Laying the foundation from the start

Laying a strong foundation for your classroom culture, whether you're a homeroom teacher, a specialist, or an interventionist, is a significant task.  No matter how long you've been teaching, you definitely map out those first few weeks of school to cover your expectations, procedures, and the ethos.  All your read alouds, morning meetings, and activities revolve around building this important foundation so that the school year can run more smoothly.

1. Simple guidelines with specific acceptable behaviors

For my students in grades 3-5, I begin with the foundational classroom culture statement: I want everyone to grow and succeed.  Which means we need to agree on certain expectations so that all learners have the opportunity to reach their goals.  This leads to the presentation of 4 simple guidelines: 

• Be respectful to the teachers, your classmates, and the school.
• Be responsible for your learning and your decisions.
• Use kind and polite words and actions.
• Make safe choices.

Learners with Dyslexia & their Mental Health

I *love* that during that Dyslexia Awareness Month, reading teachers and organizations highlight important teaching tips, statistics, and research regarding this language-based specific learning disability and its impact on learners.  Many of us who work with struggling readers also notice the need to address their social-emotional needs as part of our instructional strategy.  So then I wondered:  what does the research say about the mental health of learners with dyslexia?

SEL Daily Check-In: Quick, Efficient, Informative

As I map out the procedures in my small groups this year, one of the first things I will teach my students is how to check in with me.  Pre-COVID, I would always do an informal, "how are you?" or "tell me about your weekend."  However, during and after the pandemic, doing a social-emotional check-in became imperative.  It was important for me to know my students' mindset when coming to my small group, as well as connect with them positively at the beginning of our lesson.  But I only have a short time frame for my intervention lesson, so I needed something quick and efficient, yet meaningful.

Boom -- the daily check-in sheet was born.  And not only did it make my day easier, more importantly, the students couldn't wait to check in with me. 💝

Some more thoughts on doing a daily SEL check-in with your students:

Integrating Growth Mindset Throughout Our Instructional Day

Growth mindset is one of my favorite things that has come out in recent years, along with the science of reading.   I have a firm belief that if we use best teaching practices and support our students' development of grit and fortitude, they will become very resilient readers.

As teachers, we traditionally talk about it in the beginning of the school year or in January for New Year's Resolutions.  We create goals, we post them, and maybe at the end of the year, we'll evaluate our progression towards achieving them.  That's a good start . . . but our students need more.

In order to really develop a growth mindset, it needs to be ingrained in all our directions, instruction, conversations, and activities.  And it can be done without heaping more work our over-burdened selves.

Inspiring Stamina During the Workshop

Last year, I felt like my job as a first grade teacher was to take kiddies who were needy kindergartners and turn them into independent students, ready to work hard in second grade.  The jump between the kindergarten and first grade standards alone...enough said.  And the curriculum is demanding:  I certainly don't remember writing a how-to book or an all about book on an "expert" topic for 20 to 30 minutes each day.  I remember practicing my spelling words on ice cream paper and the Superkids.

So how do we get these five, six, and seven year-olds to work so hard for an extended period of time?  I think that's a question that we will forever be answering, but I know my colleagues and I would try some nifty tricks to motivate students to remain focused for an extended period of time.

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