Private Virtual Conferences

When I heard we were moving to a virtual classroom I was so nervous about not really knowing my students. That was my biggest fear. How would I be able to recognize them, to get to know their quirks, to love them?

It hasn't been hard like I thought.

The second week of school I sent home a Sign Up Genius link to my parents.  I'm used to using Sign Up Genius because that's what we do for Parent Teacher Conferences. I get the time slots available, send out the link and it's first come, first choose...

I figured that if the parents were choosing their child's time for conferences that perhaps they would mark it on their calendars and remember to remind.  

It's worked pretty well this year.  

I chose 10 minute conferences with each kid.  You can do a lot in 10 minutes.  Enough time for some intervention if needed.  Enough time to talk about books, enough time to check in about life, and for them to ask questions.  Enough time to go over a test... Enough time for a last minute parent, student, teacher conference if needed...

So I put these options on a Sign Up Genius and most of the families chose their own time. I gave them a few days, then sent personal messages on Class Dojo for the rest of the families, then I finally asked the last few students to choose their own time.  I'm really good at nagging. :) 

I don't do conferences on Wednesdays since those are our staff meeting afternoons, but I do have a weekly Class Chat from 1-1:30 that day.  

This schedule still gives me time after conferences are done to tackle the rest of the paperwork... like grading and planning... and if for some reason a kid doesn't show up to their conference I just use that time to grade.  I can also keep responding to all the other messages that students are sending me in their private channels with their questions.  

I meet with the students in their private channels.  I just start a meeting, and if needed I can add things to that specific conversation to add to their channel's files.  When the mic or camera hasn't worked, it works to just type in the meeting chat as well.  It's just a little more private since they are the only ones that can see what we talk about.  

I do send a reminder (that I just copy and paste) into my student's channels on their meeting day.  "It's Conference Day! Can you join me?" They RSVP yes or no.  It's made it a little easier to not feel trapped in front of a computer screen if I need to get up for a moment.

I give them 5 minutes to show up to the conference.  Usually they are ready right away, but other times they aren't... so I send a little message at the end.  "Missed you at our conference, hope you are okay." Then I add the specific things we were going to talk about, and they answer me on their own time.  Like "How are you doing? What's new? What you are reading? How has the character grown in the story? How is math going? What is the difference between multiplying fractions vs whole numbers? Could you resubmit that one homework paper since I know you can do better? Do you have any questions for me?"

I've been trying hard to work to contract this year for my own sanity.  So come 3:30pm I am trying to switch from teacher hat to mom hat. My own kids still need me to help them (aka taking my own teenager out for driving practice), I need time to do something for me... whether it be going outside for fresh air or curling up with my own book... then there is housework, dinner prep, and laundry, and all that other fun stuff.  This year I'm learning about balance...

Back to Private Conferences.  I think, no I KNOW, that it's because of these private conferences that I really know my students this year.  I know them.  The barriers come down during these private meetings.  We've talked about fears and celebrations.  We've been silly.  We've had some tears. 

Practicing States and Capitals...

Okay... Since I'm trying to share everything I've been doing since moving to 5th grade, I figured I would share about the orange folder in my file cabinet.  When I first moved to 5th - four years ago, I had no clue what I was getting into.  

Seriously.  

I mean I knew the 5th grade teachers always looked like they were on the brink of a little crazy... but they seemed like they were always having so much fun too.  

I then jumped head first into the craziness and am absolutely loving it.  

I love the hands on projects, the community service, and the teamwork that comes from being part of an amazing team.  Even if it's a bit extra.  :)  

I also learned about States and Capitals. There are many ways for kids to practice identifying their states and capitals.  I have also learned over the years that thrift stores usually carry a lot of ways to practice the states for super cheap.  My room is full of flash cards, erasable maps, floor puzzles, and even a huge rug that I was gifted through Donors Choose.  

Well not this year... the rug and all that stuff are tucked away because the kids can't use them... :( 

But we are watching the Tour the States video from Youtube.  If you haven't watch it yet, then do it.  That's your homework today.  The song may drive you a little batty when you've listened to it a million times, but it's so catchy that you probably won't care.

Now for the tests, in our grade level, we have an organization of 10 weeks of states with approx. 5 states each week. We have the Western States for the first 1-24. Then we have the Eastern States with the last 26. Each week these specific numbers are matched onto a blank map of the USA. Those maps are what's tucked inside that orange folder...  We also do a cumulative quiz after the Western, the Eastern, and a full 50 at the end.  

We give them a week or two to practice the specific list.  Just the 5 to focus on.  This year I'm adding them to our Weekly Breakdown. Usually the kids write them in their planners. 

We usually start at the beginning of the year and alternate a set of states for 2 weeks, and a spelling list for the alternating 2 weeks.  I liked that system a lot.  

Then this year started and there was no way we could add that into the plan right away.  Too much other stuff.  So I waited until we were in our Colonial American unit and started the states with identifying the 13 colonies.  

Yep - it felt super weird starting on the other side of the country since my brain is engrained Western States first, but the kids were able to identify the colonies as we were already comparing and contrasting between New England, Middle, and Southern. 3 weeks. That was in December.  

Then in January my class started with the Western set, and this week started on the Eastern.  We took a couple of weeks off with the end of the trimester.  Life has been kind of crazy.  

How are we doing this online?  I'm still using those same map tests each week.  I add an assignment into our TEAM with the list of the states, and then I post the map in our Friday meeting.  I snap at picture of the map with my phone, and upload it into our meeting conversation using the phone app.  The kids identify the states/numbers from the map and put it next to the specific state in the assignment page.

I know kids can easily cheat on this online platform, so I have added in another layer.

To get full credit they also have to submit a screenshot of their clicks over from this website. Each week their goal is to improve their number of clicks.  If they improve each week over there, then they get that extra point to bump their final state quiz to the top level.  

Most of my class is now at 50 clicks for 50 states.  And they love to practice. So much so that I sent messages to my 50/50 kids to give them a week off, and they wanted to keep practicing.  

Hope you had a great day!

I Love Novels!

What is your favorite subject to teach?  Mine would have to be reading... or maybe Social Studies. I love seeing the characters through my students' eyes.  I also love to have history come alive...  

Okay - Reading... 

Growing up I was always the kid with her nose in a book.  I wasn't outgoing, I was the kid whose report cards said needed to speak up.  I know, me.  :)  Making friends was hard when you were beyond shy, and when you lived next-door to the popular girl and just wanted to be accepted... yeah. :( Back then I easily made friends with the characters in my books though and didn't have to have awkward conversations with them.

There are so many good books out there, and mostly the kids don't know what they like to read when they get into my classroom.  Every year I try to introduce multiple genres to my students.  I do it as part of the 40 Book Challenge.  We start the year with a Book Tasting (courtesy of Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching).  Usually I decorate the classroom, this year it was a lot simpler.  I wore a chef hat on screen and used a wisk as a prop. I shared her slides and we used our anthology as the resource since most didn't have many chapter books at home with varying genres.  But it got them talking... and the conversation hasn't stopped all year.  

Books - I like to use novels to teach our reading strategies and standards.  There is something so satisfying to see that character development and the entire story unfold.  Like I said 3 paragraphs ago, I like to see the characters through my students' eyes.  They root for them, they care about them... and they grow as readers.  

Here's what we've read so far this year:

*Frindle - we focus on the meanings of words, multiple meaning words, context clues, roots, and suffixes.

*Wonder - focus on character development and empathy

*Blood on the River - focus on SS's explorer unit and beginnings of colonial times

*Long Walk to Water - focus on compare/contrast

*Hatchet - focus on character development

*Tuck Everlasting - focus on figurative language

*Woods Runner - focus on SS's American Revolution and compare/contrast author study with Hatchet

*Holes (current) - focus on comparing and character development

You can see my full list of 5th grade novels here.  There is no way that we can cover all of those this year, but we are trying. It's so hard to pick and choose between the books, they are like my babies...

Every novel we always start out making a SCAT chart.  I know, not the best Acronym, but they don't really care (and neither do I).  

Setting

Character

Action

Theme

Usually we read at least 1 or 2 chapters of the book per day, we discuss, and kids fill in their chart. We do an activity with it that is focusing on our weekly or unit skill, we work on vocabulary, and we do a comprehension check with it.  Here's how it goes in a normal year - when each kid has a book in the classroom... 

First trimester - We do everything together

Second trimester - I read one chapter, we discuss, they read one chapter, and discuss with small groups.

Third trimester - Book Clubs

Gradual release...  

This year  since they don't have copies of the novel at home I am reading everything to them.  It's all been virtual, so I haven't had to read everything from behind a mask... but that will be starting soon.  Any tips to share? I'm going back and forth with prerecording myself without a mask and just sharing the video... not sure.

I'm still using these Novel Notes, they are free in my TPT store.  Hope they can help you too!