School and the City

Are you face-to-face or virtual? My district is currently all virtual, at least for the time being. I want to make sure that you are equipped to use resources you already have with your students, albeit digitally. Use what you already have - no need to completely reinvent the wheel! I have three tips for you to use PDF resources digitally. Work smarter, not harder! I'm going to use my text features products as the examples, which are great to tie in science and social studies content with your literacy instruction! 1. Grab Only the Pages You Need If you are emailing resources to parents, here's a trick to end up with only the pages you need from a PDF document. Go to "File," then "Print" like you normally would to print. Select the pages you want to use. Find the spot to designate the printer. Instead of a printer, though, choose "PDF" or "Save as PDF." Make sure to name your new document specif...

I'm still shocked and in disbelief, but here we are planning for the first week of virtual school. We will be starting the school year virtually this year. In the past, I've shared with you my day-by-day plans for the first week of school . These plans won't exactly work this year, but many elements will. While I don't know exactly what "school" is going to look like this year, I do know that the first week of virtual school will need to include the same kinds of activities that we usually do in order to set expectations for the year and build relationships with students . Setting Expectations Use Picture Books My favorite way to discuss behavior expectations is through the use of picture books . If you have hard copies of these books, you can record yourself reading them to your students. If you don't have them or can't access them, try finding read alouds on YouTube or eBooks on platforms like Epic and...

Here are 5 of my favorite, tried and true ways that I use to get to know my new students. Teachers and students alike will love this back to school community building activities! 1. Survey Your Students I think it's so important to survey your students during the first week of school! I typically use surveys as morning work and keep them to refer to all year long. There are tons of free and paid surveys on TPT and elsewhere, but after a few years, I made some tailored to my needs. The first survey I use is one that asks students about their learning styles and preferences. This helps me make environmental decisions about dimming lights, playing music, and so on. Another survey that I find to be important is about what holidays students celebrate. I have an amazingly diverse student population, and it is imperative that I am inclusive to all students. For example, I don't want to do any Halloween activities in my classroom if I have any students ...