Category: Family

Getting To Know And Understand Your Students Better

9/1/2018

Going back to school can be exciting for many children, but it can also be a bit scary for some. Here are some tips for getting to know and understand your students better so that the transition will be a little easier.

Getting to know and understand your students.

Getting acquainted with your students and their families will make communication and understanding easier. Parents have a totally different perspective of their children and they feel included and heard if you give them opportunities to share this with you. They will appreciate you asking for information and getting to know and understand your students better.

Communication Is Key

Communication is key to gaining support as you progress throughout the year. Times may arise when difficult situations need to be shared and worked through. If you have open communication regularly about progress and successes or concerns, these difficult situations will be easier to work through.

Hopefully no difficult situations will come up, but being prepared helps just in case.

Get Acquainted

At the beginning of the year, I gather information to help with getting to know and understand students better. I only get to see a small part of who they are while they are at school. The Getting Acquainted form above is helpful for gathering more information about your students from their parents.

It is important that the parents know that this information is only for the teacher. It is for getting to know and understand your students, not meant to be shared with the class. Note: You can download this form for free by clicking the image.

Use Interest Profiles Or Activities

Doing an interest profile with the students is another way to get more information about them. When I begin writing activities with my class, I start with them filling out a heart of things that are important to them. Not only does this make early writing experiences easier, it also provides lot of insight into what they care about.

There are several different versions of this type available for use in the classroom. Doing an interest form or a "This is Me" type of form helps you gather more information for getting to know and understand your students and what is important to them.

These are just a few ideas. What kinds of things do you use for getting to know and understand your students? Let me know in the comments below.

10 Back to school tips for a successful year.

Lining up tips for positive classroom management

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The Building Blocks of B2S - Building Relationships

8/4/2017

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This is an update to a previous blog post. I feel it is still relevant today so I am re-sharing it.

Building Relationships is one of the most important things we can do when we get our new students. We need to help them to understand that we are there for them, we care about them, and we want them to be successful. I feel that this is crucial for a successful year.

Team building and getting to know each other is essential. Everyone will do this in different ways depending on their personalities and interests, but that is okay. It helps with learning to accept uniqueness and diversity.

Building relationships and helping others to realize they are special just the way they are.

Getting to know your students is very important. Who better to ask than the parents. Every year I send home a form called "Getting Acquainted". It is a way for parents to share some insights about their child and the family. Since so many parents are now working, it is harder to have face to face conversations with them. They want to be involved in their child's learning, but sometimes we have to be more creative to make sure this happens.

It is important to keep the lines of communication open so that we can have the frank conversations when necessary. I believe that each day is a fresh start, so if I can focus on what is right in the classroom and help my students to do the same, this can be communicated to the family through notes, phone calls, or face to face conversations when possible.

Often parents will ask what they can do at home to help support the learning that is happening at school. I believe that the best way to help is to read with their child and give them lots of real life experiences that use the skills and concepts taught. I send home a paper that explains how to go about doing Home Reading so that it can be effectively done and a positive experience for everyone. It is amazing how stressful home reading can be in some homes otherwise.
Here are samples from my letters. These are also available in my Back to School Start Up Forms package.

Maintaining a positive relationship with support staff is also very important. They can be great allies throughout the year. We need to help them to feel appreciated for all that they do. Sometimes they can feel like they are taken for granted and a smile or a friendly comment can make their day. A special note also makes them feel special.

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Using Projects to Represent Learning

9/18/2016

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Using projects evolved from a need to help students share their learning in a variety of different ways. I discovered early in my classroom teaching experience that some students had a wealth of knowledge, but that they were unable to truly share it in written activities. I decided to try using projects for representing their learning, and I have never looked back.

Here are some of my most popular social studies projects as well as a couple of other special projects.

This 3D community project started out as a class project where the class created the community from beginning to end based on what we learned during our study of what a community needs. Our celebration was our chance to share what was learned during this unit.

Check out one of our communities below.

I find that Social Studies lends itself well to projects. Most of my projects deal
with Canada and the provinces and territories, but I have also done some
projects that are more global.

This project compares life of early settlers and First Nations people of the Pacific Northwest and the Plains.

This project studies the various industries and services for particular areas.

This project looks at how communities have changed in the past 50 to 100 years.

This project focuses on the provinces and territories and special symbols and information about them.

My heritage project came from a need to help a child feel proud of who she
was because she was embarrassed to let others know her heritage. By the
end of this project, she was sharing with everyone and she was excited to tell others about all the countries that made her special.

Our Solar System was one of my first school/home projects that required the children to choose from a variety of activities to share their learning. It also contained a criteria marking sheet so that they knew what was expected and
how it would be graded from the beginning. It was amazing to see how they rose to the challenge. Including the families when it came time to create the projects was a great way of communicating what we were doing at school.

Check out some of the projects that my students created. The greatest part
was when they shared them with the families and other guests. Their pride
and the positive atmosphere made it all worthwhile.

I love how ideas come from students and their needs. My class was learning about money and we ending up creating a money unit together.
It was great using real life experiences for creating the unit. We even ended
it with a big fundraising event to raise money for our year end field trip.

Here is a summary of some of the lessons and a couple of pages to go with lesson 5. Click on the grid if you would like a copy.

I hope that you have found these ideas helpful. I would love to hear about how you use projects in your classroom to represent learning.

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Do More Of What Makes You Happy

9/30/2015

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I can hardly believe that September is over and school has been in session for over 3 weeks now. It still seems very strange to be at the school, but not teaching. I have been taking my grandsons to school and I got to experience gradual entry Kindergarten for the first 2 weeks. I must say that it is easier in some ways to have a class full of students rather than one child who needs to be entertained while waiting to go to school for an hour at various times of the day.
Now that he is settled into his classroom and on the same schedule as his brother, it is much easier. Even little kids need a routine!

Here are my reasons for retiring. Aren't they adorable? I love them to pieces and I am glad to be able to spend time with them. Sometimes it is difficult to see them as much as I would like, but when I do have the opportunity, it makes my heart feel so happy.

Our summer was full of adventures and family time. I am hoping we will have many more opportunities to share family time and make memories throughout the year.

I have been busy updating my materials in my Teachers Pay Teachers store and creating new materials for some of the new teachers at the school. This also makes me happy because I know that I am still able to make a difference in the lives of children even though I am retired. I am also going to be volunteering at the school so I will get to do what I love and not have to deal with the politics. WIN-WIN don't you think?

Happy Fall, Everyone!

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Summertime and Retirement

7/25/2015

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I retired at the end of June and for a retirement gift, my staff gave me a cat. It was a special weekend at the SPCA, so I was able to get the 2 brothers for the same price. They are about 2 years ago and so gentle and friendly. They have already made themselves comfortable with our other cat and the grandkids love playing with them.

It has become a tradition for my daughter and her family to come and visit on Canada Day. Here are some pictures from the parade, the new suspension bridge and the water park. The grandchildren were excited to see their grandfather riding on his penny farthing.

Our volunteer t-shirts

We headed to Victoria at the end of the week to participate in the church day camp. My daughter was a volunteer for one of the groups. I looked after the children that were under 4 so their parents could volunteer. It was interesting, busy and exhausting. We all had naps every afternoon!

I have been working hard since returning home from Victoria. I have packed up my classroom and given away many resources to new teachers, recycled some old materials, and sorted through the rest.
Anyone who has had to change classrooms after several years can probably relate to this and to how much teachers collect over the years!
I didn't take photos of before and after, but here is a photo of some of the boxes and materials I had to go through. I also had to pack up all of my computers as they unfortunately will now be recycled.

Now that I am able to focus on other things, I hope to finish up the renovations around the house, continue to make new resources, and revamp materials in my teacher stores. I am looking forward to volunteering next year and creating materials for my colleagues and their students.

Of course, I will be spending lots of time with my family as well. After all, that is why I retired in the first place.

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Our St. Patrick's Day Gold

3/28/2015

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St. Patrick's Day was a special day for my family. It was the birth day of our newest granddaughter. I could hardly wait to get to Victoria to hold her in my arms and give her great big cuddles. Her 2 brothers and her sister were excited, but nervous to hold her. I love this picture of them at the hospital with their new little sister.

These cute little bunnies were waiting for them when they arrived. Each one has a necklace with one child's name on it. This made it easy for them to figure out who got each bunny. My sister made the little hats for them. Don't you love the little shamrocks?

Spring Break just started for us, so I get to spend the next two weeks enjoying my grandchildren and celebrating 3 birthdays and Easter with them. What could be better than that? I will be tired, but happy by the end of the break. All the cuddles will be worth it.

I won't have a lot of time for blogging or posting while I am hanging out with my grandchildren, but I did want to let you know that there is something big coming. Watch out for more details soon.

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A Very Busy May!

5/24/2014

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It's been a crazy month, and I have not been able to stop long enough to blog. So many things have happened in the last few weeks, it would take a small novel to share it all. Here are a few highlights. Some of them are not school related this time.

Mother's Day activities

My class did many different activities to prepare for Mother's Day. A highlight for them was the Mother's Day Magazine they made. This was a a product created by Tracey Schumacher of The Teacher's Chair.

Mother's Day was a special day for me as well. My son and daughter-in-law took me out for a special breakfast at April Point along with her mom and her brother. This was her first time as a mom as well.

He gave me a funny card, but this was written inside. My heart melted.

My grandchildren were in a dance recital last weekend, so of course we made the trip to Victoria to watch them. Here is my granddaughter showing off her makeup.

Here they are waiting in the room downstairs ready for their turn to perform.

Trying to complete projects with all the special events and activities was difficult, but we finally completed our plan for a zoo. The engagement with this project was incredible. I am so proud of the results. Not only did they learn to work with grids and keys, but they also learned to work cooperatively and come to consensus in their groups. They also really enjoy pretending to be photographers with their paper ipads. This project was based on Create a Zoo by Melissa Shutler
If you would like to see the original project, click here.

Like many others, we have been busy with assessments and testing. I am so glad to finally have that out of the way. Now to deal with job action. Starting Monday, we are on rotating strikes around the province. This final month is sure to be eventful as well. Hopefully it will have many happy moments to help us forget about the difficult ones.

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Whirlwind of Activity and a New Grandchild

4/4/2014

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Wow! What a busy couple of weeks this has been. I can't believe how fast time has flown. My poor blog has been neglected as I have tried to juggle a guest blog, grandchildren, spring break activities, income tax for family members, and school commitments. For the most part, it has been a time of great blessings, but I am exhausted.
I decided that I needed to get busy and connect with my blogging friends again, so I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for this weeks Five for Friday.

Spring Break was a whirlwind for us as we headed to Victoria and spent the time with our families. I spent most of the time looking after my grandchildren and helping out where I could taking my grandson to kindergarten and doing things with the other two grandchildren as well. Needless to say, when I returned home on Sunday, I was tired, but happy.

School started up again on Monday. I arrived at school and was greeted by 2 new students. Needless to say, I didn't have anything prepared for them, so I have been scrambling to include them in what we have been doing.

Monday morning at 8:30 a.m. our newest grandchild was born. This is our second son's first child, so we are very excited for him. We are looking forward to seeing this new little family member this weekend.

We are heading to Victoria to celebrate our grandson's 6th birthday this weekend. This is a double celebration for us, since our newest grandson will be there too. I can hardly wait.

Thursday night was the Long Service Awards dinner for district employees. I received my 25 year pin. It was great to see so many of my colleagues there and celebrate with them.

Well, that is a glimpse of my week. Next week looks like it will be just as busy. Have a great weekend everyone.

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Hundreds Day, Valentines Day, and More Olympics

2/14/2014

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Wow! What a busy February. We just completed Chinese New Year, Groundhog Day, and the opening events of the Olympics last week, and now we are into Hundred Day Week, Valentines Day, and more Olympics. Time is moving so quickly.

product created by A. Rossi

pages shrunk down so that there are 4 per page.

Different classes have Hundreds Day on different days due to gradual entry for Kindergarten and whether or not the first day starts with our new classes or with our old classes. Therefore, we celebrate Hundreds Week. Tables are put in the hall for displaying collections of one hundred. Our class decided to do a booklet of 100 idioms because we have been focusing on them this term.

We also spent the day doing other activities to do with 100. There are so many great products on TpT and from teacher bloggers, that I had trouble picking just a few to use this year. We did some graphing with the pizza template, finding the mouse with Susanna's Whimsy Workshop poster of 100 cats and a mouse, coloring shapes on the number 100, and of course, we finished our 100 idioms booklet.

I have been madly printing, laminating and cutting cards for Valentines Day and the Olympics. These two sets are ready to go. I also have several activities for the day. We will be doing games, writing, and math with a Valentines theme for Friday. We will also do some more with the Olympics.
We have been lucky enough to get a small glimpse of what has been happening with our athletes during the morning with the online streaming. We usually get to see about 10 minutes of the various events when we are checking for daily results. It is so exciting to see the kids' react when our athletes are competing.

Here in British Columbia, we also celebrated Family Day on Monday. This meant a long weekend for us. It was my grandson's first birthday, and also my mother-in-law's birthday this month, so we had a combined celebration with the family. My mother will be celebrating her birthday in a couple of weeks also, along with my granddaughter, so we will have another celebration at the beginning of March.

To top off the week, our honor ukulele group,Pacifica Ukes, is going down island to perform for a Valentines concert on Friday evening. This is a great opportunity to share music with others.

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Back Home, Best and Most Linky, and Back to School Sale

8/17/2013

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I am back in Canada and preparing for a new school year. It has been a busy couple of days readjusting to the time zone, checking out and beginning to organize my classroom, and getting caught up on all the correspondence and blogs. I feel somewhat overwhelmed at the moment, but I know that I will be able to get things done.
I had a fabulous time with family in Korea, followed by my trip to Hawaii for my niece's wedding. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, but I have hundreds of pictures and memories to hold on to until the next time we meet.

Back to School Sale "Best and Most" Linky
hosted by Christina Bainbridge

I just found this great linky while going through my blog list, and I couldn't resist linking up. Here are my choices for my yearbook page.

Teacher's Pet

My favorite product is my Student Led Conferences Materials package. I have used it for over 15 years and I still find it as helpful as ever when meeting with parents and children in 3 way conferences.

It has everything you need to prepare for a successful conference.

Most Likely to Help Students Succeed

I have chosen Money Lessons for Children for this spot. So much of what we learn in school seems to be disconnected to the real world, so this past year my students and I focused on making this unit together. It gives them the tools to be able to work with money in real life situations and it helps them to understand how money is earned and spent.

Best Couple

For the best couple, I would have to choose:
Who Are We? Discovering Our Roots and
Flat Family Project.
Although they may not seem connected, I used them to serve similar purposes in my room.

Who Are We? Discovering Our Roots is a project that allows for a variety of ways to represent learning. It is also a great way to learn more about our heritage and celebrate who we are.

Flat Family Project is based on the Flat Stanley books, but with a twist. Instead of sending Flat Stanley on an adventure, students create flat families and send them to families or friends around the world. This is another great way to find out more about places in the world while learning more about our own heritage. It has been a fabulous project that my kids enjoy doing. It is so exciting to see the looks on their faces when packages arrive from other places. The people sending them back add personal anecdotes and momentos as well.

I have so much more that I would love to share, but it will have to wait for the next time. Meanwhile, don't forget about the big back to school sale going on this weekend at TpT. Everything in my store will be 20% off from Aug. 18-20, so now is a good time to check out my yearbook choices as well as other products in my store.