I am still alive and teaching...with STICKERS!

Well I know it has been a while and I am not sure I have any really good excuse for why I have not blogged for a long time other than pure laziness and grad class overload. So now that I have tried to explain myself let me tell you about my latest success: STICKERS! Now we all remember the days of kindergarten and how hard we all worked for those super cool and awesome stickers our teachers would give out, well I'm bringing it back to my high school classes. I bought these sparkly smile face stickers on sale at Staples for like $1.50 a package so I may have enough to last me my entire career but oh well. 

I use these as nothing more than rewards when my students raise their hands and answer questions or have a super answer on a JENGA post-it (see my prior blog post for how to use JENGA in your room). The students have become obsessed with these cute little stickers so much to the point that they requested a chart to track who had the most stickers in each class. It has become a challenge and a game to them to try their hardest on all the questions so they can out do their friends and get more stickers. 

This is one of the charts I have up and you can see many of them are in a tight race and others are a little less excited (Rikki, Noah and Dyllan have their own chart in a notebook that they keep them all together). I must say for the most part my students are working hard to answer better on all their conclusion questions and beg to play JENGA every day just so they can get some stickers. I had no idea when I started this that they would love it so much and I hope your kids love it as much as mine do! 

BREAKING NEWS!!! The tides may be changing!!

OK so today was possibly a mild break through to the naked eye but to me today was HUGE! On Monday in anticipation of no school on Tuesday I assigned homework for my animal science class which was simple, silly and easy. They were to draw out with small little pictures the directions to the lab we would carry out when we returned to school. So they came into class and began getting their packets out and waited for me and my magical stamp and then I came upon this awesomeness!!! Yes, I know I made it super large but you have to see this for its true beauty!! This girl used her time away from class to really get into these drawings and I LOVED it! I would be lying if I said this wasn't the highlight of my very very long day. We all have moments of doubt when it comes to our level of sanity and this profession and this my friends is a perfect example of that finally I am making progress with changing the tides of laziness with my students. So please help me find even more ways to help my student prepare for labs while enjoying learning at the same time. How do you prep students for labs? 

Exit Slip JENGA!

So on the SUPER cold day I got a genius idea to create something based upon an idea I saw on Pinterest. The idea I saw was for conversation JENGA with speech topics on each block. Students pull one out and then speak on it for a given amount of time. While I will be using this idea on the other side of my blocks for now I have come up with the idea I call Exit Slip JENGA (my husbands vote was for A+ JENGA and that was a no go) but you can call it whatever you want and like. So here is how this went down! 

I bought this set at the Dollar General store for $4 

Here is my finished product.

So with Sharpie in hand I sat down to come up with my questions. In total I have 10 questions all but one set are used 4 times. I plan to put on the other side in a different color the speech topic ideas and I will post that list as soon as I come up with them too! How will I use this is class? Well I already use Post-its like I endorse the darn company so I made my questions simple enough to be answered on a single Post-it. I plan to use them as exit slips out the door or to review if there is time remaining at the end of a class period. Another thought I have is to use the other side for pre-assessment questions (this just came to me as I was writing this and I actually like it way better than the speech topics!). 

Here is my list of questions: 

- What do you remember most?

- Summarize today's lesson

- How will this help you in another class

- Doodle/Draw today's key point

- How is this used in real life?

- What will we cover tomorrow?

- Create 1 quiz question and answer it

- Define 1 important term

- What is 1 question you still have?

- List 3 important points from today

So please give me your ideas on how you could use this in your classroom and what questions you will put onto your set?

The problem with so many questions

I know the old saying of there is never a dumb question but I think we are all willing to admit sometimes there are some questions that are not so... well intelligent. I struggle with this in my classes because I enjoy sharing personal experiences about the topic of discussion which leads to student sharing which I love don't get me wrong but its not those raised hands that are my problem. I nearly want to scream every time a student asks me to repeat instructions or something I just finished saying due to their lack of concentration and desire to pay attention. So while at the DuPont National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Academy we were all introduced to the GENIUS idea of question cards. 

 

These are my question cards

 Now these simple little cards are nothing more than a little clip art man printed, glued to a note card and laminated but how ever you chose to make them they are magical!! I have one class in particular that drives me nuts with silly questions about things that can be found by simple reading their directions or listening. So depending upon the difficulty of the lesson I hand out 1-3 question cards. After we go over the activity together and answer any obvious questions I say "question cards now" and the students know that from that point forward if they want to ask a question of me it will cost them one question card. Like a ticket at the movie I simply pick up the card as I answer the question. Some students never use any question cards and some lose them all in 5 minutes. Now you may be thinking don't you want them to question things, don't you want them to be clear about what they are doing, how can you not answer their questions,? Yes, yes, and easy I force them to THINK! I give them the chance to be sure they want to use their card before I answer and I always allow them to discuss with their neighbors to find the correct answer. More times than not the students at a table will work together to determine if they want to use the card or not and if they do use it everyone within ear shot will be listening and listening closely! I love love love these things because as you can imagine students not only work together better but they listen very closely when I speak because it may save them from using one of their own cards. I highly suggest these as an addition to your classroom management toolbox for sure! What ideas or tricks do you have for weeding out the unnecessary questions and encouraging independent work?  

What a nerdy life I live...

So as I sit here on the oh so exciting Monday night I have actually made some pretty interesting things! I spent my Christmas money today at Staples getting random supplies the best and my absolute favorite.... SCENTED MARKERS!!

Now that I have admitted to being the biggest nerd ever on to the other nerdy things I did tonight, poster making. While at the store I purchased a flip chart (which happened to be the ONLY thing I went into Staples for but obviously that didn't go as planned). I have been seeing several ideas online for classroom posters that I have wanted for some time and so I present to you my super awesome and amazing new classroom posters.  

Ok get ready to stretch your neck out while checking out these first two (sorry some day I may become super computer savy and figure out how to turn these darn things once there are on the page)

This lovely poster I hope will help me to get my students back on track with their interactive notebooks. After staring at this on a picking it apart with my OCD brain I made a digital one that I have added to my TpT sight and you can find the link to that here What goes where?. 

This one I saw on another bloggers page and added a few things to each definition to better suit what I use with my students to remember these. 

This classroom management strategy is one I found on Pinterest and is very similar to one I am already using but I did not have a super cool poster so as you can guess I had to have a poster duh! 

This poster came to be through the ideas presented on several different posters on Pinterest. Most came from younger grade levels so this modification I hope will help my high school students understand how they can use the left side of their notebooks to showcase their notes in a visual way.

So now that it's nearly midnight I must put away these wonderful markers, wash my stained hands and go to bed. How do you see these being useful in your classroom? What could I have added/changed to make them even more awesome? Have an amazing New Year and thanks for reading!  

Motivating High School Students...oh the struggle

OK so this post may be more a rant/vent session than anything but my frustration level has been reaching an all time high lately due mostly impart to students feeling this sense of "I don't care" or "what do I have to do to pass" attitude! Now don't get me wrong those that are motivated and at least not negative about coming to school these days I am eternally grateful for but the majority are about to have me pulling my hair out (notice I said about).

Now as I spend my downtime searching Pinterest (as I hope most other females do because it's AWESOME) I find myself wishing I taught younger students just so I could utilize all the cute and fun stuff they often do! I have one class of 8th grade students and the motivation difference one year can make would astound you but little kids get excited about everything! They want to please you and please their parents still (I am sure some of you elementary teachers are ready to throw the book at me lol) and I am longing for something to help bring this into my high school students. So behold I give me my latest attempt....

Homeworkopoly!!! 

 Now I have put a considerable time into this and when I say considerable I mean like more than I have ever worked on a bulletin board before in my life and more than anyone ever should! Thus my desire to post this onto the Teachers Pay Teachers website. Now this bulletin board is one I plan to leave up for quite a while and use as a reward system for my classes. Each week the plan is that we will set a goal for the class to achieve and when they meet or exceed this goal they earn a chance to roll the dice and move their piece around the board. Where ever their piece should land will be the reward or incentive for that week/section. I used several suggestions from my own students and I assure you they are PUMPED about starting this in January. You can purchase this item by clicking the Homeworkopoly link above which will take you to my TpT sight where you can purchase your own ready to laminate and display bulletin board (as if you don't already have enough to do this Christmas Break)! I will let everyone know in January how it's going. What do you use to help motivate your high school students?  Until then enjoy your time off  and Merry Christmas!   

Table Tubs

As all teachers do I struggle daily to ensure that my students have the supplies they need to be successful in my class. While at the National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Academy one of the greatest things I brought home was the idea to create "table tubs". Now I will not sugar coat this because there is no way around it; these things were not cheap to get started! I purchased all the contents when on sale and still search to find coupons and sales to re-stock them but it has proven to be well worth it. 

Here are two pictures of my tubs! 

So as you can see I keep a variety of items in these tubs and almost half way through the year the majority of what I started with is still there. Here is what they contain: Post-its, markers, colored pencils, scissors, highlighters, glue sticks, small pencil sharpener, large eraser, crayons, ruler, and sometime a calculator. At the beginning of the year these also contained a small stapler but when I discovered the students were stapling their arms (go figure) I took all of them out. I have to clean these out probably once every two weeks or often have TA's available that I assign to rework the markers and such to make sure all tubs are even and neat. Other ideas to house these are small clear storage tubs with lids, shoe boxes, or any other small box you may have to hold all these things. My classroom runs much much better with these and I highly recommend the investment.Other ideas I have mainly because I am desperate for supplies is to offer bonus points for things like scissors, post-its, and glue sticks. I know some of you are using things similar that probably work much better what suggestions do you have on improving my tubs? Or share with us how and what you use in your tubs! 

P.S. You have until December 16th to apply for the NATAA experience!! It is one I promise you will not regret. Click the link above to go straight to the application page. 

Interactive Notebook Addiction... Vocabulary

Those of you who follow me on Pinterest know that I LOVE to pin things to help me with school. I have found many many excellent ideas, projects, resources, fundraisers, and the list could go on for ever. It is almost unhealthy the amount of time I spend on Pinterest but one of the greatest things I have found has been all the resources on Interactive Notebooks. Some of the amazing blogs I follow are listed below and I could not encourage you enough to check out all the ways these teachers use these notebooks in their classrooms. Here is one of the ways I tie these notebooks into my classes. 

In this picture you see the inside of the vocabulary foldables I call a tri-fold 

This is the outside view of the tri-fold vocabulary foldables

 These tri-fold foldables I use with my CASE courses as well as all other courses I teach to help spice up the boring idea of vocabulary. I give the students the list of vocabulary words at the beginning of each section and they have one day of in class time to research and complete these. What they do not get completed is left up to them to complete on their own time. I check these vocabulary the day before we take the quiz over each section. This is just one of several examples I have and I will post more pictures of the vocabulary as I go along. The students in my classes are responsible for all the cutting, and gluing for all their own foldables and I find that ever with high school  students this helps to keep them much more engaged and involved in the lecture style activities. Although like most agriculture and CTE courses I do a tremendous amount of labs and hands on activities juicing up the necessary lectures has been a great addition to my curriculum. On my TpT page you will find all my foldables and resources. 

Follow these awesome teachers for even more help with implementing these notebooks in your room! There are more great things on my Pinterest board Fun for School! 
Caught in the Middle
Hands on Math in High School
The Science Penguin

So how do you use interactive notebooks? How do you see this working in your class? 

Just trust me

I know, I know, agriculture teachers have no summer so why would you want to give up another week for another professional development? Trust me when I say this one is different. The National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador Program is unlike any training I have ever been to (I am sure some of you veteran teachers are chuckling at the thought of just how many training's I could have possibly been to). Through the National Association of Agriculture Educators you can find the applications which are due DECEMBER 16th that's nearly a month to talk it over with your spouse, babysitter, mother-in-law, principal or whoever you need to talk to to help reassure yourself that this is a meaningful week that you will not for one minute feel has been a waste of your time. DuPont sponsors you from the time you arrive at the airport until you arrive home and spoil you with some of the best food and views in the Delaware area! From the moment you step foot onto the farm you are surrounded by other agriculture teachers and leaders who want you to get the absolute most out of every minute you are there. 
 So we have all heard this buzz word "inquiry based learning" well if you were like me it was nothing more than just that, a word. I knew that I had experienced several trainings that claimed to explain this foreign concept but I still was totally clueless. Through extensive hands-on training and exploration into what it was like to be an inquiry based learner I have new respect for this infamous word. I have taken the MASSIVE toolkit of skills, tips and tricks I learned while there home and transformed my classroom little by little. From utilizing stamps to cut back on my own grading to changing up lessons that where tried and true I have become a better teacher because of this experience! 
 Not only do you get to go home and change the way your students learn but you are also part of a team that works to present other agriculture teachers with ways they can utilize inquiry based learning as well. Through presentation of  workshops at National FFA Convention and at the NAAE Convention (which just so happens to be in Las Vegas this year) you help to spread the word about inquiry based learning. 
 If you are thinking this is not for you or that you are past the point of changing things in your classroom or program please please please think again! There where teachers like myself there who are still new, to veteran teachers who are mere years from retirement. This program has something tremendous to offer everyone and I am incredibly thankful I was awarded the opportunity. If you have questions about this program I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have or you can always check out the NAAE website. 
This one week will change the rest of your teaching career. TRUST ME. 
                 

New but trying...

 So...after much consideration and thought I am making my debut into the blogging world! I have spent the past two year teaching agriculture to some of the greatest students in Kentucky and now that I am in a new state with new people the struggle ALL too different. 
 A little about me to entice you to continue reading. I began my teaching career by starting a program for a small independent school in northern Kentucky. I always believe they must have seen something in me I didn't even know existed to trust me with such a task but man was it an amazing blessing in disguise. I spent two years there as a part time teacher and helped them to charter their FFA and begin their journey into state FFA recognition. 

   (Three of my students and I with a Kentucky state officer in the summer of 2012 receiving out charter from National FFA)
 This past summer I received an opportunity to move to a school much closer to home and work in a multi-teacher department. Now this is where I should be very truthful and tell you that as a perfectionist and control freak I knew this was going to be a stretch outside my comfort zone but that's the only way we learn and improve. So since July I have been at a new school with new expectations, standards, students, and challenges. Like any teacher you find the good days and hold onto those with all your strength and that's what keeps you going. 
 Aside from my classroom teaching experience I am a two course CASE (Curriculum for Agriculture Science Education) certified instructor, a Teach Ag mentor teacher and most recently a National Agriscience Teacher Ambassador. Now yes this means I have sacrificed my summers for the past two years but I could not have imagined spending my time in a more rewarding way! If you have never taken the time to check out these opportunities the time is NOW! 
 So now that I have introduced myself I hope to begin blogging about my classroom and how I teach in hopes that I can help others better their classrooms and students as well. If you have any questions or are interested in a certain topic please feel free to make suggestions for future blogs!