First Two Days

#1 Priority:  Find out how is everyone getting home 
those first two days!!

• Fill out Facebook interest inventory.
• Fill out learning style inventory.
• Whole class instant write fictional story on the white board.
• Watch the "Welcome to Sixth Grade" presentation.
• Practice and learn classroom procedures.
• One-word-to-describe-yourself speech bubbles to hang above desks.
• Collect forms from students and mark off on spreadsheet.
• Play four truths and a lie to introduce myself.
• Begin work on the 7 Habits - Be Proactive Activity.
• Post schedule in hall and create student data spreadsheet.
• Put together data notebooks.
• Decorate covers for take home folders.
• Review and apply for leadership jobs.
• Take Class of 2019 individual photos.
• Classroom pet writing contest.
• Create Parts of Speech foldable for notebook.
• Finish finger print tree.
• Begin Class Mission Statement

Primary Resources

Click here to research

This website is amazing.  Federal resources for educational excellence. Great for student research in areas of social studies and science.

Vaudville - Primary Resource

Themes? Maybe.

I borrowed these theme ideas from another teacher's blog and tweaked them. I like the idea of having an overarching goal each month.  As I move forward in planning, I will add my core content goals to these as well. 

2012-2013

6th Grade Themes

August/September: Back to School/Leader in Me

October: Goal Setting/Teamwork

November/December: Traditions

January/February: In the News

March: Fine Arts 

April/May: The Future

Teaching a Themed Unit: Pinterest to the Rescue

I am combining my love of Pinterest with my love of planning and organization.  Now, I am creating boards and treating them as folders to hold all my resources for teaching any given unit.  I can include books, videos, blogs, websites, photos, maps, travel brochures, scanned primary source material, etc.  I know many people may already be doing this, but it just occurred to me.  I can spend 15-30 minutes gathering resources from the web, and have MORE than enough material to teach any given unit.  For example, one of my boards is called The School of Athens.  This simple little unit can actually cover art, history, science, math, literature, writing and drama.  For example, the chemistry involved in preparing lime for fresco is quite high level (and dangerous!) and extremely interesting.  Not to mention, many of the scholars that appear in the painting are early scientists and mathematicians. The painting holds the unit together, with endless instructional possibilities spanning across the curriculum.

link to School of Athens Board

Editing Resource

Click Here For Peer Edit Form

I will probably tweak this, but it is a great start.  There are some examples on how to model peer editing as well.  I feel this is such a crucial part of the writing process.  One of the most important elements to make this successful is the culture of the classroom. Without a safe space, kids will not take this seriously.

Pizza Box Organization

So last night, I had this huge explosion of creativity at 11:00 pm, while trying to fall asleep. This explosion involved pizza boxes. I decided that I would use pizza boxes in various ways in my classroom! I love the idea of storing everything necessary for teaching a particular unit in one compact box: books, games, activities, and resources. The box can easily be labeled on any and all sides and stacked neatly ANYWHERE I need to store things in my classroom.

Also, I am very excited about creating learning centers for my classroom that are quick and easy to pull out and use, and then put away and replace with new centers. The boxes could be decorated on the outside with laminated pictures, and laminated directions could be placed under the lid for the students. All necessary center items would be enclosed within the box! I am toying with the idea of creating one new learning center a week, so that I end up with over 50 organized centers at my fingertips.

Another idea I found to use the pizza box is to create a portfolio for each student. The boxes would hold work for the entire year, and could easily be pulled out for parent teacher conferences.

My favorite part about pizza boxes (besides their low cost) is that they come in three sizes and can be stored horizontally or vertically. Pizza boxes of course can also be converted into awesome student solar ovens and green houses for science. I want to be as organized as possible, so I can dedicate my best energy to my students.