Education
**The Classroom Commute**

If you have a classroom and a commute, then you’re in the right place! The Classroom Commute Podcast is THE place for busy teachers who want actionable tips, simple teaching strategies, and a little fun on your ride in to school! Carpool with Rachael each week as she helps to send you in with a grin! Each week Rachael shares simple, yet powerful teaching tips, ideas, and strategies that will help you become a more effective teacher, and maybe help you enjoy your job a little more!You’ll find actionable tips for how to make your lessons more engaging for your elementary students, ideas for including more classroom technology, new activities to implement, ways for building a stronger classroom community, and strategies for all content areas including science, social studies, reading, writing, and math!And of course, there will be a little teacher humor along the way! So – buckle up and let’s hit the road on your classroom commute!

Latest Episodes:

5 Minute Fillers To Keep Students Engaged Dec 13, 2020

Show notes

Let me set the scene:
It’s almost time for lunch, you’ve just finished up your math lesson. Your students miraculously put away all their materials quickly, just as you asked (hey, a teacher can dream, right?). You have 5 extra minutes before your students need to line up to head to the cafeteria. Now what?

You know that if you allow your students to just chat with their classmates for a few minutes, your students will likely take that inch you’ve given them and turn it into a mile (read: calmness is about to turn into chaos in about 2 seconds flat)

In these cases, it’s always good to have a few ready-to-go 5 minute fillers that can be pulled out in a moment’s notice.

Here are 5 constructive, no prep activities that you can do when you have 5 minutes to spare after a lesson, before a transition, or at the end of the day.
For full show notes, visit: classroomnook.com/podcast/48
LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:
Grab my FREE Show What You Know Cards inside the Members Resource Library under Student Assessment Resources.
Love the FREE set of the assessment cards? Grab the full set: Show What You Know Cards

How to Teach Visualizing in the Upper Elementary Classroom Dec 06, 2020

Show notes

As adults, it’s so hard to imagine NOT visualizing while reading.
Visualizing is what makes the characters, settings, and events pop off the page. Visualizing makes us want to keep reading. And - it’s visualizing that allows us to leave reality for a moment and escape into another world.
But - for young readers, it may not be that easy. They may not have been taught to focus their mind in that way - to create that moving in their mind. That’s where clear reading comprehension strategy instruction on visualizing, or picturing as some teacher refer to it as, comes into the…well, picture (pun intended)!
If you’re looking to develop stronger readers in your classroom, then tune in to this week’s episode as we continue our podcast series on teaching reading comprehension strategies in your elementary classroom.

LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:
Episode 41: Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies

Episode 42: Reading Comprehension Instruction: How to Teach Making Connections

Books rich in descriptive language and detail — perfect for teaching visualizing:

A Bad Case of the Stripes by: David Shannon
Color Me a Rhyme by: Jane Yolen
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by: Judy Barrett
The Salamander Room by: Anne Mazer

Grab my FREE Visualizing Bookmark inside the Members Resource Library
LINKtivity Interactive Learning Guide: Visualizing

How to Not Just SURVIVE But THRIVE in the Classroom This Holiday Season! Nov 29, 2020

Show notes

It’s that crazy time of year!

Holiday crazed kids, trying to keep your students focused, and a million things to do inside AND outside the classroom — all while maintaining your sanity (if that’s even possible!)

Good News! I am here to help you feel less stressed and more prepared for the hectic weeks ahead. Although your to-do list is likely a mile long, you don’t have to feel like your spinning 10 plates in the air. In this week’s episode, I’m sharing some helpful tips and tricks to not just help you SURVIVE the holidays in the classroom, but rather THRIVE during this crazy time, (and maybe even sneak in some time for yourself?)

And guess what? Good news! You don’t even have to take notes. All the links and resources I mention are listed below. I consider that a holiday win!
For complete show notes visit: classroomnook.com/podcast/46

LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:
Grab my 12 Christmas Freebies inside the Members Resource Library under Holiday & Seasonal Resources

Online Resources for Christmas Around the World:

Christmas Around the World LINKtivity

Video Tutorial: DIY Pennant Banners for Any Occasion

Holiday Survival Kit (includes):

“Christmas Around the World” Flip book
Holiday Theme Pennant Banners
Reindeer Rewards
& more!

Take-home Math and Science Kits (Perfect for student holiday gifts!)

Grab my Free New Years SCOOT Game inside the Members Resource Library under Holiday & Seasonal Resources

How to Effectively Use Rubrics for Assessment AND Instruction Nov 22, 2020

Show notes

Assessment drives instruction.

As teachers, we’ve heard that over and over. Teachers need to make sure that the tools they are using to assess their students are effective in giving the teacher insight into student understanding.

You’ve likely already use rubrics for assessment. And,- when the rubrics are written in kid-friendly language, students, too can fully understand how they performed and where there are areas for improvement.

However, have you considered using rubrics as an INSTRUCTIONAL tool? It could be a game-changer in your classroom AND it could help set your students up for major success.

In this week’s episode, you’ll learn how rubrics not only help with assessing student performance, but when used as an instructional tool, rubrics can help set the stage for learning…and ultimately success!
LINKS MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:
Grab a FREE rubric to use with interactive notebooks inside our Member’s Resource Library!
For complete show notes, visit: classroomnook.com/podcast/45

Engaging Ways to Start a Lesson Nov 15, 2020

Show notes

We’ve all been there.

We all have started teaching a new lesson, only to notice the students staring at you with glazed over eyes…probably thinking about lunch.

In this episode we are going to talk about some surefire ways to grab your students attention and keep their attention throughout the lesson.

Whether you’re in person or virtual, these 13 quick and engaging ideas will help you start your lesson with engaged students whether it’s beginning your lesson with a story, debate, or my favorite one…food!
Links and resources mentioned in this episode:
Episode 4: 9 Way to Use Music in the Classroom

Readers Theater Scripts

Blog: Five Reasons Why You Should Use Reader’s Theater in the Upper Elementary Classroom

Video library

3 Ways to Use Bulletin Boards With Students Nov 08, 2020

Show notes

Who doesn't love a good bulletin board display?
But - I just might love a good bulletin board set a little too much.

I’ve been guilty more than once of creating a bulletin board more for ME than for my students. I loved the finish product. I loved seeing the display up in all its glory. But - I rarely actually used a bulletin board for my STUDENTS’ benefit. I rarely referred to the bulletin board to reinforce student learning.

When I was in the classroom, I would obsess over every detail on my bulletin board. One year I made a particularly nice display that I was proud of, but when I made a reference to my bulletin board one day, one of my students asked “What bulletin board?”

Ouch! That hurt. Bad.

But - it opened my eyes to the real purpose of a bulletin board. The bulletin board should be used to teach, to be referenced, and to reinforce what your students are learning.

Today, I have three ideas to share with you. Ideas that will make bulletin boards have a bigger impact in your classroom by engaging students in learning.

In this week’s episode you’ll learn how to STOP just creating pretty bulletin boards that serve no purpose, and get more mileage out of your bulletin boards that result in real student learning.
LINKS & RESOURCES:
See my collection of complete Bulletin Boards Sets HERE

Video Tutorial: How to Create Your Own Bulletin Board Letters
Grab 5 already-done-for-you bulletin board letter sets below for FREE in our Member's Resource Library)

Reading Comprehension Instruction: How to Teach Making Connections Nov 01, 2020

Show notes

Wouldn’t it be nice if reading comprehension just magically happened?

Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t!

Although as adult readers we use these reading strategies to help us understand what we read without much effort, young readers need to be explicitly taught what the strategies are and how to use them. Over time, readers will learn to weave in and out of these strategies to fully comprehend the text that they're reading.

At the upper elementary level, students have likely been introduced to all seven strategies at one point or another, and they probably see the strategies modeled for them. You're going to continue to do that but there is going to be times when you're going to need to isolate each strategy throughout the school year. Of course, once a strategy is taught, it will still need to be reviewed, written, and continuously practiced.

Many teachers would agree that Making Connections is one of the easiest strategies for students to master, simply because students are likely already doing it without much effort.

Making Connections is a critical reading strategy that helps students make meaning of what they're reading. When they make connections to the text that they're reading, it's going to help them make sense of what they're reading, help them retain the information better, and help them engage more with the text itself.

In this episode, I will walk you through the basics of what the strategy is and how to effectively teach it to your students.

Grab my FREE Making Connections Bookmark inside the Members Resource Library (Find it under the “Reading Resources” section)
Check out these helpful learning tools for teaching making connections & reading strategies:
LINKtivity Making Connections

LINKtivity Reading Strategy Bundle

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For complete show notes and links to additional helpful resources, anchor texts for teaching the strategy and more, visit: classroomnook.com/podcast/42

Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction That WORKS! Oct 25, 2020

Show notes

What makes someone a great reader?
Ask any elementary student and you’d likely hear responses like:
“Great readers can read fast.”
“Great readers use expression."
“Great readers can read all the words correctly.”

These answers are all correct, however, we want students to understand that reading is more than just being able to read the words on the page. What we really want students to be doing while they read is thinking!

That’s where reading comprehension strategies come in. Reading strategy instruction gives students a guideline for how to think about what they are reading. Educational experts call this “metacognition,” which can be defined as “thinking about thinking.” This concept is at the heart of why we teach and encourage students to use reading strategies. Students need to understand that thinking is essential to reading.

Today is the first of 8 episodes on the topic of reading comprehension instruction. We will go over a new strategy each month starting next week and ending in May. I can’t wait to share with you some tools and some strategies that you can pass on to your students to help improve their reading comprehension.

Buckle up as I share with you some helpful tips, strategies, and resources for teaching your students reading comprehension.

You'll Learn:

The difference between skill and strategy (1:28)
Why we teach reading strategies (3:53)
The 7 main reading comprehension strategies (4:46)
- Making Connections
- Visualizing
- Predicting
- Asking Questions
- Determining Importance
- Inferring
- Synthesizing
The book that basically taught me everything I know about reading comprehension strategies (6:55)
How to introduce strategies (and why you should introduce them all together) (8:15)
How to model reading strategies (10:14)
What a mini lesson might look like (12:08)
Which order to teach the 7 reading strategies (15:17)

Links & Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

Constructing Meaning Through Kid-Friendly Comprehension Strategy Instruction by Nancy Boyles (affiliate link)

Grab my FREE Reading Comprehension Strategy cards inside the Members Resource Library (Find it under the “Reading Resources” section)
Reading Strategies LINKtivity Bundle

Tips FROM Teachers FOR Teachers: Teaching During a Pandemic Oct 18, 2020

Show notes

Teaching during a pandemic is something we have never done before. There’s no book we can read written by expert teachers to prepare us for what to expect. We are all learning on the job — taking it day by day, moment by moment even.
But, you know what we do have? Each other.
And, in this week’s episode, I asked teachers who are in the trenches, just like you, to share their best tips for what has worked for them so far. You’ll learn what THEY are doing to deal with things like not being able to have shared classroom supplies, or how they are making small tweaks throughout the day to make mask-wearing more bearable, and a whole lot more!
It’s exhausting, for sure. Here are some wonderful tips from teachers to get you through teaching during a pandemic.
For complete show notes visit: classroomnook.com/podcast/40

How to Deal with Overwhelm in Teaching Oct 11, 2020

Show notes

What happens to you when you get overwhelmed?

For me, my head goes into a tailspin as I think about everything that has to get done.

Teaching is hard but it's even harder if we don't give ourselves room to try out new things, make mistakes, and learn from them. We are learning that lesson so clearly now in 2020 with the pandemic.

This week's episode is sure to leave you encouraged and feeling inspired to head into your week, unafraid of what lies ahead and confident to be your best teacher-self!
For full show notes visit: classroomnook.com/podcast/39