Does anyone have suggestions for more books for this group who read levels N-P? I also need some TM materials that I can use as well? Thanks for the help!!

I just found out that I will have a student teacher in my room on Monday. The university that I am working did not have many requirements or guidelines for the student teacher or myself. Can you point me in the direction of some good advice or resources?

I am a 3rd grade teacher who has been teaching for 4 years. During my first few years of teaching, I did not see a problem with my students reading books like Harry Potter and The Lightning Thief. Over the past year or so, through professional development and discussions with colleagues, I have come to see that reading higher level books like this (F&P Level V and S) are not just right for just about any third grader, with very few exceptions. Many of my higher readers (F&P Level O & P, according to DRA and Teacher's College assessments) are eager to read books like this. When I tell them that they should only be reading these books with their parents, many parents respond by saying that I am not challenging their child, or they do not agree with the leveling system. They also feel that the child can handle the book. I believe that many factors at play; the child is a good decoder, comprehension is aided by prior knowledge from seeing the movie, and so on. I am struggling with how to explain this to parents who have little background about the leveling systems and Reading Workshop, and I am often second guessing myself--maybe the child is advanced enough and I am putting too much faith in an assessment, rather than whole picture. HELP! I have tried having conferences with the readers to discuss just right books, sharing leveled lists with the parents, and teaching parents about the Book Wizard on scholastic.com. If you have any other ideas or resources that can help me, I would greatly appreciate it!

Hello, This is my first year as a teacher and I teach in a charter school. There are so many reasons why I plan on leaving the school next year, the biggest one being the lack of knowledge that the principal has and the unprofessionalism of the administration as a whole. There are are four other teachers that are trying to leave as well, which is saying a lot for our small school. That's putting it mildly. I know that in applying for a new job, they will need letters of recommendation. Using my principal is not an option, not because of anything I've done but because I don't think she will write me a letter if I'm leaving. She's very unprofessional. She also has not fully observed me or any of the other new teachers this year at all. My question is, what do I do in this situation? I have a co-worker that will write one of my letters.

I am having a very challenging time scheduling my three aides plus my services to the 17 students that I have responsibility for. There are soooo many constraints; such as the time the students are available, my time, the aides time, the regular ed classroom schedules etc. Is there any really helpful computer software that can be used???

I am going for my first demo lesson in a special ed class containing a handful of students. I was only told that the lesson had to be math or ELA, contain differentiated instruction and should be geared towards verbal but language impaired and MR students. Does anyone know where I would even begin?

I have 16 years in education; this is my 3rd year teaching kinder. I am used to the drama from my girls, but this year it is worse. I have a 6 year old who in our Title I school wears all name brands and a Coach backpack. I had moms telling me their daughter was crying because she wants to wear new shoes everyday like this girl, or she wasn't as pretty as this girl, many tears because the other girl would not let others play with them, and 7 or so girls have cried because they are not "popular" like this girl. As in years past: I spoke with all the parents at the 6 week conferences no blame or mentioning names and discussed ways to calm the drama. I held whole group and one to one discussions, and most of the drama ended or was worked out with a quick “Do you have any ideas about how you girls can work this out?”…with the exception of one. I spoke with the girl who has been instigating many times, as have many other teachers (in P.E., cafeteria duty, recess duty, and art). I finally called the mother to set up a time to meet, and it turned into 25 minutes of her yelling in my ear and calling every other child in the class names like “cry baby, or liar” telling me that I don’t know what I’m doing, and ended with her saying “I can’t help it if the other kids don’t have a good enough self esteem to handle my daughter.” She pulled her daughter out of school and went to the office. My principal said she was really friendly and just wanted to do what she could to help. Verdict: all the girls are going to the counselor together, and the principal will be speaking with them. I was told this girl is not going to change and the other girls just need to learn to deal with it. I was not backed up. My principal just agreed that I didn’t know what I was doing and that they, along with this mother would “help me.” I am hurt and insulted. The girl’s mother then called the kinder aide to say that her daughter was being picked on by ME and the school was going to fix that.

I am working on an assignment for my multicultural education course, and would like some input from a teacher's perspective. Does the introduction of slavery as a topic into the classroom affect how children interact with one another?

As a student attending Lansing Community College, I am currently working on an assignment about Science education in elementary grades. In my research for interactive websites, I discovered the Scholastic Website. If I may borrow a few minutes of your time, I have a question for you. How are Science interactive activities beneficial for elementary students? Thank you

Dear Fellow Teachers, I am completing my Master thesis, I am doing a survey to collect some data regarding teachers' perception of the effectiveness of bilingual ed vs. esl immersion. If you are a bilingual teacheror ESL teacher or both or simply a teacher who has an opinion regarding those programs, please I'd really appreciate it if you could participate in my survey. If you are interested in participating, please contact me at cacceus14@yahoo.com in order to obtain the survey form. I thank you for your time and consideration.

I want to know about learning centers in kindergarten. my pH.D Objective is about "training kindergarten teachers to use learning centers in the classroom" ,so please can you help me to know What are the topics that must be contained in the training? thank you . please can you help me about this . thank you

I recently got an additional NYS certification, Students with Disabilities Birth-2 Grade. Someone told me they heard with this certification, you can become an Early Intervention ABA teacher doing home instruction, you just need 20 hours of observation and to take a test. Does this sound right? I can't find anything online.

I teach at a small school. The children have been together since preschool. They order each other around. I'm frequently stating "I will take care of Claire. I'm the adult. I'm the teacher. HELP! How can I guide them to let go of this control?

I also have a quick question about holiday activities. Any suggestions for some age appropriate Thanksgiving or Winter holiday activities that older students would be interested in?

I have a fifth grade boy who is a great student but he constantly is pushing his boundaries. I will pull him aside and explain to him that his behavior is unacceptable and he is very repentant. However, in two hours he is back at it again. Any suggestions?

I am a first year Bible teacher at a private bilingual school. For my 8th grade classes we are on the unit of the 9 Divisions of the Bible and the curriculum requires a group project that they are to work on in class. I have no guidelines for the project and have never made one before. There will be 9 groups of about 3-4 and each group will randomly select a division (books of law, books of history, poetry, etc.) I will provide some sources for them and they are to research their particular division. I started making an outline of what the project should be, but I am not sure what specific components it should have. Any ideas? Basically, I don't know what I want them to turn in. Here is my rough outline: 8th Grade Bible Class Group Project: 9 Divisions of the Bible Pre-Assigned Groups (9) Grading: Teamwork (responsibility)-15 Oral Presentation-15 Knowledge/Comprehension-15 Creativity-15 =60% total Objective: To gain a deeper understanding of the significance and purpose of the assigned division of the Bible and how it fits into the Bible as a whole. Timeline: Pre-Assessment: KWL chart (What I Know, What I Want to Know, What I’ve Learned) Brainstorm: Turn in filled-out diagram Come up with plan- who is doing what? Assignment Description/Expectations: Main Points to look for- • Awe of God • God’s love for his creation • God’s love for his people • God’s plan for redemption through Jesus • People’s Response to God Resources: -Interviews -Book Outlines (given by teacher) -Commentaries Final Assessment: Must take notes on each presentation

Between now and the end of September we (and you can feel free to help) will try to get one teacher from each state who want to participate and compile a master list.  At the end of September we will e-mail the master list to all participants.

You will mail 1 postcard to each of the other 49 classes on your list anytime between October 1, 2010 and December 20, 2010.  Your class can make their own postcards or use store bought cards.  Each postcard should have 2 paragraphs of information.  Paragraph one can be about your school and community. Paragraph two should be about your state and what it is famous for.

 

If you are interested and willing to make the commitment, please e-mail me (jordank@ocps.net)  the following information:

Name
School and grade
School's full address
Email

 

If you are not interested in participating, but have a friend who would like to, please forward this e-mail to them.  If you have friends who teach is other states who might be interested, please forward this e-mail to them.  Please make sure they know we can only take one class from each state.

Hello
I have a couple of girls in my kindergarten class that drive me crazy. It seems like every five minutes one of them is complaining to me about something that is wrong with their bodies. Trivial things like: my socks hurt, or my eye feels funny, or my shoe is falling off, or my hair hurts. Things that I know are not a really big problem. What makes it funny is I taught one of them in the summer and she NEVER did this! Do you have any suggestions? I know one of them is doing it to get out of doing work.

Hello,
This is my first year teaching kindergarten. Everything has been fine up until this past week when there has been a burst of tattling from my kids. I know this is typical of kids this age. On Tuesday I plan to do an intervention where we have the difference between tattling and telling talk. What really bugs me is the kids who are always in trouble tattle the most, probably because they are trying to get someone else in trouble. I saw on some sites that some kindergarten teachers even used the tattle box thing where their kids wrote down what they had to say and told them to read it later (even though they couldn't read or write). I used this strategy with second grade during my student teaching and it worked wonders! But, I don't know if it will work with the kinder. Thoughts anyone?

I am a 1st Grade teacher.  This is my second year of teaching.  I was wondering if anyone has any great suggestions for behaviors at the beginning of the year.  I have a very chatty (sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in their talking) and busy group.  I just want the rest of the year to go smoothly and I want to get on it right now!  We have a color system in our classroom...green (start here),  yellow (slow down and think about your actions),  red (miss Friday Fun), and purple (had an excellent day...treasure box).  This seems to work for some of the students, but others could care less.  I also do a lot of positive reinforcement.  I just wanted to hear other suggestions!

Aloha, Just a few more needed and we're up and running in October. KY,OR,RA,SD,UT,AK,AR,DE,NE,ND,WA,WV,WY send contact information for Postcard exchange with Hawaii.Mahalo :-)