msnatashatheodora, Author at Ms. Natasha Theodora

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Friday Five: Building Community Through Morning Meeting

Kids standing together to build community in morning meeting

Morning Meeting- Building Community One Morning At a Time

One

Good Morning, Sunshine!

Morning meeting begins with a greeting. The greeting helps build community because it allows students to say hello to each other and to settle into the learning space for the day. We, as teachers at meetings, also like to have time to say hello to each other before we begin the work we have at meetings. Kids want the same opportunity, and it isn’t tough to facilitate it.

Greetings can be opportunities to get silly with your class. Just a few weeks ago, we did a greeting in different silly voices, and some kids laughed so hard they cried. The greeting can also be a time to reaffirm one another through compliments or to catch up on our weekends. Coming together as a group is a great way to begin the day.

On the first day of each new week, our class shares one smile and one frown from the weekend. These smiles and frowns help kids make connections with one another. Oh, you fell when you were skiing this weekend and hurt your arm? Once that happened to me. I went to a birthday party too! Did you eat cake? Through smiles and frowns, we build connections as a class. We also work to develop empathy as we hear about different events in each other’s lives. Now, not everyone is forced to share a smile and a frown because that would take away the safety of the space created through morning meetings. Kids may also share two smiles if they don’t have a frown. The rules are flexible.

Two

Routines Are Life

Kids thrive in routines. Kids knowing exactly what is going to happen first thing in the morning creates a calm start to the day. Usually, around October, kids in my class start to go through the motions of morning meeting all on their own. When I taught first grade a few years ago, a parent needed to speak with me at the start of the day. As I was in the hall, the bell to start the day rang. When I stepped back into my classroom a few moments later, the kids were just finishing up the greeting. Routines are life!

Three

Conflict Resolution

Morning meetings can solve so many of those little issues in the classroom. We frequently have community problem-solving time at the end of the morning meeting. Sometimes kids make small announcements like, I had to pick up ten pencils yesterday that kids just left on the floor. Can you please remember to put your pencils back? Other times I’ll use the activity time of morning meeting to build each other up when we’re having a tough time getting along. Doing a quick compliment chain can change up your classroom environment. Creating a strong community makes a world of difference in the classroom, and conflict resolutions is a large part of that.

FOur

Build Conversation Skills

During morning meetings, we don’t do hand raising (*usually*). We learn how to have conversations together. We’re learning life skills like two people cannot talk at the same time because neither one is heard. We learn how to add on to someone’s ideas. We learn what to happen when two people begin talking at the same time. Knowing basic conversation skills is essential, and morning meeting is the perfect time to practice them and work through the tricky parts.

Five

Do What Works For You

I know the morning meeting format is greeting, share, activity, and morning message. I don’t follow that format exactly. When I taught first grade, we did the greeting, School Tools TV, schedule, and Daily Dendrite Challenge. We also had a feeling word each week that we discussed in depth. Now that I am teaching third, we do it a little bit differently. We typically do a greeting, School Tools TV, and then an activity. On Tuesdays, we always have some sort of quick check-in or lesson on the Zones of Regulation.

Don’t be afraid to customize morning meeting to fit your style. At the end of the day, our goal is to connect as a community and create a strong bond together. There are many different paths to the same outcome. Do what works for you!

Do you use morning meetings in your classroom? What benefits do you see? Do you stick to the Responsive Classroom structure or make it your own? I’d love to hear more in the comments below!

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msnatashatheodora Best Teaching Practice

Student Independence from Day One

The Big Goal

Student Independence

Student independence is key. In fact, my whole goal for my students is to be able to do whatever I teach them on their own. Without me. This independence applies to everything. I want them to connect mathematical ideas on their own. Those decoding skills I teach during conferring, I want them to do it once I walk away. I want them to know what to do when the fire alarm goes off. I want them to know what to do if they make a mistake or need to go to the bathroom. My goal for them is independence. I’m not going to be with them every step of the way. They need to be able to function without me.

Independence is a life skill. Employers don’t want employees who ask what to do every single step of the way. That’s obnoxious. They want employees who can complete tasks independently and ask for help when they need it. Independence is a crucial life skill, and we can begin teaching it when kids are young like first grade (and lower). I taught first, but I have also taught second and third, and I have successfully created independent learners in all three grade levels. Some years with more success than others. Here’s how I do it.

Fostering the Student Independent Spirit

Eventually, students leave our classrooms, and we want the skills they attained within the school to stay with them. To do this, we must create a culture of independence in our classroom and instill independence in each student. Developing student independence is not an easy task, and there are many struggles and bumps along the road. If we persevere as educators, we are creating a better future. Here are some of the ways I help foster the independent spirit in my elementary classroom.

Let them do it

If students can do it by themselves, they do it by themselves. There is no task that I do for my students if I know they can do it on their own. For example, sometimes tying your shoes is hard, but if you can do it, then you do it.

Create an Internal Dialogue

Asking questions back to students that they should already know the answer to- in a POLITE way. Not sassing a student when they ask to sharpen a pencil. Place a thought in their head and letting them solve the problem. If I hear, “Ms. Rice, can I sharpen my pencil?” I ask them, “What are the rules? Is now a time for pencil sharpening? How could you solve this problem?” I then see the wheels turning. They have been prompted to think of the classroom procedures and then decide for themselves.

Let’s be real, sometimes the wheels aren’t turning (we all have those days) and then I direct them to the place in the classroom where they can find the answer.

Don’t Answer Their Every Question

Yes, part of our role as teachers is to answer questions, but we don’t have to answer every single question. A few years ago, a few kids were gathered around our globe, and they were wondering why earthquakes exist. I could have just answered their questions right there, and then they would know. If I did that, they wouldn’t learn anything other than the information I share. Instead, if I ask questions back to them and lead them in the right direction, they might learn a few transferrable scientific or research skills. So I said, “Wow! That’s an excellent question. What do you think we could do to figure that out?” They were so excited! Kids ran off to see if we had books about earthquakes. Another group wanted to go to the library to search; some wanted to send an email to older kids to see if they knew. Next time they had a question, they knew what they could do to find the answer all on their own.

Connect Them

Let them lead each other. Kids learn best from each other anyway, so why not let them. What a better way to develop student independence? When a kid comes to me and asks about using quotations in stories, I can say, “You know what? Have you asked Tyler? He knows all about it.” Recently I did this with Seesaw. Some kids weren’t putting anything in folders, and some had everything in folders, and one recommended new folders to me when assignments didn’t seem to fit the ones given. I connected the folderless ones with the folder ones for about a month. Now everything is in folders, and I don’t have to worry about it at all. Connect them to each other.

Consider Your Environment

Think about how your classroom is set up? Is it student-friendly? Can your students access the supplies that they will need? Can the kids move easily around the room? Are the math manipulatives available? Are books accessible? Paper? Pencils?

Make your supplies available to the kids. In my classroom, all of our books are available in the classroom library. All of our math manipulatives are in an organizer that kids have access to all of the time. Kid supplies are available and are at a kid-friendly height.

How Do You Include Student Independence?

Independence is an essential life skill. One that if we work at it right away, students will improve daily and continue to grow even outside of the walls of our classrooms. If students can be independent in our hallways, they can be independent at Target, at the movie theater, or even while walking home from school. Transferable skills should be the main focus of our teaching. If it doesn’t transfer outside of our classrooms, what is the point?

How do you work to foster student independence in your classroom? I would love to hear from you in the comments below!

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Brag Tags- I tried them and I didn’t love it

What's a Brag Tag?

Brag tags hit the world of teaching a few years ago. Although the concept, providing students with a token for doing something, wasn’t anything new, they were redesigned and better than ever. I was teaching second-grade and kept getting passive-aggressive feedback about how my teaching wasn’t cute. When I switched grade levels, I decided to become a cute teacher, and I hated it! 😂It’s just not my style.

Here are a few examples of Brag Tags I handed out in my classroom. Of course, I purchased a few bundles from TPT, but in true Natasha fashion, I ended up making my own to fit the needs of my class better.

What's the Problem?

I know there are many brag tag lovers, and in the short term, they work beautifully. My assistant teacher and I handed them out and praised students and felt like we were building such a little positive community. What we were doing was bribing kids into good behavior. Now, I am not above a bit of bribe now and then. 😉Sometimes you need kids to behave in the short term, let’s say during a special event, and it works. But I don’t show up to school every day focused on the short-term. I am focused on assisting in the development of awesome little humans for the long haul.

I'm Bad at Passing Stuff Out

After the beginning of the year, when the joy of our brag tags was wearing off, I started to forget to pass any out. See, our class had already learned expected behaviors, and they were following them without anything. I didn’t need to give hundreds of reminders to sit at the carpet or not touch people in line. They were doing it, just as I expected they would. I found that when kids are following expectations, I don’t think much about behavior, and I would forget to pass them out. I quickly realized if you don’t need the bribe a few weeks into the school year, you probably didn’t need it in the first place. Sometimes as teachers, we set up scaffolds that our students don’t need! This was one scaffold that I thought students needed, but they didn’t.

They Wanted to Barter

While most students were content to follow expectations and pitch in for the greater good of our community, some wanted rewards for everything they did. I had a few students coming to me all day long, sharing all of the things they had done that they felt earned them a brag tag. This was a side effect that I didn’t want! The goal of using brag tags wasn’t to have students only do good things if they got something for it in return. I had to make a rule that if you ask for a brag tag or share the good stuff you did hoping to get a brag tag, you wouldn’t get it. To earn one, my assistant teacher and I had to notice it all on our own, so you never knew when you were going to get one. I had to restate that rule over and over again.

Coming to a Slow Stop

Gradually, over the first quarter, I started handing out brag tags less and less until I completely stopped. My assistant teacher and I would remind each other to pass them out, and we wouldn’t. Then students would say comments like, “Wow! No one has gotten a brag tag in a long time.” My assistant teacher and I would make eye contact across the classroom 😳, and we’d carry on. We would go long periods without handing any out because they didn’t need them.

We’d eventually have a conversation with our class explaining that we didn’t need brag tags, and we would only hand them out on special occasions. The students understood. Brag tags were like training wheels on a bike. We used to need them, and now we didn’t- except, did we ever actually need them?

How DO They Behave Without a Reward?

But Natasha, how do they behave if there isn’t a reward? Honestly, sometimes, they don’t! Listen, I am not saying it is easy in the least to get students to follow expectations. I haven’t used brag tags at all this year. I work in a school that believes in investing in students for the long term, so we don’t use short term supports like extrinsic behavior motivators on a regular basis. I’m currently in a book study for Classroom Management Matters, and in the first or second chapter, it discusses extrinsic rewards. I fully admitted in our conversations that sometimes I want to give in and provide extrinsic rewards because it does work short term, and it’s easy. We discuss expectations at the start of the year and revisit them all the time.

What I do Know

I don’t have things figured out entirely, and I don’t know if anyone does. What I do know is that Brag Tags aren’t for me. I would rather put in the exhausting work to create students who can self-regulate without bribes and rewards. Some days I am confident in this choice and other days not so much!

What’s your experience with brag tags been? Any advice to share about non-reward based experiences?

msnatashatheodora Quotes

Weekly Wisdom

Masterpieces & Works IN Progress

You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously.
-Sophia Bush

Sometimes as teachers we don’t like to admit that we are works in progress. This Sophia Bush quote describes exactly what we are as teachers. We are both a masterpiece and also a work in progress. That’s what teaching is all about it. It’s about being a great teacher and looking to become even better at the same time.

Our students are the same. They are both a masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously. That is what makes teaching such difficult and rewarding work.

Don’t forget the value in being both a masterpiece and a work in progress!

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msnatashatheodora International Teaching

How to Teach Abroad: Applying and Interviewing

How to Teach Abroad

Start the Process Early

Now that you’ve decided to teach internationally, you might be wondering how do I teach abroad? Where do I start? It’s time to apply for positions and interview with new schools. The process for applying and interviewing happens much earlier than it would in the US. You’ll find that not only is the timeline moved up the process will be slightly different as well.

When I was applying to teach internationally the first time, I worked on my resume in September, and I asked my principal for a letter of recommendation in October. Yup, that’s right in October! I had the letter at the start of November and began applying shortly after. I accepted my new teaching position at the end of January.

Agencies to work with

There are so many different recruiting agencies out there. I’ve worked with one agency the most so I’ll talk about them here. There are many different ones, so reach out and do some research to figure out which one will work best for you.

ISS-Schrole

I have primarily worked with International School Services-Schrole. You have to sign up for an account, and I believe it is around $75 for a year’s membership. Remember, you’re going to have to invest money into your job search to yield results. Signing up for an account will get you access to hundreds of schools and positions. It will also allow you to attend any of their job fairs for free. Once you sign up for an account, you’ll need to create your profile.

Personal Information: You’ll want to upload your CV, necessary information about yourself- date of birth, gender, country of birth, country of passport, languages you speak, contact information, emergency information, and marital status. Now, marital status might seem weird, but if you are a couple and are both teachers, you’ll apply to schools as a team. If you’re married and one partner is not a teacher, you might get asked some questions about what the other partner is planning on doing for work. You’ll also want to include a picture.

Professional Information: After entering your personal information, you’ll need to enter your professional information- the university you attended, your degree and date of issue, a copy of your degree, your teaching license details, and a copy of your license. Then you’ll have to upload your work experience. Next, you’ll need to ask references to complete a secure online reference check. You will need to enter your reference’s first and last name, email address, phone number, organization, dates you worked with them, relationship, and position type. Once you click submit, an email is immediately sent. So, you’re going to want to send an email and ask before hitting send a request.

After you complete your profile, you can browse so many positions all over the world!

Additional Agencies

Here are a few agencies. There are many others out there that help people teach internationally. There are many more resources on how to teach abroad on their sites as well. Check them out!

Search Associates

UNI

TIE

Do Your Research

Before I click to apply, I do some research. I feel like that is pretty standard for job searches. Right?

Location

First, where is the school located? Is this an area I can see myself living? Keep an open-mind here. I knew nothing about Poland before moving there, and I absolutely loved it! A lot of Americans are always worried about safety. I have honestly felt safer in Poland and Oman than I ever have in the US. If you’re concerned about safety, then do your research. It is so crucial that you can envision yourself living in this location for at least 2 years.

Website

The next thing I look at is the school’s website. Now I do know that a lousy school could have a great site, and a good school could have a terrible website, BUT if it looks like the school’s website was made in the early 2000s and forgotten about, I move on. I want to see current events on a website, social media accounts, a calendar of events, a welcome letter from administrations. If things don’t seem right, they probably aren’t. I highly encourage you to trust your gut instincts throughout this entire process.

Philosophy

After the website test, I check the guiding statements of the school. These should be easy to find on a school website. Does my teaching philosophy align with that of the school? If it doesn’t, I move along. Find a school that is a good fit for you.

Check International Schools Review

I don’t even know how up to date this website is kept. I was told to check this site by teachers who had been in the international teaching game for a long time. I did read reviews for my past school, and I would say they were reasonably accurate. Here teachers can evaluate their schools and their administrators. I checked it, and I considered that most people who leave reviews are usually slightly disgruntled, I read what was there and moved on. There’s always a hint of truth in every review, but I didn’t review my last school, and I was happy there. Most people who leave reviews are leaving and want to share why. I don’t even think I read the reviews for my current school. If you wish to subscribe and check reviews, do it.

Package

Sometimes, you can get information about the benefits package before applying. You can see a salary range and know what is included and what is not included. Any information you can find on this topic is helpful before you apply. Sometimes there isn’t any information on this prior to applying.

What Are They Looking For?

When international (and I assume most other) schools are hiring, they want to know you are a great teacher, but they also want to see if you’re cut out for the international teaching life. Read this post about choosing to teach internationally. Schools want to make sure that you aren’t going to fall apart and run home at the first sign of trouble. Once I applied at a school that asked how I dealt with loneliness and isolation on their application. I’ve also had some interviews focus on who I am as a person, not a teacher. International teaching is a different game.

Here are a few topics/questions that I have been asked, or my friends have been asked.

-Have you lived away from your family before?

-Do you have hobbies outside of teaching? I find that having a life outside of teaching is a high priority in the international teaching community. International teachers live vibrant lives outside of their teaching lives.

-Can you continue these hobbies here?

-Do you have previous international school experience?

-What is your relationship status?

-Do you speak another language?

-How do you deal with new situations?

-How do you deal with homesickness?

-What have you learned from teaching internationally that you wouldn’t have learned if you stayed in the US?

This is a very basic list of questions but hopefully, you get the gist a bit better. If you have international teaching experience leave some additional interview questions in the comments. I’ve only gone through interviewing twice so I’m still quite new with this section.

The Process

Here is how I applied to schools. Some people attend a job fair, and that process looks totally different. If you’ve participated in a job fair before, please leave a bit of insight into the process below!

I searched open positions on ISS
I researched schools and decided which ones I would apply to and which ones I would pass up
I checked ISS to see if I applied through the ISS website or if I applied on the school’s website
I wrote a cover letter and answered all the questions asked in a thoughtful way
Sometimes nothing happens next. Other times you get an email asking for an interview. And sometimes schools reach out to you and ask to interview you without applying
Do your research again and jot down important questions and information to bring up in the interview. Remember, interviews might happen at weird times due to time differences
Interview- probably via Skype
Sometimes nothing happens, and at times you get a second interview
Interview again sometimes with a teacher and the principal but usually with a director or other administrators
Sometimes nothing happens, and then sometimes you get offered a position
Read the contract, have a friend read it. If something seems off to ask about it
Take the job and sign your contract or say thank you for the opportunity and continue your search

Ask Questions

Remember, you are also interviewing the school. You need to have questions prepared, and the questions you ask an international school might be slightly different than the questions you ask a school in your home country.

Here are some possible questions to ask:

Who is responsible for getting your visa? Does it happen before you arrive or after?
How do you get there? Does the school pay? Do you pay and get reimbursed?
When do you need to arrive?
Does the school provide or assist with finding a place to live?
Is there are realtor fee if they set you up with a realtor?
When do you get paid the first time?
When does your health insurance begin? What does it cover?
Is there a shipping allowance? Is it a lump sum, or do you get reimbursed?
What teacher materials are available in the country? What might you want to bring?
What supplies are in the classroom? What do most teachers bring?
Will they connect you with a teacher mentor?
How do they help with the transition?
What is daily life like in ______?

Accepting an Offer

Before you accept an offer, read the contract again and again. Question things that don’t seem right. I had to choose my health insurance based on three options in my first year teaching internationally. Another option was to get a gym membership, but you had to opt-out of insurance to get that option. I asked which one most teachers choose and went with that plan. It turns out I didn’t have health insurance for most of my first year! Choosing your health insurance from three very different plans does seem odd in retrospect. Ask questions about the parts of your contract that you don’t understand.

Only accept an offer if you plan to follow through on it. Accepting an offer as a placeholder for a better offer isn’t very respectable in the international world. Schools go through quite a process to recruit teachers, and having to start all over because you got a better offer leaves schools in a tough place.

Congratulations! You are off on an unforgettable adventure! You’re now ready to pack to move to a new country!