Author page: Primary Paradise

Classroom Organization, New Teacher Tips, Reading

How to Set Up and Run Reading Centers in a First Grade Classroom

Reading centers are an important part of your literacy instruction because it gives you time to target key skills with students. It also allows students to make some choices in their own practice and learning. Knowing how to set up reading centers in a way that is simple for you and engaging for students will set you up for a…

continue reading

New Teacher Tips, Reading

How to Teach Comprehension with the Science of Reading

The Science of Reading might feel like a hot, new buzz word. All of this talk of heart words and word mapping might be a bit different from a balanced literacy approach you are used to. When you get down to it, the Science of Reading is not new at all. It’s simple researched based instructional practices. But, what about…

continue reading

Classroom Organization, New Teacher Tips

How to Set Up a Classroom Without Spending a Ton of Money

Classroom set up is important because how well your classroom works for you and your students will impact your year. However, if you take a look at Instagram, you might begin to feel overwhelmed. New teachers might feel like they need to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into their classroom. This is just not realistic or true. Here is…

continue reading

Classroom Management, Classroom Organization, New Teacher Tips

Independent Classroom Tasks: A Comprehensive List of Things Students Can Do

What things can students do independently? This is something I was unsure of as a new teacher. However, after years of teaching first and second grade, I’ve learned the answer is… a lot! Of course, it will depend on the time of year, age and maturity of your students, but here is a list of things that most kindergarten, first…

continue reading

New Teacher Tips

New Teacher Tips: Helpful Resources and Ideas for First Year Teachers

Whether you are a first year teacher or a student teacher, a new teacher or soon to be new teacher, there are probably a lot of things that you still have questions about. As great as the theory is in your college teacher program probably is, there are many things that education programs don’t cover. Student teaching is also a…

continue reading