So on the SUPER cold day I got a genius idea to create something based upon an idea I saw on Pinterest. The idea I saw was for conversation JENGA with speech topics on each block. Students pull one out and then speak on it for a given amount of time. While I will be using this idea on the other side of my blocks for now I have come up with the idea I call Exit Slip JENGA (my husbands vote was for A+ JENGA and that was a no go) but you can call it whatever you want and like. So here is how this went down! I bought this set at the Dollar General store for $4 Here is my finished product. So with Sharpie in hand I sat down to come up with my questions. In total I have 10 questions all but one set are used 4 times. I plan to put on the other side in a different color the speech topic ideas and I will post that list as soon as I come up with them too! How will I use this is class? Well I already use Post-its like I endorse the darn company so I made my questions simple enough to be answered on a single Post-it. I plan to use them as exit slips out the door or to review if there is time remaining at the end of a class period. Another thought I have is to use the other side for pre-assessment questions (this just came to me as I was writing this and I actually like it way better than the speech topics!). Here is my list of questions: - What do you remember most? - Summarize today's lesson - How will this help you in another class - Doodle/Draw today's key point - How is this used in real life? - What will we cover tomorrow? - Create 1 quiz question and answer it - Define 1 important term - What is 1 question you still have? - List 3 important points from today So please give me your ideas on how you could use this in your classroom and what questions you will put onto your set?

Wow! Is tomorrow already August? Time has flown by this summer! I have been gone the majority of the summer, hence the lack in posts... but I am back now! I have a lengthy list of things to blog about from my summer adventures! To begin with, here is one of my crafty Pinterest projects that I have completed (here is the link to the original idea): Colonial America/Revolutionary War Guess Who! I have been wanting to do this project for a while now and finally made the time this last month. It took me some time to put it all together! The old-fashioned Guess Who game is hard to come by! They have made it all fancy now, which is not what I wanted! I scoured garage sales and thrift stores until I found one! Here are my directions: 1. Find an old Guess Who game and take out the cards (you might already have one in your game cabinet.) 2. Select people from history, family, students, etc. to turn into a game. 3. Measure the game cards in your Guess Who game. (Mine were 1.75" x 1.12") 4. Using your favorite document maker, (I used Power Point) create boxes that are the measurements of your cards. 5. Find pictures of your people you want to use either on the Internet or photos you have taken. 6. Insert the photos into your document, sizing them to fit inside the boxes. 7. Insert a text box at the bottom of your boxes and type the person's name. 8. Print, laminate, cut, insert, and play! (Make sure you print an extra set to draw from.) Rules of play: 1. Open the trays by turning them upside down. 2. Each player draws a card that their opponent will be trying to guess. 3. Ask "yes" or "no" questions to narrow down the suspects. (You can ask if they are bald, wearing a hat, male, or even about something they did in history like did this person fight in a war?) 4. Narrow down the selection until you think you know who your opponent has for you. Make your guess on your next turn to see if you are correct! Bonus: If you want it to be more of a challenge, pull 2 cards to guess. Then, you can ask questions like: Is either person involved in the Revolutionary War? or Are both people female? I hope you will create your own Guess Who game now! I would love to sell my cards that I have made, but I just got the images from Google, so that wouldn't be legal. However, it really didn't take long to make. Make sure you link up pictures of yours if you make one!

Explore and learn with The Science Penguin blog!

Yes, Dr. Reeves, we did study Strongyloides. :) I guess I should've used pigs instead of cattle.

Decodable Short Vowel Phonics ReadersThese Short Vowel Decodable Readers are designed to help your students learn how to decode and blend words whilst building reading fluency! Every book is based upon a different word family which will make these readers fit seamlessly into your reading and phonics...

DON’T MAKE ME USE MY ASL A.S. L. American Sign Language TEACHER VOICE mug – Give your kid's teacher something he or she actually will use and enjoy for years to come. At Teachers R Us GIfts, we have designed products for every teacher, school employee or volunteer you can imagine. We think everyone involved in your children's education should be appreciated and celebrated! ONE SIZE FITS ALL! Forget trying to guess their T-Shirt size, you'll never go wrong with a mug! Mugs are universally functional gifts, even if you’re not a coffee or tea drinker. You can also dress the mug up even more by placing additional gifts inside, such as stickers, magnets, candies, chocolates, or his favorite coffee beans and tea. This mug is crafted from the highest quality grade ceramic; printed and sublimated in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. These mugs are dishwasher and microwave safe. They are even postal safe! Shipped in sturdy Styrofoam packaging (see image above). Don’t wait for a birthday, Teacher Appreciation Day, Valentine's Day, Christmas, Hanukkah or Chanukah, Beginning or End of Year, or Graduation, these mugs are so affordable and are welcome any day of the year. We continually update our inventory with fresh designs and can only keep so many mugs in stock so order yours today! Back to the shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TeachersRUsGifts/ SHIPPING/HANDLING These mugs are made to order; after the order is placed, each mug is lovingly printed in Pennsylvania and shipped out shortly after. Although they typically are printed and shipped within 5 business days of an order, fulfillment and delivery are dependent upon many factors, such as the place in queue, the time of year, holidays…therefore we are very conservative in our delivery estimate. We’d rather under-promise and over-deliver, and 99% of the time we do just that! We accept custom orders at no extra charge. Please send us a message with your order and we’ll be happy to work with you on your custom request. See “Add your personalization” over the Add to cart button, above. ASL Teacher Gifts, ASL Gifts for Teachers, ASL Teacher Mug, Asl Teacher, Asl Teacher Gift, Free Shipping

Es gibt auch noch:"Who am I...?" (People) und die deutsche Version "Wer bin ich...?" Gesichter und "Wer bin ich...?" MenschenDie Flashkartensamml

First of all...I SOO greatly apologize for being M I A for over a month! Wow! I guess that just explains how crazy this beginning of the sc...

What is your time worth? Use your time teaching instead of searching for information and creating lesson plans. We've got it covered.  Guess what? This lesson is free. Just add it to your cart and checkout.  Then download it, check our style, and use it if it suits you. Teachers say our lesson plans are relevant, simple, engaging, and "just-plain-awesome".  Every lesson plan is standards-based and has everything you need to teach in one place. Lecture outline, PowerPoints, Guided Notes, student activity and lab pages, written tests and/or grading pages, as well as teacher instructions and an essential questions.  Available as a download that contains PDF and PowerPoint files that you can save to your computer. Lessons and activities are aligned to the Georgia Course Standards for Basic Agriculture Science but teachers from other states will find them a perfect fit for their  classes too.  If you like this lesson, we have an entire course of lessons for Basic Ag here.

Simple activity where toddlers can guess the objects covered in tin foil. Testing their understanding of object permanence and known shapes.

According to the Common Core Standards and our new district wide reading pacing guide, we are working on the concept of inferring. We just ...

The purpose of this science fair project is to determine which conditions and materials quicken the composting process to make the best compost.

Roadrunner grade school in Phoenix Arizona, it only went from K thru 3 in those days. Mrs. Rankin. I have no memory of this teacher. Phoenix, Arizona. I'm second row, third from right.

Teacher burnout is real. I know that I’ve experienced it several times and I’m guessing that you have too. None of us are immune to teacher burnout – it doesn’t matter if this is your first or fifteenth year in the classroom – we’re all susceptible.

Try this exploring spices from around the world activity with your kids. This is a fun activty for the sense of smell when learning about your senses.

Empower your kids or students to learn how to identify wholesale and beef retail meat cuts using our Beef Meat Cut Identification Flashcards.

So I guess I've been having a little too much fun in my classroom to think about blogging lately, and I feel pretty good about that. It's be...

Try out this Mystery Box game, a great way to review adjectives and make sure your students have fun while learning English.

One of my favorite units in science is our rocks and soil unit. I guess it's because the kids already love rocks and dirt and so they are naturally interested in this unit. Part of our unit includes science centers where the students go from one rock / soil station to another. Centers, stations, Daily 5, math workshop - these all come naturally in ELA and math but I don't always use them in science. But the rocks and soil unit lends itself naturally to this type of setup. Using one of my favorite black-holes of time (Pinterest) I found an awesome kindergarten unit on rocks and soil. She is obviously an awesome teacher so I've linked her unit below. I used one of her pages off of her rocks and soil unit and made it fit what I wanted. This is just a quick reminder that you can use something from other grade levels and adjust it to your grade...good teaching is good teaching. http://www.kindergartenkindergarten.com/rocks-and-soil/ After using the 'My Rock Report' I made a page of my own and just tweaked it a bit. Below is the link for my new version. Feel free to grab it and edit it so it works better for you. Mystery Rock Report So here were the centers: Rocks / Soil books I can never read all the books I have on a topic so the kids love getting to see new books or flip through ones we have read together as a class Soil Samples Each student had to visit each of the 3 soil samples and illustrate / label each of the samples in his learning journal Mystery Rock There were 2 of these stations. Each had a very specific sort of rocks - I made sure that no two rocks were too much alike. There might be 2 large white-ish rocks, but one was smooth and the other very porous. The students chose a 'mystery rock' and filled out the rock report without telling anyone their choice. We then took time at the end of each lesson to go through the reports and see if we could figure out the 'mystery rock' based on the rock report. After the class had guessed I had the student glue her mystery rock report into her journal. The LOVED this activity.  Soil Size Sort This center was with me because it is so messy. I have 3 different size sifters (from a FOSS kit - Pebbles, Sand, and Silt) and the students use them to sort the rocks into different sizes. As we are doing this we discuss why we would need the different sizes sorted and what people might do with each size. This doesn't sound like a lot of centers but, trust me, it is a lot of setup and you have multiples of the soil samples and mystery rock center. My students and I loved this science center setup - it was something different for a couple of days. Hopefully this will give you some ideas on how you might use centers in science. I know I'm going to keep looking for ways to incorporate this into other units.

This unit bundle contains two parts. The first part is about Erosion, and Soil Science. This portion contains 5 lessons of about 50 minutes and 9 page work bundle. Students and teachers follow a highly visual slideshow road map that includes important fill-in notes (red slides), video and academic links, questions and answers, an activity that has explore soil, particle size, built-in quizzes, games, crossword puzzle, end of the the bundle assessment, and much more are provided. This bundle converts nicely to google classroom and also includes both a printed and digital version of the work bundle if working remote or posting to Google Classroom. Everything you need to run a fantastic unit is provided. This PowerPoint begins with the students getting their hands dirty right away. A fresh soil sample should be given to each student and they are asked to explore the sample and then describe what soil is made of. Soil is then described in a step by step approach (I always only try to have one point of focus per slide). The differences between soil and dirt is discussed. Soil colors are described and their meaning. The differences in color between healthy and unhealthy soil is shown. Students then participate in a series of challenge questions that have the students guess the letter of the picture that represents the best soil color for planting. Students then create a drawing in their journal of particle size. They add terms to the correct particle size that is shown in a series of slides from boulders all the way down to dust (size of the particle included). Pictures are shown throughout. Separating a mixture of soil groups based on their particle size is provided. Students first try it by hand in a tray, and then teacher comes around with some screens and the student complete the task quickly. Permeability and Porosity is described in detail. A neat activity with directions is provided that has the students investigate clay, loam, coarse sand, fine sand, and gravel to its porosity, ability to hold nutrients, work / move, and air space. The answers are then provided in a step by step process. Soil Horizons are then shown from the upper horizons to bedrock. A link to the video game Dig Dug is provided and students sketch out and label the horizons in the soil as the teacher plays. Students love watching the teacher get destroyed by the bad soil monsters. A slide for a field trip to go outside and look at a cut-bank and measure a soil horizon is provided. The second part examines soil conservation and has 6 lessons of about 50 minutes and 9 page work bundle. Soil degradation worldwide is shown with some examples of soil conservation vs. no conservation. Some pictures of the Dust Bowl are then shown and a video link provided. Students do some investigating to try find the name of the ionic "Migrant Mother" photograph of Florence Thompson during the Dust Bowl. I usually don't give them much and make them try and investigate. Usually the find the photo after a short search. Soil conservation measures are then described with a focus on reducing erosion and restoring soil fertility. A template with a Farm is provided in the PowerPoint. The teacher prints up this farm image and the students create sketches / create their own farm as each soil conservation measure is covered. Great visuals and simple notes combined with the create a farm activity make this part extremely effective. Students learn about conservation plowing, contour plowing, alley cropping, wind breaks, plow winds, strip cropping, crop rotation, cover crop, manure, green manure, gully dams, and much more. A great visual quiz with answers are provided that have the students record the name of the soil conservation measure from a picture. The questions are shown one last time before the answers are revealed so the teacher can call upon students. This is a neat PowerPoint full activities and important class notes. Please see my entire Soil Science and Ice Ages unit described below before purchasing this PowerPoint. This is Part 3 and 4 of my 5 part Weathering, Coastal Erosion, Soil, Soil Conservation, Ice-Ages and Glaciers Unit that I offer on TpT. Below is some information about this larger unit. Full Unit Teaching Duration 7 Weeks, 56 Pages of Work Bundle Part 1 Weathering Mechanical and Chemical 12 Pages of Work Bundle (6 lessons of 50 minutes) Part 2 Erosion, Coastal Erosion, Mass Movement of Earthen Materials 13 pages of Work Bundle (9 lessons of 50 minutes) Part 3 Soil Science 13 Pages of Work Bundle (5 lessons of 50 minutes) Part 4 Soil Conservation 9 Pages of Work Bundle (6 lessons of 50 minutes) Part 5 Ice Ages, Glaciers, Glacial Landforms 9 Pages of Work Bundle (8 lessons of 50 minutes) Areas of Focus within The Soil Science and Ice-Ages Unit: Importance of Soil, Weathering, Mechanical Weathering, Chemical Weathering, Surface Area and Weathering, Coastal Erosion Mass Movement of Earthen Materials, Soil, Soil Color, Particle Size, Soil Porosity and Permeability, Soil Horizons, Soil Conservation, The Dust Bowl, Erosion, Deposition, Soil Conservation Measures, Glaciers, Types of Glaciers, Ice Ages, Ice Age Theories, Milankovitch Cycles, Maunder Minimum, Paleoecology, Glacial Landforms. Weathering, Soil Science, Soil Conservation, Ice Ages, Glaciers Unit This unit includes all of the lessons below in one organized folder.... - Mechanical and Chemical Weathering Weathering Lesson with PowerPoint Review Game (500 Slides) HW, Notes, and more Weathering, Soil Science, Soil Conservation, Ice-Ages, and Glaciers Unit Homework Bundle, Lesson notes, Keys, Freebies, and more -Mechanical and Chemical Weathering PowerPoint Review Game with Answer Key (FREE) - Soil, Soil Science, Erosion, Soil Conservation, and PowerPoint Review Game Lesson (700 Slides) HW, Notes and much more -Soil Conservation, Design a Farm Lesson (250 Slides) HW, Notes and more -Soil, Soil Science, Erosioin, Soil Conservation PowerPoint Review Game with Answer Key (FREE) - Ice Ages, Glaciers, Paleoecology, Glacial Landforms Lesson (700 Slides) HW, Notes, and more Ice Ages, Glaciers, Glacial Landforms PowerPoint Review Game -Weathering, Soil, Soil Conservation Crossword with Solution (FREE) -Ice-Ages, Glaciers, Glacial Landforms Crossword Puzzle with Solution (FREE) -Weathering, Soil, Soil Science, Soil Conservation Flashcards -Ice-Ages, Glaciers, Glacial Landforms Flash Cards Below are the links to the 20 units of study that I offer on TpT for individual purchase. All of these are included in the curriculum purchase. Physical Science Units Science Skills Unit Laws of Motion and Simple Machines Unit Matter, Energy, and the Environment Unit Atoms and Periodic Table of the Elements Unit Physical Science Curriculum Physical Science Bundle Package (4 Units) Life Science Units Human Body System and Health Topics Unit Cellular Biology Unit Infectious Diseases Unit DNA and Genetics Unit, Cell Division Taxonomy and Classification Unit Evolution and Natural Selection, Change Topics Unit Botany Unit Ecology Feeding Levels Unit Ecology Interactions Unit Ecology Abiotic Factors Unit Life Science Curriculum Life Science Bundle Package (10 Units) Earth Science Units Weathering, Soil Science, Soil Conservation, Ice Ages, Glaciers Unit Astronomy Topics Unit Geology Topics Unit Weather and Climate Unit Earth Science Curriculum Bundle Earth Science Curriculum (6 Units) Water, Water Quality, Rivers, Lakes, and Fish Units Water on Earth, Properties of Water, Water Pollution Unit Rivers, Lakes, and Water Quality Unit (Salmon, Fish, and more) Below is a link to view this curriculum in greater detail. You will find a PowerPoint tour, how a unit works guide, curriculum possibilities, standards, and many free samples. Curriculum Tour Entire Curriculum I offer on TpT... Entire 4 Year Curriculum, 20 Full Units, (50,000 Slides) HW, Notes, and much more Best wishes, Ryan Murphy M.Ed Science from Murf LLC [email protected] **********(Social Media)************* Follow my TpT Store, Get notifications about flash freebies, curriculum updates, great classroom ideas, Pins, and much more by following me on Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest

Man oh man, am I feeling refreshed! Here in Kansas, the weather was gorgeous!!! I guess Mother Nature finally wanted to cooperate.....or perhaps she was tired of listening to all of the Kansans complain! Anyway, I spent my relaxing weekend gardening, planting shrubs, working on TPT products and baking the world's best cookies!! These little round joys of delight are called Hootycreeks. They. Are. AMAZING! They have cranberries, oats and pecans in them....so I like to pretend they are healthy. And I may or may not eat them for breakfast.... Besides eating my body weight in cookies, I worked on ELA exit slips for my kiddos. If you don't currently use exit slips.....you totally should! Exit slips provide an extremely quick (what teacher doesn't like quick??) way to see if your students are comprehending what they have read. This strategy is perfect for giving you (the teacher) immediate feedback and it will also help you students by providing them a way to think about what they have learned. And as a bonus....exit slips work perfect for all text types! Here is what the front side of the exit slips looks like: The exit slip uses a simple 3, 2, 1 strategy. When you are ready to wrap up your lesson spend 3 to 5 minutes and have students write 3 things they learned, 2 new words they discovered and 1 remaining question they have. The back side looks like this: On the back side you can ask students a specific question about the lesson, or choose from the list of questions below. You can get this FABULOUS exit slips strategy for FREE at my TPT store. Just click on the picture below!! Hope you all had a great weekend!!! :) Katie

by Stacey Lloyd Ever handed out a rubric for a task, only to watch students absentmindedly stuff them in binders never to be looked at again? I have. Many times. And it has always bothered me, as I know that if students truly understood what I was looking for when I am marking, they would be far better able to reach the learning targets. I tried everything: we read through the rubrics in class; I had students mark themselves on the rubrics after a first draft; I made them write a reflection on an area of the rubric which they feel is a weakness… and while I had marginal success with each of these, nothing was as meaningful and engaging as when I started co-creating criteria with students. [Click here to view more FREE resources for teaching secondary ELA] Quite simply, it is allowing students to have a say in what they will be graded on, a voice in what success will look like for a particular assignment. It is a process of working together to generate the rubric for a task: the different areas which you will assess students’ skills or content knowledge, and the different levels of achievement. Practically, it is the collaborative creation of a complete rubric - columns and rows - to be used to assess student work. Here are a couple of reasons why I have, from actual experience in my own classroom, found this process to be highly valuable and effective (although I think that there are many more): It gives students agency: voice and choice in the process of their own learning. They understand more fully what they are going to be graded on; their efforts are more directed. It helps students to identify areas which may be more challenging for them, and they can focus more on growth. They work collaboratively to discuss and debate, practicing skills of communication and developing critical thinking. Students take ownership of their learning in a far more authentic, meaningful way. Students don’t stand in opposition to me, the teacher, as the guardian of the rubric; they see it more like a contract we all agreed upon. Their language is often clearer, and more simple than many of the convoluted rubrics out there. Any time you do any assessment in class: whether that is a literary essay, a narrative short story, or a creative project. But let’ be honest: it takes time. Sometimes a whole lesson or two - especially the first time. But if we shift our thinking to see this as highly valuable instructional time, it is worth it. Plus, I don’t do it every time we do an assignment in class: the first time students write a literary essay in the school year, we co-create the criteria and then I might use this rubric for the rest of the school year. Here is a sample lesson plan for creating the criteria as a class, which can be adapted for any task: BEFORE CLASS: Gather 20 pieces of paper (5 sets of 4 pages): and on each set of 4, write the following at the top of each page “Area of Assessment,” “Meets Expectations,” Almost meets,” “Does not meet” - or more simply, PRINT OUT THESE RUBRIC TEMPLATE PAGES (one set works for the whole class); get tape for sticking the rubric together, and post-it notes ready. 1. Discuss the general purpose of the assignment: Hold a class discussion about the assigned task, asking students about the purpose behind it: what skills/abilities/knowledge do they think should be displayed? 2. Decide on the overall areas for assessment (the left column): Instruct students to get into 4 or 5 groups (depending on your class size). Instruct the groups to spend time coming up with 6 possible areas for assessment (e.g. the usual left column of a rubric; this could be ‘content’ ‘grammar’ ‘structure’ etc.) Instruct groups to come up and write their 6 areas on the white-board. Hold a brief class discussion about the areas suggested, circling the most common 4 or 5 (depending on how many groups you have), and deciding that these will be the areas for grading on the rubric. 3. Groups write out the levels for achievement: Give each group a set of the Rubric Templates pages (each group gets a different color set: the main “Area” page and the three levels of proficiency). Assign a different ‘area of assessment’ (decided in step 2) to each group. Explain to students that they must now work in their groups to write out the criteria for each of the three levels of the rubric, for their assigned area. *TIP: It is often easiest to start with the “Meets Expectations” and then differentiate for the others. [Walk around & help students; prompt them to be detailed, use simple language, aim for clarity etc.] 4. Review and edit the criteria: Have students come up to the board and tape their pages on the white-board, to create one large rubric. Have students spend time reading what the other groups came up with; give them post-it notes to write on to add their comments and critique onto the rubric. Discuss, make changes, etc. 5. Decide on weighting: Now ask students how each area should be weighted. E.g. How many points should each one be worth in relation to the others. Add these with post-it notes. AFTER CLASS: Take a picture of the rubric, and then transcribe - you may need to tweak phrasing, but the content should be as the class decided. If you are looking for more detailed lesson plans, I have over 60 step-by-step plans for teaching writing, poetry, reading, and more! Check them out HERE. Here are some more resources for grading and assessment: Grade Student Responses Quickly by Room 213 Editable Rubric Bundle by Nouvelle ELA Editable Writing Rubrics for Secondary English by The Daring English Teacher

Just an ordinary inner city school Science Teacher and my EXCELLENT Adventure with AMAZING students with my KINDA OKAY ideas and modifications to lesson and labs!