Reflect, Refresh Part 1

Hi Everyone! I am linking up with some other teachers to reflect on the year!

We gather for the last 5-10 minutes per day. I have a student leader for the week that calls on 3-5 friends for highlights from our day. I type this into a daily email and we send it out to parents. I add any special notes at the top! It's quick and saves me the hours of writing a newsletter. This is my second year doing it, and I have found that parents REALLY read it and they love it! It's right there on their phone as they drive their child around to activities, get it at work, or while they are at home. So many parents tell me that they feel so connected!

We do a "Bucket-Filling" system in my classroom. While I might have other classroom management techniques... this one is the one that is constant and a foundation of our classroom. I read them all the bucket filling books. We create our own classroom poster of what it means to be a bucket filler. Then, the students select a "Bucket-Filler of the Week." This person is someone they noticed as a role model, doing honorable deeds. This person serves as my teacher assistant for the week and has his/her picture featured on the bulletin board. They are the student leader I mentioned above. Get your free bucket filler poster here.

I had the privilege of having one-to-one iPads this year and hope that this can continue. It truly made such an impact on student engagement and learning. I put most of what we used to do on paper in the form of PDF's and sent it to them through our learning management system (Canvas). Then, they could open this in another app and use all the interactive features of that app. For example, a graphic organizer and text could be opened in Notability. This enables them to highlight, record, type, and have as much space as they need. Our grade level showed the most growth of every grade in our District and 97% of the students met or exceeded their growth target in math... I have to think that the one-to-one technology used in innovative ways was a huge contributor. I don't know if we will get to stay one-to-one next year, but I sure hope so!

I've had such a blast entering the teacher blogger world. I hope to create lots of products that can be shared with other teachers! In fact, I'm hosting a SUMMER LINKY for teachers to share products and help us all prepare for next year! It's starting soon, and I'd love to see you there!