Throwback Thursday- Lunch Room Helpers

Back in the '80s, when I was in a K - 6th grade elementary school in Idaho, every sixth grade student had to take a turn helping out in the cafeteria.  It wasn't viewed as a chore though; we eagerly looked forward to the opportunity to assist in the cafeteria.  When your number came up- woo boy, you got to leave class for about an hour, help scoop out food, and wipe off tables.  If you were exceptionally well-behaved, you even got to be the tray sprayer.  The power behind that spray nozzle gave you immediate glory and honor, as little kindergartners stared up in awe when they dumped off their trays.  After every sixth grader had their turn, the honor of cafeteria helper was bestowed upon those of us who finished their math work the fastest.  Not to brag, but I think I led the pack in number of times to work in the cafeteria.  (My only claim to fame, besides being the Elmore County Spelling Bee winner.  It's been downhill from there.)

My husband can do me one better.  At his elementary school in North Carolina, the special treat you got for your birthday was...wait for it...to be the student who stayed back and wiped down the tables after lunch.  But there was more!  You also got to choose not one, but TWO friends who could stay with you, on your birthday, the specialist of days, to help you wipe down the tables.  The thought of this just brings a smile to my face.  I love that kids were ecstatic to be helping out.

I can't help but contrast those good old days with what happens in school today.  Years ago, my science students threw wet paper towels up on the bathroom ceiling when cleaning up after a lab.  Upon discovering this, my reaction was to assign them the job of cleaning up the mess.  My vice-principal intervened though (thank goodness!  what was I thinking!) and told me I couldn't make them do that- it was considered "corporal punishment".  Last year, four boys ran into the boys bathroom, threw yogurt, smashed PopTarts all over the floor, and sprayed juice boxes.  I saw them run in, heard a commotion, and saw them run out.  We had on surveillance that they were the only ones to go in and out of the restroom that morning.  They emphatically denied doing it, and the custodians cleaned up their mess.  They received no consequence.

I think asking students to help with the care and maintenance of our schools and classrooms has positive effects.  It teaches students to take care of things.  It teaches them to respect those who work in service jobs.  It teaches them to think about somebody besides themselves.  My husband reports that at the elementary school he currently subs at, there are student volunteers who help in the cafeteria.  I hope this trend can make a come back.  And maybe when my birthday rolls around this year, I'll ask my friends if they want to come over and have the honor of helping me scrub my shower and kitchen floor.  :)

#TeacherProblems We're All in this Together!

Recently, I had conversations with two other teachers about kids who were unmotivated to work.  I vented over several of my 8th grade students who had energy and ambition to socialize and play on electronic devices, but could not take the time and effort to complete a photosynthesis foldable after three days of in-class work.  My friend Cindy lamented that one of her math students flat-out refused to do any math during class time.  He would lay on the floor, flip through comic books, moan and groan, and just not work.  My mother talked about her students pretending to work all hour, but having nothing to show for it at the end of class.

The foldable that took 3 days...

Some of us might feel like this problem presents itself frequently in public schools, and it does.  I have taught in the same public middle school for 20 years, and every year have students who struggle to want to do work.  But my friend Cindy- she homeschools her four kids and is well-known around our community for helping other homeschooling moms.  My mother- she teaches in a Catholic K - 8 school and leads classes on discipline. 

I'm not going to delve into the merits and drawbacks of different learning settings; that's not my point.  The point of this blogpost is that teaching is a tough endeavor.  No matter where or who you teach, sometimes our students don't want to buy what we are selling. Tweens of all backgrounds want to push boundaries, challenge authority, and  take the easy road.  (That's not always a bad thing- sometimes I want to do that too!)  Motivating students to want to work might be the biggest challenge we face some days.

So how can we motivate our students?
1.  Set a timer.  Seeing a countdown gives a sense of urgency and is hard to argue with.  When you tell a parent that after 30 minutes of work time, nothing was accomplished, a student can't argue with the 30 minutes.

2.  Reward by bragging.  Heap praise and attention on those who are getting work done.  If 100% of your class finishes a project, tweet a picture touting their greatness.  (It works as well for a class of 1 as well as 25! Who doesn't like fame?!)

3.  Have something fun for when students finish.  This one is pretty tricky, because not all kids enjoy the same things.  I think logic puzzles are fun, but students who struggle in school do not.  I hesitate to let students play games, because it's hard to get them to stop.  Content coloring pages can be useful for some kids.  Legos or STEM toys work well in a science classroom.  One teacher I know has playdough, stencils, and stamps that her middle school kids enjoy.  Allowing kids to read or sit in a beanbag chair when they finish work is another idea.

A STEM toy called Zoob Builderz

Of course, we all wish that students were intrinsically motivated to learn and do work.  The reality is that we teach humans, and we all go through stages where we don't want to work.  If you have any ideas of things you have tried  to motivate your students, please leave me a comment!

Shameless plug for the photosynthesis foldable that does not in fact take 3 days

The Last Day of School and First Day of Summer Vacation

It just stops so abruptly.

For nine months, you’ve been going full speed.  I’ve compared the school weeks to swimming laps as fast as I can, with the week-ends being quick breaks to take a breath, and then dive right back in.  During the school year, the job is never fully finished. In the back of your mind, there is always a to-do list, the next lesson to be planned, assignments to grade, copies to make, data to collect, questions to ask, answers to reply, meetings to prepare for, articles to find.  Before school, during school, after school, on week-ends, on vacations.  You can never stop, never get away.

And then it’s the last day of school, and it’s done.  No tapering off, just done.  The end. 

It’s jarring.

There are some teachers who fly out of school on the last day, carefree and ready to live it up summer style.  For many of us, (maybe us introverts?) the last day is the hardest.  

I felt lost.  I came home from my last day of my nineteenth year teaching middle school and wandered around the house, unsure what to do.  I was restless and purposeless.  I couldn’t read.  I couldn’t focus.  I couldn’t even hold a conversation. 

So much emotion goes into every day of teaching, so much energy.  I had to find automatic actions to occupy my body while my brain tried to unwind a year’s worth of tangled memories of students, co-workers, their stories, successes, failures, if-onlys, maybe-next-times.  

I felt like I was recovering from an extended illness.  My energy was sapped, and I’m sheepish to admit, I couldn’t stop tearing up.  Something was missing, like when you leave the house without putting on your Fitbit and keep glancing at your wrist, but nothing’s there.

The good news is, 24 hours later, I am back to normal.  The remedy was sleep, time, and some piano playing, some running, and some sitting in a chair staring off into space and thinking.  I’m ready to embrace the summer, learn some new things, rest a lot, and return re-charged in the fall. 

Images of the last day of school are awash with teachers running out of school smiling, celebrating freedom, partying.  If that’s not you today, that OK.  Teaching takes a lot out of you, and it will take some time to put it back.  Get some rest; do what you need to do.  Then go enjoy a day planned with what you want. You earned it. 

14 Essential Supplies for New and Veteran Science Teachers

I am getting ready to enter my 19th year as a middle school science teacher.  When I first started, we did grades by hand or by making our own spreadsheets if we were tech savvy enough.  We worried more about sagging pants than cell phones (nobody had one!) . PowerPoints were the pinnacle of projects.  Though many things have changed over the years, the basic supplies that science teachers need have not.  If you know a new science teacher starting out, or have a friend who has taught for years, consider surprising him or her with something off of this list.  There's a pretty good chance you have much of this just lying around your house- by decluttering these items, it's a win for both of you!

14 Essential Supplies for All Science Teachers

1.  Bins or trays of all shapes and sizes.
When setting up science experiments or labs, it's nice to have a set of bins or trays to organize everything in.  My mentor teacher had a set of 9 x 9 cake pans that we used all the time.  She also had old school lunch trays- the plastic kind with a square for the milk, a section for the peaches, etc.  Styrofoam trays work too, they just don't last as long.  I've also been known to use sets of yogurt containers with lids, cardboard box tops, and baby food jars.  (Those are thicker than glass beakers and less likely to break!)  It is important to have a complete set, though the number that makes a complete set differs for each class or even task.  12 is a good number to aim for though.

2.  Old towels, wash cloths, or rags (made of cloth, not paper!)
Have you ever tried to clean up spilled orange juice with those brown paper towels common in schools?  All they do is push the liquid around; they absorb almost nothing.  I have a robust supply of cloth- old towels cut out to washcloth size, those white diaper towels or burping towels from my daughter's babyhood, some regular sized towels.  My cloths fill a crate under my sink.  (Oooh, crates should be on the list too...I have half a dozen of those for various things...)

3.  A broom and dustpan

I'm a firm believer in kids cleaning up after themselves.  The custodian shouldn't have to sweep up their spilled rice, scattered sand, cuttings, pencil shavings, notebook chaff, etc.  Other teachers come borrow my broom all the time, in fact, I gave a co-worker a

broom for Christmas one year and he loved it.  Plus, at the end of the day, I find sweeping the room to be calming.

4.  Baggies of all sizes
Baggies take up less room than jars or boxes for storing things like marbles, pom poms, paper clips, stickers, etc.  They're useful for manipulatives like card sorts and small lab supplies.  Finally, a few times a year, even in middle school, a kid will lose a tooth and want to put it in a baggie to take home.

5.  A tool kit (including WD-40)
I use mostly the hammer and a screw driver, but occasionally pliers come into play (like when a slinky gets twisted up).  It's very

empowering to be able to take apart a triple beam balance and fix it just by screwing something in tighter.  As for the WD-40...  I can guarantee that the day you are giving tests or a state assessment, every time your door opens it will sound like nails on a chalkboard.  WD-40 for the save!

6.  A super good pencil sharpener
When I looked on-line for a good pencil sharpener, one brand bragged that it "sharpens 24 pencils a day!"  Honey, I need 24 pencils sharpened each hour!  The most popular choice of pencil sharpener at my school is the X-Acto School Pro Heavy-Duty Electric Sharpener.  My second favorite is an X-Acto Vacuum Mount pencil sharpener, but the longest that has lasted in my room is a month.  I'd definitely go with the first, but the latter will work if your class size is smaller.  And some teachers still swear by those little hand-held sharpeners.  

7.  Bones or specimens in a jar, or other nature phenomenon
Kids love something gross to look at.  I have a cat brain in a jar,

donated by a vet parent.  In the same jar is a deer brain, donated by a hunting parent.  Also among my colleagues' collections are mouse bones (in a baggie of course!), antlers, a turtle shell, a bee hive, a snake skin.  These items also work to bribe kids to do work sometimes, as in, "If you all finish your assignment, I'll pass around the cat brain..." That gets their attention! 

8.  Stopwatches/ timer
I use my timer several times throughout a class period.  We begin class with two minutes of silence as students work on a bellringer.  I might set the timer for when students have to read a section, answer questions, talk to a partner.  It gives a sense of urgency as well as helps me manage the time and not get caught up in something else.

9.  A tub of junk
My tub of junk is well-known among all the science teachers.  In it is, well, junk.  A #4 birthday candle.  Big lego wheels.  A broken doorknob.  A cheap visor.  Various McDonalds toys.  You get the

picture.  We use the items to find mass, to find volume, to make qualitative and quantitative observations.  For a tub of junk, it's quite valuable to us!

10.  Yarn/ thread/ string
You never know when you will need to tie something.  Besides the pendulum lab, I've used my string to tie baggies of cornstarch, hang pictures, make lap books, find pi...

11.  Band-aids
I really think I hand out as many band-aids as the nurse does.  

12.  Air freshener
I teach eighth grade and get the kids after they've had PE.  Air freshener is a must.

13.  Pennies
The obvious use for pennies is the Drops on a Coin lab.  They also come in handy for a genetics activity, making luges for an experiment, and internalizing how much 2 grams are. Another teacher asked to borrow pennies, and I'm not sure what for, but there you go.  Pennies are essential!

14.  Balls
Again, there are several experiments and demonstrations that can use balls.  We've used them to show how SONAR works, as easy variables to change in a scientific method review, to show energy transfer (drop a ping-pong ball and tennis ball, stacked, for great results!), to move cups after rolling down ramps, and even in Minute to Win It games.

Of course, you can always help a new or veteran teacher out with gift cards too!  Any regular store works well!  We're always buying Oreos (moon phase lab, or Is It Really Double Stuffed Lab), white powders, cups, vinegar, paint, toothpicks, straws...you name it, we can find a use for it! 

In short, before you throw things out, check with a science teacher! Your trash can be a science teacher's supplies for a solar oven, rockets, planet models, STEM designs, bridge building, density demonstrations...

Community Service Club

"Other duties as assigned..."  We all have that clause in our contracts, whether expressly written or just implied.  One of my "other duties" for the past two years has been to head up the Community Service Club at our school.  What can middle school kids with little to no budget actually do?

Helping Your Struggling Middle School Tween Be Successful

Students across the country will soon be voyaging off into a new adventure, with great excitement but also with some fear and trembling.  Students face one of life's biggest transitions when they go from elementary school to middle school, whether that means 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, or something else.  Gone are the days of recess, class parties for each holiday, birthday treats, and a warm and fuzzy classroom complete with cubbies, cute themes, and one teacher.  Get ready for lockers, at least six different teachers, a different set of kids in every class, and *gasp!* dressing out for PE- the dread of many students I have talked to!

What Secondary Teachers Learned in 2015

As 2015 draws to a close, I'd like to take some time to reflect on changes I made teaching this year and ideas I discovered.   Secondary Sara had a wonderful idea of teacher-authors doing a "What Secondary Teachers Have Learned in 2015" blog hop, and I am stoked to participate!  My teaching practices constantly change, which makes teaching challenging and fun, and made this post a breeze to do.  Here are my Top Six A-ha! moments for 2015:


#1.  "Grade" as the kids go.