What is so scary about a 10 page and 1,000 word minimum due at the end of the week anyway?
Book Clubs. Groups that tend to live only in books or movies – but guess what! THEY EXIST IN REAL LIFE! I joined my first book club in 2015, right after I graduated from college. And I sure wished …
It was the first Friday night of college and I was alone. My roommate, who'd just gotten into her sorority of choice, was partying with her new sisters, and the entire dorm hallway was empty. Everyone was out making the most of freshman year, which…
An education blog focusing on High School Social Studies.
These pens have been around for more than a quarter of a century, yet I've never heard of these! I saw these at a local office supply discount store (a discount store? To fuel a pen addiction? SWEET!), and the first thing I noticed was how thin these pens are. I was attracted to the fact that it was a felt-tipped pen for a reasonable price. Felt-tipped pens usually go for $2-$3 a pop, but these went for $1.39. (Maybe it's the fact it was a discount store, but whatever.) I picked up a burgundy version of the pen. Below are the lyrics to "Maybe Tomorrow" by Stereophonics written with the pen. This pen is about 7 mm in width and stands 14 cm tall. Overall it's a pretty thin pen. This seems like a minimalist pen – no grip, thin, not many bells and whistles, metal clip, and the such...not saying it's bad. There's a metal clip on the cap that seems sturdy to clip on books, papers, etc. Engraved are the words "Le Pen Marvy Japan" in silver. The felt tip is .3 mm, but it writes a bit bigger than that. The ink comes out a nice wine red and writes quite well. It sort of scratches a bit on the paper, but that might be the felt. Also, the tip seems a bit fragile and slightly bends in the direction I'm writing. This pen would be good for doodling or taking notes with. This isn't something I would use to write out my homework. (Then again, most of that is done on the computer nowadays...) So to recap... Good: Minimalistic, rich colour, sturdy metal clip, cheap Bad: Tip scratches slightly, fragile; likely to crush Costs: $0.50-$2.00 I give this pen... a B+!
College life madara senpai~~~ #MDSK #madasaku
We've reached the end of #10, the VERY end almost. See, we can have nice things! C&P from prior thread: The rules are simple: Don't delete! Just edit…
The Socratic style of discourse lends itself quite well to establishing critical thinkers due to the fact that Socrates believed that enabling students to think for themselves was more important than filling their heads with knowledge. With so much talk about the Common Core standards and truly increasing our student's argumentative powers and critical thinking skills, I decided to launch a Socratic Seminar style of instruction in my sixth grade classroom this week. Our Seminar The Text My approach began by engaging in a guided reading of a novel titled I Can't Believe I Have To Do This by Jan Alford. Throughout the course of the week we read the novel and discussed story events and critical vocabulary associated with the readings. The Questions Students were given a Socratic Seminar "Prep Sheet" at the beginning of the week. The sheet asked the students to do the following: #1. Summarize the assigned reading #2. Identify 3 compelling quotes or statements from the reading #3. Develop one Knowledge based question #4. Develop one Application style question #5. Develop one Synthesis style question Download at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Socratic-Seminar-Packet The Set Up I then arranged my room in a double horseshoe configuration and assigned five students to be the inner circle. The inner circle students were slated to be the ones discussing and interacting. The outer circle of students were slated to observe and reflect and provide a 'backchannel'. The Discourse Relinquishing control was the MOST DIFFICULT thing!! Once the seminar began I truly had to force myself not to jump in and facilitate. Initially, it was truly awkward. Students nervously giggled and looked down at their papers. No one seemed willing to emerge as a leader. Once they realized that no one was coming to their rescue, the dialogue began and WOW. DID YOU KNOW?? A website called blockposters.com can take any .jpg or .gif image and turn it into a larger printable poster with overlapping edges for assembly?? Backchannel To occupy my outer circle, I distributed 5 ipads (1 for every 3 students) and allowed them to connect on todaysmeet.com. There they posted thoughts, questions, comments and even prompts to assist the inner circle. This back channel scrolled on the Smartboard throughout the seminar. (Admittedly, I didn't love the lack of grammar conventions demonstrated in the statements below.) Reflection/Assessment Without a doubt, we will do this again. Once the awkwardness ended, the dialog went FAR beyond what I've ever experienced with this novel. Students shared events that related DEEPLY to the characters, the character's choices and experiences. They also extrapolated character traits and applied them to new situations. As an assessment tool, each student completed an Exit Slip paragraph where they exercised their argumentative writing skills by completing a one paragraph reflection on the grade they deserved as a result of their participation in the seminar. Socratic discourse....making the kiddos use THEIR Smarticles!! All of my materials are available at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Socratic-Seminar-Packet
The Easiest Explanation
Everyone has those days when they “just can’t even.” These are the kinds of days when the news cycle is at its worst
