New teacher

[dfsteacher]

I am a new 3rd grade teacher and am starting a list of how to improve my classroom for next year. In my building, this is the first year in which the students change classes. This transition seems to be very hard for the students. Any suggestions on how to make it an easier transition??

[dfsteacher]

It seems like most of the posts on here are just about the coffee mug. I do want the coffee mug, but I would like to have some advice and ideas for my classroom too. I hope people respond to my questions.

[dfsteacher]

Who is supposed to be the vote for the educational President. Hillary? It doesn't look like she is going to get there. So then who should we vote for. I have my own opinions, however I would like to know what others think as well. It seems as though our choices are very slim this time around.

[dfsteacher]

Did anyone see the cover story in the April 2008 edition of neatoday? "Why They Leave" I found it interesting. VERY VERY INTERESTING!

[Addict]

dfsteacher - Welcome to The Teacher's Corner!

I have moved your posts (above) from the "Free Coffee Mug" thread to this thread. Please be sure to find the appropriate forum to post in (ie. these really don't have much to do with the free coffee mug).

Thanks!

[busbus]

I am a new 3rd grade teacher and am starting a list of how to improve my classroom for next year. In my building, this is the first year in which the students change classes. This transition seems to be very hard for the students. Any suggestions on how to make it an easier transition??

It appears that you are asking two questions.

1. How do I improve my classroom for next year?

2. How can we help to make it easier for students to transition from class to class?

Am I correct?

Give us an idea of what you mean my improving your classroom. Are you talking about the physical arrangement or the aesthetic decor?

What is the current process in place for students to transition from class to class? What do you and your colleagues see as the difficulties with this process?

I think that if you were to give us some background information, we might be able to come up with some suggestions in response to both questions.

[busbus]

Did anyone see the cover story in the April 2008 edition of neatoday? "Why They Leave" I found it interesting. VERY VERY INTERESTING!

Here is the link if you are interested in reading the article:

http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0804/whytheyleave.html

This article offers reasons why teachers are leaving the profession. A lot of what is in this article has been brought out on many of the threads on this site. When I read it, the article helped to confirm the thoughts given here. Discussed are No Child Left Behind, lack of respect, lack of support, class size, etc..

It is an interesting article.

[jsfowler]

My son is in 3rd grade and he changes classes for reading and math. Almost all of them do because it is by ability group. I know that they keep their books and materials in the classroom and are not expected to transport everything with them. So when he goes to reading, he just has to walk next door...same with math. Another thing I like is that he brings home all homework on Monday and turns it in on Friday. There have been some exceptions but very few.
My son says that when it is time to travel all the teachers stand in the doorways. The kids line up in their groups and change classes. All three of his classrooms are side-by-side. He says they are not allowed to go to the bathroom or water fountain during this time. They cannot get out of their lines. They have to sit and then ask.
I think the best thing is that they do not have to hassel with books and materials from one room to the next.

[Pame]

I used to change classes when I was in Elementary School. It was really uncomfortable to take my backpack to the other class. Have your students have their stuff ready at your classroom so that they don't have to deal with a bunch of things when moving from class to class.

[Chef Dave]

I used to be a third grade teacher and spent one year at a school where we exchanged classes. I taught a double math/science block and the other teacher taught social studies/reading/language arts.

There were a few things we did to facilitate change.

1) Desk arrangements were identical. Both of us had students in groups of four with a fifth desk added for group supplies. The fifth desk included a portfolio box. Each student had a manila folder for in-classroom work. The supply desk also included a stapler, glue, scissors, erasers, crayons, spare pencils, and paper.

Use of supply centers cut down the need for students to get up and wander around. Use of the portfolio box in particular made it less likely for students to lose assignments or projects that needed to be carried over to the next lesson.

2) Both teachers also had the same classroom rules with the same rewards and consequences. Prior to the start of the school year, we met and decided that it would be much too confusing to have students learn two different sets of classroom rules. We hammered out rules, consequences, and rewards that each of us could live with and stuck to it.

3) All graded papers went home on Thursday. Each teacher signed a comment paper that was attached to the outside of each take home folder. The comment paper essentially highlighted any concerns we had or praised a student for behavior or academic performance. All take home folders were returned empty of graded papers and signed by the parents on Friday.

Use of the take home folder enhanced teacher/parent communication ... and the use of this folder by both teachers also reinforced the sense of consistency and structure between each classroom.

[Boxcar]

I agree that keeping the rules, arrangements, ect, as similar as possible is a very good idea.

[wig]

Oh. MY! The beginning of this thread is very confusing. Is this the first time you have been on a forum? If so I understand why you have so many different topics on the same thread. Generally we start a new thread on each topic. Maybe Addict will fix this. Don't worry, many of us have done the same thing when learning how to use a forum.

I am a new 3rd grade teacher and am starting a list of how to improve my classroom for next year. In my building, this is the first year in which the students change classes. This transition seems to be very hard for the students. Any suggestions on how to make it an easier transition??

That is pretty young to be changing classes, IMO, but I am sure that wasn't your choice. I used to teach third grade and another big change they are experiencing is the different "look" of their textbooks. Math goes from workbooks to textbooks where they have to copy the problems; Social studies and science books have many more words on a page, etc. How many transitions have to be made? Who does the moving - the students or the teachers.

1. Work as a team to come up with similar classroom procedures, homework policy, and behavior expectations. They are not at an age where they can easily transition between different expectations from all of their teachers.

2. Send weekly newsletters as a team as opposed to individual ones.

3. If the students do the moving, try to avoid having them bring too much with them. You will always have those that forget something and it gets annoying after a while.

I am not quite sure what you mean by improving your classroom. Do you mean appearance, management, ?????

[Boxcar]

Ooh, I forgot about the textbook shock. I remember hating that. It was so much more work to copy the sentances and problems out...