Beginning of the year - binders

School is starting in less than two weeks. When I began teaching third grade two years ago, I envisioned backpacks stuffed with crumbled up paper and homework never done. I found a third grade teacher who explained how to use a binder to teach organization and help students gain independence during homework. It has worked for the last two years, and I am excited to use the system again.

Here is a write up I did the other year.

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Goals:
1. Students will gain organizational skills
2. Students will be empowered to complete homework independently
3. Students will complete homework independently

Materials needed:
1. Binder
2. Sheet Protectors
3. Dividers - The teacher should provide these with the appropriate labels already filled out. Every student's red divider is chumash, yellow is dinim, so you can teach the students how to add to their binder and use it with minimal instruction
4. Yoman

Instructions:
Have each student bring a 1 1/2 inch binder and dividers. Put in the yoman, sheet protectors, dividers and folder  at the beginning of the school year. Teach the students how to add papers to the proper section. Send papers home to the parents in the folder in the binder.  Leave 5 -10 minutes each day to add assignments to the binder

Helpful Tips:
1. During class, have the students use their reference guides to answer their questions rather than asking another student or a teacher. Example:Student "What does שמע mean" Teacher: "where can you look that up?" This will help them do their homework without needing parents help.

2. I have a store and a token economy for an incentive - I give $1 for the binder being organized at the end of the day and the homework recorded legibly and in the proper place and $1 the next day for the homework being handed in in the right place, yoman signed and the folder emptied.

Letter to parents

Homework Binders

The Homework Binder is a three ring binder that students will use every day to develop their organizational skills. It contains dividers, folders, and sheet protectors. Hopefully this binder will eliminate lost homework and disorganized backpacks.

Inside the Homework Binder you will find:

Pencil Case:          This pencil case will be used to hold flash cards for current units. It should not be used for regular school supplies.

Sheet Protectors:   These are used to help protect important classroom/school information & homework helpers such as  שרשים list, prefix suffix list, בנינים charts, etc.

Yoman - homework book - with all assignments written

Judaic Homework sheet – The nightly homework assignment

חומש section: Linear translation for the current פרק  as well as any other handouts that may be necessary to complete the homework and study for quizzes.

עברית section – current vocabulary words and grammar rules

General Studies sections  - for general studies homework and all materials necessary to complete the homework.

Folder: Safely transports all paperwork to and from school including graded work, newsletters, etc. Please empty on a regular basis

The binder must be brought home every night and returned to school every day.

Homework

There will be homework most nights of the year. Homework is important as it helps to practice and reinforce what is taught in class. It helps prepare students for success.

·               The homework will be written in the Yoman planner.

·               Some homework will be assigned at the beginning of the week and due on Friday.

·               Any homework sheets will be found in the Homework Binders.

·               Students should be able to do most assignments on their own using the reference guides in the binder. If your child is not able to regularly finish an assignment, please send a note or comment on the Yoman.

Sheet Protectors

The 2012-2013 sheet protectors have been prepared and contain

1. Daily School Schedule
2. Classmate List 
3. One page School Calendar 
4. A page with the whole hebrew alphabet including the block, script, and rashi fonts
5. The cantillation marks (trop) that are used to divide pesukim http://www.scribd.com/doc/103654342
6. A one page color-coded chart to conjugate hebrew verbs http://www.scribd.com/doc/103654348
7. Reference page with all hebrew prefixes and suffixes 
8. vocabulary list of all verbs found in parshas Chayei Sarah
9. A vocabulary list of all nouns found in Chayei  Sarah.

This system works beautifully and can be shared by both the secular and Judaic faculty. 

8 Steps to a Positive Class Culture

It's only a few short weeks until the first day of school. Right now I'm buckling down and getting ready for the year. The first thing that I think about is what do I want my classroom to feel like emotionally every day.

The classroom environment sets the stage for everything that happens inside the classroom. It is just as important to plan for the classroom culture as to prepare lesson plans and study the content.

Here are a few principles that have worked for me and are easily transferable to all grades.

1. Develop a relationship – One of the biggest motivators for a student is their relationship with a teacher. How does a teacher develop a relationship with a student? My mantra borrowed from Rabbi Noach Orlowek is  “If it is important to you, it is important to me” By truly caring about the student’s interests, the teacher shows that she wants a relationship. For example, I make a point of noticing the kind of baseball caps my students wear. Are they Mets fans or Yankees fans? The night after a game, I can show interest in what my students are thinking about. They know I don’t care about baseball. But they know that I know that they care about baseball. I try to make a connection with at least 2 students a day about something that is important to them. As a teacher, I also make sure to inquire when students are absent or have a changed mood.

2. Who are you? Students want to know that a teacher sees them as individuals. During the first few days, I try to do ice breakers and have the students tell me about themselves.

3. Fix myself first – I can’t teach respect if I don’t practice respect. I try to improve my character every day. i'm still not perfect, but I know I'm trying to improve. One day, a colleague commented how calm I was when some students were acting erratically. I was surprised at his assessment but also proud. I have a tendency to get emotional. I had been working on my own emotions so that I could deal with classroom interruptions calmly. It was gratifying to hear that a colleague perceived me differently than my inherent nature. The other benefit for self-improvement is that it sets an example for the class that learning and growth is a life-long process. Students don't feel threatened when they realize they are not perfect because they have seen an example of how to deal with that very situation.

4. Plan routines – Things go smoother when the transitions and common tasks are on auto-pilot. Getting students into routines at the beginning of the year means that I don’t constantly have to be involved in negative interactions by constantly correcting and being critical. I can focus on the positivie and the learning instead. Routines don’t just happen though. They require time, planning and reinforcement. At the end of the summer, I go through a list of classroom events that come up regularly. How will my students hand in papers? How will they line up for recess. How will I get their attention? What happens if a student bullies? It takes a lot of time to  to practice the routines but it is  well worth the pay off after a few short weeks

5. Plan well – I try to stuff my classes with as much learning and engagement as possible from bell to bell (and beyond if possible). Human beings want to improve. It’s part of what improves the universe. I have confidence that if I give opportunities to learn, my students will try to grow.  I try to make these learning opportunities active, student-centered with multiple learning modalities so every student has a way to access the learning if they want.

6. Humor and positivity – Nothing in life needs to be that serious. You can do serious work even if the mood is not serious. Students are more engaged when they are relaxed. They are more relaxed when they are comfortable and there is a light atmosphere of good cheer rather than pressure and stress. I force a smile on my face even if I am tired. No one wants to look at a sour face all day. I try to be a positive person to be around and to remember that humor will often diffuse many situations.

7. Teach positive thinking– on the top of my tests, I write “The best you can do is to do your best!” I encourage my class to recognize that they are special, that nothing is ever the end of the world (except perhaps the end of the world) and to believe in themselves. Some of our students grow up in critical homes and need to learn how to view the world more optimistically. They need help retraining their thinking from highly critical to self-nurturing. When students are more forgiving of themselves and celebrate their successes, they don’t need to engage in negative conflicts for attention.

8. Realize no one is perfect, not me and not them – sometimes I have a bad day. Sometimes, they do. Rather than letting that set the tone for the rest of the year, I let the day go and start over the next day. 

With these few tips, I hope that my classroom will be one of joy, learning and cooperation. I hope to enjoy myself this year and I hope that my students do as well.

April 26 recap

It will be a busy day

Intro: let the kids know the modified schedule.
Tefillah: We went straight into davening




Chumash:  Review: 
Shorashim - kids act out shorashim
Game - Prep: Filled a bag with yellow, orange and green papers.
Put kids in two lines in front of the felt boards for two teams
Round 1: Each kid put their hand in a bag and picked out a colored paper. They had to choose a flashcard from the felt board and translate. They had to identify the names (in orange). For the Imahos, they had to list their sons. For the Shevatim, they had to list the reason for their names. They write their name on a piece of paper and put it in my raffle box which will be picked next week.
Round 2: Each kid got 1 orange, 2 yellow and 1 green paper to "spend" They wrote down their initials first
on the papers. They went down the line and got to choose a word and try to translate.

Activities we didn't get to: Chavrusa time: Half the students move their chairs to inside of the U of desks facing a classmate. They take turns reading the hebrew, and their classmate translates into English. They switch for the next pasuk. After a buzzer rings after two minutes, everyone in the inner circles moves over one seat leaving their chumashim on the desk. I poll to see which pasuk everyone is up to and take the average. They read the pasukim with their new partner until the buzzer sounds.  If there are an odd number of students, the teacher gets to be a partner. Otherwise, I walk around and join different groups.


Gedolim unit: Chazon Ish - Many of my biographies were chosen because a student or a sibling was named after a gadol. I have a student name Avraham Yeshaya and it is his turn to be featured. PDF of biography

The Store: I give out Tip-Top dollars every day if certain objectives are met. Students also get paid for certain extras - such as learning over Yom Tov, davening over vacation, saying tehillim at home, and doing independent enrichment work. Every other Rosh Chodesh, we have a store. where they can pay for various prized. Today was the store - I had a student finish the whole sefer tehillim so he really raked it in!