I’ve been spending some serious amounts of time this summer leading conversations around the country focused on the integration of social studies and literacy. And for the last few years, I…

I used to have my middle school students spend their time taking notes in Social Studies. I've now changed my methods.

Whether you are teaching phonemic awareness, letter sounds or articulation in speech therapy, sometimes you need a book that repeats words with your sound over and over. Download the list in my store. This list is sorted by phoneme. What a time-saver! Don’t spend countless hours hunting in the library for a sound-loaded book. Click ... Read More about Need a Storybook That Emphasizes a Specific Phoneme? Find It In This List!

When it comes to classroom management, some of the most common struggles I hear about from teachers are the lack of respect students have for their learning space, and a desire to maintain a more organized classroom. If you are struggling with these, I urge you to consider utilizing well-developed classroom jobs, and a classroom […]

Teachers gave some tried and true ideas to get students to transition quickly and quietly. Which ones will work best in your classroom?

If your child often says, "But I don't know what to pray," these printable prayer prompt cards will guide him or her through what the Bible says about prayer as well as what to say.

Middle school teachers are always looking for classroom management tips to strengthen their classroom environment. Check out these classroom tips!

You are a great teacher (that's why you're checking out products related to building relationships) and you know how important it is to spend time getting to know WHO your students are before you jump head first into content. This post will give you some ideas you can use to start buildi

According to studies, schoolchildren in Finland are among the best pupils in the world. They spend less time in school than kids in other countries, and the amount of time spent on homework is a maximum of 30 minutes per day. Bright Side will reveal to you the secret of education in Finland which is admired all around the world.

What is translanguaging and how can it be used to help English learners better access grade-level content? Definition, examples, and strategies.

So you have this student who disrupts your class every day. They’re a constant annoyance. You spend more time dealing with them than any ten students put together. You think about them in your off hours. You talk about them with your spouse. They ... Read more

Time 10-15 minutes Description This object lesson teaches that you need the Holy Spirit to minister effectively to others. If you don’t spend time with God each day to get filled with His Spi…

In a time and society where students spend more time communication through text messages, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and 14 other social media platforms that I cannot even begin to name, I find an ever increasing need to get my students talking to each other fact to face. As a result I have been on a quest this year to implement as many collaborative activities as I can. I have used many of them throughout this school year and have had some amazing results that include increased communication, retention of information, assessments grades and more positive attitudes (overall)! Throughout the summer I will be sharing some of my favorites, some of my other favorite math teacher-authors and many others so that hopefully they can become your favorites too! Today I am excited to share with you my Surface Area and Volume of a Sand Castle activity! As we were finishing our three-dimensional figures unit in Geometry I was looking for a really good way to a) get the students talking and b) show them how the different figures can share dimensions to build the structures that we see on a daily basis. Since I do not possess architectural skills and summer is upon us I decided to build a Sand Castle (as "Do You Want To Build A Snowman" is running through my head). I started with a goal of including as many of the main solids that I could and managed to include prisms, cylinders, cones, pyramids and even a hemisphere! I worked to have the solids share bases, sides and dimensions whenever possible. This is what I came up with! I also came up with a second version that has the figure divided into 11 smaller figures to help struggling students visualize a path to follow to solve it. Additionally, this helps students to organize their work so that you and they can identify an error if they make one. (I did not, however, hand this out to begin with as I wanted to see what they would do with it first!) Before implementing this as partner/group collaboration piece I sat down and created a list of questions that I could ask as I walked around the room to point students in the right direction, get them thinking, communicating and solving without actually giving them the answer. Some of the questions that I came up with: 1) Are there any surfaces that aren't exposed? Alternatively - are there any surfaces that shouldn't be used in surface area? 2) Have you thought about breaking any of the larger figures into smaller ones? 3) How are you arranging your work so that you can go back and check it later? 4) Are there any dimensions that you don't have? How can you find them? 5) Do the unused surfaces from the surface area get used for volume? FREE!!!! Finally the day arrived to implement this and I must say, it went AMAZINGLY! After my students got over the expected moans and groans and sat down to start working on it, they had fun with it. I heard great discussion, collaboration and genuinely helping each other understand instead of just giving each other the answer. I set forth the "rule" that their final answers had to be within ten of mine (to account for rounding error) and that whoever was the closest won a prize (extra credit, candy, excusing of an assignment, ect.). My students quickly turned it into a competition and worked hard to earn the prize. I ended up with multiple students hitting my answer down to almost the decimal point - which is great! :) Based on the feedback I can honestly say that they enjoyed it and felt that it really reinforced the concepts we have been learning in this unit! I have put the entire activity, including a multi-page answer key that highlights each piece and how to find their surface area and volume up in my teacherspayteachers store. You can pick it for FREE here :) I would LOVE to hear how you use it and implement it! Please comment below!

Hospice recertification documentation tips for nurses. What you need to know to chart more accurately and save time!

Teaching students about time management without lecturing so that they spend more time focused on work and less time chatting with their friends

Check out the morning meeting ideas with greetings, questions for sharing, activities, games, and messages. Grab a FREE week of morning meeting slides to simplify your routine and build social-emotional skills!

Can you believe it’s already back-to-school season? Time to trade those lazy summer days for some fresh, school outfits that’ll have you looking on point from day one. I remember my high school days like they were yesterday (okay, maybe not that long ago, but still). Every year, I’d spend hours planning the perfect first-day […]

Before delving into your content, take a look at these FIVE days of tried and true activities for back to middle school!

Poetry is a great way to help students practice inference because so much of poetry lives between the lines. Poets have to be so precise with words and phrases that a great deal of emotion is only ever implied. To help students practice inference, I've put together this collection of 10 engaging poems!

You MUST READ these 10 Time Saving Tips for Teachers! They will help you save time, be a master at classroom organization, and rock your class management! You won't want to miss the FREE resources.

There is always more grading than time to do it. So, you need to be smart about your grading. Here are some ways to spend less time grading.

Decide how you want to organize the apps on your iPads and use the same organization system on every iPad. This eliminates instruction time wasted searching for apps. I decided to create folders for each subject area. Any apps that should only be used by the teacher can be filed separately in a folder with your name as the title. This “teacher folder” is where I store apps like Settings, iTunes, AppStore, etc.

This composer study resource list includes websites, living literature, audio books and more that Cindy West has used in her homeschool music studies.

March is Peanut Month, so it’s a great time to spend some time learning about the life and legacy of George Washington Carver. While he is known as a scientist who explored many different use…

The Desiderata by Max Ehrmann was written decades ago but the lessons are timeless. Click through to see the 11 lessons I gleaned...

Listen as Lauren and Vira, two high school counselors, share exactly what using an advisory council has done for their school counseling program and why the advisory council was the FIRST THING they implemented before they made any other big changes in their department or school.

The first week of school is a critical time to teach all your classroom procedures and expectations. I usually spend the first week of school…

What teacher doesn't love cute, inspirational bulletin boards? But they can take a lot of time. Simple changes make a world of difference.

During the first few weeks of a new school year, I always liked to spend time with my second graders building their self confidence, as well as building a sense of classroom community. One of the ways

Being intentional about spending 90% of time in the target language? Be intentional in how you explain it to students & parents too! This includes a FREE handout for back to school night, or parent-teacher conferences detailing how students can be successful in a Spanish class that spends 90% of the time in Spanish!

These personal space worksheets are a great way to help students understand and practice social norms that may change as they get older.

I am so happy to be participating in the Book Exchange that was organized by Randee at How About Them Apples?, Nicole at First Grade OWLS, and Jackie at Here We Go Loopty Loo. The book I chose to send is Courage by Bernard Waber. If you haven’t read this book, it’s a MUST read for teaching vocabulary or 6-traits.…

I’m really really excited about this new product! One of the things I love about TpT is having an excuse to pull out my lovely Scotch laminator and have an excuse to spend a few minutes laminating, cutting, and assembling the new things I just bought! That being said, there are many times when I’m ...

It is so easy to finish your work for the day, change into sweats, turn on Netflix and call it a day. But if you are looking to create a more productive after work routine then I have you covered. …

The seaside town of Cavtat is a great place to stay. It has easy access to Dubrovnik and many more things to do. Check out our top 20.

This post may contain affiliate links. You pay the same and I get a small commission. Yay! (Please see my/our full disclosure for further information.) Yes, friends, we are coming up on that time of year again– it’s almost time for back to school. This brings a huge change for music teachers, so how do you… Continue reading 4 Steps to Prep Yourself for Back to School (as a teacher!)

Who doesn't love to spend some time coloring! Especially when you can soak in some scripture and creativity. Grab those kids, a cup of coffee, some markers or crayons, and have a coloring party!

This is a worksheet I created to help students visually see where they are spending their time, as well as write down how they should be spending their time so they can compare and contrast. It is a part of a bigger group I run, but I really love to use this with my students- great for 7th graders w...