It's Thursday...Time to Plan!

So it's Thursday again, time to start looking at next week.  I was lucky to get the end of the day to myself to day (a very rare thing), so I was actually able to finish my plans AND get everything copied.  With testing 8 weeks away, we are in that vital part of the year when the focus seems to be cramming as much teaching in as we can.  I fully understand the push, although I don't necessarily agree.  However, this is the time when I really focus on small group work so that I can hit those skills each individual needs to work on.  Unfortunately with the focus turned to small groups, there are times when kids are in my room but not working with me, so I've devised the work menu to keep them focused and on track while they are working independently. 

Each week I personalize the work menu for each student.  I try to include material from previous lessons for a review, as well as work related to the information to be covered that week.  My students have gotten quite proficient at working through their menu with little direction from me.

What's even better is that they are aware that because everyone is working on different things, no one has the same work.  True, this took a bit of time at first, but now I have quite the collection of worksheets, centers, and activities that I simply pull and copy for each student.  I am able to give them work on their level and tailored to their needs.  It never fails that two of my boys are always comparing work, seeing "whose is harder."  By doing it this way, they have no way of knowing if their work is on grade level or not. 

It's the weekend!

The weekend is not created equally.  For 90% of the people I know it means two days off work, time for relaxing and getting things that you want to do done.  Yet, for myself and most of the teachers I know, it's two work days that we get that just happen to be at home.  Tim has always struggled with the idea of bringing home work.  Yet, it seems no matter how hard I try, there is always something that needs brought home over the weekend.

Today is a great day to work inside.  With the windchill down to 3, it isn't the type of day you want to be outside.

The view from our front door.

Yet, to avoid getting my work done, I decided to go out and shovel.  Haha, that was 40 minutes poorly wasted, as I only got about maybe the first 5 feet of our driveway shoveled.

I'm trying to find ways to motivate myself to get to work, but I'm finding it extremely difficult.  How do you get yourself motivated to do your weekend work?

Planning Thursday

Thursday has traditionally taken on the role of my planning day.  By this point I know what I did and did not cover and have a pretty good idea of what I want to do for next week.  Although I haven't collected my planning sheets from all my teachers yet, I can at least start sitting down and creating a rough sketch of what the next week will look like.  So I decided, why not start devoting my Thursday posts to planning.  This week the focus in on co-planning.

Thursday is also the day that I sit down with my 6th grade team to plan our co-taught lessons for the next week.  Over the years, we have developed a form so that we are both aware of what we are teaching and who is responsible for each part of the lesson.  Because of this we are now more prepared, and in my opinion the lessons are far more effective.

You can get a copy of my planning sheet here.  I hope you find it as useful as I have!

Collaboration Station

A huge part of what I do relates to coordinating services for my 18 kiddos.  Regardless of whether I'm with them or not, they are still entitled to the accommodations that are listed in their IEP.  I have found that coordinating with six different teachers in three grades (for a total of 26 different classes) can be quite difficult.  For that reason, I started handing out Scheduling sheets on a weekly basis.  These sheet have made it incredibly easy to have at least a little idea of what is going on.

Get the form here!

The sheets are two sided, with one side having space for schedule changes, tests and projects.  I also included a disclaimer that I cannot guarentee accommodation for changes or tests I do not know about.  On the back is a section for teachers to list the chapters or pages they will be working on.  This way, I know where to direct parents if they ask (I also know if they are close to finishing the chapter or not).

Normally I give the teachers their sheet on Thursdays, and I ask for them back by Monday.  I made sure to copy the sheets on bright paper, so they could not miss them.  Some teacher just give me their lesson plans instead of filling it out.  Regardless, they have made a huge difference in my stress level when it comes to scheduling!