Scantron and Griddable Practice- FREEBIE

Happy Friday! 

First of all, you did you know today is #LoveMySchoolDay? We received an email from our Superintendent today informing us of that. She encouraged us to shout out about our school and be proud of who we are! 

So here's my shout out! 

We are the ELGIN WILDCATS!!!! 

I truly am proud of my school. It's my third year here and it has been the hardest thing I have ever done. Middle School is tough. 

But, I am proud to be a teacher here and I am proud of my students here! 

This is our community and WE ROCK!!! 

Today I am including a FREEBIE for those of you who still take scantron test. 

We still have students that make errors on their scantrons by leaving bubbles blank, using pen or marker (this only happened when I was absent!), and then making mistakes on griddables because they won't pay attention to the place value. 

These are examples of real mistakes my students made. 

It drives me insane when they write WHOLE numbers behind the decimals!!! 

This is a place value issue!!! 

How do you forget to color in FOUR questions!!! 

This student made a 67 because of this. His grade would have been a 93 if he had just colored in the answers he had in his test booklet! 

This is common. Students forget to color in one answer choice. 

This student would have had a 100 on his test. 

This is what happens when you don't follow directions and use a pen instead of a pencil, you can't erase your mistakes!!!

If you can't tell, this student used PURPLE marker on his test. I had a sub that day, this would never have happened if I had been in class. But, that student KNEW better!!!! 

So, before our state test, we dedicated an entire day to error analysis of scantrons and griddables. 

This is how my two other sixth grade teachers did this activity. They placed them in the hallway and students worked together to solve. 

Students had to recognize that they can not wrinkle or fold their scantrons. These type will not be graded! 

The students have actually had a lot of fun with it. I keep hearing, "Who would forget this? or "Who does this?" I am just laughing, because they are ALL guilty at some point! 

Hopefully,  this will help with them pay a little closer attention when they take their test. 

I know some of you have gone digital and don't have this problem, but I hope those of you who still use scantrons, can use this over the next several weeks. 

It's the newest FREEBIE in my store. 

ENJOY! 

Sparking Motivation- Individual Homework Banners

Okay, so in middle school homework is a BIG deal. 

I have structures in place. My students know they will have homework Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, without fail. They know we go over the next day. They know they get a six weeks grade for it through the No Homework Binder. We have done this since day 1. 

Two weeks ago, I implemented the Homework Banner. Students seemed excited. I offered free homework FOR A WEEK to the class who spells homework. They were excited. (Or so they pretended). 

This is my board 2 weeks later. 

(thanks to an ice day yesterday, I do not have a picture. I will update on Monday) Picture a board with about 3 letters total. NOT many!  

Insert a teacher sad face. 

I am sad because in most cases, the classes missed getting a letter because of ONE student, and not always the same student. This is discouraging some of my students. Not the ones who struggle getting their homework done, the "good ones". You know, the students who do their homework every time, without fail. The ones who would never want to not do their homework. 

They get the "100" in the gradebook for the six weeks because they always have their homework, but they aren't getting the homework letters and it is really bothering them. 

So, this is what I came up with. 

First, we will continue the class homework banners. Two weeks isn't enough time to throw something out. 

But, each student will have their own "Homework banner".

Each day they have their homework, they will color a letter. I will initial it. Then, we they complete it, they will get to choose from my reward cards. This of course includes, a free homework pass. 

We are starting this Monday. Stay tuned, I will let you know how it goes. 

Click here for a FREE copy. It's nothing fancy, but worth a try, right? 

Be sure to link up with Head Over Heels for Teaching and GET MOTIVATED! 

Five for Friday & a Freebie!

So, if I start this on Thursday night, maybe I will actually post it on Friday. (Fingers crossed) 

Click here for Doodle Bugs Teaching 

1. I am 3 weeks into this school year. I have woke up every day at 5am and worked out! I hate waking up early, but it actually been a great addition to my day! I am doing Jillian Michael's Revolution. Week 1&2 were okay. She kicks it up a notch in week 3&4! I curse her daily, but always glad when I am done.

 

2. I set up Class Dojo with my classes this week and it is awesome!!! 

I blogged about it here. 

3. My boys had their first baseball and Tball game last night! 

4. I did a fun interactive lesson on integers this week and my students begged me to "play again"

Seriously, that has not happened for me in middle school. I will be blogging about it tomorrow for Head Over Heels Motivation link party. Be sure to check it out! 

5. We have our first home football game tonight! Go Wildcats!!! 

Short, sweet and to the point, but I actually feel like I accomplished something on my to-do list! 

And as a Friday bonus, here's a vertical line freebie. 

click here for the link party

We did this for integers. I wish I had the dotted lines when I gave it to my kiddos! there are two per sheet and yes, I printed mine in color for my students, but it is not a must. 

click here for the freebie!

Motivating Students- One foldable at a time

It's Saturday, which means I actually have time to blog. This is what I miss most about summer, no blogging. I need to organize better and I can still do my favorite link ups, even during the week. I missed them this past week. 

We finished our second week of school. I am absolutely in love with my classes. I actually look forward to work again. It's not all roses and sweet dreams, but it is absolutely the opposite of what my previous two years in middle school have been. 

Since it is Saturday, I am also linking with Joanne over at Head Over Heels for Teaching for her Motivation Saturdays. 

I do the same thing six times a day. I have one class that is slightly varied, but I pretty much repeat myself all day. It is taxing. I have to keep it fun. Plus, hello! I teach middle school math! 9 out of 10 people are afraid of math and probably 10 out of 10 people are afraid of middle school. Most people think I am crazy. (I am, but just a little) 

This past week we had Open House and when I met my students' parents, they said things like "They say it's fun" "They like your class" "They say you use a lot of glue". The first two have never been said since I moved to middle school. The last one is absolutely true. 

I honestly believe they feel this way because of our math notebooks. We have had 10 days of school and we are on page 17 of our math journal. 

We are foldable junkies! They love making these things! 

I shared pages 1-9 here. They were resource sheets, stick in the binder and move on. We have used them though. 

The next pages have been interactive! 

Here's what we have done so far: 

They made the match book divisibility cards in a station. The left side was their warm up the next day. 

 The foldable we made when introducing how to convert improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa.  The inside is below. (do not adjust your eyes, it is blurry. Sorry)

The top of the left side was their warm up the following day. 

The bottom of the left side was their warm up the day after. They had to write complete sentences to explain the process of converting fractions. These writing prompts came from Danielle at Live Love Math. She has a ton and they are sorted by strand. Awesome resource. 

Side note: I bought her entire store this summer. BEST PURCHASE EVER! She teaches what I teach, (well, she did last year), in the state I teach, P-E-R-F-E-C-T!

 One day we made the foldable and took notes on the left side for examples. 

They loved this just because of the colors. 

Seriously, colored paper is a motivator!!!! 

This is how I am doing vocabulary this year. I plan for each unit to be on a different color paper. This unit had 11 words, we used the front and the back and some used two sheets. I like the Frayer model, but I don't like the non example portion. (it's just me). So I adapted it when I was reading about ESL strategies. 

The four sections are picture, definition, word, and sentence. I made them write a complete sentence using the vocabulary word. This was a challenge, but they did pretty well for the first time. 

Get the template by clicking on the picture.

Another side note: I gave my students blank copies for the most part. But for some of my students with "note taking accommodations", I gave them what you see above. I had the word and the definition written for them and they were responsible for drawing a picture and writing a sentence. 

Linking up here too, a little late, but oh well. 

Friday Freebie- First Day Seating Cards

It's Friday, time for a FREEBIE! 

Last year, I threw these together the night before the first day. I revamped them this summer because they were BORING! 

I have seen  these from several people and mine are pretty much the same thing. Some of my cards are very easy for 6th graders, but I want it that way. 

The idea behind these cards to have the students come in, find a seat, sit and begin the assignment I will have on the board. As they enter my room, I am required to be outside in the hallway to greet and of course monitor the hallway. 

Last year, I learned a lot with these cards. First, I learned that in the summer, students forget what prime numbers are. I also learned that some of them need paper to work simple math problems. It's an extremely informal assessment. For me, I want my students in a seat and working on creating a name plate for the day so I can begin learning their names. (I will see over 100 students a day and I want to learn names fast). 

Plus, there's so much to do the first day, I don't want this activity taking the entire class period. 

Middle School OCD posted yesterday about using playing cards as students enter the class. I love this idea and I plan on using what she did later in the week. I will have seating charts by the second week, so both of these activities will work that first week of school. 

Maybe you can use it. Click here for the FREEBIE! 

Friday Link Party Parade

It's Friday, Day 5 of The Teacher's Chair Linky. Today is Teacher's Choice. 

Because its Friday, I choose to give you a freebie !.

 I made an Exit poster for when I use post it notes as exit slips. 

An example of this might be, to tell me one thing you learned, one thing you still have questions about, etc... 

I allow students to choose if they want to write their name or not. This would not be an assessment per student, but maybe an assessment of how the lesson went overall. Its just one form of an exit ticket I have used. Now, I have a cute poster for them. 

And 5 for Friday is back at Doodle Bugs Teaching, so here I go: 

If you go to Office Max, right now you can get 2 posters, 50 copies, 50 business cards, and 3 feet of lamination for $29.99. It's an amazing deal. I am also thrilled with the quality of what I get there. 

Task Card Holders: I have been organizing my task card holders. I love how wonderful they all look.The boxes are currently on sale for $1. I bought 40 and let me say, I am going back for more. I have two sizes because some cards are larger than others. 

I have been a printing and laminating fool, I tell you! I love the feeling that I printed and laminated and completed a project. Seriously, how did I ever live without this gem! 

Not everything was school related. (gasp!) 

I did take my kids for their sixth month dental check ups. This was three year olds first big boy check up. Last time he sat on my lap. He even had x-rays for the first time and did great! He loved seeing the pictures of his teeth. And my 7 year old was a trooper as well. He could do this in his sleep. Just glad to have it checked off the "to-do" list. 

And our baseball season started up again. My life outside of school revolves around baseball. My 3 year old officially started T-ball. he has done nothing but beg for this for a year. He eats, breathes, and sleeps baseball. He even woke up one Saturday, put his brother's entire uniform on by himself, including the cup! he stayed in it all day and even took a nap with that cup on! He got new shoes for T-Ball as well. His very own, he had been wearing hand me downs so far. 

We got to practice and he cried. He wouldn't do anything. It was so embarrassing. He eventually warmed up, but seriously, there's no crying in baseball! Now my week looks like this: Mondays: Coed Softball with Hubby, Tuesday/Thursday: T-ball practice Wednesday/Friday: Coach Pitch practice.

Honestly though, I wouldn't have it any other way!