Teacher Week - Teacher Tips and BTS13!

Last day of Teacher Week! I can't believe I was able to keep up!

Today's topic is actually the hardest because I feel like most of my posts these last couple of weeks have just been sharing teacher tips! Would it be cheating if I just link you back to them? :D

Okay, fine. Let me think of something else....Hm...

I guess a tip that I may have shared already is USE MUSIC/SOUNDS IN THE CLASSROOM! (Was that loud enough for you?)

Here are ways you can use music/sounds:

1. Transitions - I've attended two workshops by Rick Morris, the guy who created the clip chart, and he shares some great ideas on using nonverbal communication in the classroom. (Definitely go check out his workshops if he's ever in your area!) If you just train teach your students to respond to certain sounds, then you can save a lot of your voice and even transition time. For example, you know those desk bells you usually see at front desks of hotels?

Why not use that to notify your class that you have things to pass out? I have table group leaders whose jobs are to collect and pass out papers and supplies for their group members. Instead of announcing to everyone that I need the group leaders, I just ring the bell and the group leaders automatically come up to me to get the stuff to pass out. 

2. Background Music - I always play some sort of instrumental music (instruments only, no voices) during independent work time for language arts. I tell my students that the music helps their brain work better and they really believe it! Sometimes when they are working on a writing assignment, they will ask me to turn some music on to help their brains turn on too!

3. Voice Level Management - Music is also perfect for managing noise level during workshops. I basically tell the kids that if they can't hear the music, then they are being way too loud. It gives them something to base their voice level with to help them regulate.

4. Academic Integration - You know how those times when you hear a song and then it's just stuck in your head forever? Or if you see something or are doing something and it suddenly reminds you of a song? Well, teach your kids songs about sentences, continents, math facts, etc and they will never forget those things! At the beginning of the year, I taught my kids the sentence song from Handwriting Without Tears. Since then, every time I have the kids writing sentences in our HWT books, at least one kid will automatically start singing the sentence song!

5. Just for Fun - Sometimes it's just fun to sing some songs or dance to some music!

I'm also linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for her TPT Back to School Linky!

Button created by Fifth in the Middle with graphics by I Teach What's Your Superpower?

I never knew I could see the specific statistics of my products until I saw this linky so it was kind of exciting to see the numbers for each of my products! 

Design by Where the Wild Things Learn 

Animal Report

Back in the days when I taught first grade.

 My most recent product, Get to Know You - Owl Glyph!

Just revised today! I added a student response sheet.

Click on the images to see them in my TpT Store!

So many things on my wish list to choose from! But I guess the one I'm really looking forward to getting is Second Grade Shenanigans's My Reading Workshop Unit!

I'm going to start doing Reading Workshop this year and definitely think this unit will help me with implementing it in the classroom! 

Don't forget to check out TpT on Sunday and Monday for it's huge Back to School sale! Items in my store will be 10% off! :)