Pinspiration: Classroom Pins I Can't Wait to Try

  

   As promised, it's time to follow up on my "Favorite Things: Pinterest" post with some of my favorite pins right now.  I get ideas from Pinterest constantly, so these are just the ones I'm currently most excited to implement when school starts back.

- This pin links to a color-coded, chunked system of planning for block schedules.  This year will be my first year working with a block, so I'm happy for any colorful help I can get! It even comes with downloads for Microsoft Word to get you started.  

- A Teacher's Plan Book ($8.50 for download at TeachersPayTeachers) is going to help me get and keep my act together this year!  It doesn't hurt that it's really cute, and can be printed in black and white so that I don't have to buy a color ink cartridge.  It's even editable, so I can adapt some parts to better suit my high school block schedule.

Credit: The Teacher Wife

- This poster would help me fight a never-ending battle against a word I call "the R word."

- I want to meet this teacher, who uses memes to help go over rules on Day 1.  Totally stealing this idea.  Sometimes my freshmen look so small and frightened while I'm detailing expectations and syllabi and rules . .. this could definitely lighten the mood.

- This pin from Secondary Solutions links to a detailed plan for using Literature Circles in a high school English classroom-- complete with free downloadable Word documents!  I've been intrigued by Literature Circles for a while, but I've only used them in single-class activities for short pieces.  I think I'm finally going to take the plunge into Novel Circles this year!

- I just took a class at my alma mater on Modern Grammar, and these grammar journals might just be the coolest thing ever.  It's an idea from Scholastic, and is listed for grades 3-8, but I can definitely adapt it for use in high school.  What a way for kids to finally use grammar in context and in a meaningful way!

- More memes!  I love that these allow me to take something from pop culture, and something the kids identify with, and put it to use in the classroom.  This pin links to Hunger Games lessons in which students create memes to discuss serious topics.  This could easily work for any novel.

- This Push-Pin Poetry board would cost basically nothing, and would be an awesome interactive board for my kids.  So excited about this one!  

What are some of your favorite pins right now?

Stuff They Should Teach in College: Dealing with Make-Up Work

   Kids don't come to school.  Am I right?  Seriously, attendance issues are the worst.  No amount of my lecturing or cajoling will convince teenagers that near-constant school attendance is really necessary.  I'm not one to complain about the kids, because I adore them.  Really I do.  But one thing I will complain about a lot is make-up work.  It is a thorn in my side, a Kanye in my TSwift, and a cramp in my style every day. Every teacher I know agrees; it's a never-ending battle.  How do we keep up with, organize, and grade student make-up work?  This should be its own course in college. 

   My first year of teaching, I was oh-so-sweet a complete pushover and accepted any and all make-up work at any point before the end of the grading period.  This meant that most kids turned in nothing until the final three days of the grading period, leaving me looking a bit like this on the day grades were due.  Obviously, that had to end. Also obviously, I am a phenomenal artist.  And purple.

   Then I started creating a make-up work binder.  I put the binder on top of a file cabinet in my room, and used tab dividers to organize it by class period.  Then, I typed up a note detailing what we had done in that class at the end of every day, and put those inside.  I put extra handouts in a labeled file, and kids were responsible for collecting and completing their own make-up work.  This only took a few minutes, but I found that I often forgot to do it.  I also have the worst memory ever, so trying to do this the next day (or even several days later) was nearly impossible.  I liked it because it put the responsibility on the students, but I found that about 70% of the time, they just didn't bother.  I teach mostly 9th graders, and it seems like they may be used to things being handed to them more directly.  

   I used this system for several years, but I became increasingly frustrated with it, so I changed my system mid-year this year.  I know, it's crazy to change in the middle.  Life was crazy this year.  (Thanks, NBPTS.)  

  I changed to a system, inspired by this pin, which requires students to jot down a list of make-up assignments for their peers.  The handout I created (which is a more grown-up version of the one I saw on Pinterest) looks like this:

Feel free to use this in your own classroom, friends!

In theory, this is awesome:  it moves more responsibility from myself to the students, and saves me some work.  In reality?  In the hustle and bustle of the start of class, I forget.  The kids forget.  I am hoping to stick with this system and just stop forgetting everything all the time, but I'm always on the lookout for improvements.  

Any suggestions?  I'd love to hear what others do.

Favorite Things #2: Pinterest

Here's to the second post in my Favorite Things series-- Pinterest!  

Pinterest is really one of my favorite resources as a teacher.  It's absolutely full of new ideas for lesson plans, organization, and stress and time management.  I'm borderline obsessed.  

I'll never forget when a favorite student approached me and said, "Umm, I saw your Pinterest boards.  There are people who have to go to rehab for Pinterest addiction.  Do you think you have a problem?"  Haha!  Probably.  I have boards dedicated to both main subject areas I teach, one for my new newspaper class, one for blogging, one for interactive notebooks, and one for general classroom ideas.  I also contribute to a few group boards dedicated to teaching.

a screen shot of part of one of my eight classroom-related boards:

I could probably write for days on this topic, so I'll limit myself.  Here are my Top 10 Favorite School-Related Pins that are tried-and-true in my room:

1. Black-Out Poetry, in which kids black out everything on a book page except the words they choose for their poem.  It's very visually appealing, and gets even the most anti-poetic kids writing beautifully.

2. Boggle for the SmartBoard-- I adapted this to an old-school bulletin board and used it for extra credit all year.  The kids LOVED it!

3. Remind101 (See my post on Remind101 here.)

4. After-School Routine Checklist, which I used this year and it made my life so much easier and more organized.

5. New-Student Welcome Kits:  I got so many new students mid-year this year, and these kits made it quick and easy for me to get them started.

6. SuperTeacherTools, a website which allows teachers to make class lists, random name generators, interactive games, seating chart makers, countdowns, etc.

7. What Teachers Make, an incredible video in response to that question, "So what do teachers make?"  Seriously-- teacher power.  Watch it.

8. This pin, which inspired my current (and favorite ever) classroom layout.

9. Turning Teacher Distress into Eustress.  This made my crazy-difficult last year a bit easier.

10. Visual Writing Prompts from Tumblr.  Too cool!

Stay tuned in a few weeks for another top 10-- the Top 10 Pins I'm Most Excited About for Next Year.

And follow me!  http://pinterest.com/meganfpatrick/

How to Prevent Teacher Burn-Out-- The Summer To-Do List

School's out for the summer!  To celebrate, I'm going to kick off summer break by sharing my to-do list for summer 2013.  No, this isn't my list of the pages I plan to read and lessons I plan to revamp to prepare for next school year.  This is my fun list.  My I-owe-it-to-myself-after-that-crazy-year list.  My list of things to do simply because I will be a happier, better person for having done them.  

Summer Fun:

1. Read through all the novels in my Amazon wishlist.  Some of the ones I'm most looking forward to:

2. Spend some quality pool/lake time with my best girlfriends and my kids.

3. Catch up on my guilty pleasure, The Bachelorette.

4. Finally get to work on some fun Pinterest projects.  What's on the top of that list?  Sewing DIY curtains, painting a bright red front door, and finally organizing my house.

5. Plan (and go on) some fabulous weekend or day trips with my husband . . . since I never quite have the money for a beach trip with the girls.  Here are a few of our planned short trips for this year:

Charlottesville, VA

Natural Bridge, VA

Of course, there's also an extensive list of real to-do's this summer . . . but all work and no play makes M a dull girl.  What fun are you getting into this summer?

Linky Party!