First Year of Teaching 4th Grade

As the summer break begins and my first year of teaching in the classroom closes, I am reflecting on all the experiences I’ve had and the opportunities I’ve gained in the past year. With a goal of a healthy school environment in mind, I have implemented a lot of strategies in order to ensure the most nurturing and structured classroom that I could provide. Summarized below are some of my greatest successes during my first year as a 4^th grade teacher.

Attention Getters

“If you can hear me clap once” or “If you can hear me say”
Clicking together two sticks to get their attention allowed me to use my music background to introduce different beats. This also worked on their muscle coordination and sense of timing!

Table Points

At the end of the week, the table with the most points would each get a sticker and select a classroom plushie for the group desk. Tables with the most points often were:

First to give me their attention.
First to clean their desks.
On task all together.

Tables would lose points if they were off task, not being collaborative, or respectful. However, they all had chances to gain these points back. Class points earned through collective teamwork would gain a free choice period on Friday.

Bathroom Use

Students received a reminder to use the bathroom before school, at recess, after completing the daily mile, and during lunch.
Two tickets a day were initially distributed to students needed to use the restroom during class instruction.
Bathroom partners for outside door access were monitored by the teacher.

Tutoring Methods to Reinforce Differentiated Instruction

More advanced students helped others once they finished their own work.
Other teachers used these advanced students to guide challenged students to complete their assignments before working on their own assignment.
Students who needed more support would sit at a semicircle desk and tutor each other as I worked with an individual student.

Students with Behavior Challenges

I engaged the staff for assistance and evaluation. The school principal and school psychologist were instrumental in providing added support and resources.
It is important to take the time to understand what motivates each student to feel empowered. One emotionally challenged student found that poetry provided the outlet to self-regulate and for self-expression.
I established respectful relationships with families so that students felt safe with consistent expectations. Some teachers established relationships with families prior to the start of the school year through phone calls.
Follow-up with parents continued with Back to School Nights and Goal-Setting Conferences.

Keeping the Students Engaged

As the school year progressed, students became more motivated to work together as a team when I consciously created units of learning that were project based and loaded with creative crafts and activities. Some activities included:

Collaborative social studies units were created with poster summaries and student illustrations.
Nature scene painting was developed by making paints with natural resources such as grass crushed from rocks, turmeric, charcoal powder, fresh roses, and butterfly pea flower tea.
A ruler and protractor were used to showcase knowledge of lines and angles as students designed an abstract piece of art.
A narrative story was written by each student that was inspired by a standards aligned historical fiction book.
Comics were created by students based on a reading assignment. A sample comic picture was projected on the screen and the students would collectively summarize what the passage picture represented. Then the students would create their own comic picture with their own summaries.

As I reflect on my first year of teaching, I am excited about how much I learned along with the students as they mastered their reading, writing, math, science, and social studies projects.

Grandparenting Summer Play with Our Tween Twins

Summer is a wonderful time to spend extended quality time with our tween twin granddaughters. In previous years, our days were filled with planned outings, free-play games, and art projects. Now that the girls are shifting their focus toward friends, we are adapting by inviting their peers along for the ride. Thankfully, our car is large enough to play “chauffeur” for the whole crew!

Summer Activities and Outings

Below is a summary of our plans for a summer full of growth and adventure:

Volleyball & College Life: The girls love volleyball, so we’ve enrolled them in a skill-building camp hosted at a local college. Beyond the sport, they’ll learn about campus life from student-athletes who lead the training. Tours of the bookstore, performing arts buildings, and athletic fields offer them an early, inspiring glimpse into their potential futures.
Individual Mini-Vacations: For the first time, the twins have agreed to take separate trips with us. One will visit a bustling city, featuring a stop at a Jellycat Diner; she’s already doing extra chores to save up for a collectible. The other twin has opted for a beachfront city to enjoy the surf and local attractions.
Family Thrills: We are heading to the local beach boardwalk so the twins can enjoy unlimited amusement rides with their older brother.
Daily Playdates: We’ll keep the momentum going by taking the tweens and their friends to various parks, museums, and nature walks.
Games & Art: Every summer, the girls learn new games and spend hours on art projects, such as handmade greeting cards and seasonal decorations.
Academic Play: We provide opportunities for reading, journaling, and math. Grandpa even challenges them with upcoming grade-level concepts! They especially love “playing teacher” by using these skills with their younger relatives.
Future Sitters: They adore babysitting their younger cousins under our guidance. On their next birthday, they plan to become officially certified through the American Red Cross.
Digital Connection: When staying with us for several days, we ensure they have dedicated time to visit friends online and share their adventures with their parents.

Tips for Grandparenting Tweens

Caring for tweens requires a blend of high energy and thoughtful strategy. Here are a few tips we’ve picked up:

Stay Flexible: Even with a plan, tweens may get tired, feel under the weather, or simply need a “day off.” We only prepurchase essentials like camps and trips to keep the rest of the summer stress-free.
Balance is Key: Mix structured activities with plenty of downtime so the kids stay relaxed and excited rather than burnt out.
Sneak in Learning: Integrate literacy and math into fun tasks. Our granddaughters love recalculating recipe ingredients for dinner or tracking mileage and reading directions for road trips. Games like Family Feud are great for reading and score-keeping!
Share Your Roots: Tweens are often fascinated by family history. Look through old photo albums together or visit living history museums to compare modern life with the cooking utensils, appliances, and tools of the past.
Explore Science Through the Decades: Science and tech museums offer hands-on STEM education through interactive exhibits and maker labs, showing just how far we’ve come.
Know Your Limits: Grandparenting tweens is active work! If a roller coaster sounds too intense, bring a teen along to handle the “wild” rides while you cheer from the sidelines.
Celebrate Individuality: When planning, consider each twin’s unique interests. Dividing your time can provide that much-needed undivided attention they still crave.

Value the Journey

A summer spent with tween twins is a rewarding journey of balancing their growing independence with meaningful family traditions. By embracing their social circles and honoring their individual interests, you create an environment where they feel both respected and supported. Integrating subtle learning opportunities and family history ensures the season is as enriching as it is entertaining. Ultimately, the flexibility to pivot between high-energy excursions and quiet downtime is the secret to a stress-free experience. These shared adventures build a lasting bridge of connection that will carry your relationship forward into their teenage years.

How Students Can Self-Assess Their Writing

In my previous blog post, I described how our primary grade students completed a 10-page report primarily in their own words on mud and soil. Our team then completed a Mud Report Student Evaluation for each student that highlighted their abilities to complete their mud report.

Five Mud Report Components

Listed below are the five questions that were used to evaluate each student with comments on each student’s report:

Did the student research and copy text on the internet and from books with ease?
Did the student write the report from multiple sources and combine information without help?
Did the student blend information from various sources and apply what was read to personal life experiences and other experiences?
Did the student work diligently with ease on the project?
Is the report’s content, spelling, punction, and printing easy to read?

Student Levels of Accomplishment

We them rated these skills at the following four levels of accomplishment on each report component with comments based on the common core standards for primary grade students:

Level 1 Learning Basics: Student researched and copied nonfiction text on a topic in books and on the internet with lots of help. Student wrote the report with difficulty and help. Content, spelling, punctuation, and printing were hard to read.

Level 2 Demonstrates Understanding: Student researched and copied nonfiction text on a topic in books and on the internet with some help. Student wrote the report and blended some information with some difficulty and help. Content, spelling, punctuation, and printing were sometimes hard to read.

Level 3 Modifying Basics: Student researched and copied nonfiction text on a topic in books and on the internet without help. Student wrote the report from multiple sources and blended and applied some information in the report. Student worked diligently with ease. Content, spelling, punctuation, and printing were easy to read.

Level 4 Emerging Expert: Student researched and copied nonfiction text on a topic in books and on the internet with ease. Student wrote the report from multiple sources and extensively blended and applied information in the report. Student worked diligently with ease. Content, spelling, punctuation, and printing were easy to read.

Students’ Responses to Their Evaluation Comments

As we completed a rating for each student, we qualified the rating with personalized comments that focused on specific skills achieved when completing various report assignments. Students were very excited when we described specific behaviors and skill building attributes to specific examples captured in their 10-page reports.

Most were shocked that we actually read their reports and took the time to show them how to punctuate their reports correctly. Many are still learning how to self-edit their work and are surprised that we observed this amount of detail in our review of their work. Other students could not believe that they were working beyond their grade level in writing. We explained that the more they were able to synthesize their work and apply their writing to daily experiences and observations, the higher level writing they were able to create independently.

Challenged students were very excited that they were able to complete this very demanding assignment regardless of how much help we provided them. They want to slow down, print more carefully, and learn to self-edit. I encouraged these students to read parts of a story or nonfiction information daily and practice rewriting small passages daily in a journal. Through practice, these students will become self-confident writers. The more students expose themselves to difficult articles and books, the more confident they will become when completing challenging assignments.

What We Learned

We have been using this assignment and customized rubric for three years with multiple classes. Each year we become more successful in increasing students’ skill levels at a faster pace than previous years. I think we just keep learning how to teach better and more confidently as we coach students to integrate nonfiction informational writing with daily life experiences and observations.

We Are Here to Help

If you and your students or children want to learn how to evaluate writing assignments, you may be interested in reading Student-Engaged Assessment: Strategies to Empower All Learners by Laura Greenstein and Mary Ann Burke. Our team is available to provide trainings to your schools and teachers. You can contact us on our blog site under the comments section on the lower part of the blog page. Also, if you are interested in a simplified approach to teaching students about mud at the first or second grade level, we have posted an online book link on Magnificent Magical Mud by Mary Ann Burke at the bottom of our blog site. This online book includes simple writing assignments for students and children. Much success in the great adventure of student led learning through self-assessment.

Kids Learn to Express Themselves Through Writing

During the last weeks of school, our primary grade students learned about various types of soil and mud when planting flowers, studying the uses of mud, and learning how to use computers for research in 10-page reports.

What the Students Researched

Learning how to write an introduction to the report
Writing about descriptions and uses for clay soil, loamy soil, and sandy soil
Planting a flower and writing about the type of soil used for planting
Listing the steps completed to make mud and plant a flower
Learning how to calculate how much water is needed for making mud in different quantities
Completing a soil and mud research checklist for added research in books and on the computer
Writing a book report on mud and soil uses
Writing a computer report on mud and soil uses
Completing a reflection questionnaire of what was learned
Creating a glossary of new vocabulary words used in the report

How Students Learned to Use Their Own Words

Throughout this project, students were encouraged to summarize what they read in their own words. Most students were successful in completing this task without teacher assistance:

When listing the steps to make mud and planting a flower
Completing a research checklist
Writing a report introduction
Writing a reflection of what they learned
Completing a glossary of new vocabulary words

When writing about various types of soil, most students preferred to copy the technical information. Many students did not copy every word in the informational text. Book reports were completed by students on a topic they wanted to learn more about. Various nonfiction reading level books were available for student use.

The computer report was the most challenging for students to complete. Most students had never summarized online technical resources and articles. Many started the assignment by copying text. As the students became more familiar with the online content, many were able to apply what they read to everyday life.

How to Support Challenged Students

When some students were very frustrated with an assignment, we used very basic reading samples and had students copy a couple of sentences. Next, we interviewed them and asked them how they might use this knowledge in their daily lives. We also created sentence frames. Sentence frames are very simple sentences that students can complete in their own words. For example, a sentence frame might state that clay soil is comprised of very fine mineral particles and is sticky. Then students can complete a sentence frame that says clay soil will ___________. We then ask students if they think clay soil will make a puddle or will soak into the ground. Students typically responded that clay soil makes a puddle because they experienced that result when making clay mud. Once students were able to talk about a challenging topic in their own words, they slowly became more confident in writing simple sentences about what they learned. We also had capable students tutor and assist their more challenged peers. This one-on-one tutoring support was incredibly helpful as students could share more personalized help with their peers.

Student Led Evaluations

My next blog post will describe how we constructed a Mud Report Student Evaluation for each student that highlighted their competencies in five different areas. Nearly 53% of the students in our project received a Level 4 Emerging Expert Evaluation overall rating because they were able to complete work independently and wrote their report using their own words on several assigned pages.

10 Tips for Parenting Teens During Summer Break

Teens often greet the end of the school year with dreams of social outings, adventure trips, and lazy days lounging by the pool. However, parents often have a different set of priorities, ranging from academic advancement to household responsibilities. Many teens also need to enter the workforce to fund their social lives, phone bills, or car expenses.

Striking a balance between these competing needs is key. Here are 10 tips for a productive and fulfilling summer with your teenager:

Keep Their Brains Warm to Avoid the “Summer Slide”

Some teens choose summer school to fast-track their education, aiming for Advanced Placement (AP) courses in their junior or senior years. These classes can often be taken for college credit at a community college with a counselor’s approval. Other students may benefit from remedial help to ensure they start the fall semester with confidence.

Nurture Life Skills Through Volunteerism

Growth happens when teens step outside their school social circles. Volunteering as a camp counselor or working with a nonprofit helps develop leadership and interpersonal skills. Whether they are interning at a hospital, a tech company, or a senior center, these professional environments provide a safe space to explore potential career interests.

Create a “Career Ladder”

Encourage your teen to see volunteering as a stepping stone. An intern at a nonprofit or a local museum often has a “foot in the door” for paid seasonal positions later. Many recreational programs and amusement parks are eager to hire those who have already proven their dedication as experienced volunteers.

Have Teens Help Manage the Household

When school-based childcare ends, teens can step up to fill the gap. Help your teen create a “Nanny Plan” for younger siblings. They can market themselves as academic tutors, art assistants, or fitness trainers. Beyond childcare, they can also take ownership of household duties like laundry and meal preparation to learn essential adulting skills.

Guide Teens to See the “Big Picture”

It is vital for teens to understand how their summer choices—schooling, volunteering, and work—connect to their long-term goals. Remind them that these experiences aren’t just chores; they are valuable entries for college applications, resumes, and future apprenticeships.

Balance Schedules with Quality Downtime

A summer packed with work and school can lead to burnout. To ensure healthy development, make sure your teen gets sufficient rest, relaxation, and screen-time breaks. A prosperous summer is only successful if the teen remains happy and mentally healthy.

Grant Independence to Responsible Teens

As your teen takes on more responsibility, allow them the space to make their own decisions—and their own mistakes. Being a flexible, available guide rather than a micromanager builds trust. This independence fosters the resilience they will need to face life’s future challenges.

Visit Colleges During Family Vacations

It is never too early to walk a college campus. Incorporating campus tours into your family vacation helps demystify college requirements. When a teen can visualize themselves on a campus, they become more motivated to fulfill the academic and leadership milestones needed to get there.

Engage in Reflective Discussions

Take time to talk with your teen about their summer experiences. Ask what they learned, what skills they found difficult to master, and how they felt upon completing a task. These reflections are the “gold” they will need when it comes time to write compelling college essays or interview for jobs.

Look Toward the Future

As summer winds down, many teens feel invigorated by their newfound self-awareness. Some may rethink their future plans, while others will realize they are far more capable than they previously thought. Most will return to high school with a clearer picture of their talents and a much wider view of the world around them.

Navigating the teen years during the summer break is a delicate dance between providing structure and offering freedom. By focusing on life skills, academic maintenance, and reflective growth, parents can help their teens transform a simple school break into a cornerstone of their future success. These months of exploration not only prepare them for the upcoming school year but also build the confidence and resilience necessary for adulthood. Ultimately, a well-balanced summer leaves both parent and teen feeling inspired about the journey ahead.