Teachers do it every day, they do it all the time, and they do it sometimes without even realizing it. What is it they are regularly doing? Teachers are continually evaluating student understanding via formative assessments. Formative assessments are an essential tool for assessing student understanding and building
Shirring is an old technique, I know. (Shirring and smocking aren’t actually originally done with elastic…..but it sure makes things easier. And faster.) Sometimes I assume everyone knows how to do it. But then I get another email asking how to shir (or smock) fabric. So it reminds me I shouldn’t assume…………..because it is …
I often get a question from my readers - how to sew straight? In this guide, I will show you how to easily keep stitching lines straight. I will talk about topstitching mostly because keeping seam allowances equal is a different topic. Have you ever had problems with crooked stitching lines? I bet you had. Even intermediate sewists are struggling sometimes to do it and had to rip and redo stitching. But sewing in a straight line is much simpler than you think. And I want to help you to sew straight every time.
Giada's fresh potato gnocchi dough is surprisingly so easy to whip up, and it creates incredibly soft and delicious gnocchi.
There's nothing quite like being in your own home. But sometimes, when there are others around, you just need to find someplace that you can escape to.
With free printables.When it comes to fire safety one of the best things you can do is get-out of a place that is on fire and let the firefighters take care of it. However, sometimes a fire needs t
This is an update to simmythesim's Simulation Lag Fix for the latest version of the game. It was also previously maintained by Xerox on Mod The Sims, but th
The sit-and-get, one-size-fits-all model is disappearing. Taking its place are these 9 alternative models for teacher professional development.
Homeschooling moms sometimes need to be a little sneaky to make sure kids are learning. With these tips, your students will never know what hit them.
After knowing what dutch door is, have you used it in your Bullet Journal? Or maybe you don't know how to do it yet. Don't worry, this blog will guide you how to create your Dutch Doors. cr: mayo.bujo How to make a Dutch Doors? One:Think clearly about the functions you want the Dutch Doors to achieve. In general, the existence of the Bullet Journal is for you to better record your life and plan your works. A Dutch door...
Homeschooling moms sometimes need to be a little sneaky to make sure kids are learning. With these tips, your students will never know what hit them.
I'm trying to help my students be more aware of the grading process in art. Sometimes I get the feeling they think its just a place to come...
I have previously spoken how Monument Valley is a stunning piece of artwork and its sequel, Monument Valley 2 continues this forward. In the game you play as a mother and daughter team and you manipulate the Escher -style architecture to guide both protagonists through stunning vis
Starting centers at the beginning of the year takes time and patience. Here's the 6-step process I use to introduce our Kindergarten centers routine.
Throughout my years teaching middle school, I have had the experience of seeing many "work refusals". These are the situations when kids, for a variety of reasons, just refuse to start the work you give them. They might shut down and rest their head on their desk or lash out in anger, shouting about
Yes, living with scoliosis and a fused spine can be difficult at times. Sometimes it's easy to ignore all the amazing things you CAN do!
In an era of high stakes testing, art is sometimes the first thing to go but we as teachers need to find ways to continue providing art experiences for our students. Not only is art just plain fun, and let's face it, kids do need fun, but it's much more than that. Art is beneficial in so many ways! Find out ways to incorporate art in this post by The Teacher Next Door.
Ringing, buzzing, whooshing, or clicking sounds in your ear(s) could mean a couple of things: It could mean you’ve got tinnitus, our Symptom of the Month. Let's discuss tinnitus and menopause.
Should you tile over tile? It's not always a good idea, but it can be in certain circumstances! Learn everything you need to know in this post!
Ever wanted to dial in the The Winston’s classic ‘Amen Break’ drum solo and do your own version of it? Thanks to drum pattern connoisseur Ethan Hein, you very easily can with this handy Google sheet featuring a number of classic drum patterns. Check it out. Isn’t the internet a wonderful place? (Sometimes). It appears
Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom can be a challenge. Do you sometimes feel like you're "losing it"? Do you not really know how to meet the needs of these kids when you have so many kids who have IEP's, 504 Plans, or are in the RTI process? Don't despair, there is help!
I am so excited to share this new product with you all. Recently, I’ve really gotten into making social-emotional games like my Social Skills Land and Social Superstar Games. My students love playing them all and I’ve found that they’ve been so much more effective than more “traditional” social-emotional lessons because the kids feel engaged ...
It's been hot lately. Like melt your face off hot. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but sometimes it's nice to do an indoor activity to at least let the sweat dry. This one is simple and loads of fun. If you're hearing, "I'm sooooooooooo bored" this summer, making indoor origami flying discs might just be the cure. Supplies for 1 disc 8 two-inch square pieces of paper (plain office paper or heavyweight card stock) Tape How to Make It Fold each 2-inch by 2-inch square of paper corner to corner so you now have 8 triangles. Now fold one corner of each triangle down; look at the picture below for guidance. Make sure all the origami pieces are facing up, with the folded flap on top. Slip the pointed corner of one piece into the folded flap of another. Continue doing this until you're able to tuck the last piece in place. Add tape over each triangle tip for added stability. Gently bend the outer edges of the disc down for increased aerodynamics. Fling it like a frisbee and watch it fly and curve in the air. These are remarkably good flyers! This awesome project came from the book Make: Easy 1-2-3 Projects. Check it out!
Are you engaging in workplace habits that make you look unprofessional? Check out this surprising list of the worst work behaviors.
There are many times in life when we feel unappreciated. When this happens, it is important to remember that there are plenty of people who do appreciate us and would be happy to lend a
Sometimes it feels crazy overwhelming to keep assessing students and know exactly what they do/don’t understand. That’s where these quick and easy formative assessment ideas comes in! M…
Tips for starting out as a new school psychologist
While I love the many healthy dishes we have been eating since switching to a keto diet, I sometimes feel like I need a bit of a break from meat. This Keto Eggplant Parmesan is the perfect way to do
Do you give your students sentence fixing activities to complete? You know, the ones where you provide a sentence that’s written and punctuated incorrectly, and they have to fix it? Sometimes these activities are referred to as D.O.L. (Daily Oral Language). D.O.L., sentence fixing, or whatever you want to call it is a pretty common way to teach grammar. I have done these exercises with my kiddos, and I actually remember doing lots of them as a student, too. But…bad news, friends! Sentence fixing is not an effective way to teach grammar!! Let me back up a little here. This past summer, I finished packaging my writing curriculum series for first grade and for second grade. My writing units follow a writing workshop model. Each unit focuses on a single genre, and students are often free to choose their own writing topics. I know that some other writing workshop programs really don’t advocate teaching grammar at all, because they don’t view it as an “authentic” part of writing. Which, honestly, I don’t completely agree with. I am not a grammar junkie (it’s not my favorite thing to teach), but the fact is that kids need practice with grammar skills. (By the way, when I say grammar, I am lumping together teaching kids about capitalization, punctuation, parts of speech, etc.) I am all about integrating grammar instruction into authentic writing activities. For example, if you’re teaching kids how-to writing, teach them how to include commas in a list of supplies that the reader will need. However, a minilesson here or there isn’t really enough to give kids the extended practice that they need to master a skill. So when I created my first and second grade writing units, I knew I wanted to include grammar exercises to reinforce the skills taught in the minilessons. When I wrote the grammar exercises, I included lots of sentence fixing practice. Now, I’ve gotta be honest here – the little reading specialist alarm that I have in the back of my mind was going off while I did this. I knew that sentence fixing wasn’t the very best way to teach grammar, but I wasn’t entirely sure what else to do instead to help supplement the grammar lessons in my writing series. So I included sentence fixers in my grammar activities, and I published the units. Fast forward a bit to my district’s reading specialist professional development at the beginning of the school year. One of the topics we touched on was (can you guess?) sentence fixing! The literacy director in my district (who I really respect and admire) shared this document with us. It’s all about why traditional grammar exercises (like sentence fixing) do not work, and what we should be doing instead. Here are my major takeaways from that document and what the literacy director said: – Sentence fixing is not effective for several reasons. First, we want to show our students examples of good writing, not bad writing! Second, it’s not engaging. Third, research shows that using sentence fixing activities does not result in students applying these same skills in their own writing (and that’s what really counts, right?!). – Students need to see examples of good grammar, good use of capitalization, and good punctuation, and they need opportunities to apply these skills to their own writing. We need to point out how and why published authors choose punctuation marks in the context of real texts. We need to talk to them about why published authors follow grammar rules and what effect it has on us, as readers. And we also need to give our kids opportunities to go try out grammatical structures, different punctuation, and capitalization in their own writing. Basically, kids need to see and use grammar in real contexts. Okay. So as you can imagine, I started feeling a teeeensy bit guilty about all those sentence fixers in my writing units. Our literacy director did point out, however, that doing some sentence fixing is completely fine – we just need to show kids examples of correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar before we ask them to fix incorrect usage. With that in mind, I’ve revised the grammar/language arts exercises in all of my first grade and second grade writing units. I still do have some sentence fixing in those exercises, because I know that kids do need to practice their editing skills. However, I created a format that forces kids to take note of examples of correct usage in correctly written sentences, and only then are they asked to fix an incorrectly written sentence. Here’s an example from Second Grade Unit 5: The first two sentences use possessives correctly. Circle the apostrophes. Then, fix the last sentence. That is Michael’s tennis racket. Courtney’s book is on the floor. Fix: I saw Elizabeths tablet on the table yesterday. This particular activity is timed so that the day after you teach a minilesson on possessives, this grammar exercise follows up with further practice. This is intended to honor the idea that kids need to practice grammar skills in context (i.e. during the minilesson and writing workshop time) but also provides them with follow-up reinforcement. In addition to this type of exercise, I’ve also included a variety of quick activities that are designed to be engaging and cover Common Core language skills. These exercises (like “find the pattern”) also expose students to examples of well-written sentences. There is a quick daily grammar exercise for each day in each unit, which is more than enough for the entire school year! So, if you own one of my first or second grade units (or the bundles), you will see that when you log into your Teachers Pay Teachers account and click on “My Purchases,” there is red text below the unit(s) that says “Newly Revised Re-Download.” This just means that you can redownload the unit for free and check out the changes I’ve made (and I certainly hope you will consider using the new activities with your students!). Thanks for bearing with
Are you planning a one day trip to Bruges? Find out what the best activities are to put on your Bruges itinerary recommended by a local!
It makes doing evaluations and providing therapy easier when the forms are organized. I am self employed, so sometimes it is hard for me to find and get forms that I like, so I make my own. Here are some forms that I have made and use. Therapy Paperwork Forms Evaluation Forms Documentation Forms...
I’m always looking for zucchini recipes to try in the summer because they’re so plentiful—sometimes I grow some in my garden or I have friends who do, and they’re always happy to …
