By Rachel Lynette
So, I was this month’s featured teacher in the TpT newsletter. Yippee Skippee! In addition to a little blurb about me, there are also links to ten free teacher resources from other teachers, as well as a list of the top selling teacher materials. If you want to have a peek, here is a link!
This is the first post in the Teaching Tools You Gotta Have series. I plan to discuss a different teaching tool each week! Generally, these will be inexpensive yet highly useful. So, be sure and check them all out! With individual student whiteboards, you can save paper, make learning fun, and keep your whole class engaged all at the same time. There are many uses
I believe that most teachers don’t really know what is going on socially in their classroom. Not because they aren’t paying attention or because they don’t care, but because much of the social interaction – especially negative interactions – happen at lunch or recess, before or after school, or intentionally behind the teacher’s back. As adults we can’t really, truly know what is going
My daughter’s 8th grade social studies assignment is to make a comic strip with at least seven panels that features Jr. High students living without the Bill of Rights. Three amendments must be broken in the strip. So much better than reading from a textbook!
Word searches are stupid because they have very little educational content other than that the words in the search are usually vocabulary words from an area of study. Not only that, they take very little thinking to solve. Basically, just scaning for letters. They are the ulitmate form of busy work. Here are some ways to make them less stupid: Use clues instead of a list of words If
School is all about evaluation. Everything from written work to behavior to how neatly one keeps one’s desk is up for judgement. And then of course there are those endless batteries of standardized tests. While this is the easiest and perhaps most effective way to get the desired result, ultimately, it can have harmful results. Among other things, it trains children to look for external validation, discourages
Whether you are standing in line at the bank or standing in line to ride Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland, waiting can be a trying time for kids. Here are three verbal games to make things more fun. These are aimed at older children. If you have little kids, take a peek at 3 Ways to Entertain Small Children While Waiting. Alphabetically Speaking Choose a random letter of
Please take this post in the spirit of fun and lightness in which it is offered. One to write a detailed lesson plan on how to change the light bulb to be turned into the administrators for review at least a week before the light bulb is to be changed. One to be sure the lesson plan includes plans for how to differentiate the changing of the light
Every classroom has a culture. Some aspects of your classroom culture might have evolved organically, while others have been carefully planned and implemented. You may be pleased with some aspects of your classroom culture and not so pleased with others. As the teacher, you are the primary architect of your classroom culture. For that reason, it may be good to reflect a bit and see if
There are over 50 homophone mistakes in this story. Can your students find them all? Tony decided two make a Valentine’s pitcher four his mother. He got out a clean, white peace of paper. Than, he got out his crayons and started to color. He drew his hole family. Then, he maid a yellow son in the blew sky. When he was done, Tony rote, “Eye
Honestly, what a silly title for a post, and yet, it does seem to be that way. Often when the idea of teaching creative and critical thinking skills is raised, people object, saying that what children really need is to master the basics – core knowledge. What I can never figure out is why it has to be an either/or situation. It seems like unless one
Most likely, there are times and spaces in your day when not much learning is taking place. Here are some easy ways to sneak a little learning into those spaces. Look in Line Put up interesting and relevant things to look at on the walls where your students usually line up. Some ideas include: Current vocabulary or spelling words, mental math problems fun science,
This is a good beginning grid-style logic puzzle to use with your students. If your students have never solved this kind of problem, then you might want to do it together as a class. If you are unfamiliar with this format, here is a good tutorial. You can also get this Valentine’s Day Logic Puzzle for free in worksheet form (along with another critical thinking
This is Zig-Zag. When I was teaching third grade, he was our class mascot. In his physical form, he was a large, light green, stuffed snake that I had bought at IKEA. He usually resided in our class Book Nook. But Zig-Zag was much more than a stuffed snake. He was very much a part of our classroom culture. Here are some ways that Zig-Zag
Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 by Rafe Esquith is a rather stunning little book, but then, he is a rather stunning teacher and has created a stunning classroom. Yes, the self-congratulatory tone can get to be a bit much, and yes, some of his brilliant ideas are not all that unusual, but there is still a whole
