Go 4th and Teach

Tailor-Ed: A Planning Platform for Busy Teachers needing Differentiated Instruction  By Stefanie Ady Hello, Everyone! We are all busy and when we get into the grind of the school year- plan, prep, teach, assess, repeat-- things can get pretty time consuming. Especially when we are tailoring our instruction to the individual needs of our students so that everyone gets what they need. Keep reading to hear about Tailor-Ed--a fantastic and practical tool for teachers to differentiate math instruction cutting down on planning time and allowing you to instruct in a specific and effective way for each student!  What I like about Tailor-Ed A few of the many things I enjoy about using Tailor-Ed include: Ease of user interface and user friendly. Students don’t need logins and passwords. It takes into account a student’s proficiency toward a standard, AND the child’s tendencies and attitudes toward learning concepts.  As educators, we are constantly switching between soft

Teaching with Purpose and Modifications  By: Stefanie Ady Purposeful centers: I have been so very fortunate this year. I've seen some of the best center management techniques and some of t he (ahem...) not best ;). T he best behaviors and completed assignments were in the rooms where students could tell me why they were doing something. No matter the age, they need to be able to do that if you expect your centers to function well enough to pull guided reading groups while they're happening. If your Kindergarten students can't tell  you why they're sifting through the big bin of magnet letters for all the "b's" then the center will be a mess and the learning piece of it disappears, making it a waste of time. Conversely, if your Kindergarteners can tell you that they're looking for all the letter "b's" today because they're practicing the B sound and they're going to make a big B out of all the small B's-- that's p

3 Ways to Make Sure the Students are Loving Your Reading Block! Hey everyone! I am excited to share with you again, this time some of my most successful Reading Block structures and activities to engage kids and get them interacting with text in ways that make an impact. Keep reading if you want to make some easy to implement changes to your reading instruction that pack a punch of growth!  1. Teach in Their World with a Variety of Text Selection and Media Text choices that our students can be excited about are more available to us now than ever before. Be aware of what the most popular books are on reputable websites such scholastic book clubs, or in the kids book aisle at target. Make an effort to borrow those titles from your local library (oh yeah, ask the librarians too--they'll be able to tell you which titles are checked out most often by kids in each age group!) or create a wish list on amazon for people who want to donate things to your class and put those books at t

This week, I want to give you some practical ways to differentiate your literacy instruction using technology during your Guided Reading time. The reading station structure I use is largely based on the Daily 5 instructional method.  I have been going over in my mind how to share this with other people for a long time now, so lets jump in and see where it takes us! My instructional Reading block is roughly 75-90 minutes long, depending on my kiddos needs and the day of the week.  For the purposes of this blog post, lets plan for 75 minutes of uninterrupted time for a "typical" day in my classroom for Reading. 1. Assess and Use Grouping Strategies to Optimize Learning Students take a benchmark assessment at the beginning, middle, and end of the year, with a variety of progress monitoring check ups in between. That is how I determine which student goes into which reading groups. I use a mix of grouping by Lexile range score, overall scaled score, or grade level equivalen

At this point I believe most classroom teachers, Title I teams, Special Education Teams, etc. have all finally got on board and send home either a weekly newsletter as individuals or as a team.  We know the forms this can take such as email, website, blog, or paper. We know the benefits of such communication, like more parent participation, less phone calls, and an overall understanding of the roles your class or team or room is fulfilling in the school building as a whole.  I'd like you to consider how you create the newsletter though...is it at 9pm on Sunday night? Is it about last week? The upcoming week? A mixture of both? Here is how I do it, and how I hope you will try to implement newsletters into your school day/writing/ELA block at any age level K-6: 1. Monday- Thursday: experience learning standards that are focused and meaningful, with students as active participants in the lessons through movement, conversation, modeling, manipulative a, and/ or play.  (So,

I am here to tell you, dear ones, that you are NOT lazy if you are sitting down for awhile. You know what you are? You're a facilitator.  If you are finding yourself with minutes upon minutes to sit at your desk, type out an email, and--GASP!--possibly even call some students over to conference with them, then I say "Bravo!".  You have effectively paced your instruction to inform your students and then successfully provided them with the tools and opportunity to accomplish a task that you gave them!  Is that not the ultimate goal? I am a teacher who sits sometimes.  In fact, I find myself wondering as I type this and my students are doing research on their iPads and taking screen shots of dinosaur fossils to share as a Science grade if someone might walk in here and FREAK OUT because I am taking a moment to blog and to be at my desk.  I don't think that should be the case.  Of course, anyone wondering what happens in my room is welcome to join us.  I would love th