Need Tips

Vickie,

   My fifth grade classroom had large, heavy student desks and adult-sized chairs, so we never rearranged the room for most lessons. I just told the kids they needed to be able to see the projector screen. They could sit at desks or on the floor. This also saved time. The only lessons where I moved desks were the Walking Tour of Williamsburg and the Walking Tour of Gettysburg Battlefield, and the room stayed that way for 2 -3 days.

   I used 70-page spiral notebooks for the ISN because I didn't want my students looking ahead and reading ahead because they saw interesting graphic organizers. I didn't want them to steal my "Eureka" moments. They could write their Preview responses, their vocabulary, and additional notes in the spirals, and the students taped their graphic organizers that I copied from the ISN to the spiral pages. We also taped in the rough copies of many of the Process assignments in the spiral. I tried using a 3-ring once but it didn't work and I went back to the spirals.

    If you would like to e-mail me directly with specific questions about lessons or management tips it would be fine grubaughk@yahoo.com I taught 4th for 14 years and 5th for 12 years.

Hi there Vickie...

I am not sure about the size of your classroom or your desk arrangements, but I found that teaching my students to move their desks into the configurations needed (using the Desk Olympics template) saved me a lot of time and energy. At the beginning of the year we incorporated the importance of setting up the room for activities as part of the Cooperate Tolerant Classroom set up. (This info would be found in the old Bring Learning Alive or Social Studies Alive! manuels) These procedures were then revisted evey so often. Student got very good at getting desks into the pairs, groups of 3, 4 or 5 desk arrangements... usually in less than 30 seconds! My students actually looked forward to the changes in the classroom environment with many of the TCI activities. With a 5th grade class of 29, sometimes it was just easier to have them come to the open spaces at the front of the room for activities that required looking at images. I really like Michelle's Carpet Squares.

As for the notebooks. Every year, department stores sell composition notebooks for 2/$1 or 3/$1. I generally buy up a class set of these and have them available for students. These notebooks are easier to keep than 3 ring notebooks (and sometimes spirals). With copy quotas in place for schools, I generally project the previews, vocab, and processing assignments on the overhead for students to copy into their notebooks and them hand out copies of the graphic organizers. Many students enjoy being able to add their own touches and creativity to their pages. To help with organizing, I keep a notebook too that has the notes and graphic organizers. I use it as a planning tool and it is great for when students are absent!

I hope this helps!

Sangita P