Forming Random Groups

There are times when you'll want to carefully plan your group members and other times when you might want to quickly form random groups. Here are a few ideas for forming random groups:

• All the kids in my room have numbers to quickly put us in order or for random drawing. I put each student's number on a popsicle stick and place a container with the sticks in my room. You can pick partners or choose individuals to come up to the front in a random order.
• Play "Firefly". I bought a cheap set of matching picture cards that younger students could use for a matching game. Give each student a different card (call it his/her firefly) and she/he must hold the card carefully so the firefly doesn't fly away. Once all students have a card, they stand up and try to find a match by carefully showing their card for a quick second to each individual in the room. They can't show the card for too long or their firefly will fly away!
• Flippity.net has a ton of fun games you can modify for your classroom but it also has a random name picker that can choose a student randomly or make random groups for you to use for student collaboration. 
• SMART notebook has a Random Group Generator. You can type students' names in at the beginning of the year, choose how many groups you want and click "Generate" and it will make random groups for you.
• I just read about this one. It's a sneaky way to teach synonyms and new vocabulary. :) You take enough index cards for your whole class and write synonyms for each pair of cards. Give everyone a card and the synonyms have to find each other. Ex. Timid and shy, appreciative and thankful

What's your "teacher number"?

I can't remember what conference I heard this from, but the speaker asked if we knew our "teacher number"... people looked around and thought should I know that, what is that... The speaker said we needed to learn our teacher number because our kids already knew it. Your "teacher number" is the number of times you'll say something before your students know you mean it and they should listen. Do you find yourself giving the same direction 5 times before they all respond? What are ways you could lower your teacher number so you can say things ONCE?

My Classroom App

I made an app! Yes, it's basic, but I didn't have to know any fancy code to do it. I used theappbuilder.com (which I learned about at the TIES conference in Minneapolis).  To keep it free, my app is web linked (so someone using it needs Wifi or to be data connected on his/her Smartphone). My parents can go to a website I give them and Add it to Home Screen so it becomes a link. For my app, I included contact information, a link to my classroom blog, Flickr, Twitter, Donors Choose, and a couple other websites my kids use.

QR Codes

Interested in making QR codes for your classroom or want to know what they are...
A QR code is a square bar code that can link to websites, text, a YouTube video or even a talking voice. Try out qrstuff.com or qrvoice.net
Choose what you want your QR code to link to and you can copy/paste or download your QR code.
Ways to use it in the classroom:

• Create a classroom scavenger hunt. Students need to scan for questions or to get a special clue or answer.
• Link to a video of yourself giving directions for a station or activity so students can watch while you're helping another student.
• Link to a website you would like students to access.

Students in my room use an iPad to scan a QR code. There are tons of free apps out there for QR scanning.

Try it out!

Classroom Management

One thing I think I know...and I'm not sure I know much...but your classroom climate will reflect your personality, classroom rules, and priorities. Don't be afraid to spend time with your class at the beginning of the year talking about what they feel is important in a classroom and what you feel is important. Form rules together. Model, model, model what you WANT to see in your room... not what you don't. Let kids see you make mistakes. Have routines in place that save you time. SMILE! Positive attitudes are infectious!

Some ideas (and I'll type more as I remember them) I've gathered over the years to aid in classroom management:

• 3-2-1: Have a call and response or something where kids know when it's your turn to speak. I don't want to talk over my kids. If they're discussing something and I'd like to give further directions, I say 3-2-1 and by the time I get to 1 I start to talk. That gives students the 3 count to finish a thought and they don't miss the beginning of what I say.
• Clap if you can hear my voice: I saw this in one of our kindergarten classrooms, but it works at all levels. You say "clap if you can hear my voice" in a quiet tone and then clap twice. Repeat until you have everyone doing the two claps with you. As students hear you, the two claps will start to spread through the room and you'll get everyone to stop what they're doing and be ready. Another benefit of the claps: students hands will be busy doing your series of 2 claps so they can't keep writing or typing which will help them focus on what you'll say next. To mix it up, you could do snaps. Sometimes I'll say touch your head, your ear, your knee, and keep picking spots until everyone is following along with me.
• Two words: Choose a two word saying (our Art teacher picked Mona Lisa). You say the first word and students say the second. After the second, they know you will be giving further instructions. 
• Placement: Think about where you are in the room (do you walk around? stay in one place?) and what desk arrangement works for you (small groups, a circle, pairs, individual desks?). Experiment with different things that help you access everyone and help students feel safe and comfortable to learn.
• Responsive Classroom/Developmental Design: Several years ago, I went to some trainings in RC and DD. Some of the key things I took from the trainings: get to know your students (they'll respond better to you if they know you care about who they really are), model everything, have students help solve issues in the classroom (they'll be more likely to fix things with solutions they've come up with on their own). I also really like their Look, Sound, Feel charts. Before we start something new - maybe before our first guided reading time - we talk about what they want it to look, sound and feel like during that part of their day. You can post these charts and go back to them if students need reminders during the year.
• Don't be afraid to take some brain breaks. When kids have been so focused or need to refocus, they may need a chance to reset! I bought the book Energizing Brain Breaks by David U. Sladkey but also use these websites:

• Brain break dance
• Brain break claps http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Def617lc0
• What's that you say? clip 
• Koo Koo Kangaroo: Dinosaur stomp
• Despicable Me 2 Dance
• The Sid Shuffle: The Continental Drift http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMuJxd2Gpxo
• Brain Breaks in the Classroom

          You can also have kids switch how/where they're sitting (i.e. turn their chairs around and sit in them backwards) to mix things up.

I know there are other tips I've heard/seen from other teachers, but my mind needs a break!

Today's Meet

We used Today's Meet (backchannel website) last month to help us learn about Mystery Skypes. I presented questions to the students (What is a Mystery Skype? How do we prepare for one? etc.) and as students researched in pairs, they used Today's Meet to keep track of their findings. The website is a backchannel that can be used during a class to type questions or key points while a lesson/presentation is in progress. I liked that we could look back at all their thoughts without having some students trying to share while others still needed to research. They also seemed to ask more questions and find additional points in their research because they wanted to type them for others to see.

How to use it: go to todaysmeet.com and give your "room" a name. To enter the room (the webspace for the meet), students go to todaysmeet.com/ and put the room name after the /
They enter their name and can then type messages to send into the chat.
If you have extra time (like so many teachers do!) you could create your room in advance and just put the URL for the room on your webpage or somewhere students can click to access it quickly. At my level, the kids could easily type todaysmeet.com and put in the / and the room name without a link, but it could be helpful. I made the room ahead of time, but they typed in the URL
If you have iPads in your room, you could go to the website on Safari and then add it to the home screen so it can be a thumbnail for kids to touch quickly. This would be helpful for a room you might have open for the whole year. Maybe one for vocabulary word discussions or notes on reading passages? You could have a generic todaysmeet.com/reading....and then put your name or room number.

Student Response Websites

There are many websites out there that can help you take a quick formative assessment. They help kids stay engaged and give teachers a chance to check for understanding. I'm going to highlight 3 today. All three require an e-mail address to create a FREE account:

• Socrative (http://socrative.com/)- One of the first I tested. Once you've created an account, it assigns you a room number. When students go to http://m.socrative.com/student/#joinRoom they enter your room number and wait for you to open a question. You can type questions in advance or say them aloud on the fly. Question types include: T/F, multiple choice, and short answer.
• InfuseLearning (http://www.infuselearning.com/) - similar to Socrative except you have additional question types to choose from. There's still T/F, multiple choice, and short answer, but students can also sort answers (put in order) and DRAW - great for math!!
• Kahoot.it (teacher: create.kahoot.it  kids: kahoot.it) - the kids love this! You do have to type questions in advance (or choose from other public kahoots already created). It's set up like a game - with game music of course. You select a time limit for each question, and every game has a pin number for the students to enter the game. When students answer a question, the earn "Kahoots" (instead of points) if the question is right, and they earn more kahoots the faster they answer the question. The website also will tell them what place they are in compared to their classmates. This is a good review type activity. We used it to practice our math facts, and my kids begged to do more!

All three provide you with feedback on student understanding. You can see what questions were answered correctly, and in many cases, how long it took to answer each question.

Mystery Skype

I admit it...I love technology - how it can help my students learn and help us connect to others. And let's face it, there's tech out there that makes you go WHOA...I NEED to stop and see or try that!
In December, my class tried their first Mystery Skype.
A Mystery Skype is where you call another classroom in the world and try to figure out where they're from. You only ask yes/no questions. We used jobs from Mr. Solarz's class website (http://psolarz.weebly.com/how-to-set-up-and-run-a-mystery-skype-session.html)  so everyone was involved in the Skype. We had questioners, sharers, mappers, data enterers, task masters, sharer and questioner assistants, greeters, closers, and a photographer. Also, everyone was a researcher. I had laptops and maps available for all the students.
Before we started, we created a google doc to keep track of our questions and research tools. The other thing I would suggest is to come up with a list of questions in advance - talk about questions that would be too general and too specific (i.e. Do you live in Texas? would be too specific to ask near the beginning of the Skype). We also did a practice Skype with my mom! Thanks, Mom! She pretended to live somewhere in the world (because they knew her actual location) and that gave us a chance to test the technology and practice our jobs. The kids did great, and I really feel the practice helped us feel more prepared for our actual Skype. The first class we called was from Tennessee and the next week we called Ireland!! We have another Skype coming up in a couple weeks! What a great experience to be able to connect from such a distance. If anyone is interested in doing a Mystery Skype with my class, please let me know in the comments.

It's time...

As I'm in the midst of my eleventh year of teaching 5th grade, I think it's time to start (ok...I know I should've started my first year) compiling all the tips, tricks, and masterful ideas I find. I love to gather ideas from other teachers, Twitter (@MissSandgren), Pinterest (kristin17_), and of course I learn new things every time I make mistakes too!
When I started teaching, I had the BEST cooperating teacher during my student teaching experience, and I was lucky enough to join her teaching team the next year. She always encouraged me to write things down - cool ideas, the funny quotes kids say, or anything you'd want to remember. I didn't do it and now I'm kicking myself realizing how great it would've been to have that now. Oh well, every day is a new day! Best to start now!! One of my class theme songs is "Brand New Day" by Joshua Radin, and I love that it always reminds me I can start fresh!
Here we go...