Student Seeds and Traveling Teachers

Works4Me presents weekly practical classroom tips from real experts -- your colleagues!

1. Unique Student Qualities

From Cheryl Lockhart, a fifth grade teacher at McBride Elementary in Muscle Shoals, Alabama:

"On the first day of school, I give students little baggies with an assortment of seeds. We discuss what is interesting about the seeds. Then I read the picture book called Mrs. Spitzer's Garden and discuss how the flowers are all so different and how they all need different things to grow. I give the students a list from the book describing the different kinds of flowers. They must choose the one that is most like them and describe why. Then I ask them to tell me what they need from me as a teacher to help them become the students (flowers) they were meant to be. It may be that some need more water (attention) than others. Some need lots of room to grow and some can grow just about anywhere. I love the discussion that evolves. It helps us to become a family that helps one another and helps the students see their classmates as unique individuals."
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2. Traveling Teacher Tips

From a teacher for Rutherford County Schools in Murfreesboro, Tennessee:

"Last year (after 20 years of teaching), I had to spend a year as a 'traveling teacher.' I have the following suggestions for those who have to do the same.

1. Purchase a portable dolly (some call these trucks). It should be sturdy enough to withstand the traveling. (I went from building to building with it).
2. Purchase a four-drawer plastic container - the kind you see in household goods or office supply stores.
3. Get a milk carton to hold hanging files.
4. Attach all of these items on the dolly with bungee chords.
5. In the hanging folders: 1) each class has a folder for assignments to be turned in; 2) a folder for current handouts; 3) a folder for past week's handouts (for make up work); 4) a folder for announcements; 5) a folder for excuse notes -- a folder for anything needed to keep track of what would normally be available to students on a desk.
6. The drawers in the traveling container hold: pencils, pens, Band-Aids, hall passes, paper, stapler, glue, tape -- all those things normally in a desk or in a supply cabinet.
7. In the larger drawers, carry a copy of the textbook and an extra textbook or two for those who forget theirs.

It is important to have a very good relationship with the teacher you are misplacing from the room. Make sure that teacher understands your needs, and most importantly you understand the teacher's. Try to have a shelf or two for things you can keep in the classroom and never, ever erase what is on the board without permission. Imagine what it would be like to be displaced during YOUR plan period. Treat the teacher with that thought in mind, and you will be successful."
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3. Question of the Week: Video Gaming and Simulations in the Classroom

From the Works4Me Worker Bees:

"Teachers are using history-based computer games like Civilization and Age of Empires as well as life-simulating titles like Sims 2 and the city planning game SimCity to supplement their curriculum. Are you using games? Share your tips for enhancing lesson plans and student learning with video games and simulations."
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4. Running in the Halls

Heard Last Week in the Works4Me Lounge from Chris:

"My chorus almost ran over my principal by running from my room after rehearsal one day last year. How can I get them to walk up and down the stairs to and from chorus rehearsal without having to baby sit them and physically walk them up and down the stairs? I don't have any time between my last class and chorus rehearsal to go and retrieve them. I'm in the basement and they are on the second floor."
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