Rockin This Teacher Thing – Details, episodes & analysis

It’s report card time. Report cards are a great way to show student growth BUT you can spend a lot of time doing report cards. And if you don’t handle report cards just right, your best intentions can backfire and make your teacher life pretty miserable.

Looking for the free Report Card Word and Phrase Bank with Report Card Template? 
Here's the link: www.makingthebasicsfun.com/reportcardcommentbank

Here are the 6 Report Card Dos & Don’ts. Keep reading to get more info on each. 

• Don’t rely completely on a number in a grade book.

Do have a student folder with work samples to support percentage/grades/skills.

• Don’t have data and students work in several places.

Do organized data in one spot for easy and quick reference.

• Don’t write a new report card comment for each student.

Do use a report card template and word/comment bank to structure and quickly fill in student data and observations.

• Don’t reveal a problem area in a report card without talking with parents about the skill/behavior deficit first.

Do communicate with parents before report cards come out about any problems.

• Don’t use negative language in report card comments to describe a child or their skill/behavior.

Do use positive language to describe skills/behaviors deficit. 

• Don’t tell parents about a problem without explaining how you are helping the child remediate the issue.

Do give specifics on exactly how the child is not on level and how you are working with the child to meet our exceed specific skills and/or behaviors. Plus, give strategies and materials parents can use to help the child. 

Using puppets to teach (or reteach) classroom rules can help your students stay engaged and able to remember the classroom rules. 

A puppet is magical. Today you will get some tips and how-tos when it comes to making the most of puppet friend. 

Giving yourself teacher grace is something that we hear a lot about lately. But what does it look like in real life? Today you will get 5 ways you can give yourself some grace. And stick around to the end where I will be giving a special little surprise to help you to keep going with the important work of being a teacher. 

Are you ready to get your grace on and Rock This Teacher Thing? Alright, let's go.

Mentioned Resource: Keep Going Poster
https://www.makingthebasicsfun.com/keepgoing

2021 is here and your teacher heart is heavy and tired. A short episode for you to fix your attention on the good you do even in your weariness.
A poem by Maya Angelou, Continue
Remember to rest and do good for yourself. The world needs you. You're a hero.
See you in 2021.

Wouldn't it be great if kids could move while engaged in learning and skills practice?
Can it be done from home or in a socially distancing classroom?  Oh YES!!!!
Today we have Brittany Lynch from Fluency & Fitness.
She showing us how to get our students moving and learning at the same time.
Anytime teachers can get students moving and learning students are going to be more engaged, happier and the extra blood to the brain is going to accelerate learning. 

}}}}}}}}}}}  Stay to the end to get the special surprise she has for Rockin' This Teacher Thing Listeners.
"Thanks, Brittany!!!!!" }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

If you want to catch today's episode on YouTube here's the link: https://youtu.be/1x3VUAD3cA4

Connect with Brittany:
Website: https://fluencyandfitness.com/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tickledpinkinprimary/fluency-and-fitness-educational-brain-breaks/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/tickledpinkinprimary/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tickledpinkinprimary
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoaSk4EwNKeCijvpIelGHlA

Today I am happy to invite my former student Matthew Sekerak to the show. Matthew is now an art teacher and he’s going to be telling the story about becoming a teacher and being an art teacher in a pandemic. He made me laugh so hard with a couple of his stories. So if you are needing a good belly laugh. This is the place for you.  Let’s start Rockin’ today's episode.

Teacher Resource: https://www.makingthebasicsfun.com/gratitude

Holiday celebrations, cultural traditions and stress.  Now more than ever we want the next few months to be memorable, special and full of joy.  Don’t be stressed instead get the 3 hacks you can use in your life to get organized quickly, plan efficiently and find some joy in the journey.  You’re going to get some free printables to help so make sure you stay with me so you don’t miss those. Are you ready to face stress and beat it…. Me too. Here we go. 

Resources Mentioned:
Holiday Stress Buster Printables:  https://www.makingthebasicsfun.com/stressbuster 

Get your report card comments done fast and make them so amazing they will help strengthen your parent/teacher relationship. See the template below.

Mentioned Resources:
Get "Move It Like A Turkey"
Early Finisher Solution
Episode Website Page

Template Example:
I am enjoying watching ______(student)  grow as a learner this year. (start positive- I see your child in a positive way and they are learning) He/She is________________. (tell one or two positive attributes you have observed) I am helping _____ (student name) improve on ___________ by ___________. (give an area that the student is struggling with the help they have received to improve). We will continue to work on ___________ by ___________ in the next quarter. (plan for the future. What parents can expect). As a class we will also be working on____________. (General statement that will be the same with every student's comments.) You can help your child gain mastery quickly with this task by _____________. (Give parents something they can do to help their child at home.)  _______, (students name) Keep up the good work. Your hard work is making you smarter and smarter.  (Final affirmation that you see them trying to be a great student) 

Ready for some easy to implement tools to help ALL of your students? Occupational Therapist, Angie Holmes, joins us today to give us useful tips on how to strengthen students' core, cross the midline, improve muscle control, improve focus, and give every student ways to improve their academic performance.  All these tips will help your students be better readers, writers, thinkers and all around happier students. Don’t miss the tips on easy ways to collect data if you have a student in the referral process and some of her go-to OT tools to help struggling students.  I can’t wait for you to hear this conversation. You are going to walk away better equipped to help your students.  Let’s start rockin’ today’s episode. Here we go.

 Early Finisher Activities are a part of every K-1 classroom but with the new requirements brought by social distancing, and distance learning, using early finisher activities from the past might not be usable. 

Today we will talk about how to structure early finisher activities so that your little ankle-biters will be busy learning even when they finish their tasks early.  

You CAN keep them busy and learning and not spend hours prepping these must-have resources for our classroom. 

Lot’s to talk about today so let’s start rockin' today’s episode. 

Mentioned Resources
Early Finisher Masterclass Save Your Seat.
https://my.demio.com/ref/k7wgBhiEqIgQr8xq 

YouTube Episodes Teachers Making The Basics Fun:
Early Finisher Problems? https://youtu.be/C8cJs-CkT7Q
More Early Finisher Tips https://youtu.be/0WOPRiO8o9o