The new school year is just around the corner.  Oh how I love the beginning of a new school year!  Coming back from summer break feels like coming home.  I love the weeks leading up to students returning when all my school family is together, preparing our classrooms, minds, and hearts for a new group of students. On our first day the district had the wonderful opportunity to hear Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like a Pirate, prepare our hearts to reach every student in our class by making our content engaging. The second day we had Austin Buffum with Solution Tree prepare our minds for committing to teach every student by understanding the right questions to ask regarding our curriculum. The rest of the week was spent preparing our classrooms and lesson plans.  Our theme for this year is TEAM, because we are all on the same team. No matter what subject or grade level I may teach, every student in the building is MY student. One of the things I did this year in my classroom was get a different desk.  The desk I had was a metal one that was not flat across the front.  I received a poster of my grandchildren for my birthday, and wanted to prominently display it.  Our maintenance guru, Barry Henson, graciously hunted down the perfect desk.

 

 

One of the changes I wanted to make this year has to do with my treasure chest.  I see 3 groups of students in the lab each day for a total of 15 a week.  In previous years, I would draw one student from each class to choose something out of the treasure chest every six weeks.  This year, I want to do a weekly reward by choosing a class from each grade level.  I have decided I can use Class Dojo to determine which classroom to pick.  I tried using Class Dojo in the past, but it became a little cumbersome with over 300 students enrolled. This year, I created a class on Class Dojo called Mrs. Peery’s TEAM and added each classroom as students.  I have only two behaviors: respectful and disrespectful.  Using Class Dojo in this way will allow me to assess quickly and easily which classroom has the most points.

This week third graders will be learning the procedures for the computer lab.  They will choose a color of balloon to go on the outside of their fidget.

 What is a fidget, you say?  A fidget in the lab is a balloon filled with rice with another balloon on the outside.  Students keep them in their headphone bag and pull them out to squeeze whenever I am giving instructions.  This gives some students the movement their bodies need so their brains can focus on instruction.  You will find a how-to video here.  I cut the neck off so they can stretch it over the balloon that is filled with rice.  The third graders watched a video I compiled from a few commercials I found on the internet to understand the concept of TEAM.  Click on the picture below to see the video.

Fourth and fifth graders will be reviewing procedures.  They will be broken into groups of three or four to discuss suggestions for procedure changes or ideas for rewards. After 10-15 minutes, we will agree on procedures and rewards. They will then choose the color for their fidget. After completing their fidgets, the students will watch Kid President’s Pep Talk to Teachers and Students embedded below.  The fourth graders will log in to Edmodo to complete this assignment: Tell me one thing you want me to teach you this year, and tell me one thing you would like to teach me.  Fifth graders will log in to Edmodo to complete this assignment: What will you teach the world? Using their responses in Edmodo, I will prepare their answers on a sheet of paper for them to hold so I can snap their picture with my iPhone next week.  Using my Groovebook app, I can print all the pictures off as 4x6s to create a bulletin board.  This idea came from this article  that was posted by my friend and colleague, Pam Cranford on Facebook.