What Works? Secrets to Help End the Year and Giveaway

You guys are so AMAZING! I don't think as teachers we hear that enough! You truly are one of a kind! You work tirelessly to help your students in every way and often that work goes unnoticed! You plan, you revise, you laminate, you cut, you reflect, you love, you reward, you encourage all in one day! How do you do it all? You do it because you LOVE teaching! I hope this Teacher Appreciation Week, you feel that LOVE that you give your students each and every day.

As a teacher, I LOVE reading tips and secrets from inside other teachers' classrooms. Here are a few tips that I have used over the years that make my teacher life a little bit easier.

Make sure you read through the whole post because there is a HUGE giveaway at the end of the post!

In the past, I've spent hours and hours getting cute student name tags ready for my kids. I print them out, laminate them, cut them, and then tape them on just to have them destroyed within the first few weeks of school. It's a big headache and not really worth it!

I've gone to a numbering system and absolutely LOVE it! The kids get a number at the beginning of that year and I have a number list posted that shows which number belongs to which kid. The numbers can change through out the year. It's so much easier to move kids from desk to desk instead of having to move ALL of the desks around because they have a name tag tapped to it!

My students also have a book box that has a number name tag as well! These name tags have been on the book boxes for 2 whole years and they still look perfect! This secret tip has saved me a TON of prep time at the beginning of each school year! I'm never going back to student name tags again!!

I love having a Focus Wall and I know that most people do but here is a new tip....have your students update the focus wall! I wish I had a picture of when my students write on the focus wall, so I'll take one and update this post later this week. It's so powerful when the students write on the focus wall because it helps them to reflect on what concepts we've been learning about. It also helps because let's be honest sometimes I forget to update the focus wall and the students will remind me. It's super awesome!

My last secret is to have a set of books set aside that you want your students to read during their time in the independent reading station. These are normally books that I will be reading aloud with my students at a later time but I want them to have read before the lesson. It helps with background knowledge and helps me focus more on close reading strategies. Super helpful and a time saver!

Now, it's time for a giveaway to say thank you for ALL that you do as a teacher! There are two different prize bundles that you could win, so make sure that you enter both rafflecopters. Good luck friends! Fingers crossed for you!