Literacy Speaks Volumes

Resources4Teaching is an online marketplace for educational resources that was created by educators for educators. I've been teaching in the United States' public school system for over 23 years, and I've created many resources for my students and fellow teachers during that time. Over the past year, a new online store for educational resources has emerged to connect teachers across the globe by allowing them to buy and sell educational resources with each other. Resources4Teaching.com  is a venue where teachers can share their best practices and strategies and promote fresh new teaching ideas.  Teachers open an online store, upload original resources, and sell them to other teachers around the world. Resources4Teaching gives teachers the opportunity to become entrepreneurs and partner with a quickly growing educational platform.  Teachers just like me can become an affiliate and help earn more income through referring others to the site. Teacher members can al...

One week and counting...how do you keep middle schoolers motivated and on-task for the last full week of school?  It's not an easy task.  It is one that takes creativity and planning...especially planning. Teachers think that the last week of school should be devoted to the last week of school checklist items...clean desks, inventory technology and software, tidy file cabinets and that sort of thing. Unfortunately, there is one small caveat to this plan...middle schoolers. After 23 years of teaching middle schoolers, I don't have any easy answers, but I do have a few tips and tricks to keep you from going stir-crazy. Keep'em busy and they won't drive you crazy! Plan, plan, and overplan...I know there are other events taking place in the school that will probably take up some class time: awards ceremonies, honors day, field day, talent shows.  But what if something happens? What if it rains on field day? What if awards ceremony only takes up one and a h...

The end of the school year means taking stock of what I've taught and how the students have grown. It also means cleaning out the cobwebs both figuratively and literally.  I find myself getting rid of junk and somehow acquiring new junk as I think about what I'm going to need for next school year. My team teacher and I have already begun thinking about next year; we're using classroom monies to purchase items that we may need next school year:  binders, copy paper, hole punches, staplers and staples, stickers, page protectors, plastic tubs.  We load up to make next year easier. We're also loading up on items for next week's testing: pencils and erasers, snacks, motivational prizes, stickers, bottled water, peppermints...anything that we might need to make the grueling test week a little easier on the students and us. Tricks and trials is what I like to call it.  Last minute details.  Here's one more thing that I need to tell you before next week...

"The resurrection gives my life meaning and direction and the opportunity to start over no matter what my circumstances."  ~Robert Flatt "Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there."  ~Clarence W. Hall "It is the hour to rend thy chains, the blossom time of souls."  ~Katherine Lee Bates "The joyful news that He is risen does not change the contemporary world.  Still before us lie work, discipline, sacrifice.  But the fact of Easter gives us the spiritual power to do the work, accept the discipline, and make the sacrifice."  ~Henry Knox Sherrill

We've been spared compared to most of the schools around us...we've only used about half of our allotted days.  While having a random day off works wonders on the soul, there is still the issue of making up for lost instruction time.  Today we had Monday's lesson.  I'm trying to develop the student's writing stamina, so today they wrote silently for thirty minutes on any topic of their choice.  Most do especially well, but a few of the more squirrelly kids had a hard time maintaining the flow. The students also wrote down the most common prepositions as we're starting the unit on sentence fluency.  This week, I want them to focus on beginning sentences with propositional phrases.  That is going to be a daunting task when many still don't capitalize the first letter in a sentence or use end punctuation. But in spite of it all, we'll persevere.

"We are not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic.  Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams." ~Jimmy Carter

Of course not.Well yes, we are doing a great many things this week.  The students will write the months correctly and in order. Be on the lookout for incorrect pronoun usage...Yes, those pesky subject pronouns are on the rampage again.  According to the Common Core State Standards for sixth grade English Language Arts, pronouns are a big deal.  It's also a difficult chapter for middle schoolers.  We're going to persevere through the chapter.  They may even take a pretest to see how far we need to go with them.  If my informal assessments are accurate, we have a great deal to learn. The students will test over "Over the Top of the World" and "Up and Over."  Both pieces address the concept of self-determination. Self-determination goes along with the movie I saw this weekend..."Captain Phillips."  The beginning of the movie was filled with great examples of foreshadowing. Thanks for the prayers for my dad...he's made some great recoveries t...