In Arkansas, we have 4 calendar options.
1. Traditional
2. Instructional Hour
3. Year- round
4. 4- day Week

Instructional hour has been the favorite since our LEARNS legislation was passed. The new legislation prevents any virtual learning days and any inclement weather days would have to be made up at the end of the year.
The instructional hour model allows us to bank time over the course of the year which equates to about 7 school days. This gives us built in snow days to use instead of extending the school year.

We also have several smaller districts that have switched to the 4- day week.

These are awesome Gina! I am sharing with our literacy team now.

Consistency! Consistency in both words and actions. Let your yes be yes and your no be no.

A simple place to start is to eat lunch, if possible, with your team everyday. I know the urge is to work in your classroom during lunch and answer emails, or grade paper, but just the simple act of eating with your team is huge! Taking those few minutes to breathe and disconnect from your classroom is so important for your own well-being but being with your team builds those relationships.

Those are amazing opportunities! Does anyone have any great ideas for funding sources for consumable materials or larger scale items to incorporate into the maker space?

Our district uses the platform Teacher Ease for grading, but our teachers use record sheets to collect data during instruction. We have standards based grading K-4, so record sheets allow us to drill down to the individual standard to collect data.
Here is an example of one of our record sheets.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G6GEYJ_sfYWX-yMaRjgcLfk7Ugz22LGWJKwCsvO7Q7Q/edit?usp=sharing

I also want to add that if you are unsure of how to find gaps in student learning or don't know where to start to fill in gaps, the Numeracy Project is a free resource that we have used in our district for our tiered math intervention.
The Georgia Department of Ed has done a wonderful job of making the original Numeracy Project more user friendly! This is a good place to start if you are unsure of how to work with struggling math students.
Ask me for help if you need more information!

https://lor2.gadoe.org/gadoe/file/31e7808a-119f-43ad-8f53-1b1d6bbdea7b/1/Georgia-Numeracy-Project-Overview.pdf

My number one go to would be small group differentiated instruction. However, if small group time is not in your schedule or if you are not confident in running small groups, my next suggestion is differentiate tier 1 (core) instruction.
This might look like setting aside 5 minutes after core instruction to meet with struggling students to check for understanding before sending them off to work. It could also be adjusting number sets. For example, you might be teaching addition/ subtraction in 2nd grade and instead of giving them numbers within 100, they might add/ subtract with numbers to 20.
This way students can focus on the action and strategies for addition and subtraction vs. computation.

Start with your state standards, or in the case of science, the NGSS standards. We also use the 5 E instructional model for science lesson planning.
Here is a great resource for the 5 E instructional model!
https://www.sdcoe.net/ngss/evidence-based-practices/5e-model-of-instruction

In our district, we use a flowchart with our universal screeners as well as tier 2 and tier 3 data points to help guide next steps for students. Once a student is placed in a tier, we instruct for at least 3-4 weeks and then take a data point. Most of the interventions that we use come with their own progress monitoring, so that makes taking data points easier throughout the process. We keep a student in the same intervention for at least 6 weeks before making any changes to time, group size, tool, etc.
Here is a snapshot of our math flowchart.
I will also say, our flowchart is a living and breathing document. It is updated and changed frequently based on need and feedback regarding the RTI process.

Do create a group email that hides all of your families personal information! It also saves you the time of entering individual email addresses every time you need to send a communication.

Do resist the urge to answer every email immediately! This can create unhealthy expectations for yourself.

I’m not sure about a misconception, but definitely something I didn’t know as a new teacher. But I thought I would walk into my perfectly beautiful classroom and be ready to go day 1! Well reality is, you are in fact the one that has to label everything with student names and create all of those beautiful spaces.
Also, teaching procedures!! So you have a process for sharpening pencils, turning in work, going to the bathroom? Everything must be taught!

My most positive experience was from my first year in a new district and first year teaching Kindergarten. I had an older teacher on my team that literally sat with me every single afternoon to look over what we were teaching the next day and helped me add that to the human element of teaching littles.
I will never forget that. She wasn’t my assigned teacher but she did it everyday and I am 100% the teacher I am today because she took the time that year. I will be forever grateful and in turn I always try to be available for new teachers when they come to me as well!

I found a lot of opportunities through the educators that I follow on social media. For example, a principal friend in a neighboring district read The Anxious Generation this summer and asked if other educator friends wanted to participate in a book study.
This was very informal but a great opportunity to read a book that I was interested in as well as join other educators in and out of my own district.
Another example is an educator that I follow on Instragram, Mix and Math, will host PD and summer book studies. I like to join based her sessions based on my need at the time. I attended an upper elementary math manipulative PD that helped upper grade teachers more effectively use manipulatives to teacher multiplication/ division and fractions to develop conceptual understanding. This was a big need as a coach and somthing my teachers also needed and so it was must helpful at the time.

I would say when used well, social media can be an asset to your own professional development!

Two thoughts on operations.
1. Counting is foundational in order for students to be able to add/ subtract and multiply divide. If a student is struggling, check their counting!
In order for students to successfully add/ subtract, they must have solid mastery over the forward and backward number sequence.
For students to multiply and divide, they must be able to skip count forwards and backwards.
If they are struggling, add counting into your remediation. When students are more confident and master the counting sequences they are able to start using more efficient strategies when learning to use the 4 operations.

2. If students are struggling, you may need to incorporate more concerete activities into their learning. This applies to both addition/ subtraction AND multiplication/ division. Students in 3rd and 4th grade do not get enough hands on experiences with multiple groups and equal sharing in order to develop conceptual fluency.
The Recovering Traditionalist has an excellent video regarding fact fluency! Here is the link:
https://www.therecoveringtraditionalist.com/how-do-children-build-automaticity-in-math/

Both you and your mentor's time is very precious, so in order to maximize your meeting time, I like to send questions ahead of time. This goes for the mentee sending things to the mentor and vice versa. This allows both people to be prepared and make the most of your time!

This is an example of a standards based recording sheet that we use in K-4. This is a Kindergarten example, but it looks the same in K-4. We have also used them with sheets at the bottom for the different math domains such as geometry, computation and algebraic reasoning, data and measurement, etc.

Here is the link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G6GEYJ_sfYWX-yMaRjgcLfk7Ugz22LGWJKwCsvO7Q7Q/edit?usp=sharing

Here is a great website with ideas for your morning meeting for students of all ages!
https://www.centervention.com/morning-meeting-questions/

Morning meeting time daily starts our day off with connections and building our classroom community!

I think my biggest suggestion is to minimize the number of platforms that teachers and students engage in daily. There are so many resources out there, intentionally choosing a few good platforms will in the end be the best for students.
I suggest 3-5 resources or digital platforms. Whether that be curriculum based or things like classroom dojo, keeping the number small will allow both the teacher and student to navigate proficiently.

I love this idea so much as many teachers are not looking to become administrators or other roles that will remove themselves from the classroom.
Here are a few ideas for how you can become a teacher leader on your team or in your building!
1. Model the idea of lifelong learning. Invite people into your classroom to watch lessons and ask to visit other classrooms to watch other teachers. We learn best from each other! Be confident in areas that you teach well and let others see you shine. On the other hand, think about things that you would like to see others teach (behavior management is a great thing to watch often as a new teacher).
2. When opportunities come up in the school or district, volunteer! If there is a committee or group that needs teachers, let your voice be heard.
3. Be solution- oriented. It is easy to listen and see the negative, but your mindset and that of those around you can stay positive. It makes moving on from setbacks and negativity easier and people will naturally gravitate towards that positive energy.

My absolute favorite science website is The Wonder of Science, https://thewonderofscience.com/
It is aligned to the NGSS standards and is phenomena based learning.

I send home a "Birthday in a Bag". We are not allowed to have individual birthday celebrations or snacks the birthday bag allows our classroom to sing and celebrate with the student while the family can fill their bag with special treats and goodies. Students can enjoy their treats from home during snack (or some other established time during the day). We also sing and the student will get a birthday crown!
Here is a link to the free resource I use:
https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=birthday%20in%20a%20bag

In our school, we use Concious Discipline strategies and there are a few things that you can do daily to weave in SEL without specific lessons.
1. Greetings at the door each morning.
2. Breathing techniques allow students to identify their feelings and emotions while giving them tools to regulate and return to learning quicker.
3. Morning meetings with simple non- instructional questions help to develop classroom community and can be done in 10 minutes or less.
You can learn more about Concious Discipline here:
https://consciousdiscipline.com/

If at all possible, create the procedure for parents and guardians letting you know if their child will be absent from school multiple days. Once the procedure is established, I can communicate with families about ways they can keep their student engaged and caught up while they are away.
From the elementary perspective, we do not require missed work to be completed and returned, however I will pull the student to work on any essential skills he/ she may have missed.
I think the communication piece is the most essential in keeping kids engaged if they are not in school.

I like to think about a "flipped classroom" set up, meaning that their isn't a typical orientation towards the front. I try and create multiple areas for learning whether that be a carpet space, pods of desks (tables), kidney table, or even flexible seating.
Research behind defronting the classroom supports the idea of creating spaces that are less teacher centered and more student centered.

I am currently sitting in a PD about AI in the classroom and our presenter shared Eduaide.ai. There is a free trial using the code teacherTIME.

Concious Displince is the philosophy and brain research that we use when thinking about student behavior and management.
The time machine, breathing strategies, and safe spot are the tools that we use the most . Teaching students to recognize what is their brain state helps us determine what the best course of action to take in given situation. For example, if a student is in survival mode, they are unable to learn or reason in that moment. For that student, recognizing and being safe is the most important thing to help disfuse and move that student out of the survival state.
Here is the link to the Conscious Discipline website and their discipline tips.
https://consciousdiscipline.com/free-resources/discipline-tips/

We start with what is science, introduction to phenomena, science safety, and science practices. I also love to start with picture books that introduce growth mindset before diving into content.

We are rolling our new curriculum, so I’m reading the Eureka Math Squared teachers’ manuals.

If you have used Bridges, have you also used the intervention piece? We are going to use Bridges for our T2 and T3. Do you have any suggestions or pros/ cons about it as an intervention?

Gina, we also just adopted Eureka 2 this year. Do you have any tips or insight to successfully implementing Eureka?

We are implementing Eureka Math Squares this year from our adoption year.
Has anyone else used this program and have any tips or suggestions?

We are also starting Bridges for our intervention program new this year.

We have two family nights, one before school starts and one after. Open house before schools starts is a meet the teacher and find your classroom event where it will allow families to familiarize themselves with the school and staff.
The second event is back to school night and it is more personalized to the specific grade and teacher. Families are able to learn and ask questions that are more grade specific.
I find both are important and allow families to not be overwhelmed with beginning of the year information.

The beginning of the year is the most stressful time of the entire school year. Even after 23 years, I still get butterflies about starting over because it is the nature of our work.
As a new teacher, I wish someone had told me this piece of advice sooner. "Just make sure you know how they're getting home on the first day."
Sounds simple and silly, but in the end, name tags will be changes, posters put up and taken down, you'll change your mind about decorations and seating charts. So it's never completely possible to take all of the stress away from the beginnng of the year and it's okay to allow yourself to not be completely ready day one. Just make sure you know how they're getting home at the end of the day and the rest will happen!

Read and answer your inbox each day before leaving. A lot of emails contain information, school tasks, parent requests, etc. and can pile up quickly. Even reading through all of your emails daily can keep you up to date with school and classroom information.

However, my advice for parent emails is to not answer immediately. Allow yourself time to think through their questions/ concerns and craft a reponse, or give yourself time to have a teacher friend read your response for a different perspective. Just like the other responses, not responding immediately sets a boundary for yourself that you will communicate in a timely manner but you are not on call 24 hours a day.

One of the easiest strategies is to differentiate number sets. I tell teachers to think about the goal, is the focus content or computation?
You have to teach the standards, for example 2nd grade will add and subtract within 1,000. But you can work on adding and subtracting while students work with numbers within 20, 100, 1,000 or above.
This allows all students to have access to the content while allowing them to work at their independent levels.

A couple of things I've learned as I see new candidates applying for open positions are not to call the principals directly. Often times an applicant will call the school directly and ask for the principal to talk about an open position. This may seem proactive, but many times they are calling during school hours when things are busy and can seem inconsiderate.
My tip is if you are going to call, call after school hours or ask to leave a voice mail. Principals are usually not available during the day so they are more likely to respond after hours. You can also email with your resume and a short message. Email would be my suggestion!

Many districts are also having teacher job fairs. If a district that you are interested in is having a teacher job fair, GO! You are probably guaranteed face time and can drop off your resume and speak with district administration directly.

Building Thinking Classrooms is my hands down, go to that can be used across disciplines.
Peter Liljedahl
https://www.buildingthinkingclassrooms.com/

Hands Down Speak Out: Listening and Speaking Across Literacy and Math
by Kassia Omohundro Wedekind (Author), Christy Hermann Thompson (Author)

These may not be lesser known nessecarily, but I think they are widly relevant and kids LOVE them.
Mark Rober is an engineer and as he would say "friend to science". I love that he makes science cool and relatable. Here is his instagram,
https://www.instagram.com/markrober/
Emily Calendrelli is known as the SpaceGal and is soon to be on the list of women that have been to space. I absolutely LOVE LOVE that she is a women that has been dreaming of going to space since she was in elementary school. She is the definition of if you can see her, you can be her!!! Here is her instagram,
https://www.instagram.com/thespacegal/

Our district has a summer book bus that runs in varous neighborhoods once a week thoughout the summer, ending at our school for playtime on the playground, or storytime with one of the teachers.
We have also sent out playdates at the park or library as get togethers during the summer just to connect, check in on families, and building school community.

This may or maynot be something that you as a teacher are able to do alone, but you can also talk to your administration about the possibility of using "vertical" teams throughout the year.
Most teams in a school are comprised of grade level teams or departments, but vertical teams are usually one member from each grade level creating a new team. Last year we sat with our vertical teams for most of our staff meetings. We didn't always have work to do together, sometimes it was simply sitting together while we were listening, but by the end of the year, our group had become incredibly close just by being together once a month all year.
This is such an easy way to expand groups outside of your grade level.

When we think of the work of teams, we rely heavily on the tools from Solution Tree and the PLC process although the things you do working with adults will ultimately determine how successful your team will function.
Here are a few non-negotiables I like to keep in mind when working with teams:
1. Take the time to build relationships with team members. Whether that is during your team meetings through a grounding or eating lunch together.
2. Develop Norms for how you are going to do the work. I used to think that adults knew how to work and behave, but just like our students we can't assume that everyeone knows and understands their roles or even the expecations of the team. Norms serve as a clear understanding for "how" you will work together as a team and allows everyone to be a part of the process in creating them as well as holding each other accountable. A common norm is "Be Prepared" the difference in a high functioning team and a group is that you take the time to talk about what does "be prepared" mean? Does that mean you are in the meeting, does that mean you have your laptop, does that mean you have student data ready to discuss or lesson ideas ready to plan? You'll find a lot of teachers have very different ideas and norming helps to create clarity for everyone.
3. Have an agenda. Here is a link to a sample agenda that we use at my school. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Z90gC-IQxkizjAsUdfLoM3a5q-DfVt9hxz_p-AJXt2A/edit?usp=sharing
4. Assume positive intent. This might seem silly, but the work we do with students is hard and the work we do with adults is equally as difficult and a lot of times conflict comes from the passion we all bring to the table. Assuming positive intent siimply means that we understand everyeone is coming from a place of good will.

Science is integrated into math and literacy blocks. We use a variety of texts to support literacy skills but tie science into math where applicable.

Origo One has quick one minute videos that can teach you how to use their strategy cards to build fluency in both addition and subtraction and multiplication and division.
Here is a link to Origo One.
https://youtube.com/@origoonevideos?si=glzozr2eX3UPEiKv
We use their strategies K-4 in our building.

We have collaborative planning for literacy and math each week. This includes myself and the literacy coach, sped teachers, and intervention so that we can plan instruction with all the teachers that see a particular set of students.
We also use components of Visible Learning to help shift the accountability of learning from being teacher centered to student centered.

No Glamor is a good tool that uses pictures to decile language and listening skills.

We use Dreambox as a district, but Legends of Learning and Prodigy are good too.

Definitely, I am always looking for ways to improve my own learning or instruction in the classroom, but it is hard when there are so many resources available and education that keeps changing year to year. So I try and find really reliable educators to follow and try and engage in the resources that they have found valuable.
This year we did a book study using "Making Learning Visible", last year we piloted "Building Thinking Classrooms" with a group of teachers, and then I've also played around with "Hands Down, Speak Out".
I also find that when you have an accountablity partner it's easy to stay engaged yourself.

This isn't necessarily for the actual school day, but one thing that our school does that is so fun is that every staff member comes out to send the buses off at the end of the day and then once the buses are out, we move to the car rider line. It is such a fun time for everyone and the kids LOVE it!

This is a different perspective, but to build community among our staff we often use vertical teams. I think it is so important to have clear vision across all grades, and a lot of times teachers don't ever get the opportunity to share in how their work connects to the grade above and below or to create goals among different teams. It definitely builds trust and community among staff!

"Speak from your core beliefs and not from the day you had."

Yes! I encourage my teachers to not only use a math word wall but also create anchor charts with student strategies up all year.
If your state uses NWEA MAP, it has a list of vocabulary encountered at each RIT band. This is a great place to start and gives you a great idea for incorporating more mathematical language into instruction.
I think we are the best model for mathematical language!

Our 4th grade students host a May Market (Farmer’s Market) type event. We are a STEM school, so we have students make all of the goods they sell. They also go through the design process before starting production of their goods.
Students also set budgets and analyze how much it would cost vs. how much they would make after selling to determine the products worth.
Finally, they create commercials, ads, and flyers to promote their products and sell them at the May Market.

Our district uses Dreambox as our online platform. It is adaptive to the student’s understanding: I also like Zearn and Reflex.

One Plastic Bag is one of my favorite books to connect to real world problem solving. It is a beautiful story and can easily be connected to a students perspective.

We “roll out the red carpet” literally in our 3rd and 4th grade hallways and teachers and students write encouraging messages right on top (we use butcher paper) so they can read them each morning.
We also have a Rock the Test pep rally the week before for the school to encourage and celebrate our tested grades.

In Arkansas we have a few different options depending on where you are in your career. If you are a novice teacher, part of the licensing process includes taking a praxis exam just on the SoR.
Several years ago, current teachers had summer RISE PD which is SoR but AR specific and then we had to be observed in the classroom for it to count our evaluation. Every teacher has to be “signed off” or enter an improvement plan specifically focused on SoR.

We were and I created a timeline for teachers to go outside and observe throughout the day and record. The kids loved this and was real world data collection for a purpose. We were able to work in both science and math skills all day!

Is there something specific about plants and animals? If you are using the NGSS standards, the Wonder of Science is one of the BEST sites for phenomena based science instruction and is aligned to the NGSS standards.
https://thewonderofscience.com/

Not a book, but similar in idea. I use numberless word problems to help increase comprehension and sense making for students solving word problems. One of my favorite sites is Numberless Word Problems.
https://numberlesswp.com/

I love Canva! It takes the pressure of creating beautiful content out of the process. You can search thousands of templates in seconds. I’ve used canva for PowerPoints, PD presentations, flyers, invitations, resumes, and more! It also has the feature to create a group and collaborate on a project or get feedback.

Our open house is also in August, and the one thing I started doing that was an absolute game changer is to put out a index card with the student’s name on top of their stack of information and paperwork. I wrote the name that is in our school system. I tell parents when they come in that they will take all of the paperwork and leave the index card AND if their child goes by something different than what is written on the card to write their preferred name underneath. For example, my own daughter’s name is Margaret but she goes by Maggie. This way I can see quickly who attended and who did not. It also saved so much time changing all the names written around the room when you have to make that change. I also started waiting to do all my labeling until after meet the teacher. Live and learn!

This is a little different but something I love that our school does each year. In August, we have a spreadsheet called These are a Few of My Favorite Things, and all of the staff enters their favorites from snacks and drinks to smells and hobbies.
I love it because you always have access to everyone and can bring someone a little happy without having to hunt or ask what their go to sonic drink is. It makes it so easy to spread a little happiness!

We use standards based grading with a 3, 2, 1 grading. We use a platform called Teacher Ease that calculates a score at the end of each quarter.
The scores entered into Teacher Ease are 3, 2, or 1 as well as for each learning target our grade level PLC will determine what is mastery. In some cases, it is never, sometimes, always or it can look like if a student gets everything correct it is a 3, between a set of numbers it would be a 2, and less than a specific number a 1.
It really depends on what the standard. For example, the standard that says a student will produce the number that makes 10 given any number 0-9 vs. using computational fluency to add and subtract.
I hope that helps!

We are in the path of totality but it will be very close to our dismissal time, so I’m not completely sure what our viewing will look like, but here is a little solar eclipse “scavenger hunt” I put together.

Our state passed legislation requiring science of reading, therefore our department of education oversaw training across the state.
Most training came through our educational co-ops, but in the case of our district, our literacy coaches were trained as trainers and delivered all of our PD.
As far as implementation, science of reading has been separate from our “vetted” curriculum. Our department of education developed a rubric to asses the skills teachers must possess and we are “certified” once our principals have observed all of the skills in the rubric.
Our literacy coaches do a lot of modeling and coaching with teachers as they are going through certification. We also do a lot of observing in master teacher’s classes.
I guess to answer your question, our literacy coaches have been our implementation experts.

I like to have student led conferences, where I invite parents and their child to attend (if possible). I find student led conferences adds a layer of accountability for the student being able to speak to their learning and to my teaching.
I have students share a piece of work that we have recently completed and sharing 1.) What are they learning? 2.) How do they know if they’ve been successful?
I also have them share things that they enjoy in class and something they find challenging. I also ask them to share something about me as their teacher they enjoy and something they would change. (It can be very eye opening!)
I also share class and district data such as MAP data and CFA’s.

Well I guess it might depend on budget, but Canva now has the option to order prints of projects in sizes starting around 30.
Does your district have its own print shop? Ours has two in each of our high schools. We submit orders and they are processed and delivered through district mail delivery. The majority of our printing goes through our print shop.
Do you get a teacher budget? I’ve purchased card stock and a small laminator that I use for small jobs.
I know Staples will print and offers a teacher discount for services if you have one close.

A good resource is Visible Learning based off of the work by John Hattie. One of our schools is a visible learning school, the only one in our state!
Our school is doing a book study on clarity for learning and a big component is answering the question (kids answering) what am I learning, and how will I know when I’ve learned it? It’s a natural accountability system that is embedded in the culture of learning.

Hey Erika! I’m in a K-4 building. It is one of my very favorite, hands-on application of the content in NGSS.
We don’t have a science curriculum so ours is “home grown”, but the need for more rigor and focus on the engineering standards called for something more.
We’ve used several lessons and assessments. I’m happy to help if you need!

One of my favorite albeit a little longer, is cosmic kids yoga. It’s about 30 minutes start to finish, but perfect for inside recess or just an occasional reset. I taught kindergarten and they were just mesmerized by her accent!

Prior to this year science was not assessed outside of ACT Aspire, so we did not have dedicated time outside of literacy and math for science. It was embedded into literacy and math.
This year science has 45 minutes daily in its own block. We follow NGSS and use its assessment guidance to create our own CFA’s.
I personally use the Wonder of Science to create material. It is an amazing resource!
https://thewonderofscience.com/

My number one tip is to go watch other teachers in and out of your grade level. I learn something everytime I’m in a classroom!

My favorite math professional development has been CGI/ECM. I recently did Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl and it transformed traditional teaching from teacher centered to student centered.

There are so many great titles, but NSTA has a yearly list of the year’s best STEM books and there are usually several math books included in the list. This year’s list includes a book about giraffes and non-standard measurement.
https://www.nsta.org/best-stem-books-k-12-2024

Teaming is hard work with adults. Especially in schools where everyone has a different perspective and level of experience. Tuckman’s stages of team development are crucial to understanding what stage you and your team, school, district are in and what strategies work to move out of the current stage towards the next.
I also love PLC’s work with norming. I find adults are sometimes the most difficult so having common language for how the group will work and clear understanding of group norms is critical. The 7 norms of collaboration is a favorite tool to use with teams as well!

Our district does One District, One Book that every family receives K-12 free of cost to promote reading at home and as a family.
Schools and families read throughout the month of February and end with a culminating event during my Read Across America Week.
This year we are reading A Boy Called Bat.

Our district uses Teacher Ease. It’s front loaded with all of our standards that will be assessed throughout the year. As teachers enter grades, parents can see their child’s mastery over time as well as how many standards they have mastered for their grade.
It also allows comments and feedback to be entered for each student if necessary.

Graham Fletcher has a fluency kit that we use for both addition/ subtraction and multiplication/ division. It is wonderful and follows the CRA model!

This is a slightly different approach, but I am a math facilitator so I think about this a lot.
I have found younger students struggle with understanding “how” vs. “why”. “How” being how did you solve the problem and “why” being the justification.
I teach our students and teachers to use a context very familiar to students in a mini- lesson. For example, HOW do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich vs. WHY. you might make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Another example is WHY do you need to call a fireman/ police vs. HOW you contact the fire and police.
Having a context for students to hold onto makes understanding and practicing how and why writing in math.

Stuck, but really anything by Oliver Jeffers!

We also use NWEA Map Oral reading fluency and MAP reading as our universal data points to see kids who are in need of further assessment.
Our district adopted CKLA this past year and our teachers use the assessments embedded within the curriculum.

The rewards that my kids are most excited about are the ones that they choose. We create a choice board, similar to the menu you shared, with their suggestions. I even have a blank template and they actually build our choice board! I taught Kinder at the time and we made it part of our interactive writing. They loved being part of it!
Some of their favorites were so simple…
Take off your shoes for the day (class period, reading time, etc.)
Switch seats
VIS very important student with a special desk and supplies
Bring a stuffy
Eat lunch outside
Chew gum during math
Sit by a friend at lunch
Tell a joke during school announcements

Student accountability for learning. Two things come to mind, goal setting. When students know clearly what they are learning and their own level of understanding they have more ownership in reaching their goals.
Secondly, visible learning by John Hattie is an amazing support to student led accountability in their learning!

Join organizations that have professional material available. For example, NCTM offers a subscription to a journal for every year you are a member. ASCD is another one of my favorites that have a lot of professional supports.

Maybe have pre-made questions on cards that your student is able to answer. This will allow them to prepare and practice ahead of time answers so that he can engage with families and students.
Or have QR codes that take families directly to the student answering questions ahead of time and potentially film him answering.

Our formal, universal screeners are with NWEA MAP and Cambium ATLAS. We use district created progress monitoring tools for things like fact fluency.
For assessments that are administered across the whole school, we use a team of support staff like our interventionists, academic coaches, SPED, and ESL to help classroom teachers.
For progress monitoring, the classroom teacher is primarily responsible. Intervention, ESL, and SPED will progress monitor the students they serve.

We also have a print shop in our district that I often print poster size prints. Staples would be my next go to!

I completely agree, Gina. I am in a K-4 setting, but we stop and review expectations after every significant break or even long weekend.
Having visual models of expectations posted in all student locations like the cafeteria, bathroom, playground etc. also help keep students accountable.

This is a great question! I think this is one of the hardest things to learn and something you really don’t get experience in until you have your own classroom.
First, I always presume positive intent and remember this is their child. Regardless of what is happening, this is someone’s baby.
I try to immediately establish that we have the same goal. We want what is best for their child, but as their parent they are the expert.
If there is an issue, I try to come to them for help as they know their child best and really just involve them in the the process. I think like kids, they just want to be involved.

Second, give yourself time. If an angry parent emails you or calls, give yourself the night to process and think about how to respond. Find a colleague that you can ask for advice or even to proof read your response.
At the beginning of the year, set boundaries with parents and yourself for how communication will work in your classroom.

I will say, after 20+ years, I’ve also learned how to recognize when a situation is unhealthy or unproductive and I will take steps to be professional but not let the parents impact my teaching or well-being. Sometimes you have to know when a situation is beyond our control and when it is time to ask administration for support.

Playing cards! These are incredibly affordable, low prep, and versatile.
You can turn over 1-4 cards at a time to practice identifying numbers. Use the cards to build the highest number possible/ lowest number possible. Play with a partner and compare numbers. Identify number of ones, tens, hundreds, thousands based on the number turned over. Build a two digit number and practice changing the number in the ones, tens, hundreds place by turning over and covering with a new card.
You can turn over cards to add, subtract, or multiply. Turn over just one card and add or multiply that number to every new card turned over.
I love playing cards!

Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl is fantastic for establishing routines and structures for collaboration!
I used this in a kindergarten classroom last year and it was incredibly powerful for giving all students a voice and ability to participate in classroom discussions. It shifts the focus from being teacher centered to student centered facilitation. It is a game changer!

Turn and talk moves are always useful especially during longer read alouds. I’ve learned to find 2-3 pausing points in a typical book that you can allow students to stop and process what they’ve heard by sharing with a shoulder partner. Giving just a few minutes to move and talk and then re-engage is so helpful for students.
You can also make building stamina a goal for your students.

Our district uses a lot of the techniques and resources from Conscious Discipline. Here is a link to their breathing activities.
https://consciousdiscipline.com/resources/safe-place-breathing-icons/

Man, this is so hard for teachers when, for many of us, we don’t ever have time to turn it “off”.
One thing I learned from an amazing educator is journaling. At the end of everyday we were encouraged to write 2-3 sentences about our day. Sometimes we don’t have a person to talk to and journaling became the way to get out thoughts and emotions and just leave it all on the paper.
Personally, cleaning off my desk/ room at the end of each day always helps me to start the next day with a focused, calm outlook.

There are a couple of great go to resources I love for building fact fluency. The first is Christina Tondevold aka the Recovering Traditionalist. She has free videos and resources for building conceptual understanding.
https://buildmathminds.com/building-math-fluency-6

The second is Graham Fletcher and his work with Tondevold and building fact fluency.
https://gfletchy.com/

There is such a stigma around “memorization”. These two are amazing to help change that mindset!!

Counting Collections! Counting collections is such a simple routine that can connect kids to counting, place value, computation and more and can be adapted for grades K-4. Here is a great resource for getting started.
https://tedd.org/counting-collections/

I think a big pro for menu boards is that you can easily differentiate content for all learners. Students all have an entry point that allows them to feel successful even if some of the options are off grade level. Menu boards are perfectly set up for remediation to enrichment. I also think choice = engagement.

Keva Planks are one of my all time favorites, followed by puzzles. I think puzzles are so under rated but there is so much critical thinking, spatial awareness, problem solving, and fine motor skills that are involved with solving puzzles.

I love this question. Math has traditionally been so centered around how quickly one is able to produce a correct response to simply teaching procedurally where students have no ability to make connections to the math behind the math.
The book, Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl, is one of my recent favorites. It shifts the focus from traditional math instruction being teacher centered to student centered. He speaks to small changes that yield high impact like defronting the classroom. Typical front facing rooms unintentionally create a learning environment that is teacher centered and implies little to no student interaction.
I also love the CRA model that has increasingly help upper grades give students the “permission” to use concrete manipulatives to develop conceptually understanding of mathematical ideas versus just teaching them an algorithm.
There are so many great strides in mathematical instruction to help students develop a strong mathematical identity.

Our school is getting ready to send home report cards for 2nd quarter this week.
We meet face to face with parents two times a year, report cards go home four times a year, and teachers enter grades weekly. This is consistent K-12 in our district.
We use the platform called Teacher Ease for grades and it has a communication piece built in that allows teachers to make comments or write notes regarding specific students progress that then only their families will see. Teacher Ease is only one- sided so families cannot respond or ask questions back to the teacher, but it starts the communication and families can follow up from there.

Our state recently passed a large piece of legislation that required 178 face to face student days. We are no longer able to use AMI or virtual learning during inclement weather. We too are on day 3 of inclement weather.

Previously, we’ve used a variety of platforms and tools. We started with screencastify and then moved into live instruction through Google.
We required students to be in the live instruction for each core subject and then they would complete various assigned activities on their own. Our district is one to one for technology which allowed our students to have access to a computer, but what we found is during bad weather, the reliability of power became an issue with students being able to log on to our live instruction. So in the event that a student lost power, we record all of our live instruction and have a 48 hour turn in policy. Since the pandemic, I’ve found that a lot of our curriculum providers have written online or virtual lessons which makes it easier for teachers to make the shift to online when necessary. (For reference, we use Origo in math which has a separate online component.)

One of my favorite resources to build collaboration is the book Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl. It teaches how to create a culture of learning that allows all students to have a voice as well as transforming traditional teacher facilitated instruction into student facilitated instruction.