Data/RtI Binder

 
Small Group forms one of our CIS's made for us. Makes it hard to keep anecdotal information separate from each student. Guess that's where post-its are gonna be helpful or I may just need to find a new form or way to document individual information.

 I have my students use their mailbox numbers for everything. I found these numbered tabs (1-24), not too many not too few, and behind each number, I have 18 kids, is there data, benchmark info, anecdotal records. I use the conference forms from The 2 Sisters.

 

Here's the binder together. That very first tab is a calendar of when benchmarks are to be administered & general information given to us by our district & campus.

10 Weeks Down, 26 to Go!

Almost halfway through the year & gawsh, I'm exhausted! I'm becoming a bit more adept at finding things to use for my organizational tendencies to improve & things to help make a tough year a bit more fun & interesting for my kiddos & me. Let's face it, if momma ain't happy, no one is, though we teachers do a pretty good job of hiding it. Anywho, some things I've found this past week that I'm going to be using, 1st one is a freebie! :)

Chevron Editable Binder Covers or for whatever use you feel the need to have a cover page for, designed by A Year of Many Firsts. I lurve the color combos she used. They work nicely with my already colorful binders I get from Staples :)

I also downloaded this to Ultimate Guided Reading Binder with forms & ideas to help me keep track of all my GR groups, from Lesson Plan SOS Teachers. It gave me the idea to start a Math Binder to keep track of all my GM groups too.

While I have Guided Reading & Guided Math binders to document during small group time, I have one catch all binder, my RtI binder. I'll post pictures of it next.

Hoping with some new colorful items I'll be more motivated to get done the things I need to get done!

It's just a few things, but totally worth it :)

Super Conferences & Newsletters

Really Good Stuff

To increase parent involvement this year, we're even more encouraged to up our communication with our kids' parents.

Last year I bought Parent Communication Journals from Really Good Stuff. My parents loved this last year, but budgetary issues prevented me from getting these again. Next year our admin says we'll probably get planners again like we used too, so excited!!! I miss those.

This year I got 2 pocket folders with brads (HERO Folders), I put a behavior calendar with loose leaf paper inside. My kids color in which color they landed on at the end of the day. Of course they also have the pockets for "papers to be signed & returned" & "papers to keep at home."

For the past 2 years our district has gotten rid of designated parent conference days. They used to have 2 early out days every semester specifically for teachers to schedule parent conferences with each child's parent(s). Well they still haven't designated those days, but our school has required us to have conferences this year. I created some notices & reminders for my conferences this year. Of course in keeping with my superhero theme I used a still from The Incredibles :)

As I'm doing conferences I had most of my parents say they love my newsletter. Well I have Mrs. Magee over at Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) to thank for that. I bought/downloaded her Superhero Newsletter template & with the comic book fonts I got from 1001 Free Fonts I'm digging my communication files & apparently so are my parents. I used pretty her same section titles, but added my own twist. I do a Superhero of the Week, the kids can't wait to see who it's going to be each week. I kept her "What We're Learning" & that's what my parents love the most, they can always ask their kids about their day/week & they know what's being taught, so no surprises :)

I blogged about my data binder last time, since I'm only ankle deep in guided reading, intervention & math groups I'll be posting more on that later.

Keep sane everyone, the kids are getting frisky with the cooler weather & they know Halloween's-a-brewin' right around the corner :)

Data, AYP & Intervention Lesson Plans

So my school didn't do so well the past couple years. To be fair our campus has been in flux for about 4-5 years now & things have caught up to us.

What this means for every teacher is that we have to document, document, document & document that we're documenting what we're documenting.

A few weeks ago we began doing our usual round of yearly benchmark beginning of the year (BOY) testing. So now we're in the throes of getting small groups put together for interventions & such.

I already use the conferring forms from The Daily Cafe, the Daily 5 website by The 2 Sisters. I got the idea for my data binder, which is called a pensieve, yes like in Harry Potter, from here. Great idea, total common sense, but it made sense finally here & since then I've seen incarnations all over the web.

Whilst poking around pinterest, I made time tonight, I found this link to The Curriculum Corner that had some great forms for tracking data & record keeping for reading interventions & small group info.

So I'm off to grade papers & complete my plans for this coming week. Can't believe it's October already, before you know it Halloween, my favorite holiday, will be here!!

I'll be back soon :)

Some Beginning of the Year Freebies :)

Some of my Beginning of the Year (BOY) letters & forms I used this year!

**Please download then edit, so that others can see & manipulate the originals as needed. Thanks!!!

Meet The Teacher Letter

HERO Folder Labels

Writer's Workshop Labels

Behavior Note to Send Home

Into The Great Wide Open Spaces

Whew, What a week!

First week obligations to getting our babies back into the routines of school: eating lunch with them every day to ensure proper lunchroom behavior, no recess due to high TX temperatures, procedure repetition (over and over and over and over again) until they get it.

Yeah, that last one I had to keep reminding myself about, lol. I was so used to my kiddos last year having just known by the end of the year what to expect & what was expected of them that I forgot I needed to get a new crew used to not only mine, but their new classmates' eccentricities. Made for a fun 1st day, hehe.

As the week went on I got to know my kiddos a little bit better. It's going to be a great year I can tell, I'm looking forward to all the new things I'm gonna learn from this group ;)

True there's a lot more things that will need to be done this year, but I think in all honesty it'll make me a better teacher & even more responsible & accountable than I have been, and that's ok, I can accept that.

Here's to 12-13 School Year!

A Little Motivation

I'm going to try & see if we can play this during our in-service next week :)

Ready For A Super Year!

I've been working non-stop the past few weeks getting my room & myself ready for the new school year. Thank heavens for Pinterest. A teacher told me about it last year & it's where I came upon the inspiration for my classroom theme this year. As most already know I'm going with Superheroes, which by sheer coincidence happens to match our "Super 2nd Grade" shirts we always get each year as a grade level.

It all started with a behavior chart pin I saw on Pinterest from 3rd Grade's a Hoot:

Here's my take on the Behavior Chart I saw:

I had a projector from the days when I started teaching a few years ago; since we had ceiling projectors installed 2 years ago I just have my extra at home. I hooked up the laptop & projected the superhero images, logos & bulletin board titles onto poster board that i taped up to my pantry door in the kitchen :) Once everything was traced out (I only did one thing at a time, btw) I hand painted the images with acrylic paints I got from Hobby Lobby. See here:
This really was too much fun to be considered work!


My Welcome Board:

My Student Work Board: (We're Batty for Super Work)

Wonderful Writing: (Writer's Workshop)

Flash Math:

I have a "Shine A Light on Reading" board with Green Lantern as the "mascot" but I was waiting on the laminator to finish the title.

Every classroom needs a Job Chart, I just added a title to my chart from last year, why reinvent the wheel, these jobs worked really well for me last year, so...

I downloaded a bunch of free "Comic" inspired fonts from www.1001freefonts.com. I even did my Word Wall letters in a comic font, just makes it so colorful!

As I was doing a little digging around once I decided on the theme I found an alternative title for a MOOSE folder/notebook, mine will be called a H.E.R.O. Folder: Have Everything Ready & Organized. I have set up labels in Word to make for the the kids' folders, one for my girls & Batman will represent the boys.

I'm gonna always be on the lookout now for superhero items & ideas for throughout the year.

I just hope the kids enjoy it, I know the novelty will wear off eventually, but I'm gonna try & milk this theme as much as possible. ;)

Now it's off to do some planning & finish my parent packets. See ya'll in a few days once we go back for In-Service!