Best Practices

This section is dedicated to all of the hard work from both our TIP mentors and teachers. If you have any wonderful ideas or effective strategies we invite you to share to benefit all. Please email Joanne Chan ( jochan@hlpusd.k12.ca.us )

If you have a best practice that you would like to share with your colleagues, please feel free to complete and fill out the template at the right. This can also be used as evidence for the CSTP 6.0 Professional Goal!

Best Practice Share Template.pdf

Whiteboard Easel

The easel on the left side is from Really Good Stuff at a cost of $136.99, which is one of the cheaper ones we could find on their website. The easel on the right side is one that we built for a couple of teacher candidates. Our idea came at the request of some new teachers requesting them for students and from this website. All of the materials were purchased at Home Depot, which included PVC pipe, screws, and tile board. The total cost of all of the parts was $53! We can probably get the cost down to around $40 with further modifications on the legs with smaller PVC pipes if we build additional easels. Our teachers appreciated that our model consisted of:

2 sided - tileboard dry-erase surfaces on both sides
Easily foldable for moving and storing in classroom
Shower curtain rings are attached at top to hang chart paper if needed

Pictured at the right is Nick Cortez, who is a Special Ed Teacher. Nick is using one of the custom-made whiteboard easels during small group instruction. Previously he had an old easel that was too small for his students to see (also pictured behind him).

Pinterest is a social media website that is a catalog of IDEAS, which can be great for teachers! From classroom bulletin boards to organization ideas, this can get addicting with the amount of wonderful ideas.

Plickers

Think "Paper Clickers"; many teachers in the past have looked for different ways to check for understanding. Plickers allows you to collect student data through the app immediately, similar to the way the expensive student responders would. Plickers is a FREE and is available both on iOS and Android. All you need is a tablet or smartphone and the individual student cards, which you can print for free from the Plickers website. If you don't have access to district electronic tablets, please check with your administrator before using the app on your own personal device.

Flipgrid

Flipgrid is a video discussion platform made to fit the needs of your classroom. Teachers can design a topic and students can submit videos to verablize their learning. Additionally, students can reply to each other's videos to provide feedback. Teachers are also given full control of the video content. The Flipgrid can run on a Chrombook, laptop, iPad, iPhone or an Android Device, making it an accessible resource for all students. Check out Flipgird at their site!

Poor Man's Classroom Whiteboard

New teacher candidates always need important tools and supplies in order to show growth on professional goals. Without these important resources, it can be very challenging across almost every CSTP. One teacher candidate, Matthew Gilbert, is currently the band and music instructor for the 2017-18 school year at Glen A. Wilson High School. Mr. Gilbert is a Year 1 teacher candidate and came into a classroom that still had a 40+ year old chalk board! A request for a porcelain whiteboard for approximately $800 was not in the school budget. Therefore with some "thinking outside the box," he was able to buy all of the materials for a whiteboard at Home Depot for $30! With the purchase of two sheets of tile board and some drywall screws you can see the before and after pics below. Home Depot will cut the tileboard sheets to size for free. Mr. Gilbert plans to use the left side of the board for announcements, objectives, etc. for each music class.

BEFORE AFTER

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