Jump Start! What Teachers Need Now

Unpack a sentence to teach grammar and writing lessons! Hey everyone, welcome back. I am Kim Venegas, and I’m here to help you become a better teacher, faster!  Finding a mentor is like a needle in a haystack. Finding the time to read a book on teaching? You don’t have the time. I’ll share tips each time you listen in. 

 One idea you can use today.

Pull a sentence from a story the students are reading.  Post it on the board.  Ask them: What do you notice?  Some answers might be--I see a period. I see someone’s name.  I see a comma in the middle of the sentence.  This is interactive, a dialogue. “ Why is there a period? How do we know it’s a name? Why is that comma in the middle? What does it do?  

This works because the sentence is familiar. This works because it is multilevel and everyone can notice something.  It works because the students are engaged, as if solving a puzzle.  Hands waved all over the room wanting to notice something no one else did. My students became successful. Successful writers.  Not necessarily proficient in state testing.  No guarantees there! But they could write and they enjoyed it. 

Try it today!  Download the free resource on TPT at whamphonics.  Download and print.

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

 My Easy and Effective Writing Rubric is now listed as a FREE resource in my TPT store at WhamPhonics.  I’ll talk through the details quickly.  I used one-half sheet for the year.  The type of writing didn’t matter-biography, creative writing, informational, or a science report. It can be used at any level. 

 While we’re talking about journals, I prefer composition-style books-even if I had to buy them.  The pages don’t tear out easily.  They can use the left for following a mentor text lesson or sentence structure and use the right side for their own writing.  Spirals just make too much of a mess for me! Are you a first-year teacher? I hear you!  Use Donors Choose! Ask for what you need.  MANY people want to support education. 

 The rubric is not so cumbersome (of your time) and of parents’ understanding.   Easy to snap a pic and share with families when students are showing great gains!

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

You are halfway through the school year.  Students seem taller and perhaps a bit more mature than when they left only two short weeks ago. Upper grades are likely to focus on testing strategies.  in my state, and maybe everywhere,  that often includes the RACE strategy for writing.  If you aren’t familiar, Restate the question Answer the question, Cite evidence from the text, and Explain how the evidence from the text answers the question.  It isn’t the writing you always dreamed of teaching, but students must learn how to construct text-dependent answers. For the test. .

Good writing instruction becomes good student writing in any form.  Are certain formulas important? I believe so, especially in a testing grade.  Teaching students how to answer those text-dependent questions using a strategy your team and your principal encourage.  Students will feel more capable when faced with tough questions about their reading. 

But outside of the framework of answering questions, all kinds of possibilities await!  You can teach students to use precise language as Cynthia Rylant did in Missing May.  You can teach students different ways to begin a sentence as Codell did.  You can teach students to use strong verbs rather than ‘got’ and 'did’ ,  you can teach students to begin each sentence differently.  (Because OFTEN I’ve seen sentences begin with then…then… or so… so…You can teach students to use specific nouns-I always tell students I can’t imagine stuff or things in a closet or backpack -describe and let me see what’s in there!  Teach them to write compound and complex sentences. 

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

In today's news-60 percent of Colorado's teachers are considering leaving the profession. Teachers are being hired during their practicum and student teaching.  If teachers or principals have noticed you are knowledgeable and up to the challenge, they may offer you this opportunity.

Be ready! From day one, be a professional. Be on time.  Dress neatly.  Attend all meetings.  Keep your language civilized.  Jump into teaching as soon as you can.  Learn how to read the data.  How to plan for lessons.  

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

When teachers are trying to problem-solve a situation, we often find a tip or strategy and apply it to all students. I want to encourage you to think it through, think about YOUR class of kiddos.  Will it work with every student?

Here’s my example: Cold calling.  According to Doug Lemov of Teach Like a Champion and Paul Bambrick Santoyo of Get Better Faster-Cold calling is an action step designed to engage all students and to discourage students from  tuning out  

Things to consider: Your relationship with each student.  Students are easily embarrassed among peers when they can’t answer a question.  I’ve seen students as young as five, shrink down in their seats when they can’t answer a question.  Children read the room from a young age.  They know where they fall in the range of high and low students.  Those frantically waving their hand, and those sitting quietly trying to understand what was asked.   A few too many questions given to re-engage a student who isn’t able to answer can slow down relationship building.  

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

When I created Whamphonics as an online screener, I too, wondered about the reasoning of English learners learning to sound out nonsense words.  My thoughts were that they needed to make meaning AND learn how to sound out words.  It took me time, as it took the reading community to come around to the idea that YES, our English learners need to learn the sound symbol correlation to the English language- nonsense or real words.  

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

I’ve just finished a week full of observations for my practicum students.  In every observation, what I’ve seen is a burst of confidence in their teaching.  They are no longer nervous when I slip into the room, they are using their content knowledge of math, literacy, science, and social studies to teach elementary-aged students what they need to learn and why it matters. Our future teachers are asking students how they know, how they solved a problem, and where is the evidence.  

What I believe has made the difference is the same as for our students.,  Time on task. 

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

Hey everyone, welcome back to JumpStart. If you’ve been here before, you know I love watching documentaries, especially medical stories.  Nursing was my number two choice of a career, but I knew the hours would make my family life difficult to impossible.  

I chose to teach.  Both occupations have their heartbreaks and moments of joy.   

Lenox Hill is my favorite. Two incredible neurosurgeons solve people’s health issues, usually cancer.  There’s a phrase, that teaching children to read is rocket science, not quite, but we are as involved in changing their brains.  True, we can’t unzip them and see where the wires are crossed, where the green wire has joined with blue or black, creating havoc as children struggle to learn.  While we aren’t getting under their skin literally, we are changing the connections in their brain every day.  

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

I’m here every Monday (or sometimes Tuesday) to mentor you,  encourage you, and today, to tell you about a nurse's strike happening in several states. Nurses and teachers are the main support systems in the caring professions.  

 Nurses hold up the hospital walls while teachers bring education to everyone  Both are professions dedicated to caring for their clients, their patients, and our students.  

I am not advocating that teachers strike!  

 My number one ask would be for behavior support. Why? I wanted all my students to learn.  To be engaged with the lessons I planned..  But if Naughty Norman is flipping his desk or Sassy Sally is calling out swear words, they are a much more interesting show to watch. No one learns when Naughty Norman and Sassy Sally remain in the classroom.

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics

For younger children, it may be better to share the conference responsibilities rather than put all of the expectations on a 6 or 7-year-old.  They may be very able to share their best work and tell why they chose it, but beyond that…some of my practicum students sat in on early grade conferences, and teacher-led went much smoother and more within the time limits of meeting with 25 families. Of course, each conference can be looked at individually as what will work best for the teacher and the student no matter their age.  

My students observed their MT soften the discussion when a student was struggling with grade-level content, without avoiding what needed to be said.  If there was difficult news, around behavior or academic growth, Mentor Teachers began with something positive, spoke the truth in the middle, and ended the conference with something good to share.  My granddaughter’s second-grade teacher provided a few reports that could be easily understood by families. (Most family members are overwhelmed with the amount of data we show them!) But more importantly, she provided a Glow and a Grow both in academics as well as how she does socially, and her behavior, including helpfulness, kindness, and so on.  One of the report pages included photos of my granddaughter working in the classroom and playing with friends. 

Online phonics diagnostic @whamphonics.com
Additional elementary resources @ https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Whamphonics