school

Teacher Speak

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A mom friend recently asked me how to contact a “prickly” teacher because of a confusing project grade her daughter received. My mom friend happened to call on my parent teacher conference day, so I was already prepping myself for parent teacher conversations.

There are many lists out there about constructive ways for parents and teachers to communicate. My list below is by no means complete. Since I see both sides, I listed the top three pointers that are most useful to me as a parent and the top three that work well for me as a teacher.

The Parent Side

  1. If you would like a teacher to review a grade, make the question about the paper or grade (de-personalize as much as possible). If you start out your message by saying, “You (teacher) made a mistake,” the teacher will probably feel defensive. Teachers are better at responding to notes that say, “We don’t understand why points were deducted from the conclusion of the essay; could you explain?” Or, “We rechecked question #3 on the test and think it may have been mismarked. Can you look at it again?”
  2. Allow teachers 24 hours to respond to a phone message or e-mail. If you contact a teacher on a Friday afternoon, wait until Monday afternoon before sending another note. After two or three attempts without a response, you might contact the administrator for your child’s class. Try to avoid contacting the administrator without making the teacher aware first. Teachers feel ambushed when that happens.
  3. If you get any comments about material management, using assignment books more effectively, or missing assignments, you may want to focus on organization with your child. Establish routines at home for how, when, and where homework is completed. Keep bookbags and school papers in one place at home and always use that same location. Items won’t get lost or left behind as easily.

The Teacher Side

  1. Keep a Parent Contact Log in your grade book. If you call a parent or speak to a parent in person, note the date and topics discussed. This helps me the teacher be specific when a parent does not remember prior discussions about poor grades or disruptive behavior. If sending an e-mail, save that e-mail (and any replies) to a parent folder for the specific academic year. If it is taking two or three drafts to compose an e-mail, you probably need to just pick up the phone and call.
  2. Do not send home a failing grade on a progress report without contacting a parent first. In fact, if a child is going to fail a whole grading period, the teacher should have been in contact with the parent multiple times and have parent signatures on individual test grades and big assignments.
  3. Always start a conversation with something positive about the student. End the conversation with specific actions for the parents and/or student to keep improving. This is something I learned during student teaching, and it has always stuck with me.

Basically, it all boils down to showing respect. What are other successful strategies you have to avoid miscommunication between the parent and the teacher?

School Stories

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In Andrew Clements’ book The School Story, one character says that a school story is “a short novel about kids and stuff that happens mostly at school.” I asked a friend of mine who works in children’s publishing if this type of story really is one of the most popular genres in children’s literature as Clements implies in his book. She said that Clements is an expert at the school story and would know. I get it. These books are typically humorous and easy for children to read because they portray a world that the reader knows well– life at school. Here are a few titles that have received rave reviews from my children, my children’s friends, and my students. What other titles get a gold star?

Chapter Books for Upper Elementary Grades

  • Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger
  • Blubber by Judy Blume
  • Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea
  • Lunch Money, The School Story, No Talking, Frindle, or others by Andrew Clements
  • The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
  • 7th Level by Jody Feldman
  • Double Dog Dare by Lisa Graff
  • The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
  • Loser by Jerry Spinelli
  • Hank Zipzer series by Henry Winkler

Chapter Books for Primary Grades

  • Bailey School Kids series by Marcia T. Jones
  • Marty McGuire series by Kate Messner
  • Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park
  • Jigsaw Jones Mystery series by James Preller

Picture Books

  • Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
  • Miss Nelson series by James Marshall
  • David Goes to School by David Shannon
  • Miss Bindergarten books by Joseph Slate
  • How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? by Tolen and Teague
  • How the Second Grade Got $8205.50 to Visit the Statue of Liberty by Nathan Zimelman

On the Second Day of Gift Ideas

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I won’t be posting 12 days in a row of gift ideas, but I had a little momentum from yesterday’s watercolor painting post, so you get two ideas back to back! A year ago, my son came home from school raving about jelly marble experiments he had been performing in science class. It turns out, my local toy store carried this fun item, and we started giving them as birthday presents (great price point).

At Christmas last year, we bought several variations of the jelly marbles and gave them to all of the 4-8 year old family members. I even thought about using them as stocking stuffers for my own children.

What to Buy: Be Amazing! Toys has several options that are fun gifts. You can give the Amazing Spheres or Jiggly Jewels. We have also given the Insta Snow. After testing everything, the original jelly marble (AKA Amazing Spheres) was the fan favorite.

What to Do: The Steve Spangler website gives great suggestions for parents/teachers. At our house, we filled cups with water and added food dye. We let a few marbles grow in each color, then started moving them around to different colors to see if the colors would combine. We left them in for many days to see how big they would grow. We cut them in half to check out the inside. We tried different types of liquid (like cranberry juice or milk), which made a big difference on the growth rate. Basically, I left them by the kitchen sink, and my children messed around with them every day. I did not have to supervise too much, and as long as they stayed near the sink, there was very little clean up.

School Business

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About a week ago, my students started reading The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies as a novel study in class. I love teaching this book. Not only do the boys like it as much as the girls, but it is funny and has great practical information about money and starting a business. When the students finish reading the book, about half reach for the sequel, The Lemonade Crime by Davies. If The Lemonade Crime is checked out of the library, there are many other book recommendations (see list below) that portray a main character who gets things going. The characters might run a business, be the leader of a project, or become responsible for something significant.

This type of storyline promotes creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit. Many of these books teach students about the basics of business (profit, loss, partnership, etc.). I also like the fact that these books depict children as problem-solvers without a parent or adult handing them the easy solution. Although, there is usually a supportive adult somewhere in the story. What are your best “independent kid” books? I know I am missing some good ones.

Chapter Books

  • The Bread Winner by Arvella Whitmore
  • Crunch by Leslie Connor
  • The Secret School by Avi
  • Lunch Money by Andrew Clements
  • School Story by Andrew Clements
  • Hotel for Dogs by Lois Duncan
  • Tarantula Shoes by Tom Birdseye
  • Lawn Boy and Lawn Boy Returns by Gary Paulsen
  • Henry and the Paper Route by Beverly Cleary
  • Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce
  • The Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin
  • The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill

Picture Books

  • A Bargain for Frances by Russell Hoban
  • The Gardener by Sarah Stewart
  • The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
  • Sheep in a Shop by Nancy Shaw
  • Alexander, Who Used To Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst

Non-Fiction

  • The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton
  • Everyone Wears His Name: A Biography of Levi Strauss by Sondra Henry
  • Model T: How Henry Ford Built a Legend by David Weitzman
  • Chocolate by Hershey: A Story About Milton S. Hershey by Betty Burford
  • Kidpreneurs, Young Entrepeneurs with Big Ideas by Adam Toren and Matthew Toren
  • Growing Money: A Complete Investing Guide for Kids by Gail Karlitz and Debbie Honig

Ranking Words Vocabulary Activity

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I have several pet projects in my fourth grade class and expanding vocabulary is one of them. To me, acquiring new words can be like a puzzle. If students learn some Greek and Latin roots and prefixes, they can begin to mix and match and gain access to a whole cluster of words rather than memorizing one definition. If students play with synonyms and antonyms, they can have a mental thesaurus, so they avoid “boring” words like said or nice.

ranking words shades of meaning vocabulary activity #vocabulary

I am trying a new activity where students rank or qualify words from mild to extreme.

How can students rank vocabulary words?

Word Clusters: I created lists of related words, printed them on cardstock, and cut the words into strips. Visit my TeachersPayTeachers store to download the free activity plans.

Word Envelopes: I used white coin envelopes and wrote the common theme or topic on the front. Some topic suggestions are light, heat, cold, hunger, anger, and happiness.

Sorting: My local Lowe’s unknowingly donated a class set of paint chips to me. Students worked in pairs to rank the words in the coin envelopes from mildest to most extreme. Once they finished ranking, they copied their words onto the paint chips in order. They started with the most mild word on the light end of the paint chip and ended with the most extreme word on the darkest portion of the paint chip. The paint chip allowed for six words. Some coin envelopes contained more than six words, so students were supposed to decide which words were less effective and eliminate the extras. WARNING: Some students simply eliminate the unfamiliar words, so they do not have to reach for a dictionary.

The paint chips will be displayed in the classroom, so students can use these while writing.  Parents, if you are working with your child on a writing assignment at home and notice overused words, create a word rank chart. This is particularly helpful with said. Create a list of variations for said and rank them– whispered, murmured, squeaked, announced, screeched, screamed… Try it with very too!

Extensions: This activity can be used to build analogies. You can also skip the step where you provide the main topic on the front of the envelope and ask students to create a heading for the words in the envelope. All of these activities require critical thinking on the part of the child.

ranking words ring