The Back to School season is always so exciting, and stressful, for teachers and students alike. Students are often wondering who will be in their class this year; if they’ll like their teacher; if this year they’ll finally be more successful in math; etc. Teachers are often wondering if they’ll have new requirements thrown at them; if they’ll get along with that new staff member; how big their class size will be; if the new
Go teach!, formerly The Elmer’s Teacher Club, is an amazingly loud and incredibly proud new community created to inspire, empower, motivate and support educators like YOU! Join me and other teachers in this community by visiting the Go Teach! Facebook page. I have been the new teacher (or staff member) several times, and no matter what it’s never fun. I even returned to a building for a second time and was still incredibly nervous and felt
My first graders came to me with a lot of background knowledge on shapes and their properties. I was impressed with the amount of information they retained from kindergarten and from other learning experiences. Because we didn’t need to spend a ton of time on 2-D shapes it was the perfect opportunity to integrate art into our unit to help students continue to develop their understanding of shape properties and to demonstrate content mastery. Working at an
Fact fluency routines are often filled with worksheets and timed activities. They do have their place in the classroom, but they’re not very engaging. While I’ve definitely learned that fact fluency does not mean 1 second recall and strict timing systems, I also firmly believe that having a strong memorization of facts helps students focus their mental effort and energy on the larger math skills at hand. It’s important to build fact fluency in students.
I’ve spent the last 15 years teaching in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades, and working beside elementary classrooms as an instructional coach and resource support. I’m passionate about math, literacy, and finding ways to make teachers’ days easier. I share from my experiences both in and out of the elementary classroom. Read more About Me.
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