Artifacts that showcase my ability to plan and prepare for instruction, set up a classroom, and create documents such as a syllabus or introductory note.
How Classroom Design Impacts Learning - Classroom design impacts learning, and the way a space is constructed can help to facilitate communication, mobility, and more.
A Back To School Video Your Students Need To Watch Right Now - "Students: How psyched are you to have the opportunity to learn about out the universe and its inhabitants for several hours a day at no cost to you?!"
A First Day Of School Ice Breaker You’ll Want To Try This Year - If you're looking for something different, if you're hoping to grab your students' attention in a way that's fun, but still relevant to the classroom, and if you're plain out of ideas, here's some great suggestions.
4 Good Questions To Ask Yourself As You’re Getting Ready For The Start Of The School Year - “We plan activities to get to know our students in authentic ways, but do we have a plan to ensure they get to be their authentic selves in our classrooms?” — Chad Everett
Learning Targets & Lesson Planning - At the start of every week, I post our plan and learning targets. Sometimes these targets even change daily! This is a simple way I plan for my classes, keep students aware of the weekly objectives, and make the learning relevant.
The CRAP Test (And Notes) - I introduced my students to their research project, 'Adopt a Pet,' where they would choose an animal to research, collect two legitimate websites, take notes (in their own words) and write a short letter to their parents/guardians, convincing them to buy that animal as a pet!
Week 10 – Mock Sub Notes and Overplanning - I wasn't able to be in class on Friday due to a doctor's appointment, so to prepare myself for my future teaching career, I created mock sub notes for my cooperating teacher, so that she would know exactly what I wanted my students to do for each class period!
Pre-Planning House on Mango Street - Next week I will completely take over the eighth grade classes and teach House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. Since I will become, in my cooperating teacher's place, one of the two eighth grade English/Reading teachers, I needed to plan and collaborate ahead of time to prepare for teaching the book.
The Boring Words Funeral - Today my 6th grade co-teachers and I held a Boring Words Funeral for the overused, boring, '2nd/3rd grade' words in our vocabulary. This was a very somber event. Students and teachers wore black. We wrote words down on notecards, placed them in burial shoe box, processed around the room, and said our final words.
A Lesson in Movement – How Classroom Mobility Changes and Assists Student Learning - I was curious about the idea that movement allows for a more productive and engaged community of learners, so I decided to try the idea out with my tenth grade Honors English students. This is what I discovered.
Notes on My Students - As my first placement comes to a close, there's one thing I wanted to make sure to do before leaving: create a student note sheet for my cooperating teacher so that she knows a little about each student going back into full-time teaching.
Unit Planning – Honors 10 - I was extremely nervous about teaching tenth grade Honors English at first, but once I started planning out what I was going to do, I felt a lot better.
Unit Planning – American Seminar - Planning for classes became a daily, weekly, and monthly ritual as I started student teaching. As my first placement comes to a close, it's been exciting to see how far I've come from the first day and reflect on my curriculum planning.
Unit Planning – English 10 - Planning for my English 10 classes was different--these periods, one and four, I was taking over from the start. I needed to have a plan from day one all the way to my final day, October 16th.
Today’s Goals - In my classroom, I have my "I Can" board which states the classroom standards and 'I Can' statements pertaining to those standards. However, I wanted to branch out from the classroom standards and make something specific, for each day. So I created "Today's Goals".
Planning My Last Few Days - As my first placement at Mason City High School comes to a close, there are a few things I've done to keep myself organized. One is to make a plan of my classes.
My Grading/Planning System - Being a teacher can be difficult at times. There's typically 2084305 thoughts going on in your head at once--sometimes it's near impossible to keep it all straight!
Pre-Planning the Tuesdays with Morrie Unit - This is what I call the Novel-in-a-Notebook, a way to pre-plan for your lessons by having all of the pages of your text copied into your notebook for easy access, reference, and smart note-taking.
Classroom Organization – Computer Cards - In the week before classes began, I made these handy-dandy mini-binders what would be a great way to organize my class periods and computer information.
Name Tags! - One of the first activities I had my new students do is make name tags. Okay, sounds a little elementary, right? Wrong. Even though making name tags on the first day might be something done back in Kindergarten, there’s a way to make it relevant for even secondary students. [Or at least somewhat!] And that’s by making it a name activity rather than just a tag.
New Mohawk Day - Today was my first official day of teaching! Yay! I survived! 🙂
No, but in actuality today was New Mohawk Day, a day dedicated to freshmen (and only freshmen) to get them acquainted with faculty, staff, offices, classrooms, buildings, schedules, passing periods, lockers, etc. This is my planning for that first day experience. 
Introductory Letter to Parents - Being a new teacher this year, there were a few things I wanted to do from the start.
Classroom Website - My goal today was to create a classroom website that my students could use to easily access classes, homework assignments, and announcements.
‘I Can’ Bulletin Board - To prepare for my classroom, I decided I wanted to make a bulletin board. And since this bad boy was picked up for only $1, I thought it would be perfect to recycle, revamp, and decorate for my 10th and 11th graders!
Welcome to My Classroom - I don't like the phrase 'classroom rules'. I prefer 'classroom expectations,' so that's what I implemented and talked about my first day of my first placement at Mason City High School.