This summer, I'm spending a lot of time on
Pinterest and Twitter looking for ideas to use in my classroom. I have found
some amazing ideas that I can't wait to use. It has been a real motivator to
get back into school mode. Here are some ideas that I have. Unfortunately, I
don't have pictures at the moment but hopefully my explanations will be enough.
I just want to add a little note...many of these ideas are not mine. I found
most of them on Pinterest. I don't want to take credit for anyone else's hard
work and creativity.
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Lesson Ideas
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Pulling sticks for TPRS: I came
up with this idea as I was attempting to put stories together for some TPRS
lessons. Since I teach elementary school, I'm worried that my students may
struggle to think of names or places for the characters. I plan on using
student names but young kids enjoy pretending and I want to give them that
chance. I have two cups of sticks: one with names and one with places. Many of
the places are Spanish speaking countries. I am hoping to tie in some pop-up
geography/culture along with the pop-up grammar. I'm not sure how this will
work, but I'm hoping it keeps the stories a little more interesting.
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Centers: Towards the end of the
year, I noticed my students worked better in small groups. My plans these year
include more small group/center days than whole group lessons. I'm going to run
one station so that I can see how students are progressing. Also, I'm going to
introduce TPRS in small groups. When they are comfortable, I am going to begin
using it in whole group lessons. I want to do more projects and I think this
make work time more productive because the students will know they have a
limited amount of time plus they'll already be in a group. ***I'm still looking
for center ideas if anyone has any. ***
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Organization/Set-up
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Hanging File Folders (found
on Pinterest): At each school, I see 15-16 different classes. I always had
piles on my desk and I would set down a class list or seating chart and it
would instantly disappear. I'm hoping these folders will eliminate this
problem. I found the directions for this online. I glued eight file folders
together then duct-taped the edges (pretty tape of course (-:). I labeled each
folder with a teacher's name. I made two sets of hanging file folders for each
school. Hopefully I won't lose anymore important lists because they should all
be in these folders, hanging from the board.
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Copy Drawers
(Pinterest): I know many teachers have folders labeled Monday-Friday to keep
copies organized. I wanted to do that last year, but with so many classes, I
didn't have the space. I found someone who uses plastic drawers to do this. I
think they're pretty cheap at Sam's Club or Walmart. They have a lot more space
and keeps everything looking much more organized. I'm definitely trying that
this year.
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Theme Bulletin Boards: Last year,
I had a word wall in my room, but I didn't refer to it much and the kids never
used it. This year, I'm going to create a bulletin board to go with each unit
and I'll let the students use the vocabulary and pictures on the board for
games and projects. I might have to change this plan when I start teaching more
than two units and one time. I'm running out of wall space and that's a lot to
take apart and put together every month.
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Classroom Management
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Bingo (Pinterest): Last year, I tried
a five point system. Every class could earn five points during Spanish if they
did five things that I had posted on a bulletin board. I'm not happy with the
results. I think part of the problem was if they lost a point in the beginning
of class, most of them didn't try to earn the rest because they knew there was
no reward. This bingo plan I found will hopefully work much better. The class
earns a point for doing something positive. The bingo board has numbers 1-100
(I think I'm going to change this because that is a lot of points for 35
minutes). At the end of class, we count the points and fill in the number. Once
the class has a bingo, they earn a reward. Hopefully this works better since it
gives them more opportunities.
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Jobs (Teachers Pay Teachers): I know
most teachers give students classroom jobs. I tried this at the end of the year
but I wasn't happy with how I organized it. I was giving cards to kids that had
the job printed on it. It was too hard to keep track of who had which job. This
year I'm actually making a board and assigning jobs based on student numbers. I
noticed jobs did improve behavior. Students lost their jobs for the day if I
had to talk to them too many times.
These are the main changes I'm working on for now. I would love to hear
what you do or if you have tried any of these.
