elementary teaching ideas

Great Books for Grades 3-6: Midnight at the Barclay Hotel and The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter

I just read two amazing new books that are perfect for kids in grades 3-6. Both involve ghosts and mysteries. They also have great characters who bravely help others and discover more about themselves in the process. The books are:

Midnight at the Barclay Hotel, by Fleur Bradley

The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter, by Aaron Reynolds

Midnight at the Barclay Hotel

Brief Summary

Five guests are invited to spend a weekend at a historic hotel in Colorado, which is rumored to be haunted. Two of the guests have kids who get to come, much to the delight of a young girl who lives at the hotel with her family. The guests arrive expecting a relaxing weekend, but instead, they are thrust into a murder mystery involving the hotel’s owner. The kids work together to find several important clues that help the adults solve the mystery.

Teachable Moments — People are More Than a Label

One of the girls, Penny, is primarily known as a quiet, timid child who only enjoys reading. The text states, “Everyone saw her as ‘Bookworm Penny,’ but she wanted to be more.” She was determined to solve the mystery, even if it meant putting herself in dangerous situations. The other two kids gained tremendous respect for Penny’s detective skills. Penny proves to herself that she is more than a “bookworm.”

Things to Keep an Eye On — Several Plot Twists

Your students may need help keeping track of several big plot twists. Penny and her friends uncover lots of information that help them solve the mystery, but there were a few times when I had to flip back a few chapters to remind myself of some key details. The author does an outstanding job of tying up all the loose ends at the end, but some kids might need help remembering things that happened earlier in the book.

Final Grade: A-

This was a fun read and the characters are amazing! There were a few great one-liners where the kids gave funny perspectives about adults. When the boy was trying to persuade his mom to accept the invitation to the hotel, he repeatedly told her it had a hot tub. He thought, “Most adults are suckers for hot tubs. It’s like going swimming without making an effort.” As an adult who loves hot tubs, I CRACKED UP at this line!

Resources

I’ve created 11 quizzes and 11 writing prompts for this book, which is one for every five chapters. The full resource, which includes each quiz and prompt in a Google Form, is available for $4.95 in my TpT store.

The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter

Brief Summary

Rex has always dreamed of owning a dog. He thinks he’s finally going to get one on his birthday, but instead, his parents give him a pet chicken. Rex is devastated. Then he gets cursed after losing a mysterious arcade game with the Grim Reaper. Because of this curse, Rex becomes the go-to guy for the ghosts of animals who have recently died at the zoo. Rex is overwhelmed at the thought of helping these animal-ghosts, then he slowly starts to piece together some clues about how they were killed. By the end of the story, Rex and these animals make a fantastic team that stops a person from harming animals. He never gets a dog, but he realizes his pet chicken is the best pet he could possibly ask for.

Teachable Moments — Sometimes, It’s Okay If You Don’t Get What You Want

At the beginning of the story, Rex makes it very clear that he wants a dog more than anything else in the world. By the end of the story, he barely thinks about it. He has so many memorable experiences with the ghost-animals. He learns that more than one thing in life can make him happy. His “ghost-pet” chicken, Drumstick, becomes his new official “sidekick” at the end of the story.

Things to Keep an Eye On — Rex’s Sarcasm

I love Rex’s honesty. He doesn’t hold back on expressing his thoughts throughout the book. However, there are a few times when the sarcasm might go over your students’ heads. It’s also important to teach your students when it’s appropriate to THINK something as opposed to SAYING it.

Final Grade: B+

The ghost-animals are a lot of fun! Rex can hear them speak because they are dead and he is the only person who can see them. He even brings them to school. I also enjoyed seeing how Rex matured during the story. By the end, he accepts responsibility for a poor grade on a report, telling his parents he could have done more research. He also tells his parents that he understands if they don’t get him a dog.

Resources

I’ve created 10 quizzes and 10 writing prompts for this book, which is one for every four chapters. The full resource, which includes each quiz and prompt in a Google Form, is available for $4.95 in my TpT store.

How To Use Novels For Morning Work

Ideas to help you use novels for morning work

“Did you say boring work or morning work?”

I asked a student this question early in my teaching career. He wanted to know where to turn in his morning work. I could have sworn he said “boring work.” The normally respectful student answered “morning work” and I told him where to turn it in.

I had the following goals for morning work during my first few years of teaching:

Make it routine so I don’t have to answer questions while I collect homework.
Make it something that will get the kids quiet.
Make it a worksheet because I can easily prepare it.

My students were given a math review worksheet when they entered my classroom. It met my goals every day. It kept the kids quiet. The questions were simple review problems that most students could easily complete. It gave me time to quickly check homework and take attendance…

…and it was DEFINITELY “boring work.” So I added the following to my list of goals for morning work:

Make it engaging.

I had been wanting to increase the number of novels my students read. So I decided to incorporate them into my morning work. I went to my board after school and wrote, “Morning Work: Read pages 1-10 of Loser.”

Hmmmm, that was not any more engaging than my math worksheets. And how was I going to get 25 copies of the book?

I spent a few days pondering how to make this work, but couldn’t think of an idea that was practical. Then I saw a student dozing off while completing his “boring work” math worksheet. This student LOVED talking. Then I realized the solution.

Have kids read 5-10 pages with a partner and give them a discussion topic each morning.

I put students in groups of 2 or 3 based on their reading level. I wrote the book title and pages they needed to read during the first 15 minutes of the day. All I had to do was change the page numbers each day.

How to use novels for your morning work

The day’s discussion question for each group was displayed on the projector. All I had to do was type a question from the book’s novel study for that chapter (see links at the end).

How to use novels for your morning work

Before students started reading, they had to leave their homework assignment on their desk. I collected homework while they read, marking who had completed homework and who had not.

After time was up, I randomly called on one or two students for each book to tell me what they discussed. Then we began our day.

Discussing quality literature was more beneficial to students than quietly completing a math worksheet. It’s difficult to explain, but it seemed like my students’ brains were flipped to “learn” instead of “zoned out” when our first subject started. Some of my fifth-grade students fell asleep less often during the morning.

This new system was never perfect. It required some tinkering every now and then, but the student engagement made the work worth my time. Here are a few pointers to help this system run well in your room.

Tip #1: Use Novels That Are A Bit Lower Than The Students’ Reading Level

I usually used three or four novels at a time. I wanted each book to be a bit lower than each of my fifth graders’ reading level. I did not want this to be a frustrating reading experience. But if a student ran into problems, that’s where reading with a partner could help.

Tip #2: Use Novels That Students Can Finish In 3-4 Weeks

When I first started this, I made the mistake of assigning Hoot to a few groups of students. Since Hoot is 292 pages, and kids could only make it through about 8 pages each morning, this took forever to finish. Kids lost interest if their book took more than a month to finish. Books like Loser, The Hero Two Doors Down, Shiloh, Hatchet, and Inside Out & Back Again were perfect lengths. Some of your groups will be able to read more or less each day, so that affects which books you can assign. Use your judgment. Just try to avoid having a group read one book for more than 3-4 weeks.

Tip #3: Ask Your Librarian For Copies

Librarians are rock stars. A few weeks before I needed a new set of books, I asked my librarian to ask for copies from other libraries in our district. This usually provided enough copies for every student. If kids have the book on their Kindle, I got parental permission for students to bring the Kindle to school.

Tip #4: Be Ready For These Books To Be In Demand

Some students will want to read the book their classmates are reading. When I had a few groups read Loser during morning work, they laughed at several events in the book. Other students saw this. Then they asked to read Loser on their own. This became a perfect way to promote reading.

Tip #5: Make This A Reading Participation Grade

I created one assignment in my grade book called “Morning Work Participation.” Everyone started the grading period with a 100%. If a student refused to read, I took 5 points off the grade. If a student refused to respond to the discussion question when called upon, I took off 5 points. With all the difficult reading tests kids are graded on, I liked to have at least one or two assignments like this where they could earn a 100% as long as they gave an honest effort every day. It also provided the perfect amount of accountability.

Tip #6: Don’t Rush An Occasional Extended Discussion

Did you notice the topic for Shiloh above? Students had to think about whether the main character should lie to his parents about keeping a stray dog or be honest and return the dog to an abusive owner. Students had strong opinions on this. Even kids who weren’t reading Shiloh chimed in. ELA class started about 10 minutes later that day because my students wanted to discuss this. There was no way I was saying, “Sorry class, we have to stop this discussion so we can begin Language Arts on time.” If your students are wanting to spend 40 minutes discussing books every day, that’s a different story. But you should certainly allow time for the occasional extended discussion.

Need Discussion Ideas?

If you’d like discussion ideas, I have created novel studies for over 40 books. My writing prompts and quiz questions make perfect discussion topics for morning work. You can download the first novel study for free!

Don’t see a novel study for a book you love? Click here to browse over 40 novel studies I have created.

Your Students Will LOVE This Lesson For RI.4.1

Free resources and ideas to teach, review, or assess RI.4.1

Don’t you hate that nagging voice in the back of your teacher brain? Thoughts like these CONSTANTLY hammered away at me during the school day.

“If I would have gotten to school five minutes earlier I could have prepared better for this lesson.”

“Wow, this passage I’m making the kids read is SO BORING. I really need to find better reading material.”

“I really need to review (insert skill). The kids still don’t get it.”

“Uh oh…did I remember to bring my lunch? OH NO, I LEFT IT AT HOME! I’m going to have to pay $3.00 for a school lunch. NOOOOOOO.”

The panic of realizing your lunch is at home is no joke!! I wish I could help you there, but I can help if you:

Need to review reading standards.
Need more engaging reading passages.

That’s why I have created a full lesson to help you teach, review, or assess RI.4.1. (If your state doesn’t use Common Core, that standard involves drawing inferences.)

Click here to grab the free lesson in my TpT store, which includes a passage about NBA star Steph Curry. Continue reading to see how these resources can help your students learn how to draw inferences.

Preview the Material

I have included four pages of ideas to help you teach this lesson. The first page includes a link to a video about Curry’s NBA career. The basketball fans in your class will love watching Curry’s awesome plays. Students who don’t know anything about Curry will see why he is one of the world’s best basketball players.

The other pages include ideas about previewing the material, a summary of each paragraph, and instructions for the skill practice activity.

Resources to teach, review, or assess RI.4.1 (drawing inferences)

Read the Passage

I want students to realize that star athletes are human beings. I also want students to realize that superstars do not just roll out of bed one day and make it to the NBA. Curry’s success is the result of years and years of hard work. That’s why I included several stories about that in the passage.

One story involves Curry spending an entire summer working on his shooting technique with his dad. There were times when Curry cried because he got so frustrated. Kids can’t believe that Steph Curry cried when he was a middle schooler!! It’s powerful for students to see this, then read that Curry continued practicing even though he got frustrated. This summer of practice helped him become an amazing shooter. It didn’t hurt that Steph’s dad (Dell) was one of the best shooters in NBA history in the 1980s and 1990s. Steph realized this and was always willing to learn from his father, even when the lessons were difficult.

Resources to teach, review, or assess RI.4.1 (drawing inferences)

Skill Practice Activity

Now your students will use text evidence to support four inferences about Curry. I’ve created this as an activity to go in an interactive notebook, but you could adapt it to use it in other ways. Students will cut out text evidence and glue it with the inference it supports. You will see more instructions when you download the resource. The finished product will look like this.

Free resources to teach, review, or assess RI.4.1 (drawing inferences)

Writing Prompt and Quiz

The prompt asks students to use text evidence to describe how Curry’s childhood helped him become an awesome basketball player. This requires drawing inferences. Students will also write what they learned about success from this passage. Hopefully, you have time to allow your students to share their writing with other classmates.

The four-question quiz makes a terrific exit slip. It is a quick way to see how well your students understood the passage.

Free resources to teach, review, or assess RI.4.1 (drawing inferences)

Please only use materials in this resource that meet your students’ needs, complement your teaching style, and fit into your schedule. If you only have time for the passage and quiz, you can give the writing prompt as homework. You could also save it for when you have a sub. I always tried to overplan when I taught because I hated running short on things to do. I have the same goal when I create resources for you.

I also made units to help you with the rest of the RI standards for fourth grade. Click the images below for more information.

Here is more information on the following standards: RI.4.4, RI.4.5, RI.4.6, RI.4.7, RI.4.8, RI.4.9 and RI.4.10.

Feel free to look at my bundle if you are interested in resources for all fourth-grade RI standards.

An Engaging Lesson for RI.5.1

A blog post with free resources to help you teach RI.5.1 drawing inferences.

Students are expected to become more proficient at comprehending informational passages every year. Teachers should be given high-quality resources to help students meet these high expectations. That’s why I’ve created a lesson to help fifth graders learn how to draw inferences using an informational text about NBA star Steph Curry (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.1).

Click here to grab the free lesson. Continue reading to see how I teach RI.5.1.

Preview the Material

Tell your students they are going to read about the childhood of Steph Curry. You’re going to see some of your reluctant readers perk up a bit! If you really want to excite the sports fans in your class, show them this video. It has eight minutes of highlights from Curry’s career. It even shows him as a young kid. If you’re short on time (or if you’re a Cavs fan) you can just show the first few minutes of this video.

Now that your students have seen these amazing plays by Curry, it’s time for them to think about how he became a superstar. Ask students to predict what Curry did as a young kid that helped him become successful. What habits did he begin forming as a young boy that benefit him today? It’s interesting to hear these predictions before kids read the passage.

After students have brainstormed their ideas, ask them to share with the class. Ask them to explain WHY they have this idea. This will prepare them to justify their answer, which is something they will be doing when they use text evidence to justify their inferences later in the lesson.

For more information, download the free resource and read the suggested lesson progression, which is shown here.

Lesson Ideas for Drawing Inferences RI 5.1

Read the Passage

I’ve been a huge basketball fan my whole life, so this passage was fun to write! It was also fascinating to research Steph’s childhood. His parents REALLY made him work hard when he was young. I tried to make this crystal clear when I wrote the passage. Students should understand that Steph’s success didn’t happen overnight. Steph had to establish these habits as a young boy.

I hope students are able to draw inferences about how much work it takes to become an NBA superstar. More importantly, I hope students realize they will have to work hard to achieve their dreams.

Engaging passages to help students learn how to draw inferences RI 5.1

Practice the Skill

Here’s an engaging way for kids to practice the skill. Students are given four inferences that can be made about Steph’s childhood. They will glue them into their notebook as shown here.

Lesson resources for drawing inferences RI 5.1

Students are also given eight pieces of text evidence. They have to match two pieces of text evidence that support each inference. I’d recommend matching the text evidence for at least one inference together as a class. The final result is shown below. The inferences are written in bold. The text evidence is not bold. More instructions are provided in the lesson progression.

Resources to teach a lesson on drawing inferences RI 5.1

Writing Prompt

Students must write why Steph’s childhood helped him become an NBA superstar. They will have to use text evidence to support their ideas.

Quiz

All four quiz questions correlate to RI.5.1. Three are multiple-choice and one is short-answer. This makes a great exit slip or quick assessment.

Resources to assess drawing inferences RI 5.1

You can adapt this lesson to meet the needs of your students. You know your students better than anyone. Only use the sections of this lesson pack that will help your students improve their ability to draw inferences from nonfiction text. Click the image to download this free resource.

I have also created lesson packs for other fifth-grade RI standards. Click the images for more information.

I also have lesson units for standards RI.5.5, RI.5.6, RI.5.7, RI.5.8, RI.5.9, and RI.5.10.

I’ve also created a bundle that includes lessons for all 10 fifth-grade RI standards. The bundle is offered at a discounted price, which means you get one lesson for free. Click the image below for more information.

The Most Mortifying Moment Of My Teaching Career — And What I Learned From It

The most mortifying moment of my teaching career, and what I learned from it.

Someone who’s taught for 11 years should have everything down to a science, right?

Nope.

My 11th year of teaching might have been my worst.

I had an excellent group of 5th graders. I had a supportive team of teachers. I had zero excuses every time I looked at my class data and saw meager (at best) learning gains. In January, a veteran teacher walked into my room to pick up a student. She was in my room about 30 seconds before she said:

“These kids aren’t working for you.”

It was the most mortifying moment of my teaching career.

Teachers get lots of negative feedback. During my previous 11 years, several administrators lectured me about incorrect common boards, teaching one subject when my schedule said I should be teaching another, and not teaching the exact same thing as my teammates. I’m pretty good about letting pointless criticism roll off me.

This was different.

“These kids aren’t working for you.”

I could not let that roll off me because I knew it was 100% true.

I can’t describe how much those words stung. I felt embarrassed that another teacher saw how ineffective I was. I felt angry at her for saying this. Then I felt angry at myself for letting my students down. Finally, I felt overwhelmed because it’s not something I could fix in one day.

After my emotions settled, I realized had never thoroughly reflected on how to be a better teacher. That needed to change.

Here’s what I did.

First, I had to accept responsibility for this. I couldn’t make excuses about my students, their parents, my administrators, testing, or anything else.

Next, I had to figure out a time to think about solutions. So instead of listening to ESPN radio during my 45-minute drive home, I thought about everything that happened in my classroom that day. I’d replay the day in my mind until I could remember two things that went well and one thing that didn’t. I analyzed the good things until I thought of how it could help in the future. I also analyzed the bad so I could prevent it from happening again.

Thankfully, I had an awesome team of teachers and administrative coaches that year. I asked them for advice about how they motivate their students. There are tons of awesome Facebook groups where you can get excellent advice, but I still recommend talking to other teachers at your school.

I also wanted to observe other teachers, but there was no time for that. The best way struggling teachers can learn is by watching awesome teachers in action. I wish districts allowed more time for this to happen, but that’s impossible when every day of planning time is full of meetings.

So after a lot of reflection, I realized:

I was drowning in all the fifth-grade standards.

There were several times that year when students corrected me during math class. These students were not being rude. They were respectful, bright young kids who wanted me to know that I was working a problem incorrectly. I’m sure this caused students to lose confidence in me. I realized I needed to take staff-development courses in math during the summer or persuade my principal to let us departmentalize. Thankfully, my principal allowed us to departmentalize the next year! I got to teach science, so I spent the summer researching science standards, labs to teach those standards, and how students would be assessed on them. It took a ton of communication with my team during the summer to organize our first year of departmentalization, but it was worth it. I finally felt like I could breathe again since I could focus on one subject.

If you’re an upper-elementary teacher who feels like you’re drowning in all the standards, I highly recommend departmentalizing. You can check out my blog post here to learn why this revitalized my desire to teach.

It’s not about me.

I also realized I was too controlling. I hate when administrators micromanage me, but I realized I was doing the same to my students. I sapped all the joy out of reading class by requiring my students to use 1,352 strategies on every reading passage. If they only used 1,349 of those strategies, I’d make them do the assignment over again.

I also spent way too much time telling my students how to do everything instead of letting them discover new concepts on their own. I allowed them little time to learn from each other.

So I spent the first week of my 12th year showing my students how to work in groups. I also covered classroom rules and procedures, but I focused on teamwork. I told my students they were going to learn a lot from each other. I looked for activities where kids worked together to deepen their knowledge about a topic. I spoke to the whole class much less often.

The more I got out of the way, the more my students learned.

Allow students to learn from their mistakes.

I realized I was way too critical of small mistakes. I’m not talking about the times a student willingly disobeyed me, I’m talking about conversations like this:

ME: HOW could you confuse area and perimeter?! I told you three times during class today that area is L x W while perimeter is the sum of all the sides. THREE TIMES?! How could you get this wrong? Are you even listening?

Student: Yeah, I just forgot.

Me: Do 10 extra problems for homework and you’d better start listening in class!

Surprise…conversations like that didn’t exactly motivate my students.

Yes, it’s frustrating when students make the same mistake over and over again. However, I realized I needed to change the tone of my conversation to something like this:

Me: You keep confusing area and perimeter. Why do you think that happens?

Student: It’s hard. I can’t remember it.

Me: True, but you are responsible for remembering it. What could you do to help you remember this?

Student: I dunno.

Me: Apparently you need to spend a few more minutes thinking of a solution. Go back to your seat. I will be back in five minutes and I will listen to your plan of how you will remember the difference between area and perimeter in the future.

My students responded way better when I changed my tone during these conversations to let them know I want to help them improve, not punish them for making mistakes.

Take time to laugh.

I realized I was so focused on keeping up with the pacing guide that I rarely took time to have fun during the day. No one can be expected to work for seven straight hours. So I started making corny jokes way more often. I’d show a dumb 40-second YouTube video in the middle of class. I’d allow the kids five minutes of free time at the end of class when they worked hard. Sometimes I dumped candy on each kid’s desk while they were in the middle working on a difficult project. Other days I’d surprise the kids with a fun STEM or team-building activity when we needed a break from the standard we had been working on for the last five days. I needed these breaks as much as the students.

My 12th year of teaching was far from perfect, but it was much better than the year before. My students made awesome learning gains. I had a much better attitude about teaching every day. There was even a teacher who observed my class and said,

“Wow, your students are really engaged.”

I knew it was 100% true.

My Dull-Looking Classroom…Where My Students Still Succeeded

I have always been jealous of teachers whose classrooms look like a movie set. I’m in awe of teachers who can make their classroom look like a master suite in a $2.5 million home with nice curtains, perfectly-matched color patterns, and plush furniture. I’m also jealous of teachers who can pull off a classroom theme and work it into everything they do all year. There were many times when my students’ jaws hit the floor after they saw other teachers’ classrooms. Then they asked, “Mr. Geswein, why don’t you ever make our room look fancy like that!?”

When we returned to class, I explained to my students that everyone has different talents…and my talent is DEFINITELY not designing classrooms!!

If you’re like me, I’d like this blog post to offer some encouragement and ideas because I feel like teachers (especially in elementary grades) put way too much pressure on themselves to have a classroom that looks perfect.

I see SO MANY AMAZING CLASSROOMS on social media every day, especially during July and August! On the flip side, even though they aren’t posting, I know there are teachers who feel pressure to design a classroom that can compete with all the ones they see on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

During my 14 years of teaching, I would have finished last in ANY classroom-design contest. Since you’re a teacher, you’re going to ask me to provide evidence to support my statement. Here are photos of my fifth-grade classroom one year. It was about 95% ready for the first day.

I felt terrible about this during the first 10 years I taught. I felt like I was letting my students down. Before my 4th year of teaching, I was determined to have the best bulletin board in my school. The Dallas Mavericks had just been to the NBA Finals (this is when I taught near Dallas) so I put each of my students’ faces on an image of a Mavericks player dunking a basketball. Above the players, I had a phrase that said something like “We are going to slam dunk third grade.” I spent HOURS AND HOURS before the first day of school getting this to look perfect. Then when it was done, I looked at it and thought “meh.” On the first day of school, I think 2 or 3 kids said “cool.” That was it.

I reflected on this a few years later. I realized this ridiculously horrible bulletin board, which I spent a long time stressing about, had zero impact on student learning. I had an amazing year with that group of students. Several kids made incredible gains in reading and math. I even managed to get press credentials to take one student to a Dallas Mavericks game as a reporter. He got to sit in the press box, stand on the court, attend the post-game press conference, get all the in-game stats, and write a story about the game just like a real reporter. (The Mavs get a BIG shout-out on that one!)

During my last few years, I finally accepted the fact that a photo of my classroom is never going to get many likes on Instagram. No one would care if I counted down to my classroom reveal and that’s fine because that’s not where my talents are. So instead, here are the things I focused on preparing before the first day of school to help my students have a successful first week:

Arrange student desks for visibility and traffic flow.

This is the first thing I did each year. I probably arranged my desks 10-15 times until I found a setup that was best. I wanted ample room for people to move around EVEN with the chairs pushed out. All desks needed to be angled to where kids can see the front of the room. I also needed space for some individual desks when students need to be isolated. Then I put tape on the tile floor to mark where each desk should be. This meant students could place the desks exactly where they needed to be at the end of each day.

Organize my classroom library.

It’s extremely important that kids had lots of books to read in my classroom. After I arranged the desks, I set up my classroom library in a place that was open and accessible. I arranged my books according to AR level. I printed stickers with my name and stuck it on the spine of each book. Then I wrote the AR level and put a sticker on it. The color of the sticker indicated the range of AR level for that book. Here’s a photo of a few of those books to show you what the sticker looked like.

Every day at dismissal, I had a few students organize the books in my classroom library.

Prepare and label areas where student supplies would be stored.

It was important to me that students had supplies in locations that were consistent and accessible.

Place inspirational posters all around the room.

I loved finding inspirational posters online. That’s one way I added some color to the room, even though it required me to print on my color printer at home. I referred to inspirational posters throughout the year.

Tape pictures from National Geographic Magazines near my door.

I used around 50-70 photos of animals and scenery. This gave kids something to look at while they were lined up waiting to leave my room.

Overplan for the first week and prepare all materials.

I can’t imagine something more exhausting than the first week of school. So instead of spending hours decorating my room, which is not where my talents lie, I spent that time preparing and planning an abundance of activities for the first week of school. I also knew how exhausted I was going to be during that week and wanted to minimize the amount of prep work after school each day.

I wrote each day’s schedule out to the minute, which is something I didn’t normally do during the rest of the year. I spent a lot of time thinking which routines and procedures I needed to teach, which order I wanted to teach them in, and how I was going to do so. My classroom was not going to be the prettiest, but it definitely ranked highly in student engagement and organization. I had high expectations of myself to establish that during the first week of school.

Get enough butcher paper so STUDENTS can design posters to put on the walls.

I think it is important to have a colorful classroom. I am not suggesting that teachers leave their walls and bulletin boards bare. No student wants to learn in a room like that. That’s why I had my students make posters for our walls.

During the first few days of school, we brainstormed what it looks like to treat people with respect. Then my students illustrated those ideas on large sheets of butcher paper, which were then hung on the walls. Students also made posters to illustrate a few other classroom expectations. By the end of the week, a good portion of my wall space was covered with student artwork…and it was WAY better than anything I could have come up with. Plus, it gave my fifth graders a sense of ownership of their classroom. You’ll notice the walls in my classroom photos are mostly uncovered. That’s not the case after the first week of school!

Again, I have all the respect in the world for teachers who can design a beautiful classroom. But I know there are lots of teachers like me whose talents are not in decoration. I feel bad for teachers in July and August who feel overwhelmed at seeing all these photos of beautiful classrooms because there’s no way they could ever compete. If you have little ability and motivation to decorate like me, I’d encourage you to focus on your strengths. Not everyone can be an amazing interior decorator!

For example, I realized that my strengths involved organization, designing engaging lessons, utilizing technology, finding quality literature to teach reading standards, and saying corny “jokes” (a big plus for a fifth-grade teacher). Instead of beating myself up for not designing a beautiful classroom, I eventually realized that my students can learn a lot from me because of the unique talents I bring into the classroom every day. That, by the way, is the exact same message I told my students — that our classroom is a better place because of the unique talents each of them brings every day.

I’ll leave you with this reminder, which I realized while looking at my classroom before the first day of school one year. (Yes, that’s my classroom in the photo.)

4 Challenges of Departmentalizing in Elementary

4 Challenges of Departmentalizing in Upper Elementary

This is Part Two of my blog post about departmentalizing in upper elementary. Click here to read part one, which describes five reasons why departmentalizing benefits teachers and students in upper-elementary grades.

I hope you’ve read part one of this blog post to learn five huge benefits of departmentalization in upper-elementary school. My team was departmentalized for two years and I saw many ways it helped students and teachers. It rejuvenated my desire to teach. It helped me get to know more kids. I finally felt knowledgeable about the content I was teaching.

However, if you are considering departmentalizing for your grade level, there are some challenges that you’ll need to be prepared for.

Challenge: Being the reading teacher

At my school, reading was the subject that administrators scrutinized more closely than any other subject…and it wasn’t even close! It seemed like several academic coaches on our campus dealt with reading, while one coach was there to support math AND science. When district officials did walk-throughs, they spent most of their time observing the reading teachers, then sucking them into meetings to provide tons of “constructive feedback.”

One thing you can do about it: If you are considering departmentalizing in your grade, be sure the teachers who teach reading really love that subject because they are going to bear the brunt of the pressure from administrators.

Before we departmentalized, we had an honest conversation about each teacher’s strengths and weaknesses. If you are considering departmentalizing, be sure your team discusses which subject area each teacher feels confident in. Be sure the reading teachers understand they are probably going to feel more pressure from administrators than the people who teach the other subjects. It’s an extremely important conversation to have.

If teachers are hesitant to teach reading, see if there are things the rest of the team can do to help lighten their load. I regret not doing more for the reading teachers during the time we departmentalized. I should have been looking for little things to take off their plate because they got sucked into way more meetings than I did. (I taught science.) I could have taken their dismissal duty a few times. I could have brought their kids back from lunch a few times a week. I could have brought them coffee once a week. Anything to let them know that I understand that they, as a reading teacher, were under more pressure than me as the science teacher.

Challenge: Scheduling

When we departmentalized, each fifth grader rotated among three teachers each day for ELA/SS, Math, and Science. Each class period was 90 minutes. I adore making schedules, so I volunteered to create the schedule each year. Here was what our master schedule looked like:

5 Reasons to Departmentalize in Upper Elementary

(Note: We used the nicknames of the three closest major colleges as names for each group of students. We also had early-release on Wednesday, which is why you see different times for that day.)

It was important that each student had an equal amount of time in each class every day. There were a couple of days when I saw two classes for the full 90 minutes, but one class for 45 minutes due to an unexpected special event that came up at the last second. All the fifth-grade teachers hated that because it wasn’t fair to the last class that their instruction got cut short. They had to play catch-up for several days to make up for that lost time.

One thing you can do about it: It’s important that you have someone who can adapt the schedule and communicate those changes to the team, even if it’s at the last second. Then when a special event is announced, everyone knows this person will handle creating a new rotation schedule for that day.

While we certainly discussed the schedule as a team, your team needs a go-to person who can quickly change the schedule on those days when an assembly is announced five minutes before the kids arrive. This person must also be able to clearly communicate these changes with the team. Your principal is NOT the person for this job! It should be a member of your team who knows the schedule and how changes are going to impact things for each class.

It’s also important that the other team members respect these changes and go with the flow because there’s not always time to discuss scheduling changes.

Challenge: Ending class on time

It is imperative that each teacher ends class on time so students can have the full amount of time with their next teacher. There were a few instances when other teachers had to chat with me because I ended my science class five minutes late. I explained that we really got into an experiment or cleanup took way longer than I thought. Guess what? They didn’t care. All they cared about was losing five minutes of instruction time with the kids that I kept late. Plus, this teacher had to stand in the hallway and monitor the kids who were scheduled to be in my room.

I soon realized that I ABSOLUTELY HAD TO BE DONE WITH MY LESSON 2-3 MINUTES BEFORE THE CLASS TIME WAS SCHEDULED TO END! So I set a ton of alarms on my phone to help me stay on schedule.

5 Challenges of Departmentalizing in Upper Elementary

One thing you can do about it: I set an alarm seven minutes before each class was scheduled to end, which gave me time to wrap up my lesson. Then I had another alarm on my phone go off two minutes before class was scheduled to end so I could have all the kids lined up and ready to get to their next class on time. You could also have a student who is good with keeping track of time tell you when class is about to end. Do whatever it takes to get your students to their next class on time because it’s not like middle school where you can ring a bell in the hallway. Ending your class on time shows you respect the time of the other teachers on your team.

Challenge: Hallway transitions

NOTHING will shut down a team’s effort to departmentalize faster than students being loud in the hallway while they are switching classes! Other teachers will quickly grow tired of telling your students to be quiet while they’re trying to teach. They will not hesitate to go to the principal with these concerns. Administrators could tell you to stop departmentalizing if they are constantly dealing with kids being sent to the office for fighting or yelling while they are switching classes.

It is extremely important that your students remain quiet while switching classes. Next year in middle school, they can talk while they change classes. But not in elementary school. We told our students there was absolutely no talking while they change classes, even if they have to wait. They had to wait quietly in a line outside their next teacher’s door until that teacher allows them into their class.

It’s also important for teachers to stand in the hallway during transition times. Yes, there are a million things you could be doing to prepare for your next class, but we all know that fifth graders are going to try to get away with stuff if they are left unsupervised. So it’s important to respect the other teachers in your building by keeping your students quiet during transitions. I have heard of a school where the fifth grade departmentalized at the beginning of the year, but the principal made them stop because there were too many behavior problems when the kids switched classes.

These are just a few of the challenges that you’ll need to prepare for if you plan to departmentalize in elementary school. There are more that will arise. It takes a willingness to adapt and be flexible, but I feel like departmentalizing has so many more pros than cons for teachers and students.

Regardless of whether or not departmentalizing would work at your school, I’d like to thank you for all that you do for your students every day!