Looping - Possible Forms of Communication?

Next year, I will be teaching 3rd grade - the beginning of a 3/4 loop. I AM SO EXCITED! This is my dream spot. I have taught both kindergarten and 3rd grade before. I loved both of them, but am especially excited to teach 3rd grade again. I am excited at the possibilities - 1:1 chromebooks and I love the content, especially continent studies.

My priority with each and every class is to build relationships with students, with families, and foster them amongst students. My mind is racing as I reflect on what has worked this year and what has not been as successful.  This blog post will be my personal list of things to do. This list will be fluid and continually be edited and revised as ideas are added and tried.

Communication. I would like to establish a list of information for parents, as I do every summer, about how I will be communicating with them and how they can communicate with me.

1. telephone - Provide contact information, include cell phone or not? Objective: to relay specific information about your child, both positive and things to work on.
2. email - Collect an email address from EVERY family. If they do not have one, help them set it up. If they do not have internet access, provide paper copies of everything. Objective: to relay specific information about your child, both positive and things to work on; as well as group messages about our classroom.
3. Twitter - This will be a class Twitter page, the students will be tweeting. Objective: Students will collaborate with other classrooms around the state, country and world. Students will learn and practice internet safety. Students will also "tweet" information about what is happening in our classroom and is interesting to them.
4. Facebook - Our district is currently in the process of implementing a Social Media Policy. After this is approved by the board, I would like to implement my own classroom FB page. Objective: I will share pictures and events to share with families and the community to showcase what is happening in our classroom.
5. smore.com - Weekly newsletter via that will be emailed. Objective: MAIN SOURCE OF COMMUNICATION - Will list what is happening in our classroom; links to our social media sites; upcoming classroom, school, and district events; links to curriculum sites, and pictures.
6. school website - General information as well as updated calendar of events and links to frequently used websites (Envisions Math, Wonders, etc.). Objective: A general site for information such as my bio, contact information, school lunch calendar, links to our social media sites, and links to curriculum sites.
7. remind - Group text and email reminders. Objective: This will take the place of paper reminders.

Is this too much? It seems overwhelming as I write this list. I think it will be important to clearly state what the objective of each is. Going to go back and do that in a different color text...

I will also add a note about meetings. For example, "Parent - Teacher conferences will be scheduled throughout the year. If you'd like to meet with me any other time, please feel free to contact me and we will schedule a time." 

I strongly believe that it is important to have open two-way communication. I will strongly encourage families to contact me at any time and provide my contact information on all correspondences. 

#positivepostitday

I found the idea for #positivepostitday on Twitter. While the day was created as a positive response to a high school girl that was being bullied, I LOVED the idea of sharing positive and deliberate compliments to people for no reason at all, except to be nice! Far too often we think positive things about others, but do not take the time or make the effort to share them. Unfortunately, we (the teachers) are the only ones that tell some of these children anything positive. On Positive Post-It Day, we (students and staff) would take the time to jot a positive compliment about someone on a post-it note and share it with them.

We kicked off our day by watching a Kid President video, "20 Things We Should Say More Often".

My 2nd Graders loved it. I did too! I pointed out the last message, "If you can't think of anything nice to say, you're not thinking hard enough." How true! As a class, we then practiced giving specific compliments to someone. For example, we didn't want to write 16 post-it notes that said, "You are awesome!". We made a list of possible compliments that included thinks like, "You are so funny!" and "You are really smart and know so much about animals."

We then went to work! I had set aside about 15-20 minutes for the kids to write post-its. After 20 minutes, there was no way they were done! They were excitedly writing and very engaged. I was thrilled with the writing practice (had to be complete sentences) as well as the thought they were putting in to each heartfelt note. They worked hard for almost an hour straight. I had to stop them to go to art class!

I took the time to write out a positive post-it for each of my students at home, so I was prepared. I also wrote a positive post-it for each teacher in our building and put it on their classroom door. Not every teacher participated, but many did.


I found this post-it on the door or my daughter's 4th grade class (written by her!). I was proud of her for being so thoughtful, but also that she felt that way about her class.

This is my door. My heart was warmed reading the nice things that students and teachers shared. It was surprising to see some from students that I had never had, but had obviously impacted by simply saying hello in the hallway or lunchroom and asking them how they were.

Overall, I believe that #positivepostitday was a huge success. I look forward to making it an annual event!