Ginger Snaps: Back to School

Showing posts with label Back to School. Show all posts

Pace Out Your Year Like a Boss {Free Pacing Guide Template Included}

You guys know I LOVE me some planning. I get soooo excited at the end of every year for the prospect of planning for a new year. This coming year was extra exciting because I got to plan and pace for a whole new grade level and content area. I relished EVERY minute of it.

I spent a lot of time working on this pacing guide for the upcoming year, but there are a few key things you need to keep in mind when you start to pace out your year.

YOUR DISTRICT EMPLOYEE CALENDAR

This is the first thing you will need when pacing and planning out your year. This will help you create a template for your year so that you know what days and weeks to block off of your pacing guide. I always like to note the short weeks with asterisks and use the weeks for review if they are only two or three days.

HAVE A COPY OF YOUR STANDARDS

The second thing you need is a copy of your state standards on hand. These are important for a few reasons. First, they give you an idea of how long you need to spend on each topic. Second and probably more importantly, they give you your specific content to plug into your pacing guide.

USE YOUR DISTRICT'S SUGGESTED PACING

Following your district's suggested pacing is a good idea because they may already have a suggested amount of time for you to spend on each topic. It is also helpful in that students who move to another school within the district may be able to keep on track with the pacing guide and pick up relatively where they left off.

PREVIOUS YEAR'S LESSON PLANS

If you have taught the content before, you also may want to use your previous lesson plans to help you get an idea of how long you need to spend on each standard. My content is new to me this year, so I am relying heavily on my district's suggested pacing guide. I will have a better idea next year of how much time I will need to spend on each topic.

HAVE A PACING GUIDE TEMPLATE

I am providing a free pacing guide template for you to use to plug in your material. Feel free to use the one I am offering or one that you already like using. There are so many great ones out there.

Now you are ready to get started pacing your year!

1. Start by plugging your school year dates and holidays into your pacing guide template based off of your district calendar.

2. Using your district's suggested pacing or previous year's lesson plans, determine how long you are going to spend on each unit. I like to do it by unit first and then break it down by standard. For example, our science units are Science Inquiry, Astronomy, Earth's Structures and Processes, Earth's History and Diversity of Life, Waves, and Force and Motion. Here is an example...You get a good idea of the number of weeks to spend on each unit. This is not from my district because I cannot locate ours ANYWHERE on the internet, but you get the idea.

3. Once you have figured out the number of weeks you are going to spend on each unit, block it off on your calendar or other template.

4. Next, you want to break each unit down into smaller chunks by looking over your standards and deciding how much time you want to spend on each. Some weeks you may want to spend on multiple standards. See my example below. You will want to add the standard focus for each week and plug it into your template.

5. This step is not necessary, but on the quarterly pacing, I like to color code it so that I know when each unit is moving to a new topic. You may also like to add your assessments into your pacing guide. I haven't done that this year because this is a new content. Maybe I'll get there next year. 😜

**It's important to remember that this is just a guide! Give yourself a couple of days here or there for things that may unexpectedly come up like assemblies, field trips, sick days, etc...**

Here is an overview of the pacing guide templates.

They are EDITABLE and you can add your content for ANY subject, not just science. The adorable calendar guide idea was not my own! That idea was from True Tales of a Teacher! If you don't follow her on IG (@truetalesofateacher), you should. It's Instagram gold!

Download this free template by clicking the image below.

If you teach Science in South Carolina and are interested in the pacing guide I am using (which is already done for you), you can download it HERE.

Science Survey

As I prepare for my first year as a middle school science teacher, I felt that it was important to survey my students and get their general feelings on science and assess their science knowledge.

I have always done back to school surveys for students as a way of getting to know them, so I felt like this was a great way of getting to know my students in a more scientific sense.

For a fun twist, you can also use the second version of the survey and do it gallery style! Get students up and moving to answer the questions. This is something that I have always done with my third graders at the beginning of every school year and it is such a fun way to get to know your students.

Grab this free survey by clicking my blog button below!

Student Information At a Glance {Freebie}

As you may already know, I am making the move to middle school this year, and I will have 5 classes to keep up with! I was trying to think of an easy way to have access to their information and so I came up with these information cards that I can color code by class. Self contained classes can certainly use this as well, you just wouldn't print the class tabs.

I recommend laminating the front card and the tabs for durability. Punch a hole in the corner and place on a ring and hang it next to your desk or in a spot that is easily accessible for you.

You can save your self tons of time if you have parents fill them out during Meet the Teacher or you can send them home on the first day of school with students to have parents fill them out. I personally don't want to fill out 80+ informational student cards. HAHA

Grab you FREE copy HERE!

Leveled Library Labels

Hi friends! I have spent the last two weeks getting my classroom together and meeting with colleagues to plan for the upcoming year! I will be sharing more on my classroom later, but I wanted to hop on really quick to share something that I spent literally an entire day working on in my classroom.

Our school uses Literacy By Design and the containers for the books are these huge plastic bins that pretty much don't fit anywhere nicely. So, I decided that I would find bins for each book level and make tags for each bin.

I found these 97 cent baskets from Walmart and made my own labels to glue on the front.

I posted the picture on my Instagram and someone asked if the labels were in my store and they were not at the time. Well, the labels are now available for levels A-Z!

Well, I just uploaded them to TPT and you can grab them for $1.00!

I kind of love them. I'm also kind of obsessed with Educlips. Just saying.

Click on my button below to head over to my shop and grab your set!

You can also download the book dividers for FREE by clicking HERE.

Back to School 101

It's almost that time for most of us. I have been enjoying my summer.....working a little bit, watching LOTS of Netflix, spending some time at the pool. We are about to spend a week at the beach and then I am heading back to set up my classroom.

I thought I would hop on here and write a little post today about some things that you might find helpful for heading back to school this year.

I am going to share my top 5 things that help get me organized or on track for back to school.

1) Meet the Teacher
2) Set up Tips
3) Parent Communication
4) Icebreakers
5) Read Alouds

Meet the teacher is crucial. I often feel so stressed out that day. I'm running around making sure the finishing touches are done to my classroom. I'm a TAD OCD about that frankly.

But more importantly, I make sure that my Meet the Teacher packet is assembled. I have several forms that I have created and I send those home in the packet. The school also requires us to send home certain things. I created an all in one file with all of my back to school forms to include in your meet the teacher packet!

I print all the forms on brightly colored paper and then place them all inside a large manila envelope with the checklist taped to the outside with students names on the front. See more about the checklist later...

Parents sign in, find their packet, and fill them out if they choose to. I don't require them to because the school will require them to fill out tons of paperwork already. Once they have picked up their packet, filled out or not, chatted with me, they visit my whiteboard where there is a wishlist of supplies for me beyond what is on the class supply list. I place the stars on magnets and parents just snag one on their way out! This is included in the Back to School forms packet.

This is what the checklist looks like on the front of the envelope. I don't remember who I got this idea from years ago, but I LOVE it. It helps parents know what things in the envelope NEED to come back filled out and then what things in the envelope are just for reading and can be kept at home. The checklist is fully editable and is included in the Back to School Forms packet as well.

Whichever packets are left also help me know which students didn't attend Meet the Teacher.

You can purchase my Back to School forms mini packet HERE!

I am all about keeping things simple. There are a few things I want to discuss here. The first, is classroom helpers. I have probably tried ALL THE THINGS. Years ago, I used to do the whole thing where every kid got a classroom job each week and then you would move all the clips and I was like WHY!? Half the time I would forget to move the stupid clips. Then...I was like, I'll have the kids do it! But, they would do it wrong, or muck it on purpose...you know what I'm talking about. THAT kid who wanted to be the line leader again, even though he just did it two weeks ago. Clips would get dropped. It was just NOT working for me, if you catch my drift.

Then one day, I was reading Mrs. Cooley's blog, First Grader At Last, and I hit a gold mine. She literally has the simplest, most genius idea ever! You pick two kids a week - one boy and one girl. Slap all their names on rings and viola! Done. All I do is flip them each Monday! You can see Sarah's post HERE! I have NEVER looked back. EVER!

Last year I just typed all my student's names in a cute font on colored circles, cut them out and laminated them. Then, I hole punched them, put them on rings and hung them on my whiteboard. You can see below where they will hang. I didn't have them laminated yet for this picture.

The next thing I recommend doing each year is having a way to display what you are learning. You can see in the above photograph how I displayed my objectives for each subject. I have done this many different ways over the years. I used my Cameo to cut out vinyl letters and stuck them to my board. Then I printed a copy of each subject and slid them in a sheet protector and put them inside each rectangle.

If you wish to download and use my objective signs, you can click HERE and download them for yourself!

This coming year, I would love to do something like this from maneuveringthemiddle on Instagram!

Finally, I suggest putting together a sub binder or sub tub BEFORE the year begins. You NEVER know what life has in store for you. I recommend putting together at least five days worth of plans. There are tons of great resources on TPT out there for plans. I try to put together no fuss things. For example, for Math, I like to have students do dice or card games so I don't have to print a bunch of stuff and the kids aren't bored to death while you're out.

I have tons of sub pages for emergency procedures and lists available in my Ultimate Teacher Binder and Tool Kit.

I have also used Amy Groesbeck's Editable Sub kit which is great! You can get hers by clicking the picture below!

I purchased this wooden file holder at Target for $16.99 and I plan on transferring all of my binder things to this!

I definitely snagged this idea from twoteachersinfifth on Instagram and I am excited to implement it this year! Isn't it pretty!?

Anywho...don't make the mistake of putting this off until the last minute...TRUST.

Next up is something I have done for many years and has been huge in my classroom! My parents love it and it has been such a huge help in keeping kids organized. My parent communication binder goes to and from school each day! Many of you may already use these, but if you don't...you should be!

I don't have a picture of the fully assembled inside and outside binder that we used last year, but here is what the inside sort of looks like.

Each binder has a themed cover. We had a PIRATE theme last year, so that was the theme of the cover. I have several other options available in my TPT shop.

The inside front pocket of the binder is labeled with Sign and Return. The back pocket of the binder is labeled with Keep at Home. The zipper pouch is labeled with Notes and Lunch Money or whatever you wish. The colored folders are labeled as Homework and Graded Work. The clear plastic sleeves I do not label. I put students weekly newsletters in one. I also print out our grade level expectations and policies and they stay in there year round. I print out a class list to keep in the clear plastic sleeves as well. This may sometimes change depending on the transience of your class. I keep notebook paper in the back for students to complete their homework.

If you are interested in checking out my themed binder sets, just click on each image below!

It is important to start the school year on a positive note. Getting to know your students is one of the most important things you can do to make sure that you have a successful school year with your students.

One of my favorite ways to break the ice at the beginning of the year is to have a "Snowball Fight." Students get up and get moving, they have fun, and they get to know each other a little bit better. I give each students a piece of paper. I instruct them to write two things about themselves on the paper. Then they must ball it up and take position somewhere in the room. They are allowed only 30 seconds of throwing their paper balls and they must cease as soon as I call time. If they do not, they must sit out for the next round. They do NOT want to be THAT student. After time is up, each student picks up the nearest piece of paper and read it. I call on a few students to try to guess whose paper they picked up and then we go at it again. We do this a few more times and then we all share who is who. Everyone has a good time and we laugh and learn a little bit more about each other.

Another fun Icebreaker that I learned years ago at a Professional Development is a Musical Icebreaker. You play a short clip from a popular song. Students listen and think about a memory or connection they have to the song and write it on their paper. After the clip is over, call on students to share their connections. Do this with at least 5 songs. This is also a good way to gauge students writing abilities.

And finally, I think I have done this EVERY year I have taught. I allow students to do a gallery walk learning survey. I am big believer in having students move around instead of sitting all day. This is super simple and very effective. I like this because I don't have to sift through 20 papers to see what students like to do. I can just glance around the room! All you need to do is prepare the anchor chart questions ahead of time. I also like to have the sticky dots cut out out and sorted ahead of time as well. It can get time consuming to count out 6 sticky dots per kid if you wait until the last moment.