Getting Through a Tough Week: Top 5 Activities

What do you do when you need a break, your students need a break, and there is still a week left of "quality instruction" before you get one?
As Christmas break quickly approaches, time to grab those last minute gifts is quickly running out. So why is it that the big clock in the classroom is barely ticking? Ahhh. Still a whole week of class time before winter break! Forget about how the time is dragging for THEM! What about ME, the teacher? How amd I going to make it through this last treacherous week before break?
Here are my "Getting Through a Tough Week" top 5 activities:
#1 Groupwork activities. You don't want to hear you, they don't want to hear you. Assign them into groups of four and have them read sections of an article or the text you are currently studying from. Don't forget about jigsawing. Make them teach each other!
#2 Presentations. Is there a project you already wanted them to present but you just didn't have time? Now is the time! I put my students in front of the class to fulfill the "speaking" portion of my curriculum. Their character creations were humorous and time zoomed by as we laughed at each persons creativity.
#3 Object lessons. I'm always trying to teach my students to escape their lables. So I labled them and asked them to treat eachother accordingly. Once they take that lable off, they can be themself! What bigger life message would you like your students to remember, but you never seem to have time to teach? Now is the time. Don't show a movie, every other is doing that. How many hours of TV is it safe to watch in one day?
#4 Random answers for random questions. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a sucker pop? How many people actually listen to Lady Gaga (and is she a he or he a she)? How were tootsie rolls invented? Why is the sky blue? I once gave my students a few minutes to brainstorm some questions that have been in the back of their minds for a while, they came up with some great questions. This gave me an opportunity to modle researching a topic. I turned on the projector and we found the answers together. I had them turn in our found class answers for credit!
#5 Ditch the worksheets. Have your students divide up into groups and play some games. Whether it's scavanger hunt for answers you've hidden around the classroom and they literally have to hunt for the answers, or a grammar game (check out grammar punk), the time will fly right by. I love playing poetry games with my students or desk top poetry created by Andrea! Playing a game will transform dead classroom time into fun learning time. I love learning and having fun at the same time!
Don't let yourself drag. Try something new and fun! One week before break is the perfect time. Replace the sound of the echoing clock "tick-tock" back to the familiar sound of learning in your classroom.

Bulletin Board--December

As I have mentioned before, I update my hallway bulletin board on a monthly basis.  I had an internal conflict with this particular bulletin board.  Many of my colleagues opted to decorate their boards with Christmas themes and images.  Though I celebrate Christmas on a personal level, at the same time I understand that several students within my school have different backgrounds and celebrate other holidays and have other traditions.  Understanding that I would not be able to address the plethora of traditions, I decided to take a common theme that can be found in any culture, background, religion, etc. 

On the Scholastic website I found several December bulletin board ideas.   I loved the idea that showed a world, wreathed by a holly garland with the words "Peace on Earth" next to it.  Associating holly with Christams, I was hesitant to include it on my bulletin board.  However, I did a little research and discovered the following things about holly: 1)It is one of the few plants that can thrive in the harshest environments, 2)People hung holly around their windows and doors in order to keep out evil spirits, and 3)The bright green leaves and red berries were a reminder that even on the harshest and darkest of days, Spring is always around the corner.  Using this information I conducted a mini lesson on symbols.  We discussed how the holly could serve as a symbol in our world today.  My students came to the conclusion that in our 'winter of discontent' (meaning the turmoil, wars, despair that we are smack in the middle), the holly serves as our reminder that 'spring' or a fresh start/new beginning is around the corner.  After we finished discussing the holly, we talked about the symbol of peace: the white dove.  We read a short story and viewed a music video.  Both were very different in content, but both had the same message: peace.  I passed out copies of a white dove (found on the Internet) and asked the students to fill their white doves with thoughts of peace for the upcoming year.

To create the world, I projected a cartoon image of the globe onto the wall and traced the outlines on green paper.  I cut out the pieces and glued them onto blue butcher paper.  I then stapled the bottom half of the world and then stuffed it with scrap pieces of paper.  Then, I finished stapling the rest of the world onto the bulletin board.  The stuffing helps make the globe stand out, and gives the board a nice 3D effect.

Bulletin Board--September

September:
Each month I update my hallway bulletin board.  Many of my bulletin boards have been gathered from Internet searches.  Please feel free to use any the bulletin boards that I post on our blog.

This bulletin board included writing samples from the 5th through 9th grades at my school (we're a small school).  Knowing that September 11 was on it's way, I thought it might be fun to create a student "quilt" of the American flag.  The 5th-9th grade teachers gave their students a choice of prompts to respond to.  The prompts included: Heroes are..., Freedom is..., What is one word you would use to describe America? etc.  The teachers then gave the students a piece of the flag (made from construction paper) to write their responses.  Note:  I did not plan this as well as I would have liked.  The flag is missing two stripes and seven stars, but the overall effect was not lost.  A bonus was that students enjoyed reading what other students had written, and they had fun looking for their piece of the flag.

Bulletin Board--October

October:

Every month I update my hallway bulletin board.  One of the most frustrating things when it comes to bulletin boards, is coming up with an idea for the bulletin boards.  During the month of October my students were studying poetry.  I decided to create a Poet Tree as our bulletin board.

The idea when we began was that students would write their own poems on larger leaves, and those would be placed around the poet tree.  This picture was taken before I added those student poem leaves.  Here is what I did to create the Poet Tree: 

I stapled white paper as my background (I felt the color of the leaves would stand out more against the white backdrop, though any color really would work).  Next, I found a cardboard box and opened it up.  To create a bark effect, I scraped pieces of the top layer of cardboard off, so that the corrugated pieces of cardboard showed through.  Next I took green construction paper and sliced it in order to resemble grass.  I layered the grass in two rows to give it a fuller effect.  Next, I traced a maple leaf design onto multi-colored construction paper and hand-cut all those maple leaves.  (This is the part that using dye-cut leaves or owning a machine like the Cricut really would have come in handy.)  On a handful of leaves I wrote the first lines of my favorite poems.  The poem lines became an extra credie project for my students.  They were instructed to find which poem a line came from, then they needed to copy the poem down, and finally, they needed to write a short poem analysis (since that's what we were working on in class).  The lettering is 172 pt. font Bernard Condensed (Microsoft Word) which I printed and cut out on construction paper.  I realize that is sounds like a lot of work, but I feel the display was beautiful and the students did a great job with exploring the poems from the Poet Tree.

An Introduction: Part Two

My name is Andrea.  I am currently working through my third year of teaching.  Over the summer my family and I relocated to North Texas, and having a positive attitude has been my saving grace in the midst of all these changes.

Though my story differs in many ways from Charity's, the one thing we have in common is that we were both helped along the way by awesome teachers.  I was the student that wouldn't stop reading.  When my parents told me it was lights out, I would crawl out of my bed and lean up against my window and read by the light of the street lamp.  I found my best friends in Matilda, Romona, Ellen Tidbits, Bilbo Baggins and countless others.  I also learned at an early age that creating my own stories was just as much fun as reading them.  I had an awesome teacher that helped me learn how to share my excitement for reading and writing with my peers.

My second grade teacher, Mrs. Goodmunson, was one of those rare teachers that I can only dream that I may be like  (However, through this project, I hope that I will bring myself a few steps closer to the greatness of Mrs. Goodmunson.)  My teacher helped me discover my talent of story writing.  She showed me how my love of words and pictures could help create fun stories for other students to read.  I loved her class, and I felt that she loved me back.  Anything was possible in Mrs. Goodmunson's class.  We encouraged to try and it was okay if we failed, as long as we learned from it.  It was during my year with Mrs. Goodmunson that I decided that if I couldn't grow up to be a Princess, then I would become a teache just like Mrs. Goodmunson.

Though I have had many fabulous teachers throughout my lifetime (my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Brenna, my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Parkin, my 8th grade English teacher, Mr. Baniewicz--to name a few), it was my 10th grade teacher that really made a difference in my life.  Mrs. Bean.  If there can only be one example of a spectacular, superb, fantabulous, etc. etc. teacher, that teacher would Mrs. Bean.  It wasn't so much the subject she taught, or the lessons she taught, but the way she taught it.  Like Mrs. Goodmunson, Mrs. Bean had the charisma that would captivate an entire room.  She was eccentric and passionate and all those wonderful adjectives that I would love for my students one day to use to describe me.  The most important thing about Mrs. Bean: we (students) knew she cared about us.  Plain and simple.

I am a teacher today because of awesome teachers like Mrs. Goodmunson and Mrs. Bean.  They taught through all things positive, and that is my goal as a teacher.  Every child is worth caring about.  Every child has a unique ability.  It is my responsibility to not get bogged down by the politics and outside class frustrations.  This blog is a chance for myself and Charity to help other teachers remind themselves as to why they became teachers in the first place.  Remember: we are molding our future generations and it is up to us to make sure that we don't disappoint the Goodmunson's and Bean's of this world. 

An Introduction

My name is Charity. I grew up a struggling reader in a small town. I was a resource kid, pulled out during class time to work on reading skills. The truth is, I struggled with dyslexia, but I thought I was just stupid. I gave up on myself as a learner by the time I hit second grade. I knew I was stupid, and who had ever heard of a cure for stupidness?

By the time I hit third grade I was in school to have friends, that was it. I excelled socially, I loved school for recess (why any school would think about taking recess away is unbelievable!). But I had a third grade teacher who was awesome, Mrs. Hurst. She loved me, I could feel it. She loved all of us. I remember swearing at lunch one day (she always ate lunch with us) that all of my children and grandchildren would one day have her for a teacher.

Even though I had a great teacher, I still knew I was the stupid kid in class. I had an honest fear that I would be held back at the end of each grade school year. When I reached fifth grade I had a teacher, who arranged a class play, AND I had a very important role, a maid in King Midas. You may not think that sounds important, but I still remember the important apron that I wore, and even some of the lines! I can remember this teacher reading Summer of the Monkeys out loud to us. I loved it when he read to us, but I still hated to read myself. It must have been because I was the dumb kid. All of the other kids loved to read!

Sixth grade, I had a teacher who loved blue eyeshadow. I loved blue eyeshadow, what sixth grader doesn't, right? So we were friends, bonded by the blue. I remember beginning to wear makeup. Girls who would come to school with too orange of cover up, or too rosy of cheeks. But never too blue of eyeshadow, there was no such thing! I still love blue eyeshadow to this day!

But even more important than the eyeshadow, I was pulled out of class - but not because I was in the "dumb club" but because I was smart!?!  Who would have thought. This awesome teacher did her own assessments and didn't pay attention to the assessments looming over the students who had been labeled "resource" long ago. I was going to get straight A's for the rest of my life, and I knew it because of my 6th grade teacher who made me feel smart!

Well middle school came, I did get straight A's until I found out I was now a part of a different club. I had moved from the "dumb club" to the "nerd club." Crap. You can't be a nerd in middle school, or life will end! Cease to exist on the spot, what a silly girl I was (the ultimate insult in Austin's world.)! Before my love of learning came my love of socializing. So, I strategically pulled B's and C's, and was careful to only get A's in the classes that everyone got A's in, like Home Economics and P.E.

By the time I hit high school, my life at home was in such turmoil, I reverted to my first label of myself. I knew I wasn't smart, I refused to read any books my teachers would assign. Until my junior year, when I had an awesome teacher, Mrs. White, who inspired me at least try to read the books she would assign. I think I read 20 pages in a novel about the Korean war (nice place to start reading, right, nothing like a light read). That was a record. I wasn't convinced about the reading thing totally, but she introduced me to poetry, short stories, the idea of writing to create for myself! She believed in my ability, and I could feel it! She expected me to go to college and do something amazing! So, largely because of her, and parents who expected nothing less, I enrolled in college (at which I would fail out the first time around).

Amazingly enough, I made it through college, even if it wasn't until after I had two children! Thanks to the support of an amazing, no awesome, husband, I am a college graduate, and I teach English to kids who generally hate reading, hate writing, and like myself, don't yet know all that they are capable of. I currently teach English and Journalism in high school. I am certified to teach English and ESL. I became a teacher because I love the idea that I can inspire others to go out into the world and do great things, because they have found a piece of them self to build upon. Hopefully, I help my students find a piece to their puzzle in my English class, just like my awesome teachers did for me growing up!

 My goal, in creating this blog, is to inspire other teachers to become awesome teachers, and to celebrate all teachers in their journey toward awesomeness. Teaching is such a rewarding opportunity in life. We all teach, weather we have a classroom or not. So I hope that you will take my learning moments and make them your learning moment, so we can learn to be awesome together!