Should Headphones Be Allowed in the Classroom?

I allow students to use headphones in my classroom when they are working on assignments. When I am talking to the class I do not let them use headphones.

However, I know other teachers feel differently.

Debate.org has posted this same question. You can view peoples responses here.

What do you think? Should students be allowed to use headphones in the classroom?

Organized Classroom

For years, a secret weapon of mine is Organized Classroom.

Charity Preston started the Organized Classroom as a blog to share tricks of the trade.

I have used it to create:

• content my classroom website
• organizers for teacher binders
• parent letters 
• tags for classroom libraries

I highly recommend exploring her blog at: http://organizedclassroom.com/classroom-diy/

Literacy Stations: Debbie Diller

One of my favorite educators is Debbie Diller.

Early on in my career I read her books and she transformed the way centers were done in my classroom. Debbie is all about student led centers and independent activities for students. Once students are familiar with these stations you as the teacher are able to work and lead small group interventions without interruption.

My favorite of her books is Practice with Purpose Literacy Work Stations for Grades 3-6. I have literally ripped pages out of this book and refer to this book before teaching each year. Debbie's ideas are simple. If you teach literacy stations to your whole class and they became very familiar with activities, they will be able to do these activities independently without you!

Debbie just published a new book in February. It is titled Growing Independent Learners From Literacy Standards to Stations K-3. I just ordered the book on amazon and will have a review for you soon.

 

Classroom Themes

I have always known that one can tell a good teacher based on their classroom.

When I was a preschool student, we had Jurassic Night and the teachers transformed the entire room into a dinosaur dreamland. Vines hung from the ceiling and giant paper brontosaurus' roamed the room.

My second grade classroom hardly had anything in the classroom. It was a state of disarray with papers and boxes piled throughout the room. There were no art projects that adorned the walls.

If you were to ask me which class I remember more, it was preschool. I remember more content and was happier going to class. In comparison, I don't remember anything about second grade except that I didn't like my teacher. I don't actually remember her but you get the point...

SO every year I try to create a classroom theme that embodies my preschool experience. Two years ago I created a forest hanging redwood tree limbs from the ceiling. Anthropologie gave me hundreds of butterflies from their previous display and I pinned each butterfly to the wall with a seaming pins.

This year my classroom's theme will be Where the Wild Things Are. I have created a Pinterest board with different ideas of what the classroom will look like. I have already updated my classroom website to reflect the theme. I think my students will really enjoy how I transform the class. The Where the Wild Things Pinterest board can be viewed at:
https://www.pinterest.com/analis99/where-the-wild-things-are/

Classroom themes from previous years include:
Superheros
https://www.pinterest.com/analis99/superhero-classroom/
Harry Potter
https://www.pinterest.com/analis99/harry-potter-classroom/

TeachingChannel

This past week I presented Collaborative Conversations to twenty elementary through high school teachers. This process was nerve wrecking and extremely intimidating however I was able to lead a great lesson because of one amazing resource: TeachingChannel.

TeachingChannel is a VERY useful resource. The website showcases videos of effective lessons in the classroom. Although I enjoy reading about how I can improve my teaching I found the most effective way to change my teaching is by observing other teachers. I work at a small school of only five staff members in a very isolated community. TeachingChannel allows me to watch teachers in elementary through high school classrooms in cities across the United States.

The video that helped me most in developing the Collaborative Conversations presentation can be found at https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/formative-assessment-example-ela-sbac
I lead these teachers through the process of answering questions collaboratively and establishing rules just as this teacher does with her fourth grade students.

Another great part of the website is the guide section of the side of each video. It guides your viewing through a series of reflective questions.