Class Antics – Inside Elementary Education

Teasing and glasses envy: New glasses wearers worry about peer pressure and teasing, but in my experience, this rarely happens in elementary school.  Rather, I find that other students catch a bad case of glasses envy.  They borrow the glasses of the “lucky” nearsighted students and wear their dad’s old geek glasses to school.  They even buy glasses accessories in stores like Claire’s at the mall.

Destruction: Once kids have their glasses, they often destroy them the first week (or day) out.  Glasses tend to cause headaches until the wearer is used to them, so kids set their glasses down anywhere.  My family still talks about the first day I got glasses (in 3^rd grade!) and for some reason I set my glasses on the floor.  My big brother accidentally stepped on them. 

Glasses that go missing: Students lose glasses all the time.  Many students need glasses, but their eyes aren’t really bad yet, so they only use them for certain tasks.  This means the student is always setting the glasses down somewhere.  Consequently, glasses get left in the computer lab, lunchroom, gym, library, or school bus.  If a child is missing glasses, send the student and a buddy to check the lost and found and whatever special you had the day they went missing.  Then check the main office.  Before you officially declare the glasses MIA, offer the whole class a chance to find them.

“Forgetting” to wear glasses: Some kids just don’t take to glasses, and they start “forgetting” to bring them to school (or home).  Give it a shot and remind the child for a day or three, but I strongly recommend that you make no promises to the parents about reminding the child to wear his glasses.  You don’t want the onus of a stubborn child’s glasses-avoidance issues on you.

The beginning of the school year is a classic time for kids to have trouble with their eyesight.  In third or fourth grade, many students who previously didn’t wear glasses suddenly need them.

Symptoms include the obvious—squinting, asking to move closer to the board, and headaches.  These are usually apparent at the beginning of the school year.  Many kids’ eyes may have changed over the summer, but families didn’t notice because very few people need to see the whiteboard from their living room couch.

Talk to your school nurse and ask when it’s convenient to send a child down for a screening.  Make sure the screening is during class time, not a special class or, heaven forbid, recess.  No need to add missing fun to the child’s stressful experience of taking a vision test the teacher recommended. Watch students all year because new cases will crop up. 

Finally, from the School of Hard Knocks, I offer this tip: not all kids will thank you for referring them to the school nurse for vision screening.  They’ll blame you for quite a while.  I think that you have a moral obligation to refer the child to the school nurse anyway.

No-Name papers are a real pain.  Different teachers have different ways of dealing with them. 

Some teachers automatically hand No-Name papers back, often in the form of a “No-Name Box” that students are supposed to check if their work wasn’t graded.  I recommend against this because savvy but lazy students like to fish through the No-Name papers and turn them in as their own work.  Plus, often the teacher actually does know who created the paper, so the exercise just draws out the processing time for the paper and creates extra work for the teacher.

I created the No-Name Form as my answer to No-Names.  I can almost always identify No-Name papers because my student number* system is so good.  My kids turn in their work to numbered boxes, so I always have everything in order, nice and easy to input in the grade book.   If I have a No-Name between papers 18 and 20, I can bet it belongs to student 19.  I just write the student’s name on the paper, stick a No-Name Form on his desk, and make a note so I remember to collect the No-Name form.

You can print my No-Name form, which has students practice writing their name and number correctly.  Just assign these for every No-Name paper.  I find that this fixes mild cases of the No Names and might eventually reform No-Name kids.

The big surprise was that students found the No-Name paper to be fun!  It’s supposed to be a reminder, but the kids just love it.  They do No-Name forms just for fun.  Sometimes they create cool zigzag patterns on the form by indenting their name a little more on each successive line.

Another surprise was that some kids offer to help a student who is way behind on his No-Name Forms.  If the kids are smart enough and generous enough to think of this, I allow it to happen (with my knowledge and consent.)  I think it’s community building.  My parents taught me that in the Air Force, this type of helping-with-the-punishment was one of the highest levels of teamwork.  I always tell the No-Name offender to make sure and do something nice for the helper.

If you decide to use the No-Name form, print it on scratch paper if you can.  No need to use good paper on such a mundane task!

*I assign student numbers the first day of school and teach my class the “Name and Number Song.”

Nicknames can be a great way to build community. Students love to have a special name just for them, and they feel valued when classmates use their nickname.

Some teachers assign nicknames on the first day of school. It’s a good way to break the ice. I’ve never tried that because I’m not sure I can come up with so many nicknames on the fly.

You might like to coin nicknames as the year goes on. Always ask the student’s permission before using a nickname you thought of yourself.

After you’ve given a few nicknames, tell the kids to let you know if they create a cool nickname for themselves. If you deem the nickname appropriate, encourage the class to make an effort to use it. Using the nickname is like a gift from one student to another. Students are so proud when their nickname catches on. Often it follows them past the end of the school year.

Ideas for creating nicknames:

Talents: Winners of contests or class experts might develop nicknames based on that, such as Miss Multiplication.

Actual names: You might be able to use alliteration to create a catchy nickname based on a student’s first or last name. An example is DJ Jazzy Jeff (the Fresh Prince’s pal.) If you’re lucky, you might find a cool rhyme, such as Racin’ Jason.

Last names that sound cool: Some kids just have awesome last names. They might like to be called by that. It sounds really jock. Jocular, too! New word alert—jockular: of or pertaining to a friendly jock.

Awesome prefixes: Sometimes you can add an awesome word to the student’s name to create a cool nickname. Two famous examples Magic Johnson and Joltin’ Joe. Athletic kids might like a strong name with Action, Power, Super, or some other similar “prefix.”

Initials: Some people’s initials sound awesome. This is a classic source of nicknames.

Cut-up names:This is a variation on Fun with Initials. Think A-Rod and JLo.

Objects: You might create a nickname based on something the student likes, or just a cute word that fits the student. Cupcake is an adorable nickname. Boots is fun and classic.

Famous association: Your student might have a name, talent or hobby that can tie into a song, movie or band name. Talented dancers might like Dancing Queen or Tiny Dancer.

Heroes: if a student has a hero, maybe that hero’s name or a variation of it should be their nickname. A girl who loves to sing might like to be called Beyoncé. A student might like to be called after his favorite team or mascot.

Many teachers seat students in table groups.  These groups can be Teams, Tribes, Learning Communities, or whatever your school calls them.

Some educators advocate getting student buy-in by having students name their groups.  There are a few reasons I’m not nuts about this approach:

1. It takes forever.
2. It’s not educational.
3. Kids come up with silly names that aren’t catchy or are just plain dumb.
4. Kids argue.  A lot.  How exactly was this teambuilding, again?
5. The kids who don’t get their way hate the new team name.

Instead, I name the teams myself using educational themes.   I might pick a bunch of math vocabulary words, Greek gods, key words for our Social Studies unit, parts of speech (Go, Adverbs!)…you get the idea.

Some of my coolest team names came about because I like to have seven tables in my classroom—it just fits well, and there are so many things that come in sevens.

1. Seven continents
2. Seven Wonders of the World (various lists)
3. Seven notes (Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do—we did this when we performed the song in our school talent show)
4. Seven colors—Roy G. Biv. (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet)
5. The Seven Dwarfs come to mind, but parents might complain about their child being in the Dopey group.  Even though the kids love it and everyone wishes they were Dopey.  Seriously—one year I organized math teams and asked the kids if they’d like to be the Seven Dwarfs.  The rule was that the Dopey kids had to be volunteers.  Everyone wanted to be Dopey and we had to draw straws.  No one complained, but it could have happened!

When I was a new teacher, I looked so young that I blended in with the kids.  People would stop by my room and suffer a moment of panic thinking there was no teacher present.

I solved this problem with the Visitor Procedure.  I teach it to my students on the first day of school.

When a visitor enters the room, the first person who notices says “Class, we have a visitor!”

The whole class says in unison, “Hi!  We’re glad you’re here!”

Then the students are supposed to be dead silent while the visitor says his piece.

When the visitor leaves, someone (usually me) says, “Class, our visitor is leaving!”

The whole class says in unison, “Bye!  We’re glad you came!”

 We practice this by sending volunteers into the hall to enter and exit as visitors.  It takes about five tries of each phrase to really get it down, but the exercise is well worth the effort.

Our visitor procedure is one of the hallmarks of my class.  It’s a really fun way to build community and greet people at the same time.

Plus, it’s a nice little alert system so you know someone has come into your classroom.  You’ll see!

When you brand your classroom (in the marketing sense, not as in labeling your kids like cattle), everything becomes more fun.  Branding builds community because your class feels more like a club than a randomly assigned group of students.

My last name is Green and I teach third grade, so I branded my classroom G3.  On the first day of school, I taught the kids how to do a class huddle and congratulate ourselves.  (I say “Go, us!” and the kids reply “G3!” in their deepest and most macho voices.) We also created a logo that we proudly displayed on our door. 

The G3 brand belongs to everyone in the class, as evidenced by the decorations on folders, notebooks and even backpacks.  Our PTSO created signing shirts for end-of-year autographs, and the kids all wanted G3 on their shirt.

I knew a teacher whose classroom was in the basement, Room B-6.  She renamed her classroom “The  BOG” as wordplay on B-o6, then she used frogs as a theme for everything related to her class. 

Another teacher chose ladybugs for a theme — her students were “Lovebugs,” as in “Lovebug, what better choice could you have made to get your homework turned in on time?” Her students loved everything she said!

I highly recommend that you create a brand for your classroom.  It can be a play on your name or grade, the school name, or a theme that you can use to decorate the classroom.  Make it unique so that it only applies to your class.  The “insider” feeling will be well worth the effort for you and for your students.

The first week of school can be a letdown.  The kids so looked forward to it, but the reality is they’re mostly just learning procedure and playing getting-to-know-you games with same kids they’ve been stuck placed with for years.

I highly recommend that you actively teach on the first day of school.  I already wrote a blog entry about that, so here is a refinement on the concept.

Throw Down a Challenge!

Make it voluntary, and make it a stretch—but not too big of a stretch.  You want something in the class’s Zone of Proximal Development.  (The teacher word for the level that’s within reach but a little bit of a stretch.)

Memorizing a short poem, learning the names of the continents, mastering a times table, writing a story or essay, finishing a back-to-school review packet—these are just a few example of possible challenges.

You might consider discussing your challenge with teachers in the grade level below you to see if it is appropriate.

Give the students about 5 school days to do the challenge.  You can have some sort of small reward, or you can just have students who achieve the goal write their names on the board or put their names on a bulletin board.  Your call.

I like to give whole-class incentives for 100% attainment of a goal, but I wouldn’t do that with the first challenge.  You don’t know your students well enough, and the challenge might be way beyond some of them.

I hope you find that throwing down a challenge is a fun and educational experience for your class.

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At many schools, families bring items from the school supplies list to Meet the Teacher Night.  Nowadays, most supplies are collected by the teacher to be used by the whole class.

I highly recommend that you implement a system for dealing with these goods.  If you don’t, you will spend hours dealing with school supplies.

Cubbies are ideal.  You can make quick labels saying things like “paper,” “Kleenex” or “pencils” and families will sort the supplies for you.  The kids really enjoy it, and parents are happy to help.  Set aside ample room for bulky supplies like tissue, reams of copy paper, and Clorox wipes.

If you don’t have cubbies, designate bins, countertops, bookshelves, student desks, tables, or just patches on the floor for various supplies.  You’ll be glad that the supplies are at least sorted.

You can put the supplies away before school starts—or not.  If school starts the day after Meet the Teacher Night, don’t deal with the supplies after families leave.  Just go home and get some sleep!  The kids can help you put them away.  It’s a fun team-building activity.  Really.

Veteran teachers: showing new teachers how to do this is probably the number one thing you can do to help short of assisting in actual classroom setup.  Last year I showed our new kindergarten teachers how to do this, and they all said I saved them hours.

Many schools hold Meet the Teacher Night a day or two before school starts.  If your school offers this, be sure to attend.  The event can allay many back-to-school jitters for parents and for students.

Meet the Teacher Night is just that—a chance to meet the teacher.  Don’t plan on having a parent-teacher conference of any length.  The classroom will be full of other families and the teacher’s attention is divided.

If you have an important message that the teacher must know on Day 1, give it in two forms: oral and written.  Introduce yourself and your child, then give your important message.  Stress that it’s important.  It’s also a good idea to leave a short note on your child’s desk, or the teacher’s desk.  Only do this for something truly critical, like a health issue.

Don’t get too worked up about who is or isn’t in your child’s new class.  These things tend to work out.  One exception is if your child is placed with a student who bullied him or her last year.  Alert the teacher in private, but you really need to talk with the principal that night, and tell the teacher you are doing so.

Some schools have a tradition of families bringing in school supplies for Meet the Teacher Night.  If so, be sure to participate because you can lighten your child’s load on the first day of school.

Assessments abound at back to school time, and one test your child will face is the “Writing Sample.” Shortly after spending a summer goofing off, your child will be tasked with spending several hours (over a few days) to write an essay.

It’s pretty obvious to most teachers that many students never even hold a pencil during summer break. Imagine your child dealing with that on top of the stress of having to write an essay. The results aren’t pretty.

You can help your child by encouraging him to write something—even a paragraph—before school starts. It will make a difference. By the way, this is a good time to have the “what is a paragraph?” talk with your child. I can’t tell you how many children ask me that question during the writing sample. It’s a good thing that last year’s teacher can’t hear them.

Note: I don’t want to cause stress to you and your child about these back-to-school assessments. I merely want to show you how to help your child brush up skills so her work reflects their actual ability, not the results of summer slide.

How is your child at reading aloud? Did you know that this one skill is the main reading diagnostic test for many schools?*

As you prepare for back to school, I strongly suggest that you have your child practice reading aloud. This skill often takes a big hit during summer slide; nevertheless, students usually are evaluated on reading aloud within the first week of school. Have your child practice with appropriate grade-level books if you can, but use easier books if your child is not a strong reader. Check for fluency: a natural cadence, automatic word decoding, good pronunciation and accuracy.

Ten minutes a day is plenty for a child who already reads at grade level (or did at the end of last school year.) If your child was just barely making it last school year, this summer practice is essential and should be longer. You’ll probably want to break it into two fifteen minute chunks a day, more if the child is motivated. For struggling readers, you might want to read the material aloud before the child reads it. Another trick is to read aloud with your child, pulling him along. This is better than having the child stumble through the text.

*One common test is DIBELS, the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. It measures how many words your child accurately reads from a grade-level passage in a minute. Schools use this test to quickly identify struggling readers. Teachers often use it to form reading groups.

Note: I don’t want to cause stress to you and your child about these back-to-school assessments. I merely want to show you how to help your child brush up skills so her work reflects actual ability, not the effects of summer slide.

Many students have nervous jitters at back to school time. It helps to brush up on skills before returning to the classroom.

Ideally, you encouraged your child to read all summer. Regardless, reading a chapter book the week before school starts can make a difference. Besides the obvious benefits of improving skills, reading a chapter book puts your child back in an academic frame of mind. The experience of reading reawakens the child’s vocabulary, important for tests like Star Reading.

I think the most important benefit of reading a chapter book before school starts is extending the child’s attention span. Reading a chapter book (or listening to a parent read aloud) helps avoid this problem for your child.

I know a teacher who distributes a short chapter book to each entering sixth grader at Meet the Teacher Night, two days before school starts. Each child is given homework: finish the book and be ready to take an AR (Accelerated Reader) test on the first day of school. This exercise shows the students and families that sixth grade is serious and provides all the benefits I just described.

Note: I don’t want to cause stress to you and your child about these back-to-school assessments. I merely want to show you how to help your child brush up skills so her work reflects actual ability, not the effects of summer slide.

Kids and teachers know: back to school is the real New Year. Kids are full of nervous jitters at this exciting time. You can really help by reviewing key concepts before the first day of school.

Ideally, you followed some sort of program to combat summer slide, that significant decline in skills over the prolonged time off. Regardless, a concerted effort the week before school starts can make a difference.

Review basic math facts! I can’t stress this enough. Your child needs to get the same (correct) answer every time. Quick test: ask your child what 5+8 is. If your child doesn’t answer immediately, she needs to study. If your child was super-slow to solve 5+8, back up with easier problems like 3+2, and, last ditch, 3+1. The results might horrify surprise you.

Use flash cards, math games, drill worksheets from Dad’s Worksheets, or my free software: Best Times Tables Practice EVER! and Best Addition Practice EVER!