Teaching With Haley O'Connor

Let's build a better world together-one classroom at a time!

Non-Verbal Reminders for Students

Today I wanted to share some ideas for students who need frequent reminds to stay on task, complete their work, and use safe hands and feet. During my first few years of teaching, I focused a LOT on positive relationships with my kids. That meant I really focused on the way I talked to my students. Instead of "sit down," I might say "Frankie, please sit on your bottom." Unfortunately, really ... read more

Gratitude Read-Alouds

Gratitude is a challenging skill for so many students. So many families focus on "saying thank you" as soon as toddlers can talk. However, we don't often talk about what it means to be grateful and how we can really show that. Students become robotic and teachers say, "What do you say?" when we give them something. But that does not mean they are truly grateful or even understand what that means. ... read more

Favorite Fall Books

Today I wanted to share some of my favorite books for celebrating Fall in the classroom. I LOVE Fall. I'm not sure what my favorite season is...but I know it's not summer. I'm always so happy when it's over! I do NOT like the heat. So as soon as I can start celebrating Fall, I am ready! Depending on your school curriculum, you might not get to do a lot of thematic teaching and units. But we ... read more

Teacher Gift Free Download

This post contains affiliate links. I receive a small stipend when you purchase using my link. It doesn't cost you anything, and I only recommend things I use and love. Hi! This week my daughter, Everly, started preschool. I planned for her to start a little earlier, but the past 18 months have been so crazy! As a teacher, I was (and am) so excited to support her teachers. I immediately ... read more

Alternatives to Clip Charts

Over the past few days, I've shared two other blog posts about clip charts in the classroom. First, I shared reasons why teachers choose to use clip charts. I feel like when we know what problem we're trying to solve, we can come up with better solutions. Why Do Teachers Use Clip Charts Then, I blogged about what the experts are saying. There is SO much research about the negative ... read more

All Are Welcome Discussion Questions

This post includes affiliate links. I receive a small stipend for including links at no cost to you. I only recommend products and books I use and love. Have you read All Are Welcome? I absolutely love this book! It is perfect for back to school, but you could use it anytime! The authors, Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman, do a beautiful job describing our differences and our ... read more

What Do Experts Say About Clip Charts

In the last post, we talked about WHY teachers use clip charts. Today I want to talk about what experts say about using clip charts and other types of public classroom management in the classroom. I'm mostly referencing clip charts, because they are so popular. However, using Class Dojo in the same way has the safe effect. It is not hard to find research to show how damaging clip charts. ... read more

Why Do Teachers Use Clip Charts?

Today is part 1 in a series about something I am very passionate about...clip charts and other types of public behavior management. Before I start this blog post, I want to share that I had a clip chart in my classroom for several years. My second year of teaching I added squares to "clip up" and thought I was REALLY progressive. I had no idea that what I was doing was so harmful. But I know ... read more

Why I Love Creepy Carrots

Hey teacher! Today I wanted to talk about one of my favorite read-alouds EVER. It's perfect for Halloween, but you truly could use this book anytime! Clear Story Elements When we are helping students retell stories, it's important that they have obvious story elements. After students have built this skill we can bring in more challenging texts. Until then, though, it's great to have ... read more

5 Questions to Ask Families

Hello!!! 😊 Today I wanted to share a few questions you can ask to connect with your students' families. You can use these questions at Meet the Teacher, for conferences or just to get to know students and their families through email. As teachers, we play a huge role in student success. We help students feel safe at school, enjoy learning and grow in academic and social skills. When we are ... read more

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  • Creepy Carrots is one of my favorite read-alouds for Halloween or anytime of the year for that matter. In this post, I am sharing why I love Creepy Carrots as a Halloween book. This book is great for teaching story elements and retelling. This book helps students to understand characters, setting, solution, and problem. It is great for working on comprehension skills and vocabulary words. You will find Creepy Carrots activities and a craft that is hands-on and fun for your elementary students.
  • Classroom Fall Favorites
  • Kindness lessons and activities by Teaching with Haley. Kindness is a great place to start your social-emotional curriculum and I’m excited to share some of my favorite ideas with you in this post. I cover my favorite kindness videos, kindness read alouds, and kindness activities. Including what kindness is, character education, what boundaries are, and more. Great social-emotional learning lessons for kindergarten, first grade, and second-grade students. Learn more
  • Have you read All Are Welcome? I absolutely love this book! It is perfect for back to school, but you could use it anytime! This is the perfect social emotional learning book to read during your classroom meeting time or morning meeting to discuss diversity. In this post, I share All Are Welcome book activities as well as a free discussion questions download. This freebie is great for working on comprehension skills before, during, and after reading the book.
  • Are you still using clip charts for your behavior management system? If this is your go-to classroom management system, it is important to identify why you are using this to manage student behavior. In this post, I am sharing why teachers chose to use clip charts over other classroom management tools. There are tons of other classroom management strategies out there but clip charts for managing behavior still are high on the list, especially for new teachers.
  • Are you using clip charts as part of your classroom management system? In this post, I am sharing 4 reasons why you should stop using clip charts in your elementary classroom today. Using a clip chart for behavior problems damages teacher student relationships and student relationships with their peers. Clip charts for behavior also don’t work long term. It is time to ditch this behavior management system and try something new.
  • Creepy Carrots is one of my favorite read-alouds for Halloween or anytime of the year for that matter. In this post, I am sharing why I love Creepy Carrots as a Halloween book. This book is great for teaching story elements and retelling. This book helps students to understand characters, setting, solution, and problem. It is great for working on comprehension skills and vocabulary words. You will find Creepy Carrots activities and a craft that is hands-on and fun for your elementary students.
  • Kindness lessons and activities by Teaching with Haley. Kindness is a great place to start your social-emotional curriculum and I’m excited to share some of my favorite ideas with you in this post. I cover my favorite kindness videos, kindness read alouds, and kindness activities. Including what kindness is, character education, what boundaries are, and more. Great social-emotional learning lessons for kindergarten, first grade, and second-grade students. Learn more
  • Are you still using clip charts for your behavior management system? If this is your go-to classroom management system, it is important to identify why you are using this to manage student behavior. In this post, I am sharing why teachers chose to use clip charts over other classroom management tools. There are tons of other classroom management strategies out there but clip charts for managing behavior still are high on the list, especially for new teachers.
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