I have taught for 9 years in North Alabama. . I have a Master's Degree in Elementary Education K-6 with an ELL minor, along with a certification for middle school math. I am a National Board Certified Teacher for Early Adolescence Math.
For reference- I am writing this post in the middle of a pandemic! Schools across the world are closing out the year virtually. There has been such a lack of closure in this school year that I really wanted to celebrate my students, even if only virtually!
Last year when I taught first grade, I made some editable Bitmoji awards and my students had a FIT!!! We used cheap red tableclothes and taped it to the floor to make a red carpet. I even pulled up a Hollywood theme on my SmartBoard and took cute pictures as they walked up to our class stage.
This year, I moved up to 7th grade. I added more awards and created the awards with a Google Slides option. I presented these in a Google Meet for my homeroom, but I also loaded them into Google Classroom so that those who did not attend the live video could also enjoy them. This also allows students to print them out if they wish. One teacher who purchased these told me she was mailing them to her class- how thoughtful!
These are available in my TPT– editable for both PPT and Google Slides. There are a total of 38 awards with a full list under the description. It was such a fun way to celebrate my students and brought a little closure to such a bizarre school year. How are you celebrating students during these unprecedented times?
My goal was on sale at Academy Sports but you can also find them on Amazon.. or use a trash can!!!
I want to preface this post with a simple piece of advice- try the fun stuff. I am always nervous before I try something new.. but setting expectations is everything! Managing kids is HARD. Iโve learned so much from those around me. This activity went so well because of the expectations. For this activity I used my probability resource for simple probability that also includes finding the difference between theoretical & experimental probability. I placed students into groups of 3-4 (I have also done partners in the past.. do what you prefer!) I set a timer for an allotted amount of time- usually 15 min. This resource has 20 questions so this allows plenty of time to attempt as many as possible. YouTube has the cutest timers btw. Students begin working & can go in any order they choose- I stress that they can decide which ones to try or skip. I like to offer some choice & some teams want to tackle all the hard ones first, while some like to try all the one point questions first. A group raises their hand when they have an answer & I check their work. If it is correct I check it off on their paper. (see photo.) This is how they earn points. I tell my students that if they raise their hands for me to come check answers but I am busy checking another group, keep working & when I come over I will check multiple answers at a time if needed. This way they are efficient!
I check off work as they go so they can keep up. If it is wrong I tell them try again, I give them prompts as needed.
When the timer goes off they add up their points. Then they can see how many hoops they have earned. Once they know this information, they can decide which group members wants to shoot hoops/how many each member can do. Then one group at a time is called to shoot the ball. (I got my goal at a local sports store but you can even use a trash can/paper!) I have a student tally mark each goal made by the team. To keep this manageable I have my ‘audience’ stay seated as if we were at a game. The only students standing are to be the group who has been called to participate. If I see too many are getting up, we pause until they are seated. I find the more strategic I am with procedures the better things like this go. The overall winning team gets candy in my room. (: Please email me if you have questions or suggestions! bmccarley@mcssk12.org
This was one of the MOST FUN ways I can think of to practice slope!!! Functions are huge for 8th grade math.. I have two advanced 7th grade classes to actually learn all of the 8th grade standards instead, & our unit on functions is SO long! This was such a fun way to practice applying our knowledge of slope using graphs, tables, & word problems. This product is from Rise Over Run on TPT. She is amazing!
There is an awesome recording sheet- look at all the ways they have to justify the slope!
Students were challenged with real world scenarios- but that was my favorite part! The tasks were on cholesterol & students getting sick with the flu. These are awesome tasks. I had gloves & masks donate by parents so the only thing I actually paid for out of pocket was the resource itself! I definitely think this is what made the lesson have a hook. YES my kids stayed on task & YES they loved these materials. We started out by doing questions 4-6 together so they had 3 examples. That left 9 patients for them. THEN I passed out the masks. I set 2-3 patients on each table & as they completed all the patients at their table they went to another table to solve. This kept it pretty organized! I checked answers as they went along & at the end of class we went over the top 2 that they struggled with.
I loved doing classroom transformations when I taught elementary school, so I am excited to share that I finally tried one with my middle schoolers! We used football decor to prepare for our inequalities quiz. All of my supplies was CHEAP from Wal-Mart, but here are some similar things on Amazon.
Stress Balls (these are actually the exact ones I bought)
I even wore one of my favorite shirts from Trendy Teacherz– we interrupt this lesson to bring you football season! Use the code BROOKLYNSBRIGHTEST for 15% off!
Students were placed into groups of four to complete 4 downs aka tasks to prep for our quiz. I let them decide on a team name for fun! As students completed each ‘down’ one player of the team had to complete a problem. I had them write their name next to the problem for accountability. All players were supposed to watch for errors. Once they were finished, I came to check their answers before they started the next down.
The third and fourth downs were identifying the inequality on a graph & then actually graphing an inequality. When they completed all four downs, they put their team name on a ticket & placed it in the football ticket jar. When the timer went off for the game, I drew for a ticket. The winning team members each got a mini stress football. My middle schoolers absolutely loved it!!!
If you are interested in this specific content, it can be found in my TPT. I used this for my 7th grade math class. What are your favorite classroom transformations!?
At the start of my blogging, I was about to begin my second year of teaching 1st grade. I had opened every job opening email over the summer in hopes that I would not have to teach first grade again. (You know it’s a sign you need a change when you remember the time you NEVER even opened those emails right?) I ended up making it through a really challenging year- challenging due to the academic needs of my students, behavior issues I had never faced before, & working in a building that didn’t feel like home anymore for me.
Fast forward to now- I have been teaching 7th grade math for about 13 weeks. I truly feel this is where I belong. I loved 3rd grade when I taught it- it felt so natural for me & I thought I would teach it for 10 years before I wanted a change. It broke my heart to only teach it for two years & be moved. But, maybe that was the stepping stone to get me where I truly belonged. In a way, I feel middle school was maybe just where I was supposed to end up. There are a lot of labels that go with middle school- the drama, the attitude, etc. But when I think of the 150 kids I teach every day, I can honestly say NO they are not ALL like that! I have a few- a few that I am still working the kinks with. Out of five classes, I can honestly say there is only one that stresses me out at times. (And sometimes they come in & do okay.. it’s an interesting combo to say the least lol. Growth in my career that class..)
And I can’t help but think- elementary is really tough when you have a challenging class you are with all day LONG. If you have never taught a grade where you have your class ALL day long, you just don’t know what it is like to be in a situation ALL day long. I remember when some of my kiddos would walk in the room last year & I could tell it was going to be a DAY. It was so much weight on my shoulders. I have now gone from let’s get through the next 7 hours together to let’s make it through 55 min. Teaching is just hard no matter what- but finding your happy place makes all the difference. For me, I love changing classes. It was a jump going from 20 kids to 150 kids, but after a week it already felt routine. & I think a huge part of that was keeping an open mind: ‘SO many teachers see this many kids every day- they’ve done it for years. If they can do it, I can do it.’ I have let middle school be a clean slate/a new chapter/time for growth.
Twinning is Winning
Middle school teachers really care about their students just as much as elementary. I think that has surprised me the most. It amazes me at the relationships I see teachers building at my school when we only have kids for 55 min at a time. But maybe that is the art of a secondary teacher after all? I love building relationships with my students and this age group can actually be a lot of fun. Most of our days are good. I come home happier. If there’s anyone out there thinking about trying middle school, I encourage you to give it a try. It just might be where you belong. Elementary made me who I am- the details I put into lessons, the organization, the cute labels on my binders, the time management (thank you small groups lol), but now- now I am secondary at heart.
I recently shared on my teacher IG account about how my coworker shared an (amazing) idea about using Instagram as a theme for classroom management- & now I want literally everyone to know about this! Basically each class period develops their handle. They REALLY like this. My last class didn’t make the pic but they are called little chicken wings. (: The goal is for each class to get 10 likes. I give likes for being awesome, everyone working on the bellringer when the bell rings, being good for a sub, showing kindness, working well in groups, leaving the room clean at the end of the class period, etc. The key here is that the classes aren’t necessarily competing against each other- whoever gets to 10 first is great, but everyone else keeps going as the winner then gets to start over. I do this because we know there is that one class that would NEVER get there first and would totally lose interest. I have uploaded the templates for the IG theme free here if you want to print/laminate them for your board like I did. They are taped for now on my whiteboard- I will eventually do velcro when I have time haha!
When I posted this on IG, a lot of people wanted to know the incentives. I will start by saying some teachers may not want to use food/tangible items. That is totally fine- you do what works for you! I have a mixture of tangible/non-tangible items on a wheel from Amazon. However there are free virtual ones you can Google if you want! Here are my rewards:
Seating choice (I normally assign seats)
ice cream sandwiches
popcorn + candy
Game Time (Uno, board games, etc. last 15-20 min of class)
15 min phone break (We are a no-phone school now so if we allow them to do this as a reward it’s a big deal bc it’s pretty rare!)
Chips
Go outside to work for the class period
Netflix Time (Last part of the period)
cookies + coke
Little Debbies
Donuts
Teacher’s Choice!
I want to ad that my 7th graders LOVE this. I was worried if they would buy in, but they totally do. This could also be used even if you don’t swap classes or if you want to do table groups, etc. What incentives do your students like!? I would love to know!
If you are looking for other classroom management strategies for secondary classrooms, head over to Lindsay Bowden’s post!!
So if you follow me on Instagram you know I made a huge jump from 1st grade to 7th grade math (best decision I ever made btw). Our district had a 3 day week for students as the first week of school, so here is a look at what we did!
Day 1: QUIZ
On the first day my bellringer was a quiz!!! About me haha. My coworker shared this idea with me & I will forever use it! (Thank you to both of my amazing 6th grade math coworkers for helping plan with me!) I had students write their best guess. Then we went over the answers & whoever had the most right got candy. On the back I had 4 question templates where the kids made a quiz about themselves with multiple choices. They then swapped with a peer to take each other’s quiz. This was a great way for students to learn more about one another without having to ‘speak’ in front of everyone on the first day.
Student Quiz Template
Then I had students complete a graph of me from Rise Over Run. This was a fun review of the coordinate plane & how to plot ordered pairs. On the back I had a little questionnaire from Middle school and Macchiatos.
Day 2: Teamwork makes the DREAM work!!
The next day was AMAZING. I have an Instagram post about this but if you really wanna get a quick idea of what this is- what the video below. Basically this is an easy way for students to develop group norms. My coworker shared this lesson from MathEqualsLove. (Scroll down until you see the 1-100 activity.) You give groups (ideally 4) a sheet that has 1-100 mixed up. Students take turns circling the numbers in order to see how close they can get to finding all 100 in 3 min. The discovery of how to help each other find the number, paying attention, being efficient… itโs amazing. Several math teachers at our school used it this year on the first couple days. Even next year when I do this & some kids remember the activity from this last year- they will still have to discover how to work with NEW peers.
Day 3: Tech Contract
On the third day we used chrome books for a math diagnostic test from IXL. My coworker typed up this tech contract & we used this as our bellringer.
Last but not least- I literally cannot remember what day I did this LOL but this was a little interest inventory that the kids liked. Some responses to what students didnโt like last year were legit- one kid said he didnโt like teachers calling you out for no reason or to tell you to quit talking when it wasnโt even you!!!!! #middles
I recently obtained 10K followers on my teacher account & I’m really excited to meet this milestone! For many teachers we desire this mark because it enables the swipe up feature in stories. I have gotten a lot of questions about how to get here, & I want to first and foremost communicate that I have had this account for FOUR years of teaching.. so it took me a lot longer than many others I know! However, I really didn’t become intentional with my account until this past school year. I will give you my best insight & share some easy tips that will probably get you there a lot faster than I did, now that I know what I know! (:
HUGE preface- I know that 10K doesn’t make you a better teacher, or that you have to even have 10K to be a good teacher, etc. I just want to throw that out there! ‘It’s not about the numbers’ although I will keep it real & say it’s okay if you really want it like I did. YOU do YOU!
SWITCH TO BUSINESS. Get a free business account. Like right now. Go do it. Just switch in your settings! The only requirement is for a Facebook page to be tied to the account. I just made one with the same name as my Instagram but I don’t post very regular on it for now (maybe one day) & honestly you don’t even have to do anything with the tied FB account! Why should you switch? Having this type of account shows your engagement levels and when your followers are active. Let me show you..
Click VIEW INSIGHTS on your post to see these numbers.
So on this post reading from left to right, I can see there were 718 likes, 94 comments, 38 people ‘sent’ this post to someone else (that’s what the little paper airplane means) & 272 people bookmarked or saved this post. This lets me know this content was very appealing.
These are my times for the summer which is more spread during the day bc we are all off work. During the school year my bar graph reaches more towards the top around 6PM, which is why I usually only post around that time during the workweek! I’m CST btw.
TIMING MATTERS. This is probably what changed my posting strategies the most- look at those times!!! This is during the summer months so teachers have the freedom to check IG all day.. I will probably update this post once we are back in school so I can show how drastically these times change when we are all working. I am in the CST zone, & my bar graph is still pretty low around 12 and 3 pm during the school year. THIS is why I quit posting while I was at school. LIGHT BULB MOMENT when I realized that just because it was 10 AM and my kids were in PE & I had free time to post, other teachers were TEACHING and not going to interact. My followers on the West Coast are 2 hours behind me and were just kicking off their day- more than likely not in IG. (To clarify, I may post a story at school but I do not post a POST at school.. did you get that (: lol)
Why is that important? Due to the IG algorithm, if your post doesn’t receive engagement within the first hour or so, it can get lost in the shuffle of other posts bc followers don’t see posts in chronological order as we all kinda wish they would sometimes. So in a nutshell, you want your post to get some attention right off the start, meaning DON’T post it when only a small portion of your followers are active. For me, 6 PM is the sweet spot bc the East Coast is only an hour ahead of me so it isn’t too late and MST/PST zones are finally out of school. (Although I have followers from all over, the majority of my audience is from the states, also shown through the business account. So 6PM really is the sweet spot for the bulk of my followers due to my location and audience.)
Here are my posts ranked in order from engagement.
BE INTENTIONAL Recognize that IG is a VISUAL platform. What vibe do you want people to feel when they visit your page? Do you want them to notice your transformations, organization, student engagement, a little bit of it all? I started being intentional with what should go in a story & what should be in a post. Think of yourself opening the IG app. We all look at the photo first, then read the caption. If you want the caption to be read, make the photo engaging enough to stop someone from scrolling past it. I don’t use any fancy apps for posting but I just try to take a decent picture. I do use some apps for stories & I try to post in those more- you can track engagement levels with that too. I really think people like to see YOUR face which I’m still working on doing more.
HASHTAGS Use them!! & I try to vary them. I save them in my notes & when I post I just copy/paste a group of them. #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofig #teachergram , etc. You can see how popular a hashtag is by searching it just like you would a person, except tap ‘tags.’ Try to use popular ones!
#hashtags
GIVEAWAYS One last note- GIVEAWAYS. Okay so I like them, don’t get me wrong. But don’t try to get to 10K through only giveaways. A LOT of people unfollow after those. I have done some this summer bc it’s been really fun & I had time for it, but I also want my audience to be as authentic as possible- that’s just me. Just remember you could gain 300 followers from a giveaway but lose half of them the day after the giveaway ends- really. Do some, but not too many!!! You can join them easily by filling out the forms on a giveaway page bio on IG. For me, I would do them when I felt I needed a little boost. (:
I don’t consider myself an expert by any means, but I began the school year with a little less than 2K and when I started the business account around late August or September, that is when I started seeing a difference. (It is now July for future reference!) I made the changes above & it helped so much. If you have any tips to share with others please comment below! If you have a question also feel free to comment or email me at brooklynmccarley@gmail.com You can follow along with my teacher ig @brooklynsbrightest.
My friend over at Teaching With Amber Miller shared an Amazon Class Wishlist last year & I decided to try it out myself! So I made one, shared it on fb, & literally the next week every item had been donated!!! My cousin in LA decided to purchase the whole thing when he saw it which was so incredibly touching. As I continued to add items, they continued to be purchased. It felt AMAZING to see items come in for my kids. I had my settings set to ‘surprise’ me, so I didn’t know who purchased what until it was delivered & read the notes.
Once school started I put the list on a QR code memo for parents along with all the fun back to school paperwork we have to send home. At Christmas time I reminded them of the list through an editable memo in my TPT & about half of my parents used that list to purchase a Christmas gift for me + my class instead of the traditional mug or chocolate bar. I truly loved actually receiving a gift that was useful for the entire class.
If you want to check out my current school wishlist, you can find it here. If you need help brainstorming items to add to your list, you can type โclassroomโ in the Amazon search bar & lots of inspo will pop up! As far as how to create a wishlist, here is a simple step by step set of directions! What items would you add to your list!? I would love to know!
Here is a simple + cost efficient end of year gift idea! I purchased a book for each student using Scholastic Book Clubs $1 deal of the month. (Keep in mind you can also use points if you have any available!) Then I used the Shutterfly app to order each student a class picture. When you use the app, photos are free & you only pay shipping. For me that was 7 cents per student. I write a personalized note on the back for each student too!
Then, I got a 24 pack of bubbles from Target which made it about 17 cents per student. I tied all of this up with a little notecard that can be found in my TPT store.
The kids genuinely were excited when I passed these out! What do you give your students at the end of the year!? I would love to know!
