Main Street Reading

If you're looking for an excellent introduction to the fundamentals of the Science of Reading, look no further.  It doesn't read like Professional Development but rather a riveting and thought provoking look at where we come from and with what challenges new readers address the problem of learning to read.  Excellent read, highly recommended by people much smarter than I.

I like to use these cheap mini erasers  from Target in the dollar spot as the perfect way to earn towards something else.  What do I mean?  Well, I like to have something that costs next to nothing as my base for positive reinforcement.  Then I like to have something we earn after getting say, 10 mini erasers.  I might use tallies during small group instruction, or have other adults in the building let me know if they have done anything worthy of praise.  (Also gets others in the building looking for positives about students too) Then give a student 1 mini eraser if they earned 10 tallies.  The point is to be generous to the point of ridiculousness at first, then make them work for it more and more. I store them in these little bitty craft boxes .  (Seems like they might be out of stock at writing) I bought two packs because I am the typical zealot and have to many.  Also because rainbow order makes me sooo ...

Here is a quick overview on how to assign boom card decks to students.  Below, there are a few pictures to replicate the process if videos don't work so well for you. First select the class you want to give assignments to. To make an assignment to all students in your selected classroom, click on "assignments" as you see highlighted and circled below. As you scroll down, you will see your card decks displayed with checkboxes.  I have selected just my self-published boom cards to display, but you will have all your purchases here if you don't select anything. Select the assignments you want, a red checkbox will appear next to them as you click on the appropriate box. If you want to assign a deck to only one student, go back to your classroom.  Then click to the right of one student's name. On the right side oof the student card, there is an arrow with a drop down menu.  Click there, and select "Assign" completing the same selection process you do for the ...

Here is the website for Orton Academy ™  who claim to be an Orton Gillingham ™  affiliate.  It is very likely they are, but Orton Gillingham™ is one of those programs that spreads as quickly as possible. https://www.ortonacademy.org/resources/what-is-the-orton-gillingham-approach/ Here is a Facebook™ group centered only on Orton Gillingham™. https://www.facebook.com/groups/137807653562320/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=914349875908090 Orton Gillingham™ is a remarkable program that is tailor suited for students in your instructional care.  Students are given a variety of instructional methods including decoding (reading, phonemic instruction), encoding (spelling, writing) and multi sensory modes of demonstrating their knowledge such as writing on sand paper, writing big letters in the air across the body to cross mid-line.  Think bubble wand or sparkler type motions.

When I need to reinforce positive relationships with students, I have several methods I turn to.  There is no perfect Positive Behavior Reinforcement.  I tend to have 3-4 throughout the year to keep things fresh and I just understand that some things will work and others won't work with particular groups of students. Also, doing this helps me to refocus on what is going well instead of how far we need to go. We did it in three stages.  First students had to earn each stage by filling a page full of good behavior rewards.  Sometimes I do it for the entire small group or class, and others I do individually depending on what students and the class needs.  After the page is all the way full on one side, they would earn a small box for their pet to live in.  Then students had to fill another page full and earn food so their pets would be safe and fed when they got them.  Finally students filled out a final page for earning their pets with.  I let my st...

One of my favorite things about having a 2 minute video teed up and ready to go automatically is that I can take care of a few of the thousand things that come up while teaching.  Also, the video can be scheduled to stop at the right time so I don't have a room full of students complaining that I turned it off.  It just happened! So, you'd logically be thinking, "These slide shows are great and all, but I want to be able to add an educational video to it." Don't know how to do that?  Look no further. We will cover the following right here my friend: How to add a YouTube video directly into a Google Slide ™ How to add your own video directly into a Google Slide ™ How to set the start time and finish time in Google Slides ™ Google Slides ™ (PowerPoint ™  see below) If you're not a video fan, I'll do my best below with words. Google Slides ™ First, navigate to the slide in the slideshow that you want to insert a video into.   If needed you can quickly add ...

 To create your own free Boom Card ™  account, you can follow the site directions here: Teacher Sign-up - Boom Cardshttps://wow.boomlearning.com › signup › teacher To create student accounts, you can do a couple things to import your students: Here is a little video of how to do both ways: Manually Add If you manually add students you can give students a nickname, but my students have needed their own name to find themselves. I would either use a student number if you have one for them and they know it, or just their real name, which I also hate for safety and privacy. Other parents will see student names when they help their students at home, and any website could be hacked. First graders have been much more successful than preschool or kindergarten in my experience with this and being independent. Especially at the beginning of the year. Plus, I find it a pain to type over and over my class list into Reading A-Z ™ , Epic ™ , Seesaw ™, or Boom Cards ™. AND a new pas...