Setting the Pace

Yep, I am one of THOSE teachers who plans, plans, and then plans some more. 

I have tried to get other teachers on my band wagon, but i feel alone on this one, at least on my campus! I am the only one who sits down and plans my whole year out. 

Here's what i do.... I take some calendars and I make sure all of our holidays are written into the calendar. That means i go through and make a master calendar with minimum days, non-student days and all holiday breaks written in. This year i am using these cute calendars that are FREE on Teachers Pay Teachers! Thanks to Kindergarten Stars for making these adorable calendars free! Awesome! (You can see in pictures below that i usually use boring photocopied calendars.... ugh! (Glad to be rid of those!) There are a number of free calendar sets on TPT that you can easily download and get to planning your year!

Here's the process I take:

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I write in all inportant dates by transferring the school calendar to my master calendar. This way i can figure out how long each unit will go for! 

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I then photocopy my master calendar onto colored paper and each color is then used for a different subject! Here you can see three different colored papers all with the same calendar. 

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Here's where it gets tricky. This seems like it would be too specific to my job to describe, but i basically sit down with a bunch of ideas for each subject and get to filling in the calendar. I use colored pens for different subjects too! This is the tedious part of the job. Once it is all done, it is such a relief! 

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Then i use these calendars to fill in my entire lesson plan book! 

This will be interesting this year! So much to plan for! I got started on my Social Studies and Science planning today and have a couple weeks to work on the remaining (all the rest) subjects that i will teach in the coming year! Oh BOY!

Sidenote: I realize that not all teacher plan out their entire year. I need this to feel like i know how long to teach a certain topic. Also, please note that i MUST modify my curriculum due to the needs of my kiddos! I also have multiple grades within the same classroom! So much to do in such a short year! 

I hope that you might consider my method of planning. It is my version of a pacing guide which i know many districts provide. I am blessed because i get to make my own and plan my year from scratch! This is both and blessing and a curse in some ways! 

Hope your week is going well! 

Ideas for Classroom Incentives

Hey there! Hi there! Ho there! 

Ok so it's been a little while since I have posted much that is teacher related! This is purely out of lack of time to do bloggy type stuff when I am in the classroom! As it is I get there early and feel that I am one of the last ones to leave! (Pretty sure I am the last one some days!) Anyway, here's a teacher related post! 

 I thought I would share some of the incentives that I use in my classroom! I may or may not have explained what population/type of school that I work at, but please know that I work with kids who have a wide variety of needs! I work with K-2 special education students and their needs are many! One of their needs is most definitely incentives! We have random incentives, individualized programs for incentives, weekly incentives, monthly incentives, and sooooooooooooo much more! 

 Here's a list of a few that don't cost a dime: 

1. A free photocopy from a picture book/book cover 

2. A hand stamp (if you've already got some) 

3. Sitting next to a chosen friend at lunch 

4. Playing on the playground for 2 minutes (this works for me because the playground is adjacent to my classroom. Plus I have awesome aides who can help to watch the kiddo outside) 

5. Helping to pass out work

For these rewards, i use a coupon system. The kids can randomly earn these coupons (pictured above & below) or, for some, we have specific programs where the kids can earn these and pick them as their incentive. 

 Here's a list of incentive that are truly not free but not terribly expensive: 

1. Skittles, m&ms, or other small pieces of candy that you can give one at a time! 

2. Bookmarks 

3. Erasers (themed ones are GREAT!) 

4. Stickers (I have a whole drawer full!) 

Here's my bookmark bucket. Mine are actually made for free by printing free printable bookmarks, laminating them, and then adding magnets (that i acquired for free sometime ago) or yarn!

 

Here's some weekly/monthly incentives that you might try out:

1. Student of the week - this little one can become the line leader, earn a special treat, or even be the one to help the teacher pick something out) for example on rainy day schedule my student of the week helps to pick out the recess time movie. 

 2. Student of the month - this can be geared towards a certain academic standard, character trait, turning in homework, or even how many pages were read in a months time. 

 3. A weekly activity based on a specific criteria. At our school we utilize points that are then are averaged out each day and then again a the end of the week! The scores are then broken down into different levels: GOLD, SILVER, & BRONZE. Then each Friday our campus does an activity for Gold leveled students to participate in. This can be done on a much smaller scale or even between 2 teachers! 

 I hope this info gave you some hints and clues as to how to do incentives in your classroom. Many of these can even be put to use now, but you could

also begin using them in the fall! Either way i hope they gave you some hints!

Oh, How Pinteresting: End of Year Edition

Oh, boy! It's so late.... but.... 

its 

Oh, So Pinteresting! 

 

Ok so, with the approach of the end of the school year, i have summer on the brain and the new year looming in the back of my mind! Here are a few teacher pins from the last week! 

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I read "First Day Jitters" every first day of school.... maybe i need to start a last day of school tradition! 

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Love this idea.... may have to tweak it a bit to suit my kiddos!

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This will require a new cover, but will be great for my kids! 

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For a few years i have wanted to give out candy bar awards as our own classroom award ceremony... here's some ideas for me! Gotta love Pinterest!

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You can never have too many tips!

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Believe it or not, but i am already thinking about next year! The kids should too, i guess! 

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Loving the idea of sending work home like this! 

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Something to add to the list for the first day/week of school! 

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This will go great with "First Day Jitters" or even as a warm up on the first day! 

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New spelling ideas would be GREAT! Hoping to find some here! 

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Go visit Michelle at the Vintage Apple to find more pinners like you and me! Also please feel free to follow me on Pinterest by clicking the button below!