2/7/2018 0 Comments Learning Support Glows! Why are fish so well educated you ask? Well, because they swim in schools of course! Corny fish jokes aside, I have learned that housing a fish tank in the classroom results in a wide variety of benefits and frankly, is one of the best decisions I’ve made. Our classroom features an LED 7 gallon fish tank inhabited by 5 highly active neon tetra glow fish. When welcoming these new fish friends into our classroom, the students were more than excited to hold a “name brainstorming contest” to generate a list of names to vote on. After sorting through the seemingly endless name suggestions including, but not limited to: Rainbow, Michelangelo, Billy Bob, Fish, SharkBait, etc. the winning names were selected. Surprisingly enough, anyone who walks into the classroom and dares to ask if the fish have names, will receive the same spiel from any one of the students. Their names are as follows: Mango is the orange one, Cosmo is the blue one, Galaxy is the purple one, the pink one is Starburst, and the neon green/yellow one is MK, short for Miss Kletzli (again, these names were student suggested and voted upon-priceless!) and the kids will tell you just that! Now before you decide to run out and get yourself a fish tank because of the benefits you hope to reap for your classroom, it is important to not underestimate the responsibility and work that goes into maintaining this living environment. For example, there are many things to fully consider such as the time consuming cleaning and maintenance process, continued feedings over holiday breaks, caring for them over the summer, and the ever-dreaded “belly-up” fish situation that could arise. For me, at the end of the day, with a successful “fin count” of 5 living fish friends, the work is worth it to see my students engage with these fish in such positive ways! Although I knew the students would enjoy the fish tank, I must admit, that even I wasn’t prepared for each of the countless ways it would prove to be such a positive experience for so many of my students. Even students who are not in my class have stopped in to look at the fish tank, a great community building component! One huge benefit that the fish tank has to offer is the obvious ‘student engagement’ factor. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve said, “Let’s work hard on this lesson and then you can go look at the fish.” or “When you finish this section, you can take a brain break to go visit the fish.”…well, I’d be rich! Despite the fish tank being in our classroom for about a year and a half now, the motivation of watching the fish hasn’t seemed to wear off. I also have students who, as part of their positive behavior support plans, have even selected to “feed the fish” as one of their daily incentives. But speaking of benefits, it is also important to know that not only do our Learning Support fish “glow” and look pretty cool, they are also pretty smart too! I often encourage the students to practice their sight words by reading them to the fish. Not that reading sight words to the teacher isn’t fun, but the students just seem to find something extra exciting about ‘teaching’ the fish the sight words in addition to showing them the flash cards! But it doesn’t stop there. Not only do our glow fish know their sight words, but they also get lots of spelling and math fact fluency practice too! This simple strategy allows our students to engage in their learning in very positive ways while practicing a variety of skills orally and visually as well. My early finishers even ask to practice their sight words with the fish while they are waiting for other friends to finish their work, so it also has proven to be an excellent classroom management tactic as well! Please take a moment to enjoy “The Fish School” décor located inside our fish tank-one of my greatest “Wal-Mart” finds! As always, I welcome any comments on my page for any specific topics of discussion, strategies, and other ideas! Until next time.. -Miss Kletzli
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1/17/2018 0 Comments Hello and Welcome! Hello everyone and welcome to my very first blog post! I enjoy writing and have often thought about starting a blog, but never exactly knew where to start and what to write about. However, I have finally decided to start a "teaching" related blog about the daily "on-goings" in my classroom as well as other tricks, tips, and strategies that I use in my own classroom! It is my hope that these postings and shared resources will be helpful to other teachers, and even parents. For today, I would like my first post to be an introduction of myself delving into my education, hobbies, and any other interesting fun facts! I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended Saint Francis University where I obtained degrees in Early Childhood, Elementary Education, and Special Education K-12. I am in the process of getting my Master's degree in an Elementary Education K-12 Reading Specialist and Instructional Coaching program. Currently, I am the K-5 Learning Support Teacher at Providence Elementary. I absolutely love my job and I am very passionate about teaching and my role as a Learning Support teacher. Although I put a lot of time into my job as an educator, in my free time I enjoy spending time with my pet rabbit, Midnight! My students love hearing stories about Midnight and his rabbit antics! To relax, I enjoy sipping on a warm cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, but on the other hand, I also enjoy a variety of adventurous, outdoor activities such as hiking, skiing, horseback riding, target-archery, and even quad riding! Lastly, it will be my goal to keep my blog postings interesting, engaging, yet brief. As teachers, time is usually of the essence and we don't have time to read (or write!) lengthy articles and postings, despite how engaging they may be. I welcome any comments on my page for any specific topics of discussion, strategies, and other ideas! Until next time.. -Miss Kletzli |
Keeping up with Miss Kletzli
Written by an elementary Learning Support teacher, Miss Kletzli, a teacher who truly believes that "being a teacher is a work of heart". Miss Kletzli is passionate about the day-to-day classroom activities as well as advocating for the success of her students! She works hard to engage her students in academic areas including, but not limited to: math, reading, sight word knowledge, spelling, and even study skills; sharing many of her ideas and resources through this blog. ArchivesElementary Education
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