Adventurer

This year I am embarking on a new adventure in my classroom. I will be moving from 8th grade Reading & Honors to 7th grade Reading & Writing. I have decided to use this new chapter in my career to take on a new approach to teaching. In the past I have primarily had a teacher-centered classroom. Yes, I have attended the PD's and read the books/articles and attempted to make my classroom more student-centered, but at the end of the day I ran the show. 
So this year I'm going to overhaul my teacher strategies and use a Guided Reading approach as well as interactive notebooks. I'm going to blog about my adventures in the hopes of measuring my own progress. So if you are reading this, I hope you find it helpful, and as they say "Forgive the Mess - We are Learning Here!"

Juggler

Gone are the days when a teacher was just that - a teacher. Today a teacher must learn to juggle the many roles we play in order to keep all of them "in the air." I often imagine myself juggling my students as well. As teachers, we often realize that just when a few students are finally "in the air," we find that while we are attending to those, a few other students "hit the ground."

I am not a naturally organized, type A person, so I have played with many systems in an attempt to "keep all my balls in the air." Here are a few that have worked for me:

My Teacher Notebook: I keep one spiral notebook per quarter where I literally keep everything. I take notes in it and when I receive handouts (meeting agendas, new strategies to try, info from the DO), I simply staple it in. I keep a table of contents in the front cover and when I run out of room, I use the back cover. 

 

iPad Apps: I bought an iPad 2 with my own money for $300 at Walmart and it was worth every penny. I literally do almost everything on this iPad. One of the apps that helps keep me organized is called 

Teacher Kit: This app allows you to keep up with attedance, grades, seating charts, and behavior all in one place. You can create and save notes on a daily basis on individual students and categorize them as positive, negative, or just general notes.