Sydney's School Stories

The past several weeks have been difficult because I am being involuntarily transferred to another school in my district. I am being transferred because a new school is being built in my district and students from my current school will be moving there and thus several classes are being cut and determined by seniority. I will be teaching 5th grade (staying in the same grade level- yay!) at a title one school. This will be my 3rd school in my 3 years of teaching. Moving schools is not easy and it has been stressful wrapping my brain around the fact that in a few weeks I will be saying "good bye" to the new friends I have made and will have to establish new relationships. I had previously thought that if I was going to move I could at least go back to my old school- but there were no open positions there. If you are getting involuntarily moved this year- here is a hug to you. It is hard and its ok to be frustrated, confused, tired, and in a "bleh" state. It is...

Today I am going to share how to create a teacher website. I have created both a teacher portfolio and classroom website on  WEEBLY . Weebly is a free and easy to use website building plateform that is great for educators Other great website builders are: WIX . WIX is a free website builder that also has an easy drag/drop system. I know several teachers who have used WIX and love it.  BLOGSPOT . This is part of Google’s system and mostly used for blogging vs. building a traditional website. This teacher blog was created on Blogspot.  SQUARESPACE . I have friends that have used squarespace and they find it easy to use - it seems to have a similar drag and drop function as Weebly. Squarespace costs money to create a site.  Wordpress.com  or  Wordpress.org . These websites offer more customization and people create beautiful sites. I have tried wordpress.com but found it very difficult to use.  A classroom website is a great way to connect with y...

We recently had a 4 day weekend - there were district wide professional development days. The kids are always so excited to be back at school & see their friends. Whenever students come back from a break they need to talk to their friends. I had the students do peer interviews. I listed the questions on the smart-board and students interviewed one peer at a time. I set a timer for 5 minutes and after the "beep" students got another partner. It was great to see students sharing their experiences, goals, and laughing with a friend. Here are the questions I posed: What did you do over the 4 day weekend? What is a goal you have for the week? How can you show kindness this week? How can you show the Woodridge Big 3 today and everyday?​

Weekly Math Rotations Grouping I put students into 5 homogenous groups. I group students by using a unit's pretest scores, exit tickets or quick quizzes throughout the course of a unit, STAR tests (these are tests that predict / track end of year SBA scores), and what I notice as a teacher.  There are about 5-6 students per group. I color code student's names with their group- this makes it easier for students to look at the smart-board and know what group they are in.  This year I have more boys than girls, but I do try to have both boys and girls in each group. I put students who are quiet with students who are chatty and try to make sure that kids have someone they like in their group.   Weekly Math Rotations

My school uses Foss Science Kits from UC Berkeley ( https://www.fossweb.com/ ). I only teach math and science - but I teach these two subjects 2 times a day. We are so lucky that we have boxed kits for science and have access to awesome curriculum! Science Projects 1. We did a STEM engineering "Build a Parachute" project. Students thought about what materials and sizes would make a good parachute. We used coffee filters, felt, and plastic and later tested the parachutes we designed. The materials all came in the Foss Science Kit, but you can find more information here:  https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/design_a_parachute  if you want to do this in your class! 2. Foss mixtures and solutions project. In our mixtures and solutions unit we are thinking about how to create mixtures and separate water from salt, water and gravel, and water and powder. Students learned about evaporation and what a solute is. Here are photos of projects that we did for the las...

I recently changed my classroom layout! My students have been really chatty lately, so I broke up some of my table groups and now have 4 rows of 4 desks each with 2 groups of 6 in the back of the room!

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...