A second career for teachers is a great way to fluff up their resume experience, as well as branch out into different career paths.

Throwing out my grammar-based textbook transformed my Spanish classroom. I've gained confidence as a teacher, and my students have grown by leaps and bounds. We have bad days and good days, but the difference is our direct, daily contact with Spanish. There's no book curating the content for us: instead, songs, games, and stories are the meat-- not dessert. As a department of one, switching to a proficiency-based, comprehensible input-driven classroom was really hard. Though it was exciting, I felt unsure of myself and overwhelmed. I've created a series sharing my process, and hope it will help you

Brain breaks are fun with Mimic Me movement cards! This is a fun, interactive, movement activity or brain break, that students can play when they need a chance to get up out of their seats. This classroom management you activity can be played silently, or you can let the giggle fly! To play Mimic Me...

English Transition Words & Phrases, Linking Words List, Cause and Effect, Comparision, Contrast, Persuasion, Opinion, Conclusion, illustration, Addition, Emphasis; Cause & Effect Comparision Because Since For So Consequently Therefore Thus Hence Owing to As a result of Causes As a consequence of Leads to Contributes of For this reason Stems from Comes from Results from Is the result of Is the consequence of Is due to Is caused by Eqaully As with Likewise In the same way Similarly Like Of contrast Despite this In comparison In contrast Even though Conclusion To conclude In conclusion Finally On the whole Summarising Overall To

Each school year a unique mix of middle school students enter the doors of my classroom. Each with a story, each with different strengths, each with different weaknesses. I never take this responsibility lightly because what this means for me, as their teacher, is that I don't get to take the already published book off the shelf and write the same story as I did last year. Instead, we create and co-author a new story together. A story that I could never dream up or predict until it happens the way that it needs to happen. After all, doesn't every new class that enters your classroom door deserve a story of their very own? Because of this, the walls of my classroom to begin the year aside from staples I keep up each year, begin as a blank canvas. The anchor charts that fill my room happen naturally, as our story is being created, new anchor charts are being created to match the learning that is happening in the classroom. When students need to be reminded of a concept we have covered or an expectation that is expected of them, they can refer to the anchor charts on our walls and be brought back to that moment in our journey. Anchor charts help with retention of material, they help with developing student independence, and they also help to anchor routines and expectations. Below is the story of our learning so far this school year. "Before you turn in any piece of writing, ask yourself..." This anchor chart is designed to help students self-assess their writing and be that self-talk that many of them need. Teaching students to be reflective is one of the hardest yet most beneficial skills we can teach as teachers. This anchor chart is a great reminder for my students and for myself. The best thing about it? My co-teacher who teaches the same group of our students math and science is on board with holding students to these same writing expectations with this same language. During our weekly sentence stalking, students can use this anchor chart to gather ideas of different items to notice so that they're not always noticing the same types of things. These are the symbols I use when editing student writing and also the symbols I want them to use when they self-edit and edit their peers' writing. This anchor chart is a helpful, quick reminder of the editing symbols. I LOVE this anchor chart for middle school students. During the first few weeks of school, we referred to it often to self-assess how we did as a class and as an individual with following the expectations in order to make independent reading and writing time productive. If we have a rough day with following expectations, I come right back to this anchor chart and reinforce the positive behaviors students ARE exhibiting. Our current interactive read aloud is Killing Mr. Griffin, and it's written in 3rd person omniscient. Students are loving the almost spooky way the narrator of the story seems to know EVERYTHING. We had an awesome discussion about point of view through that and now students are actively identifying the point of view in their independent reading books. Reading is thinking, and one of the strategic reading actions to show that thinking is by summarizing. I like to start the year with a few minilessons on summarizing because it seems to be a building block for the other reading minilessons. These are some of the criteria we set for what summaries should include and not include. Writers use transitions for a variety of purposes. Crafting transitions smoothly into writing improves sentence fluency and help make ideas clear. This anchor chart will be a great reminder to aid students in doing this in their writing all school year.

Thinking about working from home as a teacher? Find the best remote job options for teachers here. PLUS salaries & job requirements!

Ready to put your education experience to use outside of the classroom? Learn how to become a curriculum developer with our 5-step guide. Click to read now.

Looking for a some fun ways to create flow from welcome, to lesson to activity, to closing in your music classroom? Creating a classroom environment of respect and accountability requires procedures, plans, rewards and consequences in your classroom. One way to keep everything flowing is to use transitions. This blog post has a ton of ideas for music class transitions.

We have an excellent range of articles, infographics, videos, and other resources specifically designed in an easy-to-understand format which will assist you

Answers: 1b 2c 3a 4c 5d 6d 7b 8a (cause and effect) linking_words_phrases (linking words) (linking words)

ELL Bathroom Briefs are one page infographs offering quick, easily accessible ELL strategies that can be used across cross-content areas.

I was thinking about how I teach online and how I teach in a classroom. Yes, both are different. But the Key to both is to focus on… The Student

Are you looking for ways to use comprehensible input methods in your world language classroom? Check out this post on how to transition to CI methods!

Transitions, For the beginning, For the middle, For the end (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || ).push({});…

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of connecting with Cheryl Parrish, the Children’s Ministry Director for Liberty Hill General Baptist Church in Dexter, Missouri. Cheryl and I were talking …

When teaching narrative writing in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade, there are so many writing skills to cover. They range from creating a sequence of events (beginning, middle, and end) to more difficult

Use these cards to create body percussion patterns. Print and laminate as many as you want to use in your desired pattern. Have students create patterns for the class following teacher direction e.g. an abc pattern, aabc, abcb etc.

Students begin at the bottom of the ladder, then add, remove, or rearrange letters in each word until they have made their way to the top! This quick-and-easy word study mini-lesson is perfect as a day starter, transition time, homework, or in a learning center!

Steal these for your writing unit!

Emails reveal staff members at a Pennsylvania school district attempted to hide a middle schooler’s preferred pronouns from the student’s parents.

Got a talkative class? Check out these 5 ways to quiet the chatter!

Answers: 1b 2c 3a 4c 5d 6d 7b 8a (cause and effect) linking_words_phrases (linking words) (linking words)

These brain breaks can act as a great, little addition to your classroom routine. They provide students with an opportunity to refocus, it gives them an outlet for their “wriggles” and can be used as a wonderful transitioning tool. Each brain break can be performed in 60 seconds or under which means that students can get back to work quickly. Depending on how “wriggly” your class is, you may like to complete a few brain breaks at a time. This pack includes 48 different brain breaks. They come in both a color and black & white version. Simply print, laminate and cut them out. All you need is some popsicle sticks! You may also like the DIGITAL version here: Digital Brain Breaks ♥♥♥ Follow me to be the first to hear about FREEBIES and updates ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ Earn TPT Credits when you leave feedback ♥♥♥ I welcome and appreciate any feedback, comments or suggestions. You may also contact me on [email protected]

Here is a stoplight graphic with words found in reading and used for writing in the beg, middle and end of a story/article.

Here's a reference poster (HI-RES) with 7 interesting ways to teach or review idioms. Click the image below to view the full-size poster for printing. If you think these idiom activities

With the common core in mind I have been thinking a lot about how to help students use precise language and textual evidence when su...

Teaching the different between public and private is important for so many reasons for our students with special needs. When teaching these concepts, I first talk about the difference between public and private places. We come up with a list and sort those places accordingly using visuals of one person versus multiple people. I created this sort from a boardmaker template and uploaded here on Board Maker Online. After talking about places, we move on to talking about both public and private places AND behaviors. We talk about what behaviors are appropriate in each area. This book and additional resources are found for free from SET-BC here and are available in PDF or Boardmaker files. (update: direct link here - other link now takes you to search) I love cut and paste activities because not only do they reinforce the skills taught, but also incorporate fine motor skills...and it takes a little while to complete :) Here's the other Board Maker Online activity that includes both public and private places and behaviors. Plus, check out all of these other great activities for this topic on Board Maker Online. I think it's so important for students to realize that private behaviors aren't bad, but they just need to be done in private! Here's to hoping there is no more nose picking or inappropriate self stimulation in my PUBLIC classroom! :) If you are looking for something more detailed to use with your students, I found this resource here. It is very informative and I didn't feel the need to go that in depth, but completely understand how some students might need those specifics.

I learned this song from my KTIP mentor, Alicia Franklin, during my first year teaching. I introduce this song in kindergarten and we sing it everyday when we line up. I sing the first note as a fermata and hold it until every student is joining in and doing their job to line up. There are hand motions to accompany the song. On the first word "my", we raise our hands in the air (this makes it easy to see who is actually paying attention in line and ready to sing the song). Then, we do what the song says. Phrase 1: place hands back Phrase 2: exaggerate good posture Phrase 3: take 2 fingers, point at eyes then straight ahead Phrase 4: hands return behind back Phrase 5: zip lips, pretend to put in pocket, hands return behind back, mouth is closed When the kids get to 1st grade, the song only makes guest appearances when we need help remembering how to line up or when I want to see if they can apply the musical concept we just learned. Using the Song For Assessment Assess Tempo If we learned about tempo that day, we may choose a tempo (largo, moderato, allegro) and sing our song accordingly. They may also get to line up to a tempo. I may ask them to show me allegro feet, largo feet, or moderato feet to line up. Depending on how much time is left in class, I may do this individually or in small groups. If I do it individually, I usually take notes in my grade book for a performance assessment. Older students can watch the conductor and respond to accelerandos and ritardandos. Assess Dynamics If we learned about dynamics that day, we may choose a dynamic level for the entire song (piano, mezzopiano, mezzoforte, forte) or watch the conductor to see how the dynamic levels change throughout the song. Older students can usually remember a pattern to assign different dynamic levels to each phrase. Similar to the game discussed above, sometimes we can line up with piano feet (tiptoeing) or forte feet (stomping). Again, depending on the time remaining in class, this is either done individually or in small groups and is sometimes used as a performance assessment. Assess Melody If we learned about melodic direction that day, we may use our hand levels to show the melodic contour. (That's why I like the simple shape of this melody going upward then downward.) If we discussed pitch, we may sing it in a high key or a low key. Assess Harmony If we learned about minor harmony (Halloween), we may choose to change the song to minor and make it sound spooky. (All the kids LOVE this!) Assess Timbre If we discussed different types of voices (speaking, whisper, calling, singing), we may choose to use different voices to use throughout the entire song, or we may change our voices for each phrase. I also have voice cards that I can hold up and show the students what to change to. (View the next post for printable voice cards.) Assess Rhythm If we discussed rhythm (long and short sounds), we may sing the song exaggerating note lengths in tenuto or staccato style. If we discussed a fermata, we may choose one or two words to have a fermata and sing those words really long. Coda These are just a few examples of how I use our line up song for assessment. Sometimes, instead of telling them how to sing it, I let the kids pick a variation to sing. Again, I only sing it every time with kindergarten; and they never get tired of singing it. It only appears occasionally with older grades. It appears sometimes as a warning to those not ready for the hall: "Do we HAVE to revisit kindergarten and sing the line-up song?" Their behavior is quickly corrected. Many older students LOVE the line up song, as it brings nostalgia from kindergarten. Even if you have a line-up song already in place, you could probably use these assessment strategies with your song as well. I would love to hear other ideas to use line-up songs as assessment tools. If you have some more ideas, please comment below.

Answers: 1b 2c 3a 4c 5d 6d 7b 8a (cause and effect) linking_words_phrases (linking words) (linking words)

Need a fun and engaging game for students to practice homophones? Then have them play these homophone games using the 38 most misused and misspelled homophone pairs in English. There are 4 gameboards to differentiate practice for students. Both color and ink-saver versions are included! Learning about homophones in a game format allows students to make learning fun and challenging. Students can play with a partner or in small groups. The games focus on spelling each homophone, using homophones in a sentence, and defining each pair of homophones. There are four versions of the game board: Version 1: Make up a sentence for the homophone Version 2: Spell the word that is the homophone for the word in the space (set 1) Version 3: Spell the word that is the homophone for the word in the space (set 2) Version 4: Define each pair of homophones. HOW IT WORKS Each version is played in the same manner but using a different gameboard. You'll need to print, laminate, cut, and store in a baggie. Add markers (game pieces) and a die, and you are ready! Up to six players can play on one board. Each game version comes with printed directions and an answer key. WHAT'S INCLUDED Four game boards Four sets of game cards (1 for each game) Answer Keys for each version Game Instructions for each version List of homophones used Set of word cards with all the homophones (76 total) A poster of Homophone Harriet NON-COLOR versions added for game boards, rules, game cards, answer keys, a poster, etc. The game is adaptable to grade levels 2 - 5 for those students needing more practice with homophones (especially English Language Learners!). All students need to practice spelling the homophones, using the correct ones in writing, and understanding homophones when reading. Check out the preview to see what's included. TEACHERS, LIKE YOU, SAID… ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Brittany K. says, "Great product! My students enjoyed playing." ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Mary S. says, "My students enjoyed playing these games." ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Teresa L. says, "The kids thought they were playing a game instead of learning. :)) Related Products ⭐ Prefix Games with Four Levels of Difficulty ⭐ Prefix and Suffix Vocabulary Assessments ⭐ Synonym Games Three Games in One ⭐ Antonyms Vocabulary Assessment ⭐ Context Clues Vocabulary Assessment ⭐ Contractions PowerPoint, Posters, Task Cards and Printables ⭐ Homophones Vocabulary Assessment ⭐ Irregular Plural Nouns Game with 4 Levels of Difficulty ⭐ Synonyms Mini-Book ⭐ Synonyms Vocabulary Assessment Copyright © Two Boys and a Dad Productions All rights reserved by the author. Permission to copy for single classroom use only. Permission to use on secure digital learning management system platforms (such as Google Classroom, Teams, Canva, etc.) ******************************************************************* Interested in more resources for English Language Arts for: ★ character analysis ★ central message ★ point of view and perspectives ★ literature companion packs ★ literary centers ★ shades of meaning ★ commas and addresses ★ vocabulary assessments ★ narrative writing ★ ELA games CLICK HERE FOR ELA RESOURCES ******************************************************************* Comments, suggestions, feedback, and questions are always welcomed! ******************************************************************* ♦ Be sure to FOLLOW ME for updates and new product announcements! ♦ Do you need some fresh ideas and tips? Then visit My BLOG. ♦ Each time you give feedback, TPT gives you feedback credits that you use to lower the cost of your future purchases. I value your feedback greatly! ♦ If you have any questions or concerns, contact me through the Q & A, and I'll get back to you ASAP!

I love using class call backs and attention grabbers! These are so fun! My class loves them! This freebie is a classroom staple!

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that has gained recognition and understanding over the…