Hello Mrs Sykes

In chatting with teachers, I often get questions about how to support struggling readers in my upper elementary grades. Here are the top 6 ways I support struggling readers in grades 2-6. Thought I would pass them along.  If you find them helpful, I appreciate your sharing this post with your colleagues.  Thanks, y'all!! Find out their interests, then help them find tons of cool books on that topic.  If the books are way too difficult a text, but have rich, engaging pictures, let them keep them in their reading box.  If the majority of their books are at their reading level, let them keep a few that are interest-based, even if they are far too easy or difficult. Find out their needs, then help them find materials they can keep in their reading box.  If they can't tie their shoes, find a preschool book with the big, chunky laces , and let them quietly practice during reading time.  Yes, sometimes 4th graders don't know how to tie their shoes.  It ...

Don't you just *love* these Bright Ideas?!? Reminder Bracelets - Have you used these?  Seriously, I had a principal recommend them to me when I taught 3rd grade.  So fast, easy, and effective - and I use my leftover construction paper scraps, so it's even environment-friendly. When I first started teaching, I called home about everything.  Really.  "Hello!  I'm Pumpkin's teacher.  Please send in..."  Ick.  What an awful impression that makes, especially around the beginning of the year.  Reminder bracelets are fast and free. They aren't necessarily cute, but they really don't need to be.  Students don't particularly like to wear the construction-paper fashion statement, so I just make them while everyone is packing up. Viola!  The permission form/picture money/fund-raising/random paperwork gets returned.  I keep a little checklist to keep track of what the reminder bracelet is for, and record it neatly  stuff it ...

Many times I hear how nice it must be to be a teacher, by people who have no idea why it's fantastic to be a teacher. It usually goes something like this...   We know this isn't the case, but it is a bit discouraging to hear this from others.  That is one of the few things no one tells you about teaching in an elementary school.  Here are a few more: You will need to use the bathroom, and it will be inconvenient.  Yes, I know teachers are supposed to have a planning time and lunch, but occasionally ( weekly ) you will not have a break.  It might be because of a meeting, a specialist being out, standardized testing taking place, etc.  Do not leave your students alone to use the restroom.  Even if they are the most well-behaved little group of angels, when you leave is when little Jimmy decides to stab himself with a paperclip.  You need to have a plan in place - call a really nice office staff member, teacher assistant from Kindergar...

I was thinking about some of my first year stories last night at the NC Bloggers Meet-Up, and I just had to share... In January, 1998, I started mid year in a small school in rural Eastern NC teaching a 2nd/3rd grade combo.  We had 99% free/reduced lunch, and the school had been taken over by the state... I did my best, and I loved each of the students as amazing, unique, and creative individuals. My first year was filled with challenges; I had a runner (Where did he go?  He ran away from school?  Really?), a biter, several kids whose parents I saw selling stuff on the street corner by school daily, state representatives evaluating my teaching, an inexperienced principal, and a group of students who had home situations that made us cry most days.  I still love those kids!!  <3 One day I walked into my room from a meeting and my students were complaining that someone must have burned popcorn.  I thought nothing of it until I saw the flames.  O...