Some of Our Favorite Things
“
I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together, we can do great things.“
– Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Mother Teresa
Teaching is collaborative. As a profession, education is at its best when teachers come together for the benefit of a common goal: helping students. Working together and crowdsourcing resources and ideas is the cornerstone of success and leads to heightened creativity that only benefits students. So, here we have come together once again and chosen a few of our favorite resources, lessons, and ideas. For teachers, by teachers!
The Ginger Teacher:
Let’s face it. A certain amount of noise in the classroom is inevitable, and, at times, can even be a good thing. But we all know too much noise at the wrong time means students are losing valuable learning time. The Ginger Teacher shares a sweet bag of treats in her snappy little blog post about dealing with noise in the classroom.
Read More Here: Dealing with Noise in the Classroom
The Gypsy Teacher:
It is sometimes hard to get ESL students engaged in the classroom, but with a little help from The Gypsy Teacher, you can turn coursework that may feel boring to students into fun activities that even your most resistant of students will enjoy. The Gypsy Teacher offers teachers five ESL games for middle school students that can be played in the classroom. From the competitive tech app, Kahoot to the more hands-on, physical Socratic Soccer, these techniques will be sure to bring some life into your ESL program.
*Note: Understanding there is sometimes be a delicate balance between being offensive and being politically correct, Lee and Lynn and Use My Mind Save Your Time wish to make clear that we mean no offense to persons of Roma descent, or others, by sharing the wonderful teaching resources we’ve found at “The Gypsy Teacher.”
Read More Here: Five Engaging ESL Games For Middle School
Little Teacher Wife:
Differentiating poetry, drama, and prose is a major challenge for educators dealing with particularly young students. The nuances of these three subjects can be lost on elementary students: enter Little Teacher Wife. Known for her expertise in language arts and composition, Little Teacher Wife provides a quad-set toolbox, complete with readily available posters, of tools for educators struggling to find a solution. Arguably the best of the bunch is a colorful foldable booklet that helps students explore poetry, drama, and pose in two ways: a fill-in-the-blank option that offers aid as students work their way to memorization and a free-hand option to put their knowledge to the test and formulate their examples of each category. Upon completion, students can use these handy booklets as learning aids either at home or at school.
Read More Here: Poetry, Drama, and Prose
The Teaching Q:
Oral language is the cornerstone to education and helping students expand their vocabulary to increase their educational outcomes is of utmost importance to any educator. To aid on this journey, education blogger The Teaching Q’s graphic organizer includes auto-filled vocabulary words, conjugation tutorials, example sentences, definitions, and syllable separation. These graphic organizers are fully editable and perfect for any subject matter. To complete the set, The Teaching Q has developed entertaining vocabulary games such as “Boom” and “What’s My Word?” where the latter focuses on vocabulary retention and comprehension. For more information, visit The Teaching Q for a litany of exhilarating educator tools.
Read More Here: Vocabulary Activities For Elementary Students
Computer Curriculum Corner:
Computer technology is the wave of the future and no one knows that more than blogger Computer Curriculum Corner who is helping teachers direct their students to resources hoping to hone their critical thinking skills through software programming and coding. One of the preliminary components of any successful programming course, particularly for younger students, is problem solving. Coding is a kind of mathematical language and Computer Curriculum Corner suggests, just like with any other language, teachers should break concepts down and insist students practice. They might not be world-class programmers, but they will be able to code their way out of any problem.
Read More Here: Problem Solving
Confessions of A Teaching Addict:
Behavior management is probably one of the more important aspects of education as it has the potential to set the tone for any given school day. Confessions of A Teaching Addict has three differentiation techniques to help teachers better govern their classrooms: whole group, table group, and individual management. Whole and table group management center around positive reinforcement by introducing the rewards to incentivize good behavior. Meanwhile, individual management uses a negative punishment by taking away something valued as a result of student misbehavior.
Read More Here:Behavior Management in the Classroom
Nikki Lubing:
Blogger Nikki Lubing designed these inspiring journal prompts centered around important black figures in American culture such as Harriet Tubman, Carter G. Woodson and Booker T. Washington among others. Initially designed for Black History Month, these historical prompts don’t need to be relegated for Black History Month. Learning about these historic figures should be a year-round endeavor for all students! These prompts test students’ critical thinking and writing skills with inspirational and thought-provoking options such as “What does it take to make change?” with information about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the mid-century Civil Rights Movement. Perfect for elementary students from first to fifth grade.
Read More Here: Inspiring Journal Prompts for Black History Month
Daughters and Kindergarten:
Strong readers make the world go ‘round and there’s no better way to ensure your class is on top of their game than with teaching blogger Daughters and Kindergarten who has devised 10 activities to help teachers help students make a visual association between words as they’re spoken and as they’re written. These activities include magnetic letters to build words and doing sight word hunts by having students search the classroom for words they must read aloud upon discovery. For more information on the other eight awesome sight word activities, click the link below, where you’ll find Daughters and Kindergarten has an in-depth list complete with photos and videos as visual aids for teachers looking to replicate.
Read More Here: 10 Sight Word Activities
Teaching in Room 5:
Grading and assessing students can be time consuming and even cut into off time for many teachers. However, with multiple-choice quick checks and other assessment tools, blogger Teaching in Room 5 has found a standards-based solution for overworked teachers! These 10-question quick checks properly assess the skills of students while acting as a time saver for teachers. Another option to consider is the online program Grade Cam for those stuck manually grading. Grade Cam allows teachers to create assessments, upload their assessment key, grade student assessments within minutes, and import into a digital gradebook. For more tips on streamlining the grading process, check out Teaching in Room 5’s blog below.
Read More Here: You Need Multiple Choice Quick Checks In Your Classroom!
Busy Miss Beebe:
Blogger Busy Miss Beebe definitely lives up to her name! She is all about teaching other teachers how to better organize their schedule, so they have more time in an otherwise hectic academic day. With the Teacher Time Investments post, she illustrates ways to save time including saving notes for absent students and prepping for the next school day by changing whiteboards and readying homework assignments. She includes a total of nine tips and a vlog for more visual communication. These tips will help even the busiest bee achieve a more relaxed and less frenzied school day. Find out more below!
Read More Here: Teacher Time Investments
Everything Sped:
What elementary school kid doesn’t love games? With Everything Sped’s Trashketball Order of Operation game you can combine knowledge with competition. A simple game that allows student to shoot balls into a trash can from three different distances: the furthest one designating three points, the middle two points, and the closest option one point. Students must correctly answer a question of a teacher’s choosing to be able to shoot. It’s a great option and involves the whole class. It teaches team work, trust, and healthy competition. It’s the perfect balance between fun and learning!
Read More Here: Trashketball Order of Operations
Teching with Littles:
to complete mental math exercises.
Teching with Littles is a great option for teachers interested in incorporating digital teaching tools into their classroom setting. This tech-loving teacher has a slew of great information and tips for working with technology (hence the name, of course). This intro into tech blog post is a must read as its important to figure out, as she puts it, the “why” when it comes to technology integration. Naturally, students love it, but a teacher who isn’t as advanced in technology may end up biting off more than they can chew when it comes to showing new tools and devices like laptops, tablets and teaching-based apps. As Teching with Littles says, always remember to take the time to try it out. More great tips and additional info from this post below!
Read More Here: Where to Start When Integrating Technology in The Classroom?
Leaping Into Learning:
Good writing is the foundation to success in higher levels of school. Teachers are constantly looking for ways to make reading and writing more exciting skills to learn. From word walls and finger spaces to teaching punctuation and upper-case, Leaping Into Learning has some great strategies to help teachers incorporate writing and reading comprehension into their curriculum for kindergarten and first-grade students. This experienced teacher also recommends a writing checklist, which helps visually reinforce every part of a sentence from structure and word usage in addition to honing handwriting skills and introductory reading. These are all nifty tools and strategies for teachers to utilize across all elementary class levels.
Read More Here: Teaching Writing Strategies
The Teacher Wears Prada:
This interdisciplinary math game designed by teaching blogger The Teacher Wears Prada is one of the neatest ideas around. The Teacher Wears Prada shares what works in 2nd grade math game rotations. For a little hint, she tasks students with completing common-core-aligned math problems by solving age-appropriate puzzles that integrate subject area facts. Students check their own answer with the key given to them by the teacher, teaching accountability and responsibility, and can store their fact in an optional booklet that comes with the game. One of the most engaging math-based lessons available!
Read More Here: 2nd Grade Math Games for Math Rotations
My Teacher Sleeps in School:
used to combine teaching with technology.
Kahoot is a teacher’s best friend in this incredibly digitalized world where technology reigns supreme. As a tool for education, Kahoot taps into a few spheres including games, competition, and tech. Great for all subject areas and grade levels, the app is intuitive and creating an assessment complete with answer choices is simple. Depending on the age of the students, teachers may have to help them log in, but after nicknames are chosen and they’re in the correct Kahoot room (as accessed through an access code) its super fun and engaging for both students and teachers. One of the best new apps for student learning. To make things more interesting, maybe buy a couple of prizes for the top scorers! For some quick lessons learned from a Kahoot-experienced teacher, click the link below.
Read More Here: Ultimate Engagement With Kahoot
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