Your Wishes Can Come True!

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Back to School Pack and a Freebie!

For the past few weeks I've been working on project, and I'm excited that it's finally ready to share with others! Back to School Super Start Pack is a mega pack of strategies, printables, and activities to help you get your school year off with a bang! After 30 years of teaching, I tweaked my "back to school" routine until it worked perfectly. I learned the importance of teaching a variety of lessons to create a caring classroom while at the same time establishing the rules and procedures needed for effective instruction. I discovered that starting the year with these lessons virtually guaranteed that the rest of the year would be terrific! I also learned how to reach out to parents using strategies such as the Wish Upon a Star freebie shown here.

Wish Upon a Star Display
As you set up your classroom this year, I'm sure you'll find yourself wishing for many things to make your room more inviting or productive. It's not always the big things like the iPads and the Smartboards. Sometimes it's the little things like tennis balls to make "chair socks" so you don't have to hear the constant scraping of chairs all day. Or having extra pillows or a beanbag chair to make a cozy reading corner.

What you need is a way to let your parents know what you want for your classroom. The Wish Upon a Star display shown here is similar to the Angel Tree concept you've seen at Christmas. I post the title on a board and surround it with stars displaying the individual items I'm requesting. During Open House or on the first day of school, I invite parents to take a star and return it attached to the item. I'm always sure to include a variety of items on the stars, from inexpensive items like tennis balls and extra tissue to larger items like folding chairs, bean bags, or gift cards to a local book store. Many years I've received everything I wished for!

Wish Upon a Star is a part of my Back to School Super Start Pack, but you can also download it as a free sample of what's inside. I hope that you and your students have a super start to the 2012-2013 school year! What items do you plan to include on the wishing stars on your board?




Laura Candler, Teaching Resources

Digital Classroom Clipart

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Lately the Pinterest boards have been flooded with adorable teacher products that are both colorful and attractive. As a writer myself, I know the importance of finding just the right clipart to bring an item to life. That's why I'm fortunate to have a talented artist in the family! Over the last few years, my daughter Wendy has created clipart for me when I needed something in particular, like these ice cream scoops and sundae patterns that she created for my book, Mastering Math Facts. She also designed the cover for Mastering Math Facts as well as the other Power Pack covers that have a similar look.

For over a year I've been trying to get Wendy to open a clipart store on TeachersPayTeachers, and she finally listened to her mom and did just that. I think I'm more excited than she is! Her store is called Digital Classroom Clipart where she now has one free item and two products. She is now selling the ice cream scoops and sundae patterns shown above for you to use when creating your own motivational programs. Her collection of School Supply Clipart is perfect for adding a touch of color and class to your back to school communication with parents.

Wendy's free Crayon Clipart package is a small sample of the quality of her work. She creates transparent PNG files that can be added to documents, blogs, and web pages. You can click on any of the images displayed on the right to find them in her TpT store. If you like her artwork, be sure to follow her on TpT to be notified when she adds new items! You can find her page easily by remembering her store name, www.digitalclassroomclipart.com.

By the way, Wendy is 22 years old and is a mechanical engineering student at NC State University. She has one more semester and will graduate in December. She's one of those rare people who has a math/science brain and who is also very artistic, so I can't wait to see where those talents will take her in life. Since she's not a teacher, she's not sure what clipart teachers want her to add. Please leave a comment here to share your suggestions for future clipart collections. Thanks!



Laura Candler, Teaching Resources

Back to School 25% Off Sale!

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When it's time to head back to school, teachers spend a ridiculous amount of their personal money on materials for their classrooms. In what other profession do people buy materials for their job before they even get their first paycheck? As my way of helping out, I'm offering 25% off on all of my Power Packs and Mini Packs! As you may know, I sell my items from my own Teaching Resources website and also on TeachersPayTeachers.com. So I figured that it's only fair to offer a sale on both sites. Enter discount code BTS12 on either site to receive the full discount.

The Back to School sale on my own site starts today, Saturday, August 11th, in conjunction with the Back to School Cyber Search event. The sale on TeachersPayTeachers.com starts Sunday, August 12th. Both sales end at the end of the day on Monday.

Best of luck to you during the coming school year!

Make Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Work for You!

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I remember mid-August being the time of year when I had finally stopped thinking about my previous class, and I was ready to look ahead to the incoming crop of students. What would my new students be like? Would we bond and have a great year?

I sometimes heard teachers joke, "I had a great class last year, so I guess this is my year to have the class from you know where." Everyone laughed, but I often wondered how those subconscious beliefs might have affect that teacher's actions . . . and maybe their entire school year?

Each year when we are given our new rosters, we quickly scan them to see who's in our class. We see names that we recognize, and we frantically try to remember what we've heard about these students. "Oh no . . . Johnny's the one who was always clowning around in Mr. C's class" or "Tameka is that nice quiet girl who helps Mrs. D after school." We've already begun to make judgments about students we haven't even met!

What if statements like these are no more than self-fulfilling prophecies? If that's true, then perhaps we have far more impact on the type of class we get than we ever imagined!

Every year I said the same thing on the first day, "Class, I have to tell you that I had a really awesome group last year, and I'll miss them. But the amazing thing is that every year, my new class is even better than the one before! I don't know how it's possible, but it's true. I can't even begin to imagine how amazing this class is going to be! I know we are going to have a great year together!" I say this with absolute sincerity because it's true! Maybe I just keep getting more effective as a teacher, or maybe this statement makes them want to be the best class ever, but it works!

My friend and colleague Pat Calfee used to say something similar to her students every year. Her statement was something to the effect that she's not sure how it happens, but every year the principal seems to put the smartest and best students in her class. Of course they sit a little taller when they hear this . . . and they act like the smartest and best kids in the school!

What do you think about your new students when you see their names on your roster? What do you tell your class on the first day of school? What subtle messages do you convey about their worth and their future success in your classroom?

When you scan your roster, be encouraged by the thought that another teacher's "problem child" may turn out to be one whom you cherish the most!  That quirky sense of humor or that restless, inquisitive spirit is finally appreciated and the student just blossoms under your attention.

If the self-fulfilling prophecy is really at work in the universe, let's make sure it's working in our favor! Tell your students that you know they are going to be the most amazing class ever, and that's exactly what they'll become!

Graphing Oral Fluency Freebie

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A few years ago I developed a partner activity for my 5th graders that could serve as an informal oral fluency assessment. My students completed these tasks with a partner in a literacy center, but you could easily have a teacher assistant or parent volunteer administer this assessment to students one-on-one. The Graphing Oral Fluency freebie includes student directions, the Oral Fluency Chart, the Fluency Rate Line Graph, and a set of labels to use when assembling the materials for a literacy center.

This activity involves students reading a leveled text for one minute and then charting the words per minute they read correctly. We discussed the fact that being fluent doesn't mean speeding through the text with no errors; good readers also read with expression and enthusiasm, adjusting their reading rate and volume according to the meaning of the text. The Oral Fluency Chart includes a self-assessment rubric for "Expressive Fluency" to help students become more aware of the importance of this aspect of fluency. After students complete the chart, they plot their oral fluency rate on a line graph. You might have them complete this activity once each month so they can look for trends in their fluency data.

The Oral Fluency Chart and the Fluency Rate Line Graph would make great additions to student portfolios or "data binders." If you are implementing the program outlined in Classroom Goal Setting, you'll find oral fluency to be another area where students can set goals, create action plans, and track their progress.

You can download the Graphing Oral Fluency freebie and the Classroom Goal Setting ebook from my store on TeachersPayTeachers. Both items are also available from my Teaching Resources website; use the search feature on the site to find them. Follow me on TeachersPayTeachers and sign up for my free newsletter to be sure you are notified when I add new freebies and teaching materials to my site or store. I hope these materials help your school year get off to a great start!