{Technology Tuesday}- Remind!

Hello Friends!  It's Chandra from Teaching with Crayons and Curls! I hope everyone is having a fabulous summer and finding lots of time to relax and refresh! You deserve it!

I'm here today for Technology Tuesday to share one of my favorite ways to communicate with parents! It's super simple and parents absolutely LOVE it!

Are you looking for a safe way to communicate with your students' families without giving them your cell phone number!? I don't know about you, but I do not like sharing my personal phone number with my students' families. Of course there are exceptions, but I like keeping that information personal! 

I am a texter. It's easily one of my favorite forms of communication these days. It's really fast and easy! But, because I don't like sharing my cell phone number with my students' families, I had no way of texting them simple reminders without sharing MY number. 

Enter Remind!

First things first, head to the Remind website to create your account! It's absolutely free! Click on "Teacher Sign Up" and enter your information! 

Then, you'll be directed to "Add your first class!" Simply choose a class name- you've got to keep it under 10 characters. 

I like to keep mine pretty simple and easy to remember for parents and families!

Then, you'll be given a special code AND message! This is the information that you need to give parents to add them to your class! All they have to do is text that number with your message and they are added to the class! So easy! 

This is the main screen on the website. I love how simple the website is, nothing crazy or fancy! It just gets right to the point! 

At the beginning of the year, I send home a letter to parents explaining this form of communication and give them the codes! Once you have families subscribe to your class, you are ready to send messages! 

Here is an example of the letter I sent home last year. 

You can let your families know that is a safe communication tool! No advertisements and it doesn't share their phone number with others! 

Another advantage- the app! I use the app way more than I ever login to the actual website! 

Like I said, it's super easy and very functional! It's great to send out a reminder the night before a field trip or when a book order is due! I hope you find it useful in your classroom! 

Organizational Tips and Tools: Linky Party!

Hello fabulous peaches! It's Jessica (jivey) from Ideas By Jivey! The authors here at The Primary Peach know how teacher brains work (since ours are doing the same thing yours are!) - you are already thinking about how to get organized for next year, aren't you? Every Sunday this summer, we will be sharing some ideas on how to get organized, and we would love for you to link up and share with us! This linky will be open all summer, so please feel free to join us anytime!

I am starting off this Sunday with Math Workshop Stations Organization!

I looooove the rainbow drawer carts-

...and although you might be perfectly fine to spend $41 on it, I believe you can find them at Sam's for only $25! (If you have or know someone who has a membership!) There is some assembly, but it is super easy!

Each of my stations were color-coded, so the students knew exactly what drawer to visit. I put everything they need for that station in that drawer, and they can either take out the entire drawer and take it to their spot, or just take out what they need.

I organize all of my math games so that they are ready to be played by a pair of students.

In a gallon bag, I put all the materials they need for a game- dry erase markers, cards, dice, game boards, erasers... it's all there. All they have to do is clean up properly, and then the next day, the next pair will be ready to play the game, too! Then, when I store my games that aren't in use, I remove the markers, erasers, etc, and just put the bags into my "game basket" so it's easy for me next time to just grab it!

You could easily do this with any subject where you use stations. This drawer cart was a lifesaver for me because I used to have bins on a shelf that just took up too much room. And aren't Ziploc bags a teacher's best friend?? :o)

An InLinkz Link-up

3 Summer Tips to Make Back-to-School Easier

Hey Friends! It's Theresa from True Life I'm a Teacher! I'm having an absolutely terrific summer so far! Buuuuut, I can't help but to start thinking about next year! Crazy, I know, but I just can't help it!

I'm here today to share how I plan and organize during the summer that helps me feel prepared for the new school year. I know, I know...some of your aren't even finished with the current school year, but I hope you'll be able to use these tips as well!

I shared on True Life I'm a Teacher that I follow the "One-A-Day" rule - try to accomplish one thing each day of summer. Clearly, I set the bar super high ;)

Anyway, while I do definitely try to do lots of things that I just don't have much time for during the school year (just getting caught up on laundry...or maybe that's just me), I do have a few MUST do's that make my life so.much.easier once school starts again.

Let's take just a minute to recognize that there are a TON of things that can't really be done over the summer, because they're contingent on either arranging furniture and getting your classroom set up, OR based around knowing what your schedule will be. AND, I don't spend my whole summer preparing for school or doing school-related projects, but I view summer as a gift of time, and that last thing I want to do is be completely overwhelmed the week before school starts, and wish that I had been more proactive during the summer (because I've been there, done that).

Now we covered what can't be done...let's talk about what we CAN do!

One of the things that puts my crazy mind (seriously - my mind goes nuts in the summer...too much Pinterest!), is to write down major things that happen each month so I'm not thinking, "Man, I totally forgot about my stash of St. Patrick's Day books." 

Here's what my yearly plan (you can grab your own copy here) looks like (I add to it as things come up or as I remember things):

From here, I like to take the standards for my grade, and type them out based on when they have to be taught. Think of this as sort of "zooming in" from the yearly plan. I'm such a visual person, I want everything for each 9 weeks/quarter on one easy to see page.

Disclaimer: This may require you to do a bit of digging around on your school district's website, or asking an administrator or academic coach. Chances are, they have them, but may not have shared them with everyone. Fortunately, at our last faculty meeting for the year, we got our "Teaching and Learning Frameworks" for 2015-2016, so I was able to write out the standards, just how I like them.

Anyway, here's what they looked like when I got them...

Can't even handle the various formats and the fact that each subject is on a different page. Here's how they look now. Boom.

Once I have the yearly plan created, I create pacing guides for each 9 weeks (or quarters...whatever your district call them). My teaching partner and I actually got together earlier this week finished these for the entire 2015-2016 year! Go us!

It took us about 4 hours, and we both walked away feeling like we had accomplished something amazing! (There will probably definitely be adjustments that need to be made, and some rearranging that takes place, but that's totally normal!)

It's kind of like putting a puzzle together...what makes the most sense where, and what do we have to teach when? Having a good game plan before actually starting the year helps me have a good picture of where we're headed!

Having these pacing guides makes lesson planing and finding/creating resources a breeze! Seriously! So worth the time it takes to create them!

My last must-do for summer, is to create simple grade sheets. Nothing fancy, just something I can plug my kids' names into, print and be on my way. The first 9 weeks always flies by, and I usually struggle with grades for this grading period because so much time has been spent on routines and procedures, and building classroom community. Typically, I'll go ahead and write in the standards/topics that are assessed (because I have my pacing guides and yearly plan finished). Having the grade sheets done ahead of time, just helps in having one more thing checked off of the to-do list.

Ready to make the most of your time this summer? Grab your copies below:

DIY Pacing Guides (Editable in PowerPoint)

DIY Pacing Guides (PDF - print and write)

DIY Grade Sheets (PDF)

Vocabulary

Hello and Happy Wednesday! It's Erin from The Elementary Darling. 

Today is Workshop Wednesday Primary Peach and I am going to show you my vocabulary folders!

One thing that I struggled with last year was how to incorporate vocabulary more into my instruction. This past year I read the book, Word Nerds, and LOVED it. I highly recommend it if you are looking for activities for vocabulary. One thing that I decided to do was to create a vocabulary folder. I copy two Frayer models front and back in a folder. When students reach a word that they don't know or want to learn more about, they can write it down and revisit it later. 

Sometimes we complete the vocabulary word whole group as well. This works well for us, because we MAP test in my county. This provides an opportunity for me to use that wonderful MAP vocabulary to ready the students for their tests. Here is an example from one of my kiddos last year!

Get your free printable of the Frayer Model here! 

Workshop Wednesday

Hey, y'all! Jivey here!

I thought it would be VERY appropriate to post for Workshop Wednesday because, way back in the day (okay, last year...) I was the original Workshop Wednesday Girl! Check out some old posts here if you are interested!

Today, I am going to share with you what I have found to be the BEST way to teach grammar and writing... and I'm going to focus on lower grades (1st and 2nd grades). Make sure to hang in til the end of the post to grab a freebie and find out about an exciting opportunity! If you are interested in upper grades, there's plenty of info you can read here!

Mentor Sentences are THE BEST way I've found to teach grammar and writing. The idea is: students are exposed students to well-written sentences from quality texts that will help them become better writers and have a greater understanding of how the parts of speech work together.

First and second graders can absolutely benefit from mentor sentences, just as the kiddos in upper grades can! It might take a little longer for students to understand the routine than upper grade students, but just like with anything else, consistency is key!

Here is the schedule for the way I use mentor sentences in the classroom:

Here is a sentence from my first unit of mentor sentences for second graders:

Depending on your students, you might do all of this together just on chart paper, or you might have the students copy/write in a notebook, too. The things we hope for students to notice during Monday's "Invitation to Notice" in the lower grades are going to be different than upper grades- they are going to be more basic. This sentence includes proper nouns, which will be the focus of the week's lessons, so it will be important to talk about why there are capital letters at the start of names.

On Tuesday, the "Invitation to Notice Parts of Speech" will definitely look very different from the upper grades, especially in the beginning of the year. I have still included the list of all the parts of speech on the lesson suggestions page for your own information and in case you have some higher level kids that are ready to go more in depth...

But, I would focus more on the part of speech skill for that week- maybe labeling just those in the sentence, or making a t-chart, like this:

Having a discussion about just the proper and common nouns in the sentence would be a great lead to a lesson where they find their own proper and common nouns in their books! You could even have them write those nouns on sticky notes and put them onto your t-chart you've created!

On Wednesday, for "Invitation to Revise" it would be a good idea to help guide the students in how to revise a sentence. One of the skills required by common core is to expand simple and compound sentences. One way to do this is to add adjectives before nouns. Giving them the sentence with blanks in front of the nouns so that students can brainstorm and help you revise the sentence first is a great way to get them thinking before they try to revise the sentence on their own.

Thursday's "Invitation to Imitate" will be the hardest part for most of the lower grades students to grasp at first, but it will be the most important for students' writing progress! Don't give up- it will come! I would suggest giving them a sentence frame, almost like a MadLib:

You can have students brainstorm with you, or you can have them try on their own after you walk them through a think-aloud of your own sentence. You should use your own judgment based on what your students are ready to do.

I like to keep all of my weekly invitations up each day so the students can be reminded of the focus and see our progress. Also, because the week's focus is proper nouns, I would point them out when I see them in reading, as well as do some short lessons on proper nouns throughout the week during writing/grammar time.

On Friday, I would remove the chart and sentence from the students' view so they can't just copy on the "Invitation to Edit" quiz. In the lower grades quizzes I've made, I have included handwriting lines to encourage proper letter formation when the students re-write the sentence properly. The quiz will assess the skill that you've focused on all week. To give you an idea, here is the answer key to the weekly quiz that goes with the lesson I've shown you:

I hope this helps you understand how to use mentor sentences in second grade, and even first grade in the second half of the year! If you want to try them in your classroom, you can get a freebie here!

You can also get the first set here, perfect for the beginning of the school year:

You can see other mentor sentences that can be used for the lower grades by clicking here. You can also see a video of mentor sentences in action in a FIRST GRADE classroom (for the first time, too!) below:

And if you want to hear all about it IN PERSON, I am delivering professional development workshops this summer that you can attend! They are at Gwinnett Technical College in Lawrenceville, Georgia, so I know that might not be ideal for some of you... but I know there are some Georgia Peaches that read the Primary Peach so I wanted to make sure to share with you! If you'd like to find out more information, click here!

Please let me know if you have any other questions! I love to hear how they are working in your classroom, too! :o)