As an elementary school teacher, I have never been a fan of homework. During my first year teaching, my Grade-Level Lead Teacher handed me the spelling worksheets and multiple-choice reading activities to send home with the kids each day. I hardly looked at them, and definitely hated grading them. The students with high test scores,…
Tag: Josi Lacrete
Snack Time… and Feeling Full
Alright children, we’re going to go outside for a break now. You can bring a toy to play with, your water bottle, yes, Jimmy, a snack if you’d like. Oh, I’m sorry, Tammy, you don’t have a snack? Well, we just had lunch less than an hour ago, did you eat all of it? Oh…
Lockdown Culture in Public Schools
On the last day of this school year, we had a lockdown at my school. I teach at an elementary charter school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Albuquerque has no shortage of gun violence, and I hardly even flinch anymore when I hear a sound that could be a gunshot, or a firework, at night. I…
Classroom Supplies Wish List
It’s the last week of school, and I’m already thinking about what to put on my classroom supplies list for next year. The simplest things that come to mind include pencils, notebooks, paper, yadda, yadda, yadda. All the normal stuff for a second grade class. But if I could really ask for anything, what would…
Teaching the Titanic
My Obsession with the Titanic Earlier this month was the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Usually, around this time of year I sit down to watch Jack and Rose fall in love and die on screen, relishing in the music, the costumes, the exhilarating spectacle that is the James Cameron movie. I scour…
Dance Studio and Classroom
The other day, one of my second grade students, Sally, invited me to her seventh birthday party. Be Careful what you Wish For She is young for this grade. Most of the other students are seven turning eight. She actually skipped first grade. And when you think about the pandemic online year she suffered through,…
Bad Words
“Ms. Lacrete, Ms. Lacrete! Carlyle said a bad word!” Most of the time, when a student complains to me that someone in class said a bad word to them, the recourse is to sit the two students down, and figure out what made them so upset as to curse in the first place. My students…
Managing Student Behavior: A Class Under Control
Learning vs. Classroom Management Teaching elementary school involves managing student behavior. In fact, managing the kids is most of the job. You can plan the best, most engaging lessons in the world, have all your materials ready, and then bomb the actual lesson if you can’t quiet the class down, and keep the class clownery…
Can’t I Leave you all Alone for a Second?
Let me set the scene: It’s independent reading time in my second grade classroom. Everyone is busy reading a physical or virtual book of their choice. No one needs water, the bathroom, or any of a million other things they usually need me for. If I warn them I’m going, then suddenly they are hyper-aware…