Resolutions

Wow. Who would have thought I'd survive the first quarter? One down, three more to go! Based on the lack of blog posts here for the past (ehem) three months, it's easy to say that I am BUSY, and whatever time I have left I spend for myself. 

So, let's start anew, shall we? :)

I came up with a list of resolutions that I am to achieve this quarter. These are the things that I would have wanted to have in the beginning of the school year, but wasn't able to due to many reasons (numerous class suspensions is one).

2nd Quarter Resolutions:

Anchor charts
I love, love, LOVE anchor charts. My only problem is that I don't think I can do them. I'm really not creative enough for these things.    Whenever I would write something on a chart paper, my OC-ness would always kick in, and I always end up redoing everything because the lines are crooked or my handwriting sucks.  I'm also thinking of a way how I can mount the charts. Since I teach three sections, I don't want to waste time and energy in doing three similar anchor charts. I also don't want to keep on using tape to post them on the board, since it will take too much time mounting them. I remember my elementary teachers would use big bulldog clips and a string to hang the chart on the board. Problem is, my classrooms don't have those little hooks for hanging. I could probably use some big magnets so I can post them easily. i want to be known as Ms. Anchor Charts haha!

I could probably do something like these.

But these would be too complicated for me!

More Independent work
I already did one center last quarter, and another one this week. Those days were a breeze for me! I also want to come up with enrichment activities that I could give my early finishers. Almost half of my girls are for enrichment, so most of them finish ahead of time and usually just chats afterwards. I want them to use their time wisely and invest in something they can learn from. I usually bring my girls to the library for independent seat works so that the girls who finish first may read a book. But I can't always bring them to the library, as much as I would like to. So I probably need to come up with early finishers activities, something related to vocabulary development so I can hit two birds with one stone.

This is from Fabulous Fourth Grade. I would have loved to see all task cards hehe. Someday I'll come up with my own. Dream big! :)

Intervention Group
I must admit that I kind of neglected the groupings by the end of the quarter. Though I closely monitor my Intervention Group every meeting, I would have wanted to make it more deliberate to see deliberate results. I will be starting with my after-school remedial classes next week and I'm hoping for the best :)

Attention Getters

My girls love to chat. A lot. They're girls, so what do you expect? Whenever the class gets noisy I just pause and wait for them to settle down. This worked well with my previous students, but the batch of girls that I have now are less sensitive to this (unfortunately). So I tried the whisper trick, which worked for a while. Then I also did the "Clap your hands once if you can hear me" trick, which also worked, though some would deliberately clap their hands repeatedly just to attract attention (mga KSP!). I need to think of more ways to grab their attentions to keep them on their toes. 

I also thought of doing time out cards. But I still need to read up on how I can actually execute this on a positive way.

I have to admit that the First Quarter was a blur to me. It went by too quickly but it seemed to me that it dragged on for months! Hoping for a better a Second Quarter and achieve my goals. I'll keep you posted! (I'll try...haha)

xo,

KC