Classroom Management Links and Tips

Every Teacher needs a suggestion or two about where to find the best of the best on the web.  Here are a few that I simply can't live without.  Most are absolutely free!  I have noted those sites that charge as small annual fee.

Classroom Management

• Grading - Jupiter Grades offers a free web-based grade book that is fully customizable to your needs.  My favorite feature is that I can instantly print off a progress report for any student on demand.  I use this feature regularly as a communication tool with families who request frequent updates about a student's progress.  There is also a fee based subscription which allows users to e-mail parents and gives parents and students access to their individual grades.
  http://jupitergrades.com/
• Teacher Website - TeacherWeb allows you to create a website for your classroom.  It is template based and fairly user friendly.  I like it because it allows me to save pages that I take down and re-post them at a later time (e.g: Next year's class).  Many of my colleges post daily homework and report this makes for happy parents who can now better manage their child's assignments.  I find the fees nominal for the gain in communication with families.
   http://teacherweb.com/
• Common Core Standards - Yes.  It's true.  Common Core is finally here.  We all need a place to review the new standards and make sure we are covering everything.  Remember, Science and Social Studies are embedded in K-5.  So, you will need to check with your state or district to find out the specifics for your curriculum.
  http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

Lesson Planning

• All Subjects Lessons, Worksheets, and More - Just about anything you are looking for can be found on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Some of what you need is even FREE!  This is where teachers go to buy, sell, and share their original ideas.  One of my very favorite finds on this website are grade specific emergency sub plans.  In my opinion there is little worse than waking up knowing you are at death's door and will not be able to drag yourself to class and now get to spend unpaid time to develop lessons for a sub.  I have already purchased a couple of these gems and have them waiting to go.  But, like I said, you can find just about ANYTHING you need here from single worksheets to full units.  I believe you will need a PayPal account to purchase.
  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com
• All Subjects Worksheets (FREE) - If you haven't stumbled across WorksheetWorks yet, please bookmark it now.  This amazing site will generate free worksheets for you on just about any subject you need.  It creates a unique PDF file for you to save or print.  I use it often for grammar review.
  http://www.worksheetworks.com/ 
• Math Worksheets (FREE!) - Oh My Goodness! This site is a gem.  This will carry your students from TK to Middle School (and beyond).  I use it almost daily as a warm up for a lesson or review for kids who need extra practice.  All worksheets are absolutely free.  I recommend this to parents who want to work with their students at home or over the summer.  Lots of facts drills available and you can print directly from your computer.  Total cost and time saver for all who teach math.
  http://www.math-drills.com/
• American History - If you teach American History at any level (especially 5th and 8th), visit History.org.  It is a totally free site and offers free lesson plans written by the teachers who attended the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute.  The lessons are hands on and incredibly engaging with a focus on using primary sources.
  http://www.history.org/history/teaching/index.cfm
• SmartBoard Lessons - If you are fortunate enough to have a SmartBoard (or equivalent) in your classroom, you can find presentations and lesson absolutely FREE for just about any subject and every level.  I love the Jeopardy and Millionaire games.
  http://exchange.smarttech.com/
• Puzzle Maker - Do your kids love puzzles but you don't have time to design them?  Discovery Education has made a FREE puzzle generator that is easy to use and will create crosswords, word searches, math squares and more!  You enter the words or set the parameters, the site does the rest.
  http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com
• Reading - Book Adventure - Book Adventure is a fun, free way to motivate students to read! Kids in grades K-8 can search for books, read them offline, come back to quiz on what they’ve read, and earn prizes for their reading success. Teachers can create class profiles and track students reading and success. Books in this program are leveled similar to AR if you are familiar with that program. The best part is that it is FREE!
  http://www.bookadventure.com/Home.aspx

Sites for Students and Teachers

• Webquests - If you need a free webquest on just about any subject or if you would like to create one, TeacherWeb has thousands of them - absolutely free.
  http://teacherweb.com/wqsearch/search.stm
• Math Games - CoolMath offers some incredibly engaging math games for students to play on-line.  It's very visually stimulating and not for the faint of heart.
  http://www.coolmath.com/
• Phonics - Starfall offers some colorful and fun games for younger kids to play that teaches early reading and phonics skills.  I wouldn't recommend it for the bigger monsters, but the little monsters love it.
  http://www.starfall.com/
• Need A Graph - For parents helping kids with science projects or teachers who want to make statistics come alive in the classroom, CreateAGraph is just the thing.  It's far easier than trying to teach the monsters in your room how to use Excel or Word Graphs and prints colorful graphs for free - everything from pie charts to histograms.
  http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx

There are truly hundreds more sites that I could recommend.  I will add them in the future.

Student Engagement

Hi All,

It's been a busy year and we are full into the swing of things. By now, about a quarter into the year is when teachers really notice who's regularly engaged in the lessons, and who comes to class everyday just to take a nap. C'mon, you know who those kids are, be honest.

At the first part of the year I was voluntold that I would be attending a professional development in October about student engagement. Admittedly, I wasn't that excited to go. Historically my district hasn't always offered the most inspiring professional development "opportunities". In fact, most of the time I'm the kid in the back of the room passing notes or taking a nap because I find the information irrelevant or impractical to apply to my own teaching style or student population. So, even thought I didn't really want to go, I did try to keep an open mind for at least the first half hour - and boy am I glad I did.

The PD was offered by Kagan Publishing and Professional Development (http://www.kaganonline.com/index.php). If you are not already familiar with them, it's certainly worth digging around on-line to inquire. I got so much out of it and would recommend that everyone check it out.

To give a very brief overview, Kagan had developed instructional strategies proven to boost engagement and achievement. Some of the strategies are really simple, but totally insightful at the same time. The program focuses on classbuilding and teambuilding activities that are specifically designed to create and emotionally save classroom environment that demands 100% student engagement. The boast that their stratagies create classroom with no more checked out kiddos. I did the one-day training and left with Dr. Kagan's best selling book, Kagan Cooperative Learning, which is chucked full of ideas and tools that any teacher can use.

Honestly, it's one of the most rewarding programs I have attended. Not only did I gain immediately usable and practical engagement strategies, I left feeling confident in my ability to use them, but also the utilization of the strategies requires NO prep or changing to the teaching/learning content. Here's a brief video about Kagan, and honestly this video does very little to share the impact this can have in any classroom or for any age group. We had Pre-K teachers and High School teachers all in the same room and all benefiting from the learning.

I'm really excited to get back to my classroom and implement some of the strategies and structures I learned about this week. I can see them really demanding cognitive presence of all my students, not just a few.


If you do end up going, be sure to bring some cash with you or ask for an open PO from your school. You'll want to walk out with some "extras". There's a multitude of resources available for sale across all age and grade levels. They also want to up-sell you on future trainings. But when you are there you are quite happy to drink the Kagan Kool-aid. I'm straggling how I can hit one of their summer week long institutes. The one about win-win class discipline sounds amazing! Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think of it.

On a personal note, I expect to finish my master's program in about 6ish weeks and will be walking in the graduation ceremony towards Christmas time. Once my program is complete, I will be rededicating my energy and time back to my store. Be sure to keep an eye out for new products after the first of the year. I generally offer my new goodies heavily discounted to my followers for the first few days they are available.