1. Class Activities- It is important that in an elementary school classroom you are not always lecturing the children. They are full of energy and long to get up and do something. I looked for websites that had fun learning games and activities for kids to participate in, to make learning fun! The website Classroom Activities was loaded with good resources. A great resource they had was the link to a web page called Ask A Geologist where students are able to email their questions to a geologist who will write back to them. I could use this in a geography lesson. Another great resource this website had was a link to the Web Museum where students can look at famous artwork online. I would use this for an art lesson.
2. Advice For New Teachers- I am new at teaching and therefore do not know everything about the field. I think it is important to get as much advice as possible from people who have already walked down the road so that you don't make the same mistakes someone else already did. People on these sites have some good ideas and advice on how to make things more efficient. Some good advice I found was from Ten Tips for New Teachers, they suggest sending a thank you letter to everyone at your cooperating school. I did not think of that before but it's a good idea and I'll definitely be doing it. Some other good advice is from Teacher Tested Tips that has good ideas for how to give class jobs as well as what kinds of jobs to use.
3. Fund-Raising- Schools always need more money. Honestly I'm looking forward to fund raising with my class. The more money you earn the more field trips you can go on, the more projects you can do, if there are kids in your class that can't afford everything, you can provide for them, and you can buy special rewards for you class once in a while. You could even donate the money you raise to a person or organization in need. Fund raising is no longer selling cookies door to door, there are so many fund raising activities that can teach the students to work together and help out in the community. A good idea from Top Ten Fundraising Ideas is to sell potted flowers, they say to buy them from a nursery, but I think it would be more fun to have the children grow them in class, that way we could make a science lesson out of it as well. A second idea from that website is called a community Fingerprint-a-thon. I had never heard of this before but evidently you can have the chamber of commerce sponsor you , the kids do all the work and when it's done you can make 10-15 thousand dollars!! More information at The Kid Safe Network.
4. Science Experiments- Science is my favorite subject so I look forward to doing a lot of experiments in my classroom. I think hands on experiments are very important for students to retain information and the more creative am, the more likely my students are to catch my enthusiasm for science. An experiment from Agricultural Experiments suggests comparing the amount of vitamin C in fruit. I could also tie that into a health lesson. Another experiment that sounds like fun is from Home Experiments it's called exploring acids and bases with red cabbage. I could use this experiment for a health or science class as well.
5. Classroom Management- It is extremely important to know how to manage your class. If you do not have techniques for how to keep a controlled class atmosphere, you will quickly loose control altogether. The site Simple Rewards, Amazing Results had some great ideas for free rewards for children who behave. For instance you could reward them with a special inside lunch, a longer recess or a special seat. A good idea from Practical Classroom Tips for Teachers is setting up a point system where each period is worth 20 points if you have to remind your students to be quiet you subtract 5 points, but if they are quiet on their own you give them 5 points.
2. Advice For New Teachers- I am new at teaching and therefore do not know everything about the field. I think it is important to get as much advice as possible from people who have already walked down the road so that you don't make the same mistakes someone else already did. People on these sites have some good ideas and advice on how to make things more efficient. Some good advice I found was from Ten Tips for New Teachers, they suggest sending a thank you letter to everyone at your cooperating school. I did not think of that before but it's a good idea and I'll definitely be doing it. Some other good advice is from Teacher Tested Tips that has good ideas for how to give class jobs as well as what kinds of jobs to use.
3. Fund-Raising- Schools always need more money. Honestly I'm looking forward to fund raising with my class. The more money you earn the more field trips you can go on, the more projects you can do, if there are kids in your class that can't afford everything, you can provide for them, and you can buy special rewards for you class once in a while. You could even donate the money you raise to a person or organization in need. Fund raising is no longer selling cookies door to door, there are so many fund raising activities that can teach the students to work together and help out in the community. A good idea from Top Ten Fundraising Ideas is to sell potted flowers, they say to buy them from a nursery, but I think it would be more fun to have the children grow them in class, that way we could make a science lesson out of it as well. A second idea from that website is called a community Fingerprint-a-thon. I had never heard of this before but evidently you can have the chamber of commerce sponsor you , the kids do all the work and when it's done you can make 10-15 thousand dollars!! More information at The Kid Safe Network.
4. Science Experiments- Science is my favorite subject so I look forward to doing a lot of experiments in my classroom. I think hands on experiments are very important for students to retain information and the more creative am, the more likely my students are to catch my enthusiasm for science. An experiment from Agricultural Experiments suggests comparing the amount of vitamin C in fruit. I could also tie that into a health lesson. Another experiment that sounds like fun is from Home Experiments it's called exploring acids and bases with red cabbage. I could use this experiment for a health or science class as well.
5. Classroom Management- It is extremely important to know how to manage your class. If you do not have techniques for how to keep a controlled class atmosphere, you will quickly loose control altogether. The site Simple Rewards, Amazing Results had some great ideas for free rewards for children who behave. For instance you could reward them with a special inside lunch, a longer recess or a special seat. A good idea from Practical Classroom Tips for Teachers is setting up a point system where each period is worth 20 points if you have to remind your students to be quiet you subtract 5 points, but if they are quiet on their own you give them 5 points.
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