Tag Archives: education

teacher stuff haul

teacher haul

I realized that I say, “So I’m excited about that…” after every item, but I really am excited!  What new items are you taking with you back to school after the break?

baby hugg-a-planet

girl online by zoe sugg

joyeux noel

ikea sticky notes

ikea wrapping paper

similar ikea glasses

the limited sweaters

similar olivia + joy wristlet

brush with greatness alittleaboutalot brush set

acrostic poem assessment (the north)

Image

To my delight and excitement, the chapter on the North is mostly social history.  We look at working conditions, economics, changing family structures, women’s roles, child labor, inventions, unionization, etc.  Some of my students seem to be a little restless for a battle to map out, or a president and vice president to memorize, but I love the opportunity to slow down a little bit and look at regional history.

However, I don’t think that a multiple choice test is necessarily the best way to test my students’ understanding of this content.  I decided to use an acrostic poem as their Chapter 11 assessment, and I was impressed with the information that they retained and were able to communicate.

The directions were to write a fact/detail about the North starting with each letter in “T-H-E N-O-R-T-H.”  Responses were worth 2 points each, for a total of 16.  If they wrote something totally uninspired, like “The North was in the north,” they would only receive one point.  Somewhere on the worksheet they were also required to draw an image of anything related to the North, worth 4 points.  Total, the test was worth 20 points.

Image

It was a very open-ended assessment, but students produced good work and were actually happy to do it.  I had been telling them all week that the Ch. 11 test was on Wednesday, but when I handed it out, they were so relieved they started laughing.  Even one of my most negative students said, “This is the best test ever!”  They were quiet as mice while they took it, and no one bothered to try and look at their neighbor’s test.

To them it seemed “easy,” but it actually required significant knowledge of Ch. 11, and it gave me a good sense of which details they retained the best.  The hand-drawn image offered my artistic students a chance to really shine, too.

Image

These examples aren’t perfect, but overall students’ scores were pretty high.  Quite a few of my students have IEP’s and have a lot of trouble passing tests, so it’s nice to give them a confidence boost every once in a while.  It’s definitely true that they need experience taking the kinds of rigorous tests that will be required in high school and beyond, but our school was also taking the SBAC state tests this week.  I figure they had had their fill of high stakes testing for the week!

I like the train on this one:

Image

And this one just made me laugh:

Image

The stick man overseer looks so angry!

The charm of acrostic poem assessments will surely wear off soon, but they are a nice tool to use every so often.  They are much more nuanced than multiple choice tests, and I enjoyed seeing Ch. 11 through my students’ eyes.

What are your favorite forms of alternative assessments?

#summarize

piclab

This is my first year teaching English, and I have found that one really difficult skill to teach is summarizing.  My students nod and say that they understand, but when it comes down to it, they struggle (and come up with some crazy ideas, way out of left field!).

Well, Facebook recently implemented hashtags into its format (oh man, that is going to date this post for all eternity, isn’t it?).  I’m not much of a “hashtagger” myself, but one day I was trying to think of hashtags to tack on to a status update, and it was really hard!  As I came up with a few really lame words and phrases, however, I had an epiphany: I was really just identifying key words and summarizing my post.  I thought, I’ll bet my students do this on Twitter and Facebook all the time.  They’re probably way better at it than I am!

So I decided to design a lesson where they could use their hashtagging skills to identify key words and themes in literature.  Since I’m sure not all of my students are Twitter fiends, I began the lesson with this very informative video about hashtags by Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake:

(Don’t worry, I ended the video right before Questlove walks in).

According to my pacing guide, we were supposed to read a story from our literature book called “Everybody is Different, but the Same Too.”  I created a worksheet to go with the story that incorporated hashtags (instead of writing down key words or phrases) to summarize each paragraph.

summarize

#summarize     click here for pdf file

My English students really like to read out loud, so a different student read each paragraph, and we added hashtags after each one.  I modeled the first one, and the students caught on pretty quickly.  Their hashtags were much closer to actual summaries than other assignments had been where I just asked them to summarize.  We then connected their summaries to the overall theme of the story, and I’ll share that activity in a separate post.

Warning: I did kind of create a monster with the whole hashtag thing, and for the next few days, they added the word “hastag” to everything.  

“Hashtag-hi Mrs. Forbes!”

“Hashtag-can I please go to the bathroom?”

“Hashtag-what is the homework?”

“Hashtag-have a good weekend!”

As annoying as you might think hashtags are in Twitter-form, they’re much worse in spoken word!  But this ended up being a really fun way to break down a story, and the kids keep asking to do it again.  Using hashtags taps into their background knowledge and allows them to apply elements of their outside lives to school.  Plus, they gave me much more accurate summaries of the story than I had ever gotten before.  #winwin

spelling bee word wall

Image

The school spelling bee is tomorrow!  I’ve trained my 6th graders well, and I’m certain that one of my students will win!  We started learning the words on the Scripps National Spelling Bee word list by creating signs with one spelling word and the definition.  Each student made a colorful sign with the word, its definition, and artwork that represented the word.  They taught each other how to spell the words, and practiced spelling their word in front of the class (“say, spell, say!”).  I needed something to block the morning sun from my 1st period class’s eyes anyway, so we made a Word Wall from all the spelling words.  Students try to incorporate the spelling words into their comments as much as possible (“mugwump” gets a lot of action), and even if their eyes are wandering every so often, at least they will probably rest on our colorful Word Wall eventually.  I can’t wait for the competition tomorrow! 🙂  

barnes & noble mini haul

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week at Barnes & Noble, so teachers get 25% off all their purchases!  I needed a couple of things, so I headed on down this Saturday, and this is what I picked up:

Image

 

This calendar is actually for my piano studio, but I still got the discount.  I was surprised that the calendar section was already pretty much picked over, but at least I got this one for 50% off (plus my 25% discount, so 75% off!)  I just think it’s a nice little touch to put up a calendar that your students like to check out each month.  I try to just follow my students’ interests, so in the past I have done things like High School Musical, Taylor Swift, Glee, Despicable Me, Angry Birds, and last year, Angry Birds Star Wars (oh yeah!).  I also write all my students’ birthdays on the calendar and try to remember to bring them a little treat on the lesson closest to their special day.  It’s a little thing, but I think it has contributed to the fact that many of my students have stayed with me for EIGHT birthdays! 🙂

Image

I’ve been eyeing these bookends for a while, so I went ahead and indulged a little since I was going to get my discount.  I am going to begin reading “The Cay” with my 6th graders next week, and I thought these would help me keep my class set nice and organized.  I’m going to assign one student per week as The Librarian, and he or she will make sure that we get all of the books back at the end of the period in a nice straight line between the bookends.  I have a lot of teal in my room, too, so they look super cute.

Image

We love John Green’s Crash Course US History YouTube channel already, so I was excited when I found out that he is also an award-winning author.  I read “The Fault in Our Stars” over Christmas break (loved it), and it is currently being passed around between some of my higher-level (and more mature) 6th graders.  I have read a few chapters of “An Abundance of Katherines,” and while I’m enjoying it, I don’t think I want to be the one to provide it to 11-year olds.  The subject matter is a little bit more mature, but I can see high school students really enjoying this book.  I’ll save it in case I end up teaching high school, and I’m intrigued by the story line in the meantime.  John Green can do no wrong!  

 

I usually do more damage at Barnes & Noble, but one of my New Year’s resolutions is to reign in my spending.  Maybe I will get a gift card one of these days and have a few more items to share another haul post.

Did you get any great deals with your teacher discount this week?

 

free school supplies from reddit

reddit

At the beginning of the school year, a friend of mine sent me a link to a Reddit project that matches teachers with people who are willing to donate specific classroom supplies. (The link I used unfortunately doesn’t work any longer, but I am assuming that Reddit will run this project again next school year and advertise it on their site). I wrote a list of the specific things that I always run out of or wish I had in my classroom.

A super nice (anonymous) lady mailed me two boxes full of pencils, markers, card stock, glue, crayons, and colored paper. I was so touched, and so were my students! We used some of the supplies to make her a really cute thank you card, and now whenever I want to do a creative project, I have all the supplies I need. I am really into “foldables” and posters and “projects-in-a-day,” and now I have all the card stock, markers and glue I need so that my students can actually make quality projects. I asked for a bunch of mechanical pencils, so now I don’t stress out when someone doesn’t have a pencil; I just give them one and they don’t even need to waste time sharpening it. We love the box of fine tip markers, and my 6th graders use them often for “Rainbow Reading” (blog post on that activity to come!) and for editing each others’ papers.

We love Reddit and nice people who donate school supplies!

sevenly clothing

wpid-LINEcamera_share_2013-09-29-23-46-21.jpg sevenly

I love any excuse to buy a cute new outfit, and sevenly.org gives me a really great one. This organization supports a different charity each week by donating $7 from every purchase. They have adorable clothing, jewelry, accessories and prints. I loved this tee with the quote “Be the change you want to see in the world.” It’s in the shape of a globe. And I’m a history teacher. We were meant for each other!

Update: I also ordered this lovely “beauty” racer back. If you order 3 items you get free shipping, so I ordered two other tanks as Christmas presents for my sister and my best friend. They absolutely loved them, AND loved that proceeds from their gift were used to help end human trafficking.

check them out here at https://www.sevenly.org/

my 13-hour day outfit

image

On Thursdays my day is extra long because I teach piano and voice lessons after school. I have had the same music students for about eight years and I love them to pieces, so I really don’t mind. But I try to plan ahead and make sure I’ll be comfortable enough to focus on each one of my students, even into the evening. Today I went with my go-to tunic and skinnies from Target and my TOMS wedges (love those). My super awesome husband gave me the rose gold Fossil watch for Christmas last year, and I the necklace is from Forever 21.

Oh! And I have about 12 of those white camis from Tilly’s and I wear them literally every single day. I can’t stand camis with built-in bras, so these are great because they’re just simple and stretchy and one size fits all. They do pill and lose their stretch if you dry them though, so just wash and lay flat to dry. I throw a few out from time and time and replace them for $10 each. That seems a little high to me for a cami, but they’re like a second skin to me; I can’t NOT wear one! I usually go with white, but I have grey, black, hot pink and mint green too, just in case I want to spice it up a little. Best perk: they’re long enough to cover the top of my bum, so I can bend over to help a student without causing an uncomfortable scene.

Do you have any pieces of clothing you just can’t live without?

the power of our words

image

I came across this quote on Pinterest one day, and I felt instantly convicted. I tend to get a little snarky and sarcastic with my students when they walk in with their middle school attitudes and drama. Usually I am very good-natured with them, but at times I lose my patience and put those crazies in their place with an arched eyebrow, a pointed finger and a subtle insult. Of course it’s necessary to be firm, but instead of snapping, “Seriously? Are you like, five years old? Get it together, Gavin,” maybe I could say, “Gavin, you’re really good at this type of question. Try it out and stay focused, dude.”

On the other hand, I really can’t stand it when teachers talk to middle schoolers like they’re in Kindergarten. You will never ever hear me say, “Good morning, boys and girls! Today we are going to go on a learning adventure and discover how George Washington became the first president of the United States!” Yuck.

But there is a very wide middle ground between being insincerely sugary sweet and practically bullying your students into humiliated submission. Different teachers bring with them different personalities (thank goodness!) so your middle ground won’t look exactly the same as mine. This quote is a great reminder, though, that our words have the potential to ring in our students’ ears. I know people who never forgot harsh words spoken by parents or teachers. But fortunately, it would be fantastic if our students internalized comments like, “That was a fabulous question!” or, “You are such a hard worker!” or, “Wow, this group is lucky to have your drawing skills for their project!” Let’s give them a leg up on that whole finding-your-inner-voice thing while we can. 🙂

copy drawers

image

These drawers are one of my favorite organizational tools in my classroom. I bought white plastic drawers at Target for about $15, and then I used scrapbook paper and stickers to label each drawer with a day of the week. I like to make copies a few days in advance, so I just store the copies in the corresponding day’s drawer, rather than laying out sets of copies on a table like I did last year. It’s strangely satisfying to walk into my classroom in the morning, open the day’s drawer, and have copies sitting there just smiling at me.

The Friday drawer is bigger than the rest, so I use it to hold art supplies or other larger items I might need for a lesson. I also have two folders at the bottom of that drawer to hold emergency sub plans and copies of worksheets in case such a situation ever comes up.

I’m not gonna lie, I am a little excited to open my Thursday drawer tomorrow and greet the 13 Colonies map worksheet…