Main Street Reading

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...

 As teachers of students with short attention spans and slight comprehension, why should we we spend time reading aloud to the whole class?  In this fabulous age of the Science of Reading, is that even allowed anymore?  What is Best Practice? Here's a list of five reasons why we should still keep reading aloud in classrooms. Read Alouds are part of the Science of Reading Connecting with students Behavior Mindfulness It's Fun! 1. Read Alouds are part of the Science of Reading I was lucky enough to get trained in Orton Gillingham Yoshimoto method for 40 hours by my district.  The Science of Reading is based on a "rope" which contains two sides.  One side is what we've all been hearing about and learning: the encoding & decoding of words identifying sounds fluency handwriting learning phonemes both written and orally presented multi-sensory, whole body approach language rules BUT, goodness, look at the rest of of the rope on the other side. (see below)  Al...