Comprehension Strategies Bookmark

Getting my students to be able to understand what they are reading has always been on the top of my priority list.  I have found that a majority of my students that dislike reading, don't like it because they don't know what they're reading about.  And who would?  That is the fun in reading.  Being taken to another place and learn new things is why I love to read.  Comprehension strategy practice was a weekly routine in my past classes, and now that this year I'm exclusively working with students one-on-one, we get to practice these strategies even more frequently.  Here is a bookmark FREEBIE on my TPT page, that I created as a reminder for students to use the comprehension strategies we have practiced. On the back is a fluency reminder and self rating opportunity using EARS. (Expression, Accuracy, Rate, Smoothness)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-Strategies-Bookmark-1477381

Creating a Team Centered Classroom

This is my second year teaching 6th grade math at the junior high. I have found that teaching at the junior high level is a lot different that teaching 2nd and 3rd grade. My 2nd and 3rd graders loved to share their answers. They didn't care if they had the right or wrong answer, they wanted to go up to the board or document camera and share their work. Sixth graders aren't always so excited about sharing. I think as students get older they get this stigma about math, that there is only one correct way to solve a math problem. I've found that having this stigma will cause my students to shut down sometimes. I wanted my students to start this year with a different attitude. I wanted my students to know that it's okay to fail, that's where we learn the most! On the first day of school I showed my students the "Keep Moving Forward" clip from the movie, Meet the Robinsons.

My students loved this clip! I actually had a student say to me the other day, "It's okay that I didn't get the right answer. I just have to keep moving forward." Yes! That's exactly right.

I spent my first week of school giving little bits of motivation like the video above, along with a lot of team building activities. One of my students' favorite activities was "Saving Sam". My students loved these activities so much, they asked me if we were going to do activities like this all year. I will definitely be posting more team building activities as the year goes on.

Saving Sam is an activity where the students have to get a gummy worm through a gummy lifesaver without using their hands. The only thing they can use is a paperclip. You can get this activity as a FREEBIE from my TpT store.

Here are some of my students trying to Save Sam.

After the students were all successful at Saving Sam, we talked about how they were all problem solvers. They were all able to save Sam without anyone telling them how to do it. We tied this back into the "Keep Moving Forward" theme. We discussed that even if the students dropped Sam and had to start over, they didn't give up. We related this to math that even when the students get a wrong answer, they should go back and try it again.
We've been in school for 8 weeks now and I can see the time spent on team building activities at the first of the year has really set up my classes to work well with teams. My students work really well at helping each other and problem solving together.

The Importance of Being a Team

Since our blog is all about Teaching with the Dream Team, we decided it would be appropriate for our first blog post we should discuss how important it is to be a team. 

You’ve heard it before: TEAM...Together Everyone Achieves More. But when it comes to teaching, being a team is more than just a cute phrase, it’s critical. Ask anyone who has been a teacher and my guess is they would say it is easier to to teach and plan when they have a group of people they rely on and trust to help them with ideas, planning, and carrying out activities. Teaching alone is doable. It is just more work and definitely not as much fun.

One of the key words in being a team is trust. How do you build relationships of trust? It takes a little bit of work to start building relationships on your team but it is well worth it in the end.

Here are some ways that we build relationships from the beginning of the year with the teachers that will be on our team:

1-Team Meeting. Meet together in the summer. Make sure the new people on your team know the basics of the grade level such as curriculum, team expectations, calendaring and scheduling items that affect the entire grade level, individual team jobs and assignments, etc. We have a standard agenda that we follow that will be attached below.

2-Team Activity. This summer we had a team barbeque before school started. It is a fun way to spend time socializing and getting to know one another better on a personal level. We have also done team lunches at favorite restaurants, and even team bike rides. Although they may seem just like fun get togethers, these activities are important team builders. We are closer because we know one another on a personal level!

3-Team Gifts. At the beginning of every year, I like to put together some sort of little gift for each of my team members. It doesn’t have to be big and expensive. Just something wishing them a great school year and telling them how excited you are to work with them. Setting a positive feeling/tone from the beginning of the year is important!

Here are some gifts I have given:

--Book (School themed)

--Glue sticks and sticky notes

--New whiteboard markers or sharpies

--School Survival kit in a pencil box

--Erasers

--Caramel Apples

You can find a lot more of these ideas on Pinterest. Search for teacher appreciation gifts and adjust them so they work for team members.

4-Birthdays. Find out when the birthdays of each member of your team are. Write them down in your planbook and decide on a way to celebrate. On our team we buy lunch for the birthday person and give them a gift from all of us. 

Here is our beginning of year team meeting agenda.

Our hope is that you will build your own "Dream Team" this year by developing friendships that will serve you and your students well and last a lifetime. We don't regret building our team friendships and we know you won't either! Happy new school year to you from all of us at "Teaching With the Dream Team".