The Bobcat Roar

I don't know about you, but I feel so lucky to work at Barnes with so many talented teachers. In September, teachers have been focusing on teaching routines and procedures as well as jumping into the standards. Take a look at some of the awesome ideas your fellow teachers have been implementing in their classroom:

• Vickie Thompson has a wonderful, open classroom, and when they come to the carpet, students sit in a U-shape by their name. She was doing a read aloud of Chrysanthemum and having students use evidence from the text to support their answers.
• Mrs. Sullivan's students talked about ways to stay safe on the playground and the bus.
• Mrs. Johnson's students listened to a read aloud of Chrysanthemum and answered questions using evidence from the text.
• Ms. McMillan's students used a Brain Smart Start to make connections and make commitments to one another.
• Mrs. Cherry has implemented flexible seating in her classroom and uses a chart with clips to track which students are sitting where. Students also had a trial to practice their inferencing skills to determine how Mrs. Cherry got locked out of her house and found a mysterious bag of items outside of her house.
• Mrs. Towns' students reviewed their sounds for Letterland and identified beginning sounds that they heard in words.
• Ms. Ellis' class learned how to make a podcast this week and recorded stories about their most embarrassing moments. Their reactions to hearing themselves was priceless!

I was able to "catch" some of our awesome Bobcat Teachers on video. Check out their videos by clicking on the links below.

• Mrs. Cherry had her students teaching the class their routines and procedures and has incorporated some great Call and Response techniques.
• Students in Mrs. Cherry's class held a mock trial and had Mrs. Cherry testify in her own defense.
• Mrs. Towns' students reviewed their Letterland characters and sounds.
• When transitioning, Ms. McMillan had her students do stretching and breathing techniques before beginning the next task.

Do you find that your students are rather chatty? Try strategies for turning their chattiness into productive classroom discussions. When students can have discussions about what they are learning, this can help them to synthesize what they have learned as well as a formative assessment opportunity for you to know if students are grasping the concept. Check out this resource on Structured Student Talk to find strategies for student discussion. There is also a short video from the Teaching Channel on a variation of the Turn and Talk Strategy. Click on the buttons below to explore these resources.