Tips for Using Camp Chairs in the Classroom

Welcome to the Bright Ideas Blog Hop! I'm teaming up with the bloggers at the bottom of this post to share bright ideas for the classroom. My teaching tip is super simple, but sometimes the simplest ideas make the best solutions!

Who likes to sit in a hard chair all day? I know I don't, and my students never did either. Classroom carpets are nice, but there's never enough room on the carpet for everyone. Bean bags are fun, but they often split and leave the room littered with little white styrofoam pellets! Camp chairs to the rescue!

Camp chairs are perfect for school, both inside and outside the classroom. They're great for those times when students want to move away from their desks to find a comfy spot to read alone or work with others.

Seven Reasons to Use Camp Chairs in the Classroom

1. Camp chairs are light and portable, easy for kids to grab and move. 
2. They fold up small enough that four or five of chairs can be stored in a corner of the room. 
3. Students can take them just about anywhere, making great use of all the little nooks and crannies in your classroom. 
4. Camp chairs make it easy to circle up for discussion groups and classroom book clubs. 
5. When students are reading alone, they can turn their chairs to face an empty wall to remove visual distractions.
6. Students can take camp chairs outside to to get comfy when writing or working out of doors.
7. Teachers can use them when they need to pull up a chair for a private reading conference with one student. 

How to Get Camp Chairs for Your Classroom: 

• Parent Donations - Put them on your school supply wish list for the classroom. They are quite inexpensive, especially at the end of the summer when school starts back, so parents will often donate them if you ask. 
• DonorsChoose Grants - Write a DonorsChoose project proposal to obtain creative seating alternatives for your classroom. and include camp chairs as one option. 
• Sporting Events and Concerts - If you live near an outdoor venue for sporting events or concerts, check with the management to see if you can have any chairs that are left behind after these events. I've been told that people frequently walk off and leave their chairs behind, and those chairs are given to anyone who wants them. 
• Yard Sales and Flea Markets - Visit yard sales and flea markets to find bargains on camp chairs.

Ways to Use Camp Chairs 

What are some creative seating solutions you use in your classroom? 

I'm excited to be a part of the giant Bright Ideas Blog Hop! The next blogger is Rachel Lamb, The Tattooed Teacher. She's sharing some tips for using dry erase markers on desks. Click the image below which will take you to here blog! You can also use the links at the bottom of this post to find topics that interest you and hop directly to those blogs. 

An InLinkz Link-up
An InLinkz Link-up

12 Ways to Motivate Reluctant Readers

I think I must have been born with a book in my hand! My parents told me that from the moment I learned to read, I would read everything in sight, from cereal boxes to billboards. When I began reading books, there was no stopping me! I even begged them to name my baby brother after a book character. (Yes, Tim, that story is really true!) 

So when I became a teacher, I was amazed to discover that most kids don’t enjoy reading. To me, books are full of excitement and adventure, like a movie that you can take with you. I spent my first 25 years as a teacher in a quest for the perfect way to teach reading, and I finally discovered the Reading Workshop approach. It made a tremendous difference in my classroom, and even the most reluctant students actually began to love reading!

Here are a dozen strategies that are often included in Reading Workshop, and none of them involve stickers, certificates, or pizza. External rewards may work in the short term, but the best way to foster a love of reading is to help your students discover that a great book is a reward in itself! 

You can motivate reluctant readers when you ….

1. Read aloud to them.
   Choose books that you love, and read aloud with passion and expression. Get silly and change your voice to mimic the characters. (If you’re not comfortable doing this, offer to babysit for a friend and practice reading to a child. It’s fun!) When you’re reading aloud, stop at the good parts and say, “Looks like we’re out of time today….” Leave ‘em wanting more!
2. Let them choose their own books.
   The biggest turnoff to reading is being required to read boring books. Provide a wide variety of books from different authors and across different genres, and let students choose the books they want to read. You can use reading interest surveys to help them find books on topics that interest them.
3. Provide time for reading.
   This one’s a no-brainer, but sometimes it’s difficult to do if you have to teach from a basal reader. Kids need class time to read, and lots of it. The room needs to be quiet, and everyone needs to be reading, not playing games or doing centers. Just reading. If you’re not sure how to implement this effectively, you can find helpful information and a free webinar on Teaching Resources that explains the Reading Workshop approach. 
4. Let them create a cozy reading nook.
   Who wants to sit at a desk for six hours a day? Collect an assortment of folding chairs, pillows, beanbags and other items that your kids can move to another spot in the room to read. Let reading be a time when they can get away from their desks and get comfortable.
5. Confer with them.
   An important part of the Reading Workshop approach is conferring with students individually about what they are reading. You’ll learn about your students as readers and as individuals, and you’ll be able to connect with them personally. You’ll also find out if the books they’re choosing are on the right level. If not, you can help them find better choices, books that are just right.
   

6. Read what they’re reading.
   I used to get a secret thrill when the Scholastic Book Clubs flyer arrived! I know it’s silly, but I love seeing the new books that are available and trying to decide how to spend my bonus points. I discovered that it’s fun to let students help me pick out books for the class, and I often ordered an extra copy for myself. If you’re not in the habit of doing this, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can become engrossed in a book like The City of Ember. You might even discover that the inner quirky kid in you loves The Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Captain Underpants!
7. Introduce them to audio books.
   Think audio books are for little kids? Maybe you haven’t listened to Madeleine L’Engle read A Wrinkle in Time! Audio books are some of the best reading motivators you’ll ever find, and they help students become better readers as well. One reason is that when students follow along in the book as they listen, they see the words in print as they hear them. Powerful stuff. Not to mention the benefits of hearing amazing stories read by fluent and proficient authors!  
8. Make it social. Do you have a social bunch of students this year? If so, get your kids talking about books by forming classroom book clubs. Book clubs are groups of students who read the same books and get together to talk about them, sort of like Literature Circles without roles. Check out this YouTube video posted by Texas teacher Chase Young that shows Literature Circle in action. You can also use kid-safe social networking sites like Edmodo.com and Kidblog.org to get online discussions going about books. If you want to know more about Literature Circles, check out the Literature Circles resources on my website.
   

9. Let them read other stuff.
   If books don’t interest your students, let them read magazines, graphic novels, informative websites, or instruction manuals for their favorite game systems. Be sure to check for appropriateness, but you can often turn kids on to reading by letting them read nontraditional forms of literature.
10. Get them hooked on a series.
    I must have read every single Nancy Drew book in the library when I was a kid! And I fell hook, line, and sinker for Harry Potter long before the series was turned into a movie. When kids get to know the characters in a series, they feel connected and want to know more about them. So find a great series, read the first book aloud, and make sure you have plenty of copies of the sequels on hand!
11. Let kids give book talks.
    Why not start each day with a short student-led book talk? Ask students to sign up in advance to do a 2-minute informal book share. Letting them tell about their favorite book will motivate other kids to want to read that book or others by the author.
12. Use technology.
    Books in print might not be a thing of the past, but ebooks seem to be edging them out. However, you don’t have to have a Kindle or an iPad in your classroom to introduce your students to ebooks. Younger kids will enjoy StorylineOnline.net, and older students will enjoy reading ebooks on free Kindle software that you can download from Amazon.com and display on your computer.

What are some of your favorite ways to get kids reading? Do you have a favorite read aloud or a series that you love? Please share!

5 Reasons to Use Nearpod in the Classroom

Guest blog post by Jen Kimbrell

My job as an instructional technology facilitator provides me the opportunity to assist teachers in infusing technology into the curriculum. I am fortunate enough to work with over twenty classrooms that are 1:1. Having a device for every student has been such a blessing to my teachers and students. I have seen such a tremendous change in the way teachers are interacting with students in the classroom. Many of my teachers are becoming facilitators. They are guiding students to create, think critically, and collaborate.

However, this does not happen overnight. Receiving a classroom set of iPads can be overwhelming. I always advise my teachers to start small. Choose a core set of apps and stick with them until students are more comfortable with the routines and procedures of the devices.

One of my favorite apps to get started is called Nearpod. Nearpod is an application tool that takes your presentations to a whole new level. Teachers can take already existing PowerPoints or PDFs and upload them to the Nearpod site to create enriched multimedia presentations with interactive features. Some of the features include adding quizzes, drawing tools, and video to the lesson. Teachers can then share the content with the students and control the activity with the Nearpod app. Students have the capability to receive the content from the teacher on their device for a great interactive lesson. There are many reasons to love this application but here are my top five reasons why Nearpod is a great way to start the journey of using devices in the classroom

1.  Nearpod works on ANY device, whether students have iPads, computers, or other tablets. This is great especially for schools that allow students to bring their own devices.

2. The teacher has complete control of student devices. Yes, I said complete control. Before the lesson, the teacher provides a code for students to join the session. Once joined, the students submit their names which allows the teacher to see on the teacher iPad the names of the students that have joined. When all students have joined, the teacher can share the first slide of the presentation and begin the lesson. Students are only allowed to see the slide the teacher shares which ensures students are on task. If students try to go to the next slide the application will not allow them to do so. The students can exit the application but the teacher is notified when this occurs. This is a nice feature when just starting a 1:1 classroom or working with students in small groups, especially as it relates to classroom management.

3. Students can annotate slides to explain their thinking about a particular topic. For example, if teaching a math concept, students can show how to solve the problem by drawing it out using the pen tool feature. When the student uses the drawing tool, the student has the ability to submit their work. The teacher then has the capability of choosing a student response to share with the other students. This response can be seen on all student devices. Students can also take a quiz or poll directly on the device. Best of all, the information is saved to the Nearpod website for teacher analysis! The students’ annotated slides are also saved.

4. Only have a few devices? No problem, use them in small groups. I’ve seen the app used for guided reading groups, researching a science project, or collaborating on a math problem. The sky is the limit! There is also a premium version that costs around $120.00 annually that will allow students to use a homework code to work at their own pace without teacher control. This code can be used at home as well so students can review the lesson again and again. Other premium features include adding websites, audio, and longer video recordings.


5. The last reason why I love Nearpod is the plethora of already-made teacher resources created just for Nearpod. These resources can be found in the Nearpod store on the app or go to http://content.nearpod.com. There are lots of great free and paid lessons for all grade levels.

If you are interested in learning more about Nearpod and how to create your own, please check out a blog post I wrote about the subject. Have you used Nearpod in the classroom? I would love to hear what you think about this incredible app!

Jen is the K-5 instructional technology facilitator for the North Little Rock School District in Arkansas. Prior to this position, she was a K-5 literacy coach and a first grade classroom teacher. She is has a master's degree in Early Childhood Education and is National Board Certified. Jennifer is the creator of the Tech with Jen blog where she enjoys sharing strategies for using technology in the classroom.

7 DonorsChoose Tips for Success

Guest blog post by Francie Kugelman

Many of you know that Laura Candler and I produced a webinar a few years ago with great ideas on how to get resources for your classroom by using DonorsChoose. We're excited to announce that we've been invited to do a new DonorsChoose webinar as guests on the Classroom 2.0 Live show! It will take place on March 8th at 12 noon EST, and we hope you'll join us.

In August 2013, Laura and I began a community giving page called Caring Classrooms. In the six months since then, our community has raised over $40,000 for DonorsChoose projects, and helped over 30,000 students get the classroom resources they need. Last weekend we held a fantastic contest called Share the Love on DonorsChoose in which we raised over $3,000 in donations, and helped complete the funding on 14 different DonorsChoose projects. We also gave away $600 in DonorsChoose gift cards to lucky supporters of our giving page!

I love helping teachers learn successful strategies on writing DonorsChoose proposals and getting their projects funded, so I have listed some tips for getting your projects funded quickly and keeping donors happy:

1. Upload a fantastic eye-catching photograph for your DonorsChoose identification picture because you want your project noticed by a potential donor. Have a catchy title, too, because you want your project to stand out amongst the thousands of other projects.  
    
2. Keep the resources in your shopping cart down to a total of $300 or less. DonorsChoose will add some additional costs such as shipping and fulfillment to your project, and you want to keep the total amount under $500 if possible. Projects that are not very expensive have a much higher chance of getting fully funded. Think like a donor – would you like to help a project that needs $50 more to fully fund or $2,000 more? Donors like to feel they are making an impact, and it is difficult to feel that way when your project is expensive. If you want 4 iPads, write four different proposals. There is nothing more disheartening than seeing your project end before it is fully funded.
    
3. Whenever someone donates to your project, you receive a notice from DonorsChoose. As soon as possible, write a thank you in the donation section of your project, even if your project suddenly fully funds. Donors who are appreciated like to donate AGAIN to other projects you have. Make sure your thank you is meaningful and not too short.
    

4. Take great pictures of your projects and happy students using the project resources. You can shoot close up pictures of your students’ faces in the photos, as the DC rules are different for thank you pictures. You just have to have the permission authorization on file for any students that are in your thank you photos. Donors love to see great pictures of happy students. Those photographs will inspire them to donate again to your projects. Donors can make you a "favorite" teacher, so whenever you post a project, your donor will be notified.
    
5. Complete the thank you process promptly so you have a 100% completion rating. Often, your funded DC projects no longer require your students to write thank you letters. However, you still need to write an initial thank you note when you confirm the funding of your project. Once the resources are received, you need to upload 6 photographs of your happy students using the resources, and write a final impact letter.
   Donors look at your rating, and Laura and I do, too, when we are selecting projects for the Caring Classrooms giving page. Plus, once you complete the thank you process, you can post more DonorsChoose projects. When you are a new teacher to DonorsChoose, you are limited to 3 projects in process, but once you have established yourself, you can have a total of 8 projects in process! The more projects you successfully complete, the more points you accrue. Lots of points mean you can write special project proposals like funding a school bus field trip, or ordering resources from a special vendor.
    

6. Donors love to donate to projects that have a lot of donations from many people. It shows donors that there is a huge support system behind this project! As soon as you post your project, donate to your own project and use the matching code Disney, Inspire, or 100women during the first week to double the donation. Give your brother a dollar and have him donate a dollar to your project using his email address. Do this for your entire family. Trade with friends by having them donate to your project and you donate to their project. Each new donor helps your project look very popular and desirable. Plus, projects with a lot of donors often get featured on the DonorsChoose Projects page. Once your project is there, it's likely to be funded by a very generous donor you don't even know!
    

7. Become an active member of one or more giving page communities and post comments in their Facebook groups. I often donate to projects where I recognize an online teacher friend's name. Besides Caring Classrooms, there are many wonderful community giving pages run by dedicated people who want to help teachers get their projects funded. When you post a comment on a community Facebook page, people begin to recognize your name and see you are an active member of the giving page community. We love to share the love, so get to know the people who are active giving page members.

DonorsChoose has helped me get the resources I need in my classroom, whether it be a class set of my favorite read alouds, a document camera, or a field trip bus. Receiving resources helps my students and me feel special and loved. Good luck on getting the resources you need for your classroom and school, and share successful tips you have too! If you would like to attend the webinar that I'm doing with Laura on March 8th, you can sign up here for us to send you a reminder. We'll be sharing many more tips for success on DonorsChoose!

Francie Kugelman is a fifth grade teacher in Los Angeles. She has had over 100 DonorsChoose projects successfully funded, totaling over $65,000 in resources. 

Literature Circles - Common Core Aligned & Fun!

Motivate Kids to Love Reading!

It's February, and your students are tired of the same old routines in reading. They're ready for a change, and you are, too. But if you teach in a Common Core state, you know know that whatever you teach, it must be aligned with the Common Core.

Literature Circles to the rescue! Literature Circles are small groups of students who choose to read the same book and participate in discussions and activities related to the book. Some forms of Literature Circles are very structured with students performing various roles such as Discussion Director or Vocabulary Wizard. Others are much more informal, with students meeting a few times a week to discuss the book without assuming specific roles. I refer to these more informal discussion groups as Classroom Book Clubs. In my experience, kids love Literature Circles because they can choose what they want to read and talk about books with friends.

Literature Circle Resources to Explore
Over the years, I implemented many different types of Literature Circles and ended up creating an entire section of my Teaching Resources website devoted to this strategy. My Literature Circle pages are full of teaching tips, free printables, and recommended books. You'll even find a free webinar recording about how to implement the Classroom Books Clubs model. If you are interested in learning more about Literature Circles, click here to start exploring these resources. If you are a Pinterest fan, you might also want to follow my Literature Circles Pinterest Board to find book recommendations and links to strategies that I find on the web.

Common Core Alignment Freebie

Because Literature Circles have been around for years, chances are good that you already know something about them. However, you might not realize that they are Common Core Aligned. In fact, Literature Circles are the PERFECT way to meet most of the Speaking and Listening standards for your grade level! At every grade level K-5, the CCSS requires students to engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions, although the specific standard vary slightly by grade. I compiled a list of the specific CCSS that relate to Literature Circles (K-5); click the image on the right to download this freebie. Each grade level appears on a separate page, and it would be a great list to keep handy for your lesson plans. You'll easily be able to justify why you are implementing Literature Circles in your curriculum.

Sample Speaking and Listening Standards for Literature Circles:

• Engaging effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. 
• Following agreed-upon rules including listening to others, taking turns, gaining the floor in respectful ways, staying on topic, etc.
• Learning how to build on others’ talk and elaborate on points by linking your comments to what others have said 
• Coming to the discussion prepared, having read required material
• Supporting their responses with details from the text
• Posing and responding to questions to clarify or follow up on information presented by other speakers

Benefits of Literature Circles
Not only are Literature Circles a great way to meet the Speaking and Listening Standards, they are fun and motivating for students. Students enjoy being able to select their own books and having the chance to discuss them with their classmates. Involving students in Literature Circles helps them dig deeper into the text and apply the close reading strategies they've been learning during their regular reading instruction.

Literature Circles take a little work to set up and manage, especially at first, but it's well worth the effort. If you are new to this strategy, be sure to visit the Literature Circles pages on Teaching Resources where you'll find a free webinar, teaching strategies, helpful tips, and loads of printables. If you need complete, step-by-step directions for implementing an easy form of Literature Circles called Classroom Book Clubs, you might be interested in my slidecast course where I explain exactly how to implement the program. It comes with all the printables you need to take the work out of planning.

Now's the time to take a break from your regular reading instruction to try something that's motivating, fun, AND Common Core aligned! Your students will love you for it!