A four-step approach to using a powerful model that increases student agency in learning.

The activities below are available for free download, and are to be used in educational and/or private settings. They may not be used elsewhere or for other purposes (such as for profit) unless exp…

Slang in the classroom is not for every ESL teacher. Those whose students’ future language usage will be limited to formal situations in which slang is not used may want to spend preci

A teaching approach that utilizes Gareth Hinds' Graphic Novel, The Odyssey.

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Every English language arts teacher needs a variety of successful, student led discussion strategies that will provide opportunities for student learning.

Many would agree that for inquiry to be alive and well in a classroom that, amongst other things, the teacher needs to be expert at asking strategic questions. With that in mind, if you are a new teacher or perhaps not so new but know that question-asking is an area where you'd like to grow, start tomorrow with these five ideas.

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I LOVE making charts! Step into my classroom and you’ll probably say, “Wow, someone has too much time!” but to be honest, I don’t! I just love them so much and love the w…

6 Ways to Get Your Student's Attention Without Talking % %

Teaching (and attending) writing classes can get a bit boring sometimes. This board game aims to put more fun (and competition) into writing. With the prompts given on each square, players or team try to make sentences and get to the finish line first. SAMPLE ANSWERS and instructions included on game board. Let´s make writing a joy! - ESL worksheets

Here are a list of easy to implement aticipatory sets to focus students' attention, activate prior knowledge, and prepare them for a day of learning.

I love the way we created our class agreements this year. First, students participated in a carousel activity where they went around the room to each poster. They had a pile of small post it notes that they used to respond to the questions- A Great Classmate, IS-DOES-SAYS-DOES NOT... A Terrific Teacher, IS-DOES-SAYS-DOES NOT... A Learner, IS-DOES-SAYS-DOES NOT... A Classroom of Learners, IS- LOOKS LIKE- FEELS... Then each group of 4 students looked at all of the responses and came up with their own class agreements. Finally, we put them all together and this is what they came up with. I think they did a great job!

Step into the Best Practices in your ELA Classroom: Gallery Walk. Discover a new approach to learning with hands-on activities that encourage student engagement. This gallery walk model fosters interactive learning, critical thinking, and a collaborative classroom environment. Revolutionize your teaching approach with this innovative method.

Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism

Steal these for your writing unit!

I’m back from my little hiatus, and we are LOVING our new home!!!! My life has been absolute CRAZY TOWN, and I really haven’t taken enough pictures lately. Honestly, snapping photos has been the absolute last thing on my mind. I did manage to capture a few snippets of our classroom activities though. We have …

{Download FREEBIE pack here.} Economics is my absolute FAVORITE social studies unit to teach. There are so many hands-on activities to do with students and they are so eager to earn and spend money! One of my favorite activities is to end with our "Madden's Marketplace." This is a chance for students to put into action all of the things they have learned about being producers and consumers. To begin with, I send home a letter asking students to create paper goods. Why paper? It's something all of my students have at home (or I can easily give them). I want my marketplace to be fair for all students. I'm sure I could let them have the freedom to create any product, using any materials and I would get some amazing masterpieces. I would also get some elaborate (and expensive) items. That's not what I want. I encourage parents to spend NO money on this and for it to be STUDENT CREATED. I really want them to take the initiative. Here are some samples of paper products my students created to sell this year - everything from rockets to bookmarks to lanterns to hats. I incorporate the making of goods into my students' homework schedule, encouraging them to create two products per night. Before the due date, we work on creating "shops" in class. We create our "shop" by gluing two file folders together. The picture below is using legal-sized file folders, but that just happens to be what we had available. Shop Parts: Signs: Initially, we create the signs for our shops, color the awnings to make them eye-catching. Open/Closed: Next, we create open/closed signs that sit atop our shop so we can easily flip the sign to show the status of our shops. Slogan: We then come up with a catchy slogan. We talk about slogan's we know from commercials. Why did those stick in our heads? We learn to use a play on words, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc. to make our slogans catchy so consumers will remember them. Product Description: Students each write a product description detailing WHAT their product is and HOW it works or can be used. We talk about the importance of letting consumers know exactly what they are getting. Commercial Script: Finally, students write commercials to "sell" their products to their classmates. We use hooks to get their attention, repetitions of our catchy slogans, and persuasion. Other Components: We also glue on the Consumer Comments, Price, and Interest Inventories, but we leave all of those blank initially. On the day of the marketplace, students set up their shops and lay their products out on display. Then, they have a chance to walk around the classroom and "window shop." They are encouraged to take a good look at all of their options, reading the product descriptions and examining the merchandise. After students have had a good look at all of their choices, I give them stickers (I would recommend 3-4). They walk around and place their stickers on the "Interest Inventory" of the products that interest them the most. The results of the interest inventory are used by the shop owners to determine if they have a high demand or low demand for their products. Knowing the demand helps them determine a price for their product. High demand = higher price. Low demand = lower price. The only rule is that all prices have to be in whole dollars. Once prices are set, then students are ready to go shopping! There are many different ways to let students shop. Some years, if I've done economy-based management system, my students will use "money" they've earned to shop. This year, I just gave them all $12 to shop with. I'm always torn about letting my students split into groups to run their shops (half shop while half work) - it always seems that students don't get to shop at all of the stores in that scenario. To solve that problem, I let all of my students shop at the same time. To do this students create "tokens" to leave at their shop. They create the same number as products they have to sell. For example, if Katie has 10 kites to sell, she creates and leaves 10 tokens with her name or shop name on them. Once each shop has tokens, students are ready to shop. Since there are no workers at the shops to collect money, I give my students "consumer spending logs" with pictures of dollars on them. Since I gave my students 12 dollars to spend, their consumer spending logs had 12 one dollar pictures. As students go around to the shops, they color in the dollars they've spent and pick up tokens (NOT products) that they will trade in for their purchases once the shops close. Once all of the tokens are gone, that shop is "closed." Once a student has colored in all of the dollars on his/her spending log, they are done shopping. It really works out quite well. Once students have traded all of their tokens in for their goods, they are given paper for providing feedback to the shops. They slip these into the "consumer comments" pockets on the storefronts. They love reading the feedback from their customers! <3 After wrapping up our shops, students are often left with some extra products. Instead of having them take their own products back home, I let them put another economics concept into practice - BARTERING! They have a blast working out "fair swaps" for their products and really working to get the other things they may have wanted but didn't have the money to purchase...and of course, they do all of this while proudly wearing some of their favorite purchases. :) All in all, it is a fun day of learning. Students take their roles as both producers and consumers seriously and come away with a real sense of accomplishment! If you would like to download this packet of FREE resources to hold your own Economics shop, you can do so HERE. Enjoy!

Using the Matariki star cluster as a context for learning can cover many different subjects. Matariki is also known as the Pleiades, and it is a widely recognised star cluster around the globe.

Call and response signals are an effective way to save class time by grabbing students' attention quickly and helping them transition to the next activity.

@MaryEhrenworth Listen to conversation like its gold #TCRWP #bookclub

This one takes a little prep work the first time 'round. But after that, you're set forever. It's a great way to include a little kinesthetic activity into the study of DNA. First, the prep work: On a long strip of paper* write out a string of DNA bases (actually, you're making the mRNA). You want to make sure your letters are evenly spaced - I actually marked the paper. Keep a codon chart handy - make sure you begin with a start codon and don't come to a stop codon immediately. And, don't make the mistake of using T instead of U, as someone did... Now you need to make a ribosome through which your strip of paper can fit. I made mine out of fun foam. It has magnets on the back, so it sticks to the white board. Cut the window in the ribosome, so that you can see 3 bases at a time (hence the reason for evenly spacing your letters). Use this picture to guide you: Now you need to make the amino acids. Once again I used fun foam. I wrote the amino acid on the foam, punched holes in it and strung string through the holes so the students could wear them. For the activity: Draw a huge circle on the board - a cell. Sketch in a nucleus and stick your ribosome in the middle as well. Show your students the mRNA (your paper strip) moving from the nucleus to the ribosome. Feed the mRNA into the ribosome. Have your students translate the first 3 mRNA bases into an amino acid. Have a student put the appropriate amino acid placard on and stand in front of the room. Move the mRNA to the next three bases. Determine the amino acid. Have another student put on the appropriate placard, then stand next to the first student and hold his/her hand. Proceed this way until you come to a stop codon, or until you've made your point. Your students will have a better feel for how a ribosome translates mRNA, how proteins are formed, and understand that proteins are long chains of amino acids. * I got a few sentence strips from an elementary teacher in my building - they're the perfect size and shape for this, I didn't have to cut them, and they have lines marked on them! ****** I learned this from a fellow teacher at a NJ Science Teachers Association Convention several years ago. I don't know who that teacher is - but if you're out there, please let me know - I'd like to give you credit.

Guided reading is an excellent instructional tool, but guided reading for ELLs is equally as effective--and maybe even more important!

Want to know what your kids are really thinking? These Conversation Starters for Kids will help you find out.

Comment commencer l'année en 3e ? Avec une activité différenciée pour se présenter à l'oral comme à l'écrit !

Update, January 1, 2019: Hi! I have posted each resource as a free download in my new Teachers Pay Teachers store. I just uploaded the files, so they may not all be visible for a couple of hours, …

A booklet I made in preparation for my continuing Orff teacher certification. It contains helpful references to Orff techniques as well as how to set out an Orff style score in Sibelius & Finale.

This is a fun worksheet to practice the Past Simple or the Past Continuous. Students look at the pictures and fill in the gaps with one of the linking words in the box in order to complete the story.

Teaching plot elements to upper elementary students? Use a picture book to engage your students! Read it aloud, and then create a plot diagram!

Poorly implemented co-teaching practices may be taking the “special” out of special education, say many who train teachers and districts in collaboration.

Students and Parents: Here are the slides we went over on the first day of class. Please refer to these slides if you have questions about grading, our class matrix, goals for 7th grade art, etc. Please email me with any additional questions. Thanks! Mrs. Hare -Mrs. Hare

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An InLinkz Link-up To get the ball rolling, here are my Top 10 Classroom Faves (in no particular order)! 1.) Interactive Scie...