Friday 25 November 2016

Wow!

I cannot believe it's been over an entire year since I posted here! I am sorry for my delay. It's a brand new school year and I'm still teaching grade 7/8. Last year, my first in intermediate, was a whirlwind and much of it is blurry... lol. New curriculum, new age, new division, new school. This year, I am more settled. I do love many things about teaching the older kids, but I do miss the younger ones too. But, I said I would give intermediate a few years. I'll do one more after this before I make a move into the middle school grades.

I have not been making anything for TPT because I'm still so new to the curriculum. But I will post when I find awesome things that help me in my daily teaching. I have students of all levels, from grade 3-8+ and I am always using TPT to help me find cool things to do with my class.

Speaking of which, TPT is having a Cyber Monday sale! Go on by and check it out. My store {Apple Bottom Beans} will be 20% off. It's all primary stuff, but you may find some of it useful.

Thursday 3 September 2015

11th Hour Reorganization

It's literally the last day to be at school before the kiddos arrive on Tuesday. Today, the principal was working on numbers and realized she needs to reorganize based on all of the new kids coming in and other kids leaving. This now means I am a straight grade 8 Teacher this year. And the girl who was going to be my intermediate buddy, is now teaching a 6/7 split. It's essentially good news for me aside from 2 challenging students they were trying to separate, but I'm sure things will be great.  Nothing like a change like this at the last minute! Gah!

Wednesday 2 September 2015

Classroom Tour 2015

My classroom, while almost done, is a work in progress. A progress that needs to hurry up since I only have today and tomorrow to get it ready! Here it is as it stands. I always change some things around when the kids get in because I see what is working for them, what's not, etc.


My classroom door. I put the whiteboard on the door so that I can write messages to students and other teachers/administrators letting them know where we are or if testing is in progress, etc.


Right inside my door, I have a small whiteboard with the days on it (from the dollar store) that has things that are due. Just a quick reminder to students as they leave or come in.


This is the bulletin board right outside my classroom in the hallway. I plan to showcase some student work and ideas there. The other is a close-up of the banner I made for my bulletin board header.


My view of the classroom from the door. I originally had the desks in rows, but after going to a workshop with the ABA specialist, I decided that groups would work better. I can also go back to rows if it's not working for the kids. The groups promotes a collaborative learning environment which is what our board is striving for.


I have lockers in my room. While I hate how dark the wood makes everything seem, I think the lockers will be beneficial. Hopefully. Above the lockers, I have all of my reference binders, etc. as well as some student texts that will eventually be handed out.


The back of my room where my teacher work area is and my U-table. The u table, while I will use it to help students, will also be a work area open to students who need a quieter spot or who are working in a group.


And finally, my super cute stool that I bought from my aunt for $10. I love it!

Friday 28 August 2015

New year... new name!

With my new PERMANENT teaching assignment being grade 7/8 {mostly 8} and with few resources out there in teaching blogs for teaching the intermediate grades, I think it is appropriate for me to rename and work on resources for the 7th and 8th grade teachers out there who don't want everything to look like it was pulled out of a 1976 textbook.

Here in my city, we do not have Junior High. Students in the intermediate grades {7/8} are in regular elementary classrooms with the students from K-6. That said, we do incorporate some things such as subject rotary. For example, I am going to each Science to both the grade 7/8 classes and the other teacher is going to cover History & Geography. When my class is with her, her class is with me for Science, etc.

When looking online for resources, what I found was very subject specific because people teach Junior High. There is not much that takes into account that I have the same class, all day, and am covering most of the subjects and running my classroom as if it's elementary, but catering it to the older student. That's where this blog comes in. As I create and come up with things through the year for my older students, I will post them here and hopefully someone will find them useful. :)

Thursday 27 August 2015

Genius Hour

Yesterday, I did some PD through our board's Summer Institute around technology in the classroom. I went to 2 different modules that were awesome and gave me some great ideas to use this year! This is where teaching intermediate is exciting to me.... previously, with the little nuggets in primary, I had to do a lot of hand holding and all of these wonderful project based learning ideas were lost on them (and me). Now, I have a class of older students who can work more independently and I really can take on the role of facilitator with them.

The first module I attended talked about creating a group of students to teach the teachers. Students who are interested (and willing to give up a few recesses, etc.) were going to spend time learning different apps on the iPads that teachers can use in the classrooms. These students then become the "experts" and then can teach other teachers in the school how to use it. The geniuses also got the opportunity to go into the classroom when the teacher was using the app with their students, and the genius could help through the lesson. Love this idea!

The next module I attended was about Genius Hour. If you haven't heard of it, here's a video you can watch that explains it nicely. I think I would even show this video with my grade 7/8 class.

Incorporating the two ideas, I plan to have my "expert squad" learn about the different presentation apps and work as the experts during our Genius Hours. These "experts" can teach their peers how to use the different apps to make their presentation awesome. I will post more and more as I move along with this process. We are now only 12 days away from the start of school!!!

Tuesday 21 July 2015

Why is Intermediate Stuff So Ugly?

I understand that 13 and 14 year olds don't need things that are all cutesy and juvenile, but seriously, does everything for grade 7 and 8 need to be so ugly and bland??? So I'm bucking tradition and I'm going to do things like put up fun and colourful things on the board and I'm going to put up their birthdays, and I'm going to try to brighten up their days in the littlest of ways. They are kids. And they don't need things to look so institutionalized. Blah.

Wednesday 8 July 2015

Blog Redesign

Researching now to teach 7th and 8th grades, I see there are very few teaching blogs dedicated to teaching these age groups. All of my resources and purchases have been for the primary grades. Now my focus has to switch entirely. Will 12 and 13 year olds appreciate cute? Or do things need to be "cool"?  What exactly IS cool? These are all things I need to learn about. Thankfully, I have the entire summer to think and learn.