by Carly Black | Jun 4, 2018 | Classroom Solutions, Library, Teacher Solutions
Have you seen the #KidsNeedBooks movement? It was a small gesture that turned into a Twitter hashtag movement by author Ann Braden. A number of authors have jumped on board giving away free stacks of their books to teachers so that they can, in turn, give them to students for reading over the summer. The heart of this movement is to help kids avoid the summer slide.
Booksource, an educator’s best friend in the book department, has also been tweeting about how to help students enjoy summer reading and avoid the summer slide. Their infographic that explains how to stop the summer slide inspired me to write this post. Based on student reading personality, we’ve put together a list with links to their Amazon page. Please know that some of these links are affiliate links, and if you choose to make a purchase we will be compensated at no extra cost to you.
As a career-long middle school teacher, and wanting to incorporate some high school titles, I asked my friend Melissa Kruse from Reading and Writing Haven to help curate this list of titles. With our own students in mind, we created each category based on popular book choosing habits. Any of the titles that are meant for a more mature audience have an (HS). We hope your students, or children, enjoy their summer of reading!
For the student….
Who has read EVERY book on the shelf
Who says he/she “hates” reading
Who likes a visual
Who likes their plots twisty
Who likes a good belly laugh and ugly cry
Who wants to go on an adventure
Who wants to figure out “who done it”
Who likes a happy ending
Who wants to travel back in time
Who wants to join a revolution
Who likes their characters out of this world
Who always has a good joke
Who saw the movie first
Who needs to see the relevance
Who is a mathematician
Who loves science
Who enjoys art and music
Who is an athlete
Who wants to be in the military
Who is “outdoorsy”
Who likes apocalyptic fiction
Who has always wanted to live in a castle
Who enjoys Christian lit
Who needs pictures to stay engaged
Reading over the summer is imperative for students’ development. Teachers can partner with parents to increase the likelihood that it will happen. Send home this recommended reading list and a few tips for how parents can help students enjoy reading. Teachers can also take students to the library so that they can browse the shelves and create their own summer reading list.
If you’d like tips on how to create more of a literacy culture in your classroom, read Melissa’s post on how to run a classroom book club. For a set of FREE Notice and Note annotation bookmarks and other great resources join the TeachMomRepeat newsletter.
Help add to our list of summer reading novels in the comments! What book is always checked out in your classroom? What book did you teen talk about endlessly?
by Carly Black | Apr 20, 2018 | Classroom Solutions, Lesson Plans, Teacher Solutions, Teaching Methods
When it’s test-taking season and the kids have worked so hard, they need a day to use that knowledge for fun! Rather than more practice with multiple choice questions, try a BreakoutEDU session.
What is a BreakoutEDU?
The best way to describe it is to compare it to an Escape Room activity. In a similar fashion, students are working to determine the code that will help them unlock the box. Creativity is the name of this game! The purchased kits come with a box, multiple kinds of locks, a hasp (for adding multiple locks to one box), Hint cards, a deck of reflection cards, invisible ink pen, UV flashlight, red lens viewer, and a blank USB. With all of those options, there are a bazillion ways to create tasks for students to discover a code to unlock a lock. For the ELA teachers, this would go great in a mystery unit, for Science teachers may be a forensic unit. Honestly, there are endless possibilities here.
How did I do this?
After posting a series of photos and videos to Instagram, a number of teachers contacted me about how to do this. My first suggestion is to take a look at their website. If you’re completely new to this idea their website is the place to start. Fortunately for me, our librarian had all the tools and knowledge I needed to get started. She was able to provide me with the tools and some ideas for creating the session.
If you are choosing to create your own, start with the material. Decide what knowledge the students will need to know in order to complete a task. This works best for the end of unit review or test preparation. I had shared a test prep slideshow at the start of the week, which you can find in my Teachers Pay Teachers store bundled with a Jeopardy game.
Next, you will need to create the tasks associated with each lock. I chose to make this pretty challenging, so I had 6 total locks on each box. This is where you can get creative! Choose if you’d prefer tasks to open locks or have them moving around the room to find clues that will lead to opening a lock. If trying to figure this all out sounds daunting, it did to me at first, be sure to check out the website for complete session ideas. To organize myself, I laid out each lock and gave it a sheet of paper. We used 2 key locks, a 3 digit number lock, a 4 digit number lock, a 4 letter word lock, and a directional lock. I started with the number locks. Looking at my materials there were a few questions I could ask that created a number series. You can also use ciphers to translate letters into numbers. The key locks were made from the most complex material. I asked students to complete a task that needed to be checked by a teacher and if correct they were awarded the key. To add a little more fun to this you could also include a riddle that would lead them to a hidden key. The letter lock can be used as a four letter word answer or you can use multiple choice questions. Tackling the directional locks took some thinking, thankfully my co-teacher came up with a great idea.
In order to make the directional locks work we had to create a series of directions by color coding answers. On the board, I had the directions written in the color that answers were highlighted with on a slide show. Students matched the right answer to the color and direction to create the correct series. For example, if the correct answer was highlighted with blue then students had to match that to the blue word UP that I had written on the board. I didn’t tell students what the words were for, they discovered this on their own. This is part of the critical thinking that students will need to use. Ask them to pay attention to their surroundings for finding answers.
Once they had all the locks opened the small box held a riddle that leads them to a key hidden behind one of my anchor charts. I did this so that there would be only one group to win the treasure chest of candy. My classes this year are very competitive, so it worked to my advantage to make only one winning group. Each of the small boxes could easily contain a “prize.”
Can I make my own?
Now, you may have already visited the website and noticed the price of one kit ($150). Most teachers don’t have the money to spend on one kit so let me suggest a few ideas for making this happen. First, you could always ask the team or grade level to split the cost. In our district, we are given a supply fund, but I know this is not the case for all districts. Our librarian used her book fair funds to purchase a school kit for our building to use. Then a second kit was purchased through Title I funding that we receive. If none of these are options for you, consider writing a grant. The uses of a kit such as this are endless and adaptable for any grade or subject. If you still aren’t able to purchase a name brand kit, I’m certain you could find locks and a box at any dollar store. The quality may not be that great, which makes the possibility of cheating greater. Start with a discussion on integrity and it should work well.
Whether you purchase a name brand BreakoutEDU kit or choose to create your own, you won’t regret bringing this fun activity into your classroom. Comment below and let us know how your Breakout session goes!
by Carly Black | Apr 11, 2018 | Classroom Solutions, Teacher Solutions, Teaching Methods
Starting this blog has been the best professional development in my 15 years of teaching. Learning about the teacher community of social media that supports and encourages one another has been an incredible inspiration alone. I’ve also discovered other blogging teachers who share fantastic ideas and resources. The most important professional development has come from making professional connections to teachers around the world. One of those teachers is Kasey Bell from Shake Up Learning.
Some of the links found in this post are affiliates. This means if you make a purchase after clicking through we will receive a small compensation at no extra cost to you. Thank you in advance for your support and please know that we only endorse products we use and love.
After attending my first EdCamp, the information I learned from Kasey’s blog was invaluable to my classroom. You see I didn’t have the time to drive half an hour on specific days to attend training in order to learn how to better use Google Classroom with my students. Instead, I read every blog post and resource Kasey had posted on the topic and taught myself in the convenience of my own home, and usually in my jammies. There was so much she had to teach me, so when her email swooshed into my inbox asking for book reviewers I immediately responded. Reading the book, Shake Up Learning, opened my eyes to a number of new ideas, but also validated so much of how I already teach.
Change is inevitable
“Learning has changed, and it will continue to change. Before we can tackle all the technological changes in our classrooms, we must first take a step back and redefine what learning is and what it looks like in the twenty-first century.”
YES! Change is inevitable. We can either let it break us or we can learn to find ways to turn it into an advantage. We’ve all probably heard much of this before and been made to feel like we have to change the way we do things in our classroom tomorrow. However, this is not Kasey’s approach to adapting lessons in our classrooms. At the end of each chapter, Kasey very clearly lays out action steps. This provides teachers a plan of attack for accomplishing the transformation to our lessons that students need. I remember attending a technology conference in the first few years of teaching and the lead speaker said that 80% of our students are in school training for a job that doesn’t exist yet. Now I have no idea if that percentage is currently accurate, but I can’t imagine in a decade this has decreased. Either way, this idea has stuck with me and encouraged me to create the kind of lessons Kasey describes in her book.
The second part of this book goes into detail about the attributes of a dynamic lesson. Kasey begins by stating, “…it’s going to be uncomfortable.” Teachers are possessive creatures. We take pride in our classrooms, we attach ourselves to students and it takes a lot of blood sweat and tears to pull off a successful unit. So when someone tells us we need to make changes it can sometimes sting. Teachers are also passionate about learning, whether it’s their own or their students’. This is why we should be willing to learn new ways of bringing content to our classrooms.
A dynamic learning experience is about empowering students to take a lead in their own learning. It’s like I’m always telling my writers, show them don’t tell them.
The last part of this book walks you through the steps it takes to produce a truly dynamic learning experience for your students. Starting with the planning process and even sharing a few sample units. In the online resources available there is a template to help as well. With all of the online resources for each chapter and Kasey’s self-paced workshop, I’m looking forward to some curriculum planning this summer.
The book, Shake Up Learning, was just the beginning of what Kasey has created for helping teachers turn those static lesson plans into dynamic learning for their students. She now hosts a Shake Up Learning podcast that drops new episodes every Tuesday. Have a listen to my favorite episode, the one where Kasey coaches me through a lesson that was a struggle for me. I enjoyed the collaboration and push she gave me in order to transform this idea.
Another free opportunity Kasey offers is the online book study. She hosts a self-paced and community collaborative book study in her Facebook group. Grab a copy of the book and join the next book study that begins February 13, 2020.
by Carly Black | Apr 7, 2018 | Mom Solutions, Parenting, Teacher Solutions
Hidden in the bathroom, you try to steal five minutes to take a moment to breathe and scroll through mindless social media when that teacher tired meme pops up mocking you. Teacher tired? Sure, but teacher-mom tired is more like it. The loss of two hours sleep from 2:32-4:38 am is more likely the culprit of my tired. A tiny knock with a powerful scream of “MaaaaMaaaa,” interrupts your thoughts on how tired you truly happen to be in this moment of rest. Now enter teacher mom guilt. You’ve just spent the day being fully present with everyone else’s children. When you open that door you will need to muster up the energy to be fully present with your children.
Teacher Mom Reality
Most nights I find myself wide awake at 11:00 pm, even if I had been nodding off a few hours ago while reading bedtime stories, I’m often up late at night. The quiet is what keeps me awake. No one is talking to me, my phone is not buzzing in emails or messages, there are no tiny fingers grasping my shirt; it’s the only time of day I have all to myself. After having two babies back to back my body has become used to the sleep deprivation and because the pregnancy or new mom fog has lifted I actually find myself thinking more clearly this late at night. This seems an oxymoron considering a good decision would be to go to sleep, but I love the quiet and I love to read. I suspect many of you consciously choose to forego sleep to allow yourself to do something that feels far more satisfying than sleep at the moment. At least at the moment, it feels much more satisfying. You forget about how tired you were all day and choose to do something for yourself. At this moment you choose yourself because the roles you’ve played all day have been put to bed.
Let the Teacher Mom Guilt Melt Away
Have you ever made a list of all the roles you play in a day? I start the day (after midnight) as a mom, then I kiss my husband goodbye as a wife, I turn the lights on in my classroom as a teacher, I allow a co-worker to lean on my shoulder as a friend at lunch, I answer texts or emails from my parents and siblings and in-laws throughout the day, before heading home I pick up groceries to make a meal for a church member in need and then the cycle starts all over again the moment my kids and husband hug me as I walk through the front door. That’s a lot of roles to play within a 24 hour period. That’s a lot of people who count on us to play these roles each day. This is where we can allow for guilt to set in and cloud our judgment.
May I suggest we all choose to let the guilt go? It’s hard to feel like you’re being a good mom when you have to grade papers instead of playing cars on the floor with your toddler. It’s also hard to feel like you’re being a good teacher when you can’t stay after school to provide a struggling student with extra help because you have to pick up your kids from the babysitter. As a full-time teaching mom, this is always going to be the case. You are always going to want more time with your babies and more time to help your students. It comes down to choices. Choose and feel good about your choice. Either way, you are choosing your kids, making it a good choice.
Shine in All Your Roles
My network of Instagram teachers has started a #stopteacherguilt campaign. We all need to take care of ourselves or we will not be able to be our best for our husband, our kids, our students, and our families. We’ve all heard the advice to take time for self-care, but do we allow guilt to rob us of a truly relaxing moment? Let it go! You spend enough time thinking about you can enrich other people’s lives, don’t feel bad when you take time to enrich your own life. Whether it’s a weekly yoga class, a quiet moment of scrolling through social media or enjoying a new flavor of ice cream if it’s what you need to relax your mind and body then soak it up and don’t feel bad about it. You need to be your number one priority. Share your favorite ways to relax and indulge, then share a photo on Instagram with #stopteachermomguilt.
by Carly Black | Mar 6, 2018 | Classroom Solutions, Library, Teacher Solutions
An eighth-grade teacher’s classroom library is where I found my favorite book, Goodbye Paperdoll. She had a closet-sized classroom, but still felt it was important enough to sacrifice the space for bookshelves that lined the back wall. If you, too, are a language arts teacher with a major book obsession as embodied in your own classroom library, you’ll want to check out this amazing resource I found and have been using since 2011.
Getting started
Booksource.com launched Classroom Organizer as a free online classroom library checkout and return system for teachers, and it has made all the difference in my classroom. When I started teaching in 2001 I had collected a small library and kept track through index cards. Each month I would add books through Scholastic book orders and bonus points, but I was terrible about using the index card system. There was too much I needed to do for the system to be effective, and by effective I mean keeping track of books that traveled to and from my classroom. One summer I thought I’d trade up to a spreadsheet that students could enter book information for themselves, but that quickly became a true nightmare. Then one afternoon I was scrolling through iTunes, searching for new teacher apps and the heavens parted when I saw a free app called Classroom Organizer.
This FREE resource has revolutionized my classroom library! At the time I had a student helper, so I created an account and put her straight to work scanning in my 1200 plus classroom library. Back then there wasn’t much to the system beyond the title, author, ISBN, and book cover photo. Now, Booksource offers you a number of options to really get the best out of your library. If you’re ready to transform your classroom library then check out these features and tips for using the Classroom Organizer. Want a FREE editable poster to show students how to use your new online book checkout system? Sign up for the TMR newsletter!
Making it work for your classroom library
First, you’ll need to create an account. When creating your account keep in mind that students will be using the username and password to access the student page. Capitalization counts here! Originally I was not married when I created my account, MissBBooks, and it was not a difficult task to have my username changed, however, I did have to contact the website to make the change. Changing the password can be done on your own. I always make my password the room number. This makes it easier for students.
Once you have an account, the website will walk you through the features of your dashboard to give you a full picture of what the site offers. Before you start adding books, be sure to visit the Preferences page found on the Your Account page. Here you will be able to list any genres you want to include. In order for these to be part of the drop-down menu in your library check the Genre box under Library Data, but be sure the Fiction/Nonfiction box is not also checked. I suggest looking through all of the details that you can provide with each book, like the genre, location, condition, lexile, etc. and decide what labels you feel will truly benefit your classroom. I have never kept up with the conditions, but I would like students to know the lexile of a book and where it belongs in my classroom. The problem here is that these are updates for me, so in order to add them I would have to input this for each individual book; with more than 3,000 books being housed in my classroom that’s a ton of time updating. It’s my advice to make these decisions before you begin! As you input books you can add these options from the website. Books are organized alphabetically by title, so once you get a number of your books into the system you’ll want to search the title to make those additions.
When you’re ready to add titles I would suggest using a laptop and scanner, if you have access to one. This is a quicker method when the book doesn’t have an ISBN number or fails to pick up information, like the author or book cover. Using a device with a camera is an option, but it will not show you the detail that the website provides.
Once you have scanned in your library there are a number of reports to help you make new book decisions. For example, you can see what genres you have very little of and start adding more. You can even create a wish list of books to share with parents! Need help finding titles? Read my post on 50+ Summer Reading Recommendations, they aren’t just for summer.
One of the other great new features is Teacher Resources. Booksource has provided lesson ideas for thousands of titles and gives you FREE access to them. You’ll notice a small TR maroon circle in your library view.
Using this system has made it so much easier for me to keep track of books, see what kids are reading, and find new teaching ideas. Some of my voracious readers even added the app to their phones to make check out faster! Let me know how the Classroom Organizer works for your classroom. Don’t forget to subscribe to our exclusive teacher newsletters for a FREE poster to help students with the login and check out process, among other great free printables.
by Carly Black | Aug 26, 2017 | Mom Solutions, Teacher Solutions
Monday morning we will finally welcome students into our classrooms. For me, it will be a new classroom, in a new grade with a new schedule, but only a few new faces. The excitement has been bubbling over for weeks now. I’ve managed to add all the finishing touches to my classroom, worked out the first nine weeks of curriculum and feel confident in my new position. This will be my second year working with the same co-teacher, and we are both thrilled to build upon what we started last year. This school year will mark my 15th year as a classroom teacher. Typing that number makes me realize that I’m nearly halfway through my career, and I still have that nervous sensation in the pit of my stomach.
Much has changed since my first year in 2001. I’m having to learn what it means to say goodbye every morning to my toddlers and that can be one of the most difficult tasks as a teacher-mom. Morning cuddles, afternoon messes, and evening family outings provided us with a fulfilling summer season. Because there was a major transition to make at school my husband and I decided to keep our babysitter two days a week throughout the summer. This was the greatest decision we made! It gave me two full days to take the time to move my classroom, start this blog, and prepare for the upcoming school year. In all my years of teaching, I don’t think I have ever had a smoother transition from summer to school year. There was no summer slide for me.
Dedicating two days a week gave me the freedom to spend the rest of the week loving on my children and spending time with friends. This was a fulfilling summer, and now I feel ready to be back in the classroom full-time. In the past, I’ve dragged my feet across that school year threshold, but this year I’m skipping.
Spending time to learn what a #teachertribe is all about helped me feel inspired and validated in my teaching practices. Knowing that so many of them are also teacher-moms who are creating that balance of work and home helped me feel at ease. These past few weeks have been crazy busy, hence the lack of blog posts, but I don’t feel a sense of guilt about anything. I’m excited to get back in the classroom with students because I have so many fresh ideas to share with them. I’m content to know my own children are cared for lovingly by family and friends. So as I sit here on my final Saturday of summer there is no pressure this year. No pressure to be the best teacher, no pressure to have the perfect classroom, no pressure to be a better mom. This Saturday will be spent feeling content that I’m a great teacher, with a very nice classroom and fully loved toddlers.
Thank you for walking this journey with me. Share your reflections of summer in the comments. I’d love to hear how you are making the transition from summer to school a smooth one.
