After about 3 weeks of school, my classroom usually looked like a tornado had just swept through Room 134. The added stress of the stacks of papers on my desk and markers rolling around on the floor was definitely not what I needed as a teacher, and I learned that staying organized was crucial. If you are like me and need to get your teacher life together, do yourself and your students a favor and take a day to put some systems in place that will make staying organized much easier. Below are some quick and easy ideas to stay organized.

1. Plastic Bins: Get plenty of plastic bins. They are cheap and a great way to store all the things you use in the classroom but may not need every day. Although it may take more time, make labels for each bin so that you can easily get or put away what you need.2.  Plastic Drawers: While you are at Target getting your plastic bins, also get some plastic drawers. These drawers are the perfect size for papers of all kinds, and you can sort by what you need to do with the paper (grade, give back, copy, file) or by class period. 3. Shoe Hanger: Over the door hangers create a simple solution to storing things you frequently need that are small and easy to misplace. These are cheap and adaptable to whatever you need to organize- art supplies, books, and manipulative. 4. Sharpened Pencils: As a teacher I spent 2 years constantly dealing with students going to the pencil sharpener until I found this magic trick. Have a basket with freshly sharpened pencils and a basket for dull pencils. When a student needs a new pencil they hold it up, and you either bring them a new one or signal them to go trade out their pencil. Bonus of this system is that students LOVE the job of sharpening the dull pencils at the end of the day. 5. Coffee Cans: Start saving your coffee cans. These can easily be spruced up (or not) with some colored paper or fun duct tape. Cans are great for storing colored pencils, highlighters, and other school supplies.

 What organization systems do you use in your classroom? Share you ideas with us in the comment section.

What organization do you work for?

YES Prep West

What grade-level and subject do you teach?

I teach 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th graders in the Learning Lab.

Where did you attend college and in what did you major?

I graduated from the University of Houston with a major in Sociology and a minor in Psychology.

What is the best part of teaching? What is the most difficult part of teaching?

The best part of teaching is playing such an influential role in the lives of my students. Their minds are really like sponges that absorb every single thing they see and hear. Knowing that my students learn from watching and listening to me is amazing! Also, being able to work with students who are determined to succeed motivates me to give my best every day so that I can support them and help them achieve their goals.

The most difficult part of teaching is successfully differentiating. Sometimes it’s a challenge, because what works for one student does not necessarily work for another student.

Describe a successful teaching strategy that you use in the classroom. How does this impact your students’ achievement?

This is not necessarily a strategy, but something that I always do in my classroom is to give students the chance to express themselves. As a special education teacher, building positive relationships with my students is crucial, and I have successfully achieved this by allowing students the opportunity to be heard as they express their feelings, thoughts, and ideas. Allowing students the opportunity to participate and express themselves has allowed me to know more about each of my students.

What 3 words would you use to describe the experience of participating in Teaching Excellence?

Rewarding, Empowering, and Inspiring

When you are not working on closing the achievement gap, what do you enjoy doing?

I love spending time with my family, whether it is eating out, going bowling, or just staying home watching TV. As long as I’m with my family, it’s all good!

If you could create a t-shirt with a slogan that represents your philosophy of education, what would it say and why?

“When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts.” – Dalai Lama

Confession: I used to hate foldables. I thought they were cute art projects and a waste of instructional time. I am embarrassed to admit it now, but I was definitely the teacher who just pulled a few kids with good hand writing and told them to make a foldable so I had something to hang on my bulletin board.

Now I am a foldables addict! Thanks to a Dinah Zike (http://www.dinah.com/) and some very knowledgeable TE instructional coaches, I now see an opportunity for foldables in just about every lesson I observe. I am truly a foldables fanatic. What I have learned since joining Teaching Excellence is a few key facts that have helped me see the instructional use of foldables in a classroom:

1. Purpose not perfection: The purpose of foldables is NOT to create a bulletin board worthy art project. The purpose of foldables is to help students organize and process the information in your lesson. Therefore, foldables do not need to be perfect. They don’t have to be made by only students who can fold and cut neatly and write in nice, straight lines. They help all students process information regardless of how the end product looks.
2. Foldables are for Friends: Part of my former hatred towards foldables sprang from the fact that I always had one or two student who simply just did not get it or “accidently” cut their foldable in half ruining it. Then I realized, the point of the lesson isn’t to make the foldable it is to learn the information we are going to put in the foldable. I realized I needed to encourage students to help each other. If someone was taking a little too long or didn’t understand the folding and cutting directions, its ok! I can just help or another student can help and make it for them.
3. Foldables are Fixable: Miss, I have 6 boxes instead of 8! Miss I folded it hamburger style instead of hotdog style. Foldable mishaps used to drive me crazy in the classroom. Light bulb! Since these are not art projects and instead are instructional tools- foldables are fixable! We can refold it, if there are a few extra creases or its going a different direction, it is ok!

These are a few mantras I recommend teaching your class to ease the foldables making process. Teach students to say these to each other so when somebody is on the verge of a breakdown because they cut their foldable in the wrong spot, their classmate can just say “foldables are fixable” and help them to make it work.

Below are 3 of my favorite foldables and some ways I have seen them used effectively in the classrooms I observe:

What is your favorite foldable? Share below and tell us how you use foldables in your classroom or school.

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Written by Daya Cozzolino, TE Instructional Coach

In TE our motto is “TEach ‘Em Up”, a simple, and yet incredibly powerful phrase. However, I often wonder what this phrase truly means for our our teachers, students and the members of the TEam.

Recently a colleague gave me this excerpt from the book Mindset. The section that I read focused on great teachers and their impact on their students. The author argued that the strongest teachers (those who make the most difference in the lives of their students) have a growth mindset, rather than a fixed mindset. Growth-minded teachers believe that all students can learn at a high level, and believe that ANYTHING is possible in their classrooms.

Students with growth-minded teachers believe in themselves and are invested in their learning. These students understand that they will need to work hard to be successful. However, they also know that their teachers will create an environment where they can continuously improve. By learning from teachers with growth mindsets, these students are able to develop the same mindset which will allow them to be successful adults.

Teachers with growth mindsets understand that they need to set high standards for ALL students. They understand that a child isn’t born with intelligence or talent, but that it is up to them to foster learning in their students. These teachers not only challenge their students, but also provide them with ways to be successful. They model for their students the importance of growing and learning by continuing to develop and improve in their roles as educators.

As Instructional Coaches, we push our teachers to grow and learn every day. By establishing an environment where teachers are not only given praise for what they do well, but also areas for growth, we help encourage a growth mindset. By doing this, the goal is for our teachers to infuse this mindset within their own classrooms.

My biggest takeaway from this reading was that the belief in continuous growth and improvement for students, teachers, and ourselves is what fuels our program. It’s why we TEach ‘Em Up!

In what areas are you committed to improving? What impact does you think this commitment will have on your students?

For those of you entering Teaching Excellence for the 2012-13 school year, we invite you to engage with us in the comments about any of  your reactions to the Mindset excerpt.

Written by Paul Needham, TE Instructional Coach

After watching this animation accompanying a speech by Sir Ken Robinson, I am struck by several thoughts.

1. I needed to watch this video again in order to allow the drawings to add to the message, rather than distract me from it. I would encourage anyone who remembers 2-3 drawings more readily than 2-3 arguments of the speech to re-watch the video as I had to. What do you remember most?
2. My biggest take away from this talk was the idea that the world has changed dramatically and that the educational system has not changed much in over 200 years. What worked a few generations ago, even when 20-something year-olds were in school, is no longer a best practice. This resonated with me because it was difficult for me to let go of the ways I was taught when I became a teacher. If I were to give you all a piece of advice, it would be to enter the 2012 Teaching Excellence Induction with an open mind. I truly believe that what you will be trained to do over the coming weeks and months represents the cutting edge in educating students to succeed in low-income areas and in today’s social and economic climate. What do your students most need for you to get at Induction?
3. All of our students bring tremendous value to our classrooms. Simply because the current structure of the educational system values academic intelligence does not mean that only a sub-set of our students who easily excel in this area are worth our time or are worthy of success in school. It is our charge as dedicated educators to discover, celebrate, and leverage the unique strengths in all of our children to allow them to become their best selves. While this includes academic success and achievement, it goes so much further. What about this idea may be challenging for you, given your own educational background?
4. My other thought upon digesting this talk is the charge to make aesthetic experiences for our students. The notion of creating experiences in which “all senses are operating at their peak” is one that is incredibly challenging but one that fills me with hope as well. Sir Ken Robinson evokes this idea when discussing the arts specifically, but it is even more powerful when considering it as a challenge for every lesson our students experience. If the arts capture our students’ interest so well because they evoke their senses in such a strong way, how can we create lessons in math, Spanish, writing, or world history that do the same things? What three adjectives would you like your students to use in describing your classroom lessons? 
5. The last thought that I will leave you with is a word of caution and relates to Sir Ken’s thoughts on ADHD. Certainly there are students who are improperly medicated because they find it difficult to focus on boring school lectures that do not attempt to engage them. A teacher would be wise to consider many means of engaging students and helping them focus prior to believing that they may be afflicted with this condition. However, contrary to the brief portion of this video that addresses it, ADD and ADHD are very real conditions that do not limit a child’s potential and still change how they best intake information and interact with peers and teachers. I would not want a new teacher to assume that a child who has been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD is lazy or faking it any more than I would want a student to be improperly medicated when it is not necessary. What other “labels” can adversely affect a child’s educational experience? 

I think what Sir Ken’s talk does best is illuminate the fact that the education system is trying to solve new problems with tools that are two centuries old. The best schools, administrators, and teachers create tools that allow their students to have as many choices open to them as possible. The educators that are being left behind are the ones who bemoan the fact that their students are not conforming to the methods that “worked for me when I was a kid.”

As a new teacher who may be joining us for Summer Induction, or as a veteran teacher who follows our blog – what were your takeaways and thoughts on this excellent talk and animation? Please feel free to answer any of my own italicized questions or pose your own for people to respond to.

In order to assist in your planning of end-of-year projects, consider using Choice Boards and allow students to demonstrate their understanding of a concept, skill, or content by choosing how to exhibit their mastery. Students are able to choose from a list of different “products” in which the basic expectations and structure are already outlined. This will increase engagement and build investment in the learning process. Below is an example of what a choice board might look like, but first we first want you to consider the following basic criteria while designing your newfound instructional approach:

Sample Choice Board:

Do you have other ideas or links to objective-driven end of the year projects? Share them below!

What organization do you work for?

YES Prep NORTH FOREST “Da Forest”!!!

What grade-level and subject do you teach?

11^th grade U.S. History

Where did you attend college and in what did you major? List all that apply.

I attended Smith College (Northampton, MA) where I majored in Afro-American Studies and minored in Women’s Studies.

I also attended University of California (Los Angeles, CA) where I received my M.A. in Women’s Studies (with a focus on U.S. Women’s history in 19^th and 20^th Century).

What is the best part of teaching? What is the most difficult part of teaching?

The best part of teaching is changing lives. It’s the challenge of every day trying to get my students to understand why the past is so important to their future. It forces me to think about all the things I love about history in new ways. That challenge is what keeps me here and also what makes things rough at times.

Describe a successful teaching strategy that you use in the classroom. How does this impact your students’ achievement?

I got this from an ACP Day: I started having timeline games in my classes where after we’ve discussed the order of events related to a topic, I have my students race each other in small teams to see who can put the events in the correct order. In order to introduce the order of events I use different techniques. A fairly successful attempt was creating a “script” where students played one of the European nations involved in World War I. The script involved their characters getting into fights with each other as a metaphor for the escalation of the war in its first year. I knew it was successful, because when the students were playing the timeline racing game they were quoting parts of their script to remind each other which event should go in which order.

What 3 words would you use to describe the experience of participating in Teaching Excellence?

Enthusiasm, Determination, Challenge

When you are not working on closing the achievement gap, what do you enjoy doing?

I am a media consumer primarily: TV, music, film. I listen to music and have spontaneous dance parties in my apartment. I try to go to shows and see art around Houston as much as possible. In 2013, I’m taking up a challenge to visit every museum in the Houston area at least once (there are at least 20.) I love a good museum trip. I am an avid fan of my alma mater, and I do a lot of alum volunteering for Smith in various organizations. I also am attempting to continue to pursue my academic career by submitting proposals to conferences, planning out research projects for the summer months, and writing a little bit at a time.

If you could create a t-shirt with a slogan that represents your philosophy of education, what would it say and why?

Education =Opportunity + Freedom

Education was a transformative space for my life. I know that it can be for others. I continue to believe that educational access and attainment is the defining social justice issues of our current times. I also believe that education is about more than what happens in school buildings and that the process of engaging in critical thinking can open up worlds of possibility and freedom for any and all who can pursue it.

The close of the school year is a time when students can demonstrate mastery on things learned in classrooms in a variety of ways, and one such way is in the form of a project. Click through the links below to see ways in which purposeful projects can be enhanced thanks to the wonders of the Internet!

• Times Machine: This site allows students to access New York Times articles which are exact digital copies of the famous newspaper dating back to 1851. With articles about everything from the sinking of the Titanic to the death of President Lincoln, this is a valuable resource that can be used as source documents in history class or for many other classroom uses.

  http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/browser

  

• Newspaper Generator: Enable students to type up their final projects in real newspaper form using this website!

  http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp

  

• TED Talks: Free videos to use on a myriad of topics. Begin a project with one of these inspirational talks!

  http://www.ted.com/

  

• Creating Infographics: Help students compile their presentation information into an infographic with the tips and suggestions found on this site.

  http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/04/02/7-key-steps-to-creating-an-awesome-infographic/

  

  What links and strategies do you use in order to help students succeed on projects?