Noise-O-Meter

We've all seen a "noise-o-meter" in a classroom (especially if you have ever been in an early years classroom).  Usually, it's just a list of different noise meters written on a piece of paper and wherever a magnet is stuck to it is the noise level that students should be working at (in my experience students only very rarely work in a whisper - even when the noise-o-meter tells them otherwise).

Anyways, I saw this in a classroom recently and it was the first time I had ever seen something like it...

noise-o-meter

The lights light up when you push on them (so I pushed one just to demonstrate what they were for the sack of the picture).  

And, because it's hard to read it...

Ninja Mode - Absolute silence - no talking

Spy Talk - Whisper voice - only one person can hear you

Low Flow - Only your group can hear you

Formal Normal - classroom discussion level

Do you have a noise-o-meter in your classroom?

What does it look like?

Corona Virus and the Education System

Last week the province I live in got its first confirmed case of COVID19 and immediately things started happening.

There was an announcement with the morning announcements about social distancing, staying home if you are unwell, and washing your hands (I was in a middle years school).  Kids started talking about it more often - will they get it (or their parents or their grandparents), will they die if they get it, and of course, when will the school close?  The vice principal even came around at the end of the day to see if anyone had questions or concerns about it.

I've updated this a couple of times since originally writing this post on Thursday, March 12th but the latest news is that schools in my province will be closed for the week before and after spring break (so a 3 week break total). This means that schools will be closed from March 23 - April 13.  Glad it's going to be the weeks surrounding spring break as it's only 3.5 days that I'll be missing out on for work (that I already have booked - it could have been more).  Unfortunately, all meetings, professional developments, and extra curricular activities are also all cancelled leading up to the school closures which means days are being cancelled for next week as well still.

Other provinces have made similar decisions.  In Ontario spring break is this week and schools will remain closed for 2 weeks after spring break - which I get... better to do this now than regret not doing it later.  Quebec is also closing schools for 2 weeks starting this week.  I know a lot of places in the USA have also closed their schools for the time being.  

My friend told me about one school that she heard of and how they were encouraging students to wash their hands.  They gave each student a stamp on their hands at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day they checked their hands - if the stamp was gone it meant they had done a good job washing their hands throughout the day and got some kind of treat for it.  

Naturally, as I learn more I'll keep you all informed... but I'm curious, what's your school district/division doing to help ensure their students remain safe and healthy during this time?

Losing Sleep

Every so often I see something on social media about teaching that catches my eye, usually because one of two reasons:

1)  It's so true

2)  It is definitely not true at all

Today we speak the truth

How many of us have lost sleep because we are teachers?

Be it marking, preparing, or worrying... we too lose sleep!

Matchomatics

Anyone ever done a Matchomatics questionnaire?  

Essentially it's a bubble sheet of questions you answer about yourself or preferences you have.  The teacher will collect all of them once they are filled in and I guess they send it off to the Matchomatics people.  

What do the Matchomatics people do?  They compute a "match" for you (who will be someone else in your school) and who your ideal friends would be (according to your responses), etc.

But, here's the catch, it's a fundraiser.  So, in order to get your results you have to pay for them.

Anyways, back about a month ago I was in a school that was doing them (I guess students had gotten the question sheet the day before because they were all handing in these bubble sheets to me the day I was there) and I remembered doing one back when I was in high school (though I'm not sure I paid for my results).  I'm surprised a middle school was doing them... oh how the times have changed (now everyone needs to find their match in middle school apparently).  

I'm assuming right about now all those kids are getting their matches figured out.... just in time for Valentine's Day!

Anyways, I guess if you are looking for a really easy fundraiser... this might be one to consider? 

Teacher Life: Memes

Here is the Bored Teachers article that this post is referencing.

#4 is my life as well.  They do have a million questions about the assignment (because they weren't listening) but those aren't important.  When your birthday is WAY more important!

#5  If you aren't putting out fire after fire are you even doing your job?

#8  This is always a challenging one.  One year I was teaching a 5/6 split class and when I asked the science head at the division for his recommendations on how to do it he said I had to teach all 8 units (4/grade) which would have been a huge undertaking with very little knowledge actually being retained and to be honest, likely quite boring.  In the end I split up the units and went with 2 from grade 5 and 2 from grade 6.  If I'm remembering correctly I even had my grade 6's choose our final unit (it was one from the grade 5 curriculum) because they would have (hopefully) learned it last year and so it was going to be a repeat.  No one ever came back to my classroom and told me I was doing it all wrong and I think the kids got a better science education this way than having to learn 8 units.

#9  This is a reason I do not like teaching ELA.  You have to read all their stories and try to make sense of them (and sometimes they are just SO boring).

#10  It's true.  Usually, the classes I sub in have wonderful kids that treat me well.  But, every so often, you get that one student who is just SO rude (and likely all because you suggested he do one page of math instead of two before drawing a picture).

#11 Thankfully I cannot relate to this one.  From what I hear, American teachers are way under paid and it is definitely not fair.  You are raising up the future generation of doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc and that is what they have decided is fair?  Hopefully at the end of the week you can afford more than a pack of gum.

#12  Maybe I was just way too detailed when I prepared for a sub but it did take a lot of effort!  I would stay at school later then I typically would, lay everything out on my front table for the day, and write a detailed sub plan for every class.  It always went very well (but I had pretty good classes)... I just like to be prepared (even when I'm not going to be there).  BUT, if you are really in a pinch hopefully your sub is more than capable of getting through a day where you have multiple periods of "read/write/draw" time written out.

#13  I experience this at least once a month.  Why oh why can't they go during the lunch hour!?!

#15  Yes!

#19  Yes, again!

#22 You know what I hated most of all about creating a seating chart?  My students insisting they needed a new one every month!  For some reason I obliged.  So there I would sit at the end of the day with all the desks drawn on a whiteboard scribbling in who would work well with who and who needed to be on the other side of the room from someone.... there was a lot of erasing!

#27  This is one of my biggest annoyances with being a teacher!  If you aren't going to listen the first time can you at least listen the 2nd time so I don't have to say it a 3rd time!?!

#33 One year I taught grade 4 and then the following year I would be teaching grade 5/6 (so some of those grade 4 students would continue to be my students the following year).  We would have meetings at the end of the year to decide which students everyone would be getting (so in my case I met with the other grade 5 teacher) and it wasn't necessarily the "problem" or "difficult" students we argued over but it was the sweet ones that we fought hard to have in our classrooms.

#39  Definitely!

#48  I'm not having you do the assignment as torture, I want to make sure you understand the material... go ahead and complain but the assignment will still be there when you are through.

#50 Because they are at home!  Are the rules the same at home?  Is your child expected to learn and work at home?  Is he/she with all of his/her very best friends at home?  Didn't think so.

#56  There was once a day that I think we had multiple fire drills in one period (and for reference one period is about 40 minutes).  It's not always the students that are doing the interrupting!

#62  Confession:  I would buy these pretty inexpensive gummies in bulk at Superstore and file them away in my filing cabinet.  I bought them for my students when they did something extra I asked them to do (like a few of them might stay late to tidy up the room or put art on the walls) but I allowed myself 5 at the end of every day.  Some days 5 turned into 10 which turned into 20.  Needless to say I made many a trip to the Superstore bulk candy section that year!

#79  I remember the time this happened to me. It was when I FINALLY started math groups and I finally heard what that little girl knew about math.  It was wonderful!

#91  Right?!?  They have loads of awesome ideas that sound oh so great but then when you try even just a little itty bitty thing that they suggested it goes nothing like it does in a room full of adults.  Ah well, at least you tried?

Found in a Teachers Classroom

I found this in a teachers classroom recently....

Needless to say it's been a bit chilly here lately!

Secret Mission

 What do you all think of this?

I would love to know more!

I love that it's doing good for others (and not necessarily just other teachers) and hopefully it's becoming infectious at the school this teacher works at!

Morning Check In

If you are looking for a new way to check in with your students and how they are doing (and maybe something a little less elementary from the zones of regulation stuff) a friend posted this online

Looks like this teacher has a few kids she could be checking in on today to hopefully help them have a better tomorrow.

Do you use a check in system in your classroom?  

What does it look like?

Winter Bulletin Board Ideas

If Christmas isn't something that is talked about or celebrated in your school then you may be interested in a Winter Bulletin Board instead of a Christmas Bulletin Board.  Now that you have your winter themed art done (or at least the first project or so may be done... or at least on the way to being done you might be ready to decorate a bulletin board!

I couldn't find the original sources for a lot of these ideas (Pinterest)but here are some winter themed bulletin boards that I thought were nice:

For this one it looks like each students picture is on a snowflake and they each made their own snowman

I wish I could find the original source for this one as I'm curious what they wrote about.  Either way, Frozen was (is) a popular movie so I think this bulletin board would be a big hit!

This one is from Fresh Sharpened Pencils and she talks about how she got each student to write a poem to go with their snowflakes.

This one I found here although I'm unsure if this is the original source.  I just thought it looked super cute!

Do you make seasonal bulletin boards? 

What does your winter bulletin board look like?

What It's Like to Teach in December

Here is the link to the Board Teachers article I'm referencing for this post.

What tweets do I find most applicable to my current teaching situation?

#1 - The best way to spread holiday cheer IS to follow the instructions the first time... and failing that at the very least please follow them the 2nd time.  If I have to repeat myself a 3rd time I'm just really not going to be happy.

#3 - Although I haven't personally experienced a lot with Elf on the Shelf I can definitely see that being the talk of a classroom (especially a very early years classroom). 

#5 - It need not be Taylor Swift... any influential song writer/musician can do it but yes, let's make a song about how taking care of your responsibilities is a good thing and will get you far in life!

#7 - When I had a classroom of my own I would often bring work home with me... very rarely did I actually do any of it.

#10 - I mean this is just a similar story to #1.. let's pay attention folks!

What about you, any amusing things your telling your students (or they are doing) that you're tweeting about?

Tricked into Reading

Normally I would be very happy when a class excitedly requests to be read a story... but in this case it was a particular book that was being requested.  This particular book was written by BJ Novak (whom, if you don't know, played a character on The Office) so I kind of wondered what kind of book this was.  Then the class was very insistent that I could not under any circumstance read the back of the book before reading them the story.  And believe me, I tried to read the back to see what was going on, but they were always very quick to catch me no matter how sneaky I thought I was being.

Anyways, if you haven't read "The Book With No Pictures" I highly recommend you do so... and if you haven't read it to your class and have no intention of finding this book to read it to your class I've found it on Youtube for you to enjoy.

The kids loved it!

Spoiler:

If you aren't going to watch the video or read the book but still want to know why those kids were so insistent that I needed to read THAT book... it's because it's a book with a bunch of silly words and the reader talks about how wonderful the kids are that are listening to it... which is what the warning on the back was all about (which I did end up reading after I finished reading the story to them).

Have you read any books to your students lately that they absolutely loved? 

I would love to head about them!

This Week At School

Finally, it was a busier week at school!

I was in 4 different schools this week (and 4 different classrooms) but I ended up working all 5 days!

3 of the classrooms I got to teach in were huge!

This one was actually 2 different classrooms with a wall taken down between them. I like that the teacher made a desk area in one of the spaces and then more of an open and relaxing space in the other half.

Student Desk half of the room

I also love how these 2 classrooms had a ton of windows (I couldn't even get all the windows in the pictures - that's how many they had!)

At one of the schools this week we had a speaker come in and talk to us about homelessness and what we can do to help this season.

I planned and taught an art lesson in a grade 3/4 classroom about animal teeth (stay tuned in January for the lesson on this)

I apparently broke the intercom in one of the schools from calling down to the office. We joked that I had called down so frequently that I broke it (but I didn't call down THAT frequently, I just had one student that needed someone else to make some decisions for him). Whatever happened to the intercom it meant there were no bells at the end of the day. Whoops!

I ended off the week in a 4/5 classroom and all I will say is this... letting your children do whatever they want whenever they want at home (ahem screen time ahem) does not do them any service while they are at school. Kids should be doing some work and learning at home (in addition to having fun and playing). I've done a blog post about screen addiction before and here is a post that talks about a bunch of different online activities your kids/students may be into that might need another look. And no, I don't have children of my own so there's that BUT I do spend 6-8 hours of their day with them trying to teach them to learn which is likely a good chunk of the time they spend awake... so there is that.

Now it's going to seem like my day was awful but it wasn't. I'm at the point in my career where one person is not going to make or break my day anymore.

In other news I also made my husband an advent calendar! Well, if I'm being completely honest I actually made this calendar a couple of years ago and I just refilled it (with Lindt chocolates of course!). He thought he was getting an underwear advent calendar initially which just gave me an idea for next year (but you'll have to wait until then to see if I actually manage to pull that one together).

Homemade Christmas Advent Calendar

Locked Out

This is a story all about how I once got locked out of school... before school had even begun.

I try to arrive at schools early that way I have time to talk to the secretaries, sign in, figure out attendance, where to meet my class, and what we'll be doing that day, etc.  Ideally it would be about 15 minutes prior to school starting.  So you would think the school would be a bustling place already with most teachers all ready there, secretaries, educational assistance, admin, and custodial staff.  But what happens when it's a colony school?

Out of the 2 colony schools that I go to one has a secretary, they each have 1 educational assistant, and about 3 teaching staff, no custodial staff.

On this particular day it was raining (of course) so I gather my stuff and get to the door only to discover it's locked... I knocked but I didn't think anyone would likely hear and as far as I can tell there is nothing more I can do... so I scamper on back to my car where it's warmer and dryer.

Luckily, I knew someone else had to be there as there was a car in the parking lot.  I also just so happened to have the principals phone number (because he contacts me on occasion to come in and sub for him).  So I sent him a quick text saying I was there and there was a car in the lot so someone was in the school but likely couldn't hear me.  About 1 minute later I see him by the door.

Apparently he had a lot to carry in that morning and after carrying it all back to his classroom forgot to come back to the door to unlock it.  Whoops!

Surprisingly, this isn't the first time this happened.  Once I left a school during the lunch hour only to find that when I returned all the front doors were locked.  I knew they weren't in a lock down or anything as I could hear the children playing in the school yard behind the school.  I also wasn't the only one locked out as there were some kids just arriving with their parents.  Eventually I decided to walk around to the back and quickly got in through one of the back doors.  Why the front doors were locked I never found out.  My guess is their secretary takes their lunch at the same time as the rest of the staff and so the front doors aren't monitored as well as they are in the morning and throughout the day.

How to Annoy Your Teacher

I found this in a teachers classroom the other day

At first I thought it was the teachers since it was on her desk but then at reading time one of the students came up searching for his book.  

Uh oh...

Also, happy Halloween!

If you are looking for some Halloween related posts here are some:

Activity Books

Art Ideas

Bulletin Board Ideas

Costumes for Teachers

I ended up working today and wore this:

Halloween t-shirt

I found it at Michaels for $7 and decided I would rather wear this shirt (with black pants and an orange cardigan instead of a costume this year)

VSCO Girl

Why oh why does this have to be a thing? 

Here's what I know about being a VSCO girl

1) They wear scrunchies (not necessarily in their hair), Crocs (this one surprised me), Birkenstocks, use a Hydro Flask (which yes I had to look up to see if it was a brand name or a fancier way of saying water bottle), and a reusable straw (preferably metal). 

2) They make an annoying sound (like some kind of high pitched squeal)

Here's what I don't know... 

does it stand for anything?

Does it have anything to do with the picture editing app?

Anyways, one of my students asked me the other day if I was one and I told her I was not because I didn't have a scrunchie or a Hydro Flask. I was then informed about the Crocs and Birkenstokes (both of which I also don't have). The metal straw I do have... in fact I have multiple... but we decided that overall I am not a VSCO girl... thank goodness.

Now if this trend could just go the way of the fidget spinner and dabbing lickity split that would be just fantastic.

What Parents Need to Know About Catfishing

This summer I'm doing a series on What Parent's Need to Know about *insert some type of online thing here*... because it's not just parents that need to know these things but teachers too AND if there is one thing we all know it's that online stuff changes so often it's hard to keep up (especially when you aren't even using that app/program)!

This is my last post on this topic for this year (I know, it's officially not even summer any longer) but I do already have plans to pick it back up for next summer so definitely stay tuned!

Today I'm talking about Catfishing!

What I know about catfishing is that it is telling someone one thing (or maybe many things) that end up being lies (usually it's in the form of taking another persons image and using it as your own).  You could be trying to convince them to send you money or fall in love with you.  In my opinion the only way it's different from online grooming is that when you think of online grooming you are typically thinking of it happening to a child and the person on the other end wants to meet up with them.  In catfishing the person on the other end is hesitant to meet up because they know their lies will be exposed.  And yes, this what I've learned based off of watching the MTV show "Catfish"

You can find this poster, free to download at National Online Safety.

If you suspect you may be being catfished and want to find out there are some steps you can take

1)  Google Image search.  Did the person send you any photos of themselves?  Search them in Google and see where else they pop up.  You can also do this if you suspect your photos are being used by someone else.

2)  Invite them to send a very specific photo that will be hard to find online (like holding a paper with something written on it).

3)  Are they willing to chat with you?

4)  Are they willing to video chat with you?

Whatever you do and no matter how good of a friend they appear to be if you have uncertainties do not send them anything.

I've talked about a lot on topics similar to this over the course of the last few months.  

You can find all of the other topics here:

Instagram

Fortnite

App Store

Age Ratings

Screen Addiction

TikTok

Momo

SnapChat

WhatsApp

YouTube

Live Streaming

Reddit

Minecraft

Online Grooming

Roblox

Twitter

Twitch

and like I said, stay tuned for June 2020 when I restart this series again with a bunch of new topics!

What Parents Need to Know About Online Grooming

This summer I'm doing a series on What Parent's Need to Know about *insert some type of online thing here*... because it's not just parents that need to know these things but teachers too AND if there is one thing we all know it's that online stuff changes so often it's hard to keep up (especially when you aren't even using that app/program)!

Today I'm talking about Online Grooming!

This one is a scary one...

I'm going to do the poster say it all (as it does) which you can find free to download at 

National Online Safety.

What's most concerning to me?

1 in 4 kids said they had been sent a message that made them feel uncomfortable.

It doesn't need to be a long drawn out process and a meet up could be arranged in less than an hour.  Do you know what your child was doing online in the last hour?

The biggest thing to remember is to check privacy settings on your child's apps and devices.  It can't totally eradicate the problem but it's definitely a start.  And remember, a lot of the apps and sites that I've already talked about can all play a roll in child grooming (Twitch, Live Streaming, Tik Tok, Minecraft, Roblox, WhatsApp, Twitter, Fortnite, SnapChat, Instagram, Youtube)

Last week I talked about what we all need to know about Reddit.

What Parents Need to Know About Reddit

This summer I'm doing a series on What Parent's Need to Know about *insert some type of online thing here*... because it's not just parents that need to know these things but teachers too AND if there is one thing we all know it's that online stuff changes so often it's hard to keep up (especially when you aren't even using that app/program)!

Today I'm talking about Reddit!

I haven't scrolled through Reddit much but I have a little and from what I've seen it appears to be a site where people post topics and others comment on them or add to the story.  I'm assuming there are millions of topics and that once you are logged in on the site anyone can see and comment on anything.  I can't see the site being super popular amongst younger kids or teenagers though.  Of course because anyone can post there could be inappropriate topics for young readers (much like the rest of the world wide web).

Sorry, I know this one is blurry, you can find the actual PDF version of this on National Online Safety

What I didn't know about Reddit

You can pay for a membership.  I guess some people are just really bothered by all the ads and likely use the site frequently that they can justify paying for the membership.

You can also give gifts.  I guess if it's you are really enjoying a topic?  The poster didn't say if the person being gifted the money (which is recommended to start at $20 actually gets the money... but I'm assuming they do).

You can turn off adult content which will hopefully hide a lot of the more inappropriate topics for young viewers.

Be careful what you believe.  Since anyone can post it is largely everyone's own opinions and bias'.  Not only this but fake news could easily be spread (and believed).  It's like the new Wikipedia (or was I the only one ever told not to believe everything you read on there?).  Regardless, it's always good to form your own opinions on things and double check things before you go around making claims.

Last week I talked about what we all need to know about Live Streaming

Year Round Schooling

My brother in law (who is also a teacher) asked me the other week if I had heard what they were doing in some schools in Edmonton where they were switching the yearly schedule up so that students wouldn't get such a long break in the summer (where a lot of retention is lost) and instead have year round schooling with more frequent (but shorter breaks).  I hadn't heard of it but I have talked about it before...to read what my opinion was click here.

And what do I think now?

I still think it's a great idea!  So much retention can be lost over the summer holidays and shortening them will definitely (in my opinion) help with this.  Plus, what they are trying out this year is only shortening the summer break by a little bit.  They still get 5 weeks of holidays.

There is at least one downside that I can think of that I hadn't previously discussed though. 

If it were province wide it might be hard to vacation places within your province as everyone will have that same shorter time span to do all their typical summer holiday things.  Luckily, in Edmonton's case they are just doing it in 3 schools so I can't see 3 schools worth of families booking up camp grounds and overcrowding water parks nearby.  If it were hundreds of schools that get the same 5 weeks off it might be a problem though.  A possible solution... stagger the summer holidays so that different divisions in the province start the holidays at different times.  If you stagger it by divisions it will likely help with siblings who attend different schools (but remain in the same division) still having the same break.

Otherwise, I'm all for it.  

I like that there is 2 weeks at spring break especially.  This means that if you want to go away somewhere hot (like Mexico) during your break you don't have to jet off the first Saturday and quickly fly back a week later and jump right back into school.  You can leave on a Tuesday instead (which might even make a vacation less expensive) and come back with still a few days before school is back in session.

I kind of wish they would have given a bit extra time at Christmas though.  It just always feels like I'm super swamped with family things to do (and this is usually when I get sick as well) that once all the gatherings are done and I'm starting to feel better it's already time to go back to school.  

Here is the article I've referenced in this post

Anyways, what do you think?  Are you on board with year round schooling?

What Parents Need to Know About Live Streaming

This summer I'm doing a series on What Parent's Need to Know about *insert some type of online thing here*... because it's not just parents that need to know these things but teachers too AND if there is one thing we all know it's that online stuff changes so often it's hard to keep up (especially when you aren't even using that app/program)!

Today I'm talking about Live Streaming!

To be honest, live streaming isn't something that I'm super familiar with but I bet the students that I teach in middle school or older are.  Also, my husband knows about it as apparently it's popular in the gaming community (not that I would classify my husband as a "gamer").  Although, every so often you do hear about it in the news as to how someone live streamed some terrible thing that happened which basically alerted whomever was watching and they in turn alerted authorities.

Anyways, you can download this poster from National Online Safety

To start with there are SO many ways to live stream.  You can use Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and Periscope are some of the bigger ones.  

You can't edit your live stream... it's like when a news broadcaster goes live... hopefully they already kind of know what they are going to say and do because you can't undo or change something once it's happened.  Also, since it's live you can't preview what's going to happen.  So if you are trying to protect your children from certain language or videos it would be harder to do if they are watching live streams.  

Like anything on the internet once you put something out there it could be there forever.  You may eventually delete that video you live streamed (or the app may automatically delete it after a certain amount of time) but that doesn't stop people from recording it or taking screen shots.

Clues can be gathered from live streams as to where your child may be.  Is there a school, mall, or street names in the background?  Even something like a park could be identifiable if people know the general area that a live streamer lives.  So be careful where you film.  You could also let it slip that after the live stream is over you are heading to xyz mall not thinking about that you are giving your location away.

Generally just be aware of what your kids are doing in life and online.  It can be a scary place out there and we want to protect these kids from it as much as possible.

Last week I talked about a live streaming app called Twitch.