Sydney's School Stories

Happy winter break teacher friends! I am going to talk about teacher wellness/self care today and give a few ideas of relaxing things to do for YOU this break and throughout the school year.  Self care is not selfish . I like having alone time where I’m the focus and getting pampered- it helps me chill out and feel beautiful. I love my husband, but need time for myself as well. I also feel like it is unhealthy to do school stuff all the time- papers can wait to be graded, but the relationships you have with your family and friends need to be cultivated on the weekends. Your body and soul need to be replenished so you can go to school refreshed.  Why is self care important? I believe that teacher self care is important for the soul because as teachers we spend a majority of our day taking care of 30 other little humans. As a teacher we often play other roles such as counselor, friend, mediator, and sometimes parent figure. We listen to our kids, problem solve with them...

Here are photos of my classroom this year! This is my main whiteboard. I used washi tape to divide my whiteboard into sections for my daily schedule, voice level, table points for each class, objectives, and class community news. The objectives are from  https://teachingtoinspire.com/  and the place value chart is from  https://teachingandsofourth.com/ .  At the beginning of the year my class and I made "looks like/sounds like" chart for showing respect, solving problems, making good decisions, and being a good scholar. Students get class stars every time they display one of these attributes.  The rug has seen better days lol. The rug is from Marshals and pillows from Michaels (Michaels has a free teacher discount program!!!).   https://www.michaels.com/teachers--create-for-your-classroom/article-teachers.html  This is my math board. I list may do and must do items for students to complete in math and list math resources for the...

My students have been really struggling with adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators. I did a math talk with them and realized that many students lack a foundational understanding of what a fraction means and struggle with multiplication/division facts. I have been working with students in small groups and spent over 2 weeks teaching equivalent fractions, listing out multiples, etc. I was feeling defeated most of this week- I had tried lots of different teaching strategies but none seemed to be working. As a teacher its easy to feel like you've let the kids who just can't seem to get it down- I felt especially like this and tired because of back to school nights and just getting back into the 1st month of school routine. BUT THEN... On Friday- I reached out to our ITCL and admin and we talked about different strategies we could implement to support kids who lack a basic understanding of fractions. I decided to help each student create their own fraction b...

Back to school is always a crazy bee-sy time for teachers- from setting up your classroom, school site professional development/meetings, and lesson planning. The 2017-2018 school year marks my 2nd year teaching and it started off with a bang! I am working at a new school (same district) this year and have a portable as my classroom. I spent hours putting up tropical decor, math standards, and arranging the desks- I was all ready for the start of the year! However, on the first day disaster struck! Bees invaded my classroom and one of my new students was stung. Thankfully this student was not allergic but it was stressful for all. From the first - fourth days of school I moved my teacher things from my portable to the special education room to hold class. The special education teacher was kind enough to let my students and I take refuge in her space! I am so proud of my students for being adaptable. My room is now bee free!

The 2016-2017 school   year was an exciting one for me- I got married, cleared my CA credential, and survived my first year teaching! There are many things I wish I could have changed about year one and lots I learned. Here are some of my Do’s and Don’ts for making the most out of your first year in the classroom! TLDR ( too long didn’t read) Version ·       Teaching is really hard, but also really enjoyable- so celebrate the awesome work and relationships that come out of your room but also reach out and lean on others for the tough days. ·       Have fun ·       Don’t compare yourself to others ·       When your friends tell you about their fancy jobs and big paychecks celebrate with them but remember this job is important too! Do’s ·       Do ask a lot of questions ! Ask your administration or fellow teachers questions about the cultu...

This summer I taught a month of summer school for students in my school district. The summer school program focused on STEM & the topic "Under the Sea". I got to design 3 days of curriculum of my choice for 5th/6th grade students. I had 4 different groups of students (about 25 per class) and had each group for 3 days. Check out some of the ideas I implemented in my summer school classroom! Build An Ecosystem Students built an ecosystem in a jar and kept track of changes and temperature of their water over several days.  I went to Petco and bought aquatic plants & sea gravel to put in the jars. My students needed help sticking the roots of the plants in the gravel  Elmer's Build a Boat Challenge   http://elmers.com/lesson-plans/lesson-plan/build-a-boat   The Elmer's Build a Boat Challenge is a fun project for students that places a price value on different materials and asks students to construct a boat that will be both economical and hold a lot o...

I am officially moving from Newport --> Woodridge Elementary. I am leaving Newport because as a first year teacher you're last to get an assignment and teachers with continuing contract get priority. I will be teaching 5th grade math & science at Woodridge and doing the expertise model (this is where I partner with an ELA/social studies 5th grade teacher and we share 2 classes of kids who switch mid-day). Sad to leave Newport, but excited for new opportunities!!

The medium sized colored bins from Target are amazing for organizing science materials (you can find them at Target for $3 and Dollar Tree also has great deals on all sized bins.  Put ALL of the materials a group will need in a bin for each group- I do this the night before or have student helpers come in at recess to help gather supplies Give directions BEFORE you pass out the bins and write them in a place that students can easily refer to during the lesson (after the bins are passed out- it is hard for kids to concentrate on teacher directions) Give kids a chance to touch/explore the materials- this gets the "newness" of working with materials out of the way  Have a basket that contains extra supplies that groups might need in the front of the room. If your class can handle getting out of their seat for more supplies, assign a "grabber" for each group - this will be the kid who gets more supplies as needed. If your class is too rowdy or distracted by getting...

Top 3 Tips for Teaching 5th Wrapping up my first year of teaching was so fun! I learned a lot from my fabulous group of 5th graders and want to share 3 top tips I have learned so far about teaching 5th graders. Listen To Them. 5th graders have a lot of opinions and are able to deconstruct a lot of information about the world around them- and they want to share what they think with their teacher. I was really open with my class that it was my first year teaching and I wanted their feedback about how class was structured, what books to read next, etc. I gave out surveys to students and listened to their feedback in morning meetings. Students in upper grades want to feel like their voice is being heard and when they see their ideas put into action are more likely to join the class community. 5th grade is also a time of change and transition for a lot o Hold Them To A High Standard. At most elementary schools students in 5th are the oldest kids in schools and may think they are ...

I introduced the concept of customary units of measurement by having the students walk around the room with rulers and measure their friends and items in the classroom.  I also had students trace a ruler into their math notebooks and mark the 12 inches that make up one foot. Getting students up and moving is great for student engagement & conceptual development.

GLAD stands for Guided Language Acquisition Design and are strategies to help ELL students and struggling readers. I was first introduced to GLAD when I was getting my MA/credential at UC Irvine. When you think about it- most students are English language learners in the sense that they are learning new academic vocabulary! One GLAD strategy I tried was a Sequence Pattern Chart. This chart helps students recognize parts of speech and use a writing resource. I used this because I wanted to help students create interesting descriptive sentences for a personal narrative we were working on. To make a sequence pattern chart you create 5 categories- adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs, and prepositional phrases. As a class we picked one noun we wanted to focus on and then filled in the rest of the chart based on our noun. For our example the class decided they wanted to talk about "porta-potties"- we had a good time making creative stories about aliens using space traveling porta-p...

"Can I borrow a "frindle" please?" In the Andrew Clements book, Frindle , a group of smart and creative 5th graders make up a new word for the boring term "pen". We have been reading Frindle  as a whole class and I recently found a petition to change the word "math" to "Olisity". When I told my class to get out their "Olisity" notebooks during our math time- they looked shocked!  

One literacy strategy that my class & I did this year is an "Informational Text Walk & Notes" activity. For this unit I wanted to address the following standards: (1) CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information. (2) CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.1.A Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which ideas are logically grouped to support the writer's purpose. (3) CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.1.B Provide logically ordered reasons that are supported by facts and details, and (4) CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.1.D Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented. Introducing the lesson: Use the TIME FOR KIDS website for polls ( http://www.timeforkids.com/news-archive/polls ) to discuss different issues that have "pro" and "con" sides of an argument. As a class discuss different issues that TFK has on their poll webs...