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Ninja Notes

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Classroom Tips

How to Teach Coding Without Knowing How to Code

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If you don't know how to code, but you are expected to teach coding, we've put together activities you can use without any experience.

It seems that teachers are expected to have a wealth of knowledge about everything under the sun. Even as the world changes, they keep adding the new learning to the old content so that students will benefit.

Coding is a vital skill and there are so many ways it enriches the classroom. However, many teachers feel completely inadequate to teach coding because they have never been taught to code.

That’s ok. Coding isn’t about knowing how to code. It’s about knowing how to problem solve and we already know that’s where teachers excel. Come learn some of the ways you can teach coding without being able to code.

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Last Minute Substitute Teacher Ideas When Plans Fall Through

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If you are a substitute teacher and the plans have fallen through, you need this post full of ideas. We cannot recommend planning for the worst more, but this post will get you through the start of day until things get sorted out. Come read it!

Have you been hired as a substitute teacher at the last minute? Are there no substitute teacher plans in place or you can’t find them? We pulled together this list of activities you can use to get your day sorted out. Most of the activities are designed for upper elementary, but you might be able to adapt them for your group of students.

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5 Field Trip Problems and How to Prevent Them

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Field trips can be a great way to enhance student learning and for many students it is their only chance to see and do things in the community. While they are so valuable, field trips can come with some challenges when it comes to getting volunteers to help with the supervision. Come read about five common problems on field trips and how to deal with them proactively.

Field trips can be so much fun when they run smoothly. However, there can also be those field trips where you want to pull your hair out or vow never to do it again. We’ve gone on hundreds of field trips over our careers. Some of these trips are cherished memories of special classes. Others are permanent scars and trauma (ok, that might be pushing it). Come learn from our mistakes so you can avoid these field trip problems.

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How to Fix Your Forced Copy Google Glitches

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Are you having trouble with Google glitches because your forced copy links aren't working? Come read through our list of possible solutions when the link you received doesn't work.

If you have been using a forced copy to receive Google files, you may have noticed a glitch that can cause problems. To be clear, when we allow for a copy of our Google files to be made in your drive, we should never have to share or give you access. We’ve already done that step to automate it. However, there have been lots of problems with Google glitches lately so we gathered up all the knowledge we could find online and put it in an easy-to-use format so that you can get your files as quickly as possible. Many teacher authors like ourselves use these forced copy links because sharing folders isn’t possible (yet).

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Our Favourite Books to Use on Valentine’s Day

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Books are for everyone and even your upper elementary students love to enjoy a great book. These books are themed around Valentine's Day, but they aren't too romantic for school. Check out our list of Valentine's Day books for your upper elementary classroom.

We love to read to our students, but they are in grades four and five, so we try to avoid books about romance when we look for Valentine’s Day books, but sometimes it just sneaks in. Quite often, the books are too young for our students, but when that happens, we encourage our students to read to their younger buddies. Come read through this list of Valentine’s Day books we’ve collected over the years.

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7 Inexpensive Ways to Decorate Your Classroom

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Are you looking for ways to decorate your classroom that don't break the bank? We've put together some tried and true ideas that you can use for any age. You don't need to spend all your own money to fund your classroom, so come learn how to save and still have an engaging deor scheme.

The pressure of social media to have the “Pinterest Perfect” classroom can be a little overwhelming for any teacher, especially those on a budget. We are very fortunate in our classroom that we have a small budget for items needed, and we have full discretion on how we use it, but the last place we want to spend it is on decor. We prefer to spend any money we have on quality resources and learning materials. Check out this list of ways to decorate your classroom that don’t break the bank.

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