School safety?

Franklin Regional was a hard story for me to watch and listen about. Two of my cousins went there. They both graduated and were not there during this horrible incident. However, I did know a couple students who were there and still are shaken up by the entire situation and some even scared to go to school everyday. I am very thankful that these students and security guard hurt in this horrible incident are alright.  I hope these students can get past this incident and move on with their lives. 

It is very sad that children now have to live in a world where they are terrified to go to school. We need to ensure that these schools are safe. If the school has metal detectors use them! If you are a district without detectors like Franklin Regional shame on you! It is the job of the schools and districts to protect their children. 

We know that horrible things happen and we need to stop them! There are other schools in this area who check every pocket in purses and backpacks to make sure there are no drugs or weapons being brought in. These schools should teach safety to some other schools. 

I know where I went to high school the metal detectors were suppose to be for everyone who did not take the bus to school and the few buses that were selected to go through them every morning. That is not smart! I know people who drove to school and walked around the building so they did not have to go through the detectors. Also my bus knew that if we went through Monday that the rest of the week we would be safe unless people acted up on the bus. This never made sense to me even when I was in school. 



We need to talk with our students and make them feel comfortable at school. They need to let an adult know if they are being bullied. There needs to be strict rules about bullying. Schools need to pay attention and address bullying. I know certain schools report 0 acts of bullying and I can tell you that is a LIE! Bullying is everywhere. If there is no bullying in the school then everyone must be best friends... NOT. Teachers keep an eye out! Principles and School board members enforce the No tolerance! 


Also practice safety drills frequently!!! In case something happens at your school make sure the students know what to do!

Does your brain need a break?

Are your students fidgeting during class? Are you tired of losing the attention of the class? 

Instead of getting frustrated and losing valuable teaching time in the classroom give the children a brain break.  A brain break is when we give the brain an opportunity to take a break. 

During this time the children can stand up and get their sillies out! There are many ways to have a brain break.

 You can have the students:

Stand up 

Take a walk outside or inside if the weather is bad

Do jumping jacks

Play Simon says 

Play a game

Do an activity with the lesson 

Sing a song

Recite a poem 

Etc 

There are many different options that you can try with your students. This will save lots of teaching time and it will also help the students better understand the lessons because they will be concentrating more on the lessons at hand. 

Brain breaks can also be known as physical breaks. This is simply because you are giving the children a chance to take a break and do something physical to get let out some energy and to get the sillies out. 

This activity can and should be used for every age student. As a college student I know that during my classes which are 2 hours and 45 minutes long it is very nice to get a 3-5 minute break every once in a while. This makes the time go a little quicker and allows the students to take a few moments to refocus on the lecture. 

Have you used brain breaks? What worked in your classroom?

Let's write quickly!

A quick write is a very useful tool that teachers from first grade to college can use with their students. I think everyone uses quick writes, they just don't know it. 

A quick write is when you take a topic and write everything that you know about the topic in a given amount of time (example: 1st grade: bugs- 3 min). During the time allowed the students are not allowed to erase or reread what they have written.  This allows them to get all their thoughts out before going back through.

These quick writes can be used as a student's brainstorming activity, a way for the teacher to see what the students already know,  an assessment after a lesson to make sure the students all understand and many more possibilities.

I like quick writes because it is an easy way for me to jot down ideas for my blog when my time is limited.  I think it would be a great idea to use in the classroom when the students finish early.

Even though I am a big supporter of quick writes I do believe that they should not be used every day.  This needs to be an occasional tool that is used. This will keep the children interested in the activity. 

Stop Think Points

During this past semester I learned about a reading technique called Stop Think Points. Stop Think Points are places in a story where the teacher has the student stop and think about something. These can be made into a bookmark which each student will receive before beginning to read. 

This can be a great way to teach reading to the whole class. The teacher is able to have the class read a book and even with the different reading levels they are able to participate and do the same activities. 

When the students stop the teacher has a lot of options they can have the students:

•  think about a question and be ready to discuss 
• summarize what they have read
• draw a picture
• etc

This activity can be used for any grade and some Stop Think Points can be more challenging for the students who are reading above grade level. 

I used this activity in a second grade classroom where I taught a guided reading lesson. I had the children read a couple pages stop and pick out certain information to share with the group. This activity really worked for me and the children were all on task!

Here is the Stop Think Point I made :

This is a great  way to keep children on task and to see if they are fully understanding what they are reading!