Here is a website that offers more information on conductin morning meetings in classrooms:

PBIS
PBIS gives schools a great management tool that will help in decreasing bad behavior in the school. My interning school used the PBIS model with only 4  school wide rules, known as PAWS. Here is a link to PBISWorld.com and PBIS Research to help you out. 


Build Meaningful Relationships with Your Students
One approach to building meaningful relationships with your students is by using William Glasser's 7 Connecting Habits when interacting with them. These habits consist of: 

(Charles, 2008, pp. 77).


5-to-1 Ratio
Another approach in building positive student-teacher relationships is to use the 5-to-1 Ratio method. This is an evidence-based method (also recommended by Seattle Public Schools) that focuses on creating a more positive classroom climate, which consequently improves academic engagement and decreases classroom disruptions. The goal of the classroom teacher is to provide 5 positive interactions for every 1 negative interaction for each student.

Examples of positive interactions:

Examples of negative interactions:

Sustaining communication with families
A great way to sustain communication with families is to send home a monthly flyer explaining what their child will be learning and any upcoming events the school will be having. 

Another great way to communicate with families is by using the online application ClassDojo. This application lets you track whole class and individual student behavior. The teacher is then able to share with information with families directly by having a message system. It also comes with an introduction letter to parents about the application, a back-to-school night presentation, and an introduction video for the students. So, not only is this a good way to communicate with families, it is also a good way to manage classroom behavior. And it's free!

Yet another mobile and web app that can save teacher's time in managing their communications with parents is Bloomz. This is a free service and all communications are private and secure. Teachers can share class updates, photos, due date reminders, and registration deadlines with parents in real-time. One of the unique features of Bloomz is that it allow you to translate content into 80 different languages. This feature is invaluable when trying to establish consistent communication with parents who are not proficient in English or who feel more comfortable expressing themselves in their native language.


What to do at curriculum night / open house

One piece of advice my cooperating teacher gave me about curriculum night was to have a power point ready that you can use for multiple years (assuming your teaching the same grade/class). 

I also found a Scholastic article giving teachers tips for a stress free curriculum night. It goes over over the topics of: personally inviting parents, preparing your curriculum information, putting together a visual presentation, preparing your room, helping get parents involved, the big night, and afterwards.

It's the little things that make or break classroom management and routine. Before the year begins, creating a system for all the little things (what a student should do if he or she was absent, how you want students to line up, how you are going to address works with no names, etc.). 

Here is a resource that Ryan and Teddy got from their internship school: 

Question 2: What are you going to do this summer in order to prepare for the upcoming school year? How will this help you? 

Click here to respond!

Donors Choose
Another option, that my cooperating teacher used in order to get a new class set of whiteboards, was Donors Choose. Donors Choose is a nonprofit website that helps public school teachers get funding for materials and experiences that will help their students learn. From what I heard at Maple Elementary, a Seattle public school, a majority of these projects get funded.

World Vision's Teacher Resource Center
Teachers serving at schools in low-income neighborhoods are invited to visit World Vision's Teacher Resource Center to sock up on learning tools like binders, pencils, crayons, and glue sticks. Qualifying schools include those where at leas 70% of students qualify for free or reduced-cost school meals. For information about scheduling your visit to the resource center please email USPrograms@WorldVision.org.

Scholastic Warehouse Book Fair
Warehouse book fair sales are great for saving money on brand new books. Below is the link to find a warehouse book fair near you! (Next one is June 12th in Auburn)  


Other resources
Seattle Aquarium
Seattle Aquarium not only hosts school groups for field trips, but they also provide free educational materials for educators to use in their classrooms! Materials include animal fact sheets and photo guides, There are also resources on their website for helping teachers plan self-guided field trips to the beach.

Pacific Northwest Ballet
The Pacific Northwest Ballet hosts field trips, teacher workshops, and in-school programs. You must apply and be accepted in order to participate in their in-school programs. PNB also makes available free support materials for dance and movement learning in the classroom, as well as full curriculum integration for partnering teachers.

The Ann P. Wyckoff Teacher Resource Center
The Teacher Resource Center (TRC​​​​) is SAM’s free lending library for educators, located in the Asian Art Museum. The TRC is a robust teaching toolkit and offers over 4,000 resources related to SAM’s global collections. Supporting all three of SAM’s sites, the TRC is a robust teaching toolkit that provides educators with creative ways to promote learning and endless possibilities for integrating art into the classroom.

By the way, here are some classroom designing tools you can use if you're playing around with furniture arrangement! (You will need classroom measurements.)

Create Learning Zones within Your Classroom
"There are many elements to consider as you plan for the next school year. You always review critical pieces like standards, curriculum, instructional activities, and testing, but you also think about the classroom space and how to arrange desks, set up bulletin boards, and organize materials. You can bring these seemingly disconnected components together in a system of seven learning zones. The discovery, news, supplies, community, quiet, teacher, and subject area zones will help you establish routines, save time, and maintain your sanity from the first through the last days of school."