Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits

Teaching with Heart and Creativity

Classroom Systems That Work!

Today was our 5th day of first grade, and our best yet!  Although I at times have felt like a fish out of water due to my newness to the campus, I have been bound and determined to make a consistent clear operation within my classroom regardless of how I am feeling on the inside. 

Today’s classroom success is due to having systems in place that foster effective productivity. 

Let’s check out the basics…

Exhibit A
Schedule and Jobs:

Lord knows these are more for me than the kids but having these two systems in place and fully operational has made a world of difference.

The second HUGE accomplishment for this year is trying out student data tracking!  This is no small feat with beginning first graders!  We have been tracking our reader’s workshop stamina and although we had a dip today in our time, I know we will recover fantastically.  

Tomorrow we will begin with our speaking and listening objectives.  It seems to be the best place to start for my firsties since they have been sharing about themselves a little each day.  We will rate ourselves according to these criteria along the top of this page:  This will be true for all of our learning objectives.  They should become very familiar with the rating system and what it means to move up to a new level of mastery!
 I will ask them to model each level of mastery across the top.  Next students will take a moment to reflect their current level of mastery by placing a check in the box.  Each time we go back to a past objective students will be able to self reflect and rate themselves to see if they have moved up on their level of mastery.  If so they will make another check in a different column.  We celebrate any and all growth.  I told them this was our celebration binder! 🙂 When it is time for parent teacher conferences, these binders will be my guiding force.  Students will be able to explain their levels of mastery and why they rated themselves that way.  Also, work samples will provide the evidence in areas like writing, ELA, and math.  
We are just beginning this process, and I know I will fail forward as we try, but I am excited about the new adventure.  I feel like I am preparing my students to take ownership of their learning and to be honest of their learning needs.  
The third and final system that was finally in place today was full implementation of math tubs!  Last week we did math tubs, but the students stayed in their assigned seats and the tubs magically came to them!  This week they went to the tub with their partner or group of three and it was amazing!  The room was buzzing with productivity and sounds of learning!  Here’s a few highlights:
Our updated math board has our essential questions, math vocabulary, student visuals, and in the green and red areas I have my math rotation. 
(I do not have a smart board this year so the system I was using had to change)

 Here are my students in their very first rotation of “real” math tubs!!!  Such a proud teacher!

 These two boys are playing The Subitize Tree on my iPad

 Here’s an easy and free center for working on tally marks!  Numbers and popsicle sticks! 

 Math Tubs are from the following:
 What systems do you have in place that are just absolute life savers for you?  I am so interested in what is working well!  I would love to hear about it!  Sometimes the smallest change can really impact your day!
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    6. I would love to do math tubs but worried about the time to fit it all in. Would love to know how you manage it. Do you have a math program you teach as well or do you do all of your math through math tubs? How long does it take you to teach how to do each tub? Do you do a math lesson over the skills that are in each tub before they do the tubs?

      First Grade Shenanigans

      Reply

    15. Whoa momma! You have accomplished so much!! I love the data binders and think this is what I'm looking for to track their progress. Right now I have so much "new" thrown at me with new admin, curriculum in reading, math, lesson plans, etc. that I can't imagine throwing something else new into the mix just yet. I saved this to my wish list thought so I can revisit this for the later half of the year. It's great that it is align to the common core! You're schedule looks wonderful!! I had a similar schedule last year and for the past 5 years and loved it! This year everything is flip flopped and it's been hard finding the time and staying on track! Thanks for sharing all of your wonderful resources! You are an amazing teacher!
      Rambling About Reading

      Reply

    16. Hi Reagan,

      I'd like to start by saying that your blog looks great. My name is Martin and I'm a teacher from Canada. I just started a new website called Resources4teaching where educators can buy and sell lessons and educational resources. We are new and are looking for people to join and put up their materials for sale on our website. We are having an iPad draw for the first 100 Vendors who join and upload at least 1 lesson /resource for sale on our website. There are absolutely no fees to join and you earn royalties of 70%. You can visit us at:http://www.resources4teaching.com

      If you know any other teachers who might be interested in this Website, please forward this to them and if you have any questions, feel free to message me.

      Have a great day

      Reply

    19. Reagan, I visit your site EVERY day to help me get my system workable! Thanks for sharing your wonderful ideas, TPT items, etc. BTW, I noticed that you do have a projector but no smartboard. I don't either but…I have a SmartSlate. They are really not expensive but since it is a SMART product I can use all the SMARTboard products, Smart Exchange, etc. It has been wonderful!!! The only difference is that it is not possible to manipulate the board–just the slate!

      booky4first.blogspot

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    24. are your building teen number cards available individually? I like the idea of the students building the teen numbers with unifix cubes after picking a card. I would love to utilize those in my classroom please let me know where I can find them 🙂

      Reply

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