Inspirational People

A Memorable Memorial Day in the Classroom

by Laura Groves on May 24, 2012

What’s Memorial Day besides a day for the grill and a family picnic? Or just a day off from school?

Would you like to make it much more in your classroom? You can make a Memorial Day memory for your students while honoring our country’s fallen heroes.

Memorial Day was originally named Decoration Day, and it was a day for decorating the graves of those who gave their lives in war. Later proclaimed Memorial Day, it has long marked the beginning of summer for many of us.

Some of us will be finished with the school for the year, some of us will be wishing we were, and some of us are moms looking for instructional ideas for teaching moments at home. Whichever category fits you, here’s hoping these ideas will pique your interest.

5 Ways to Celebrate Memorial Day

1. Host a veteran. Memorial Day is about those we lost in war, but any activity that heightens our awareness of that experience is bound to be educational. Invite a veteran to your classroom. Ask him or her to share lunch with you. Brainstorm questions with the students ahead of time so they’re ready.

2. Write letters. Has your community recently lost a soldier? Make a class card for that fallen soldier’s family. Do you have students whose relatives are serving our country? Do the same, thanking them for their service. Remind the students that many of those who now serve have lost friends in the line of duty, and make that Memorial Day connection.

3. Read The Wall by Eve Bunting. It’s a children’s book, but it’s touching no matter what your students’ ages. Talk about The Wall. Ask students what they would design if they could create a memorial for our fallen soldiers. Art projects may result!

4. Make a graph. Do a little research and gather statistics on the numbers of soldiers lost in different wars. Make a graph. There’s a great online tool called Create a Graph that you can use. This can really drive the point home—a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

5. Read “In Flanders Field” by John McCrae. This is a great one for older students. It’s a beautiful poem penned in 1915, with a sweet story behind it. And while reading, you can define terms like tetrameter, sonnet, stanza, and rhyme scheme. Then let students try their hand at poetry that memorializes our fallen heroes.

These are just a few ideas, but hopefully they stir some creative juices. Put on your red, white, and blue thinking cap and come up with a way to put a personal face on Memorial Day for your students.

We all know kids are the best teachers, so rest assured—your classroom support of our fallen heroes will spread from family to family.

Make a memory for your students this Memorial Day.

*photo credit, creative commons flickr / post written by Laura Groves

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Be the Bean

by Kendal Privette on May 15, 2012

Coffee Beans 

The North Carolina Teacher of the Year, Tyronna Hooker,  spoke at one of our faculty meetings recently – a shot in the arm as we enter this season of testing. She shared an inspirational story with us, and, although I have to admit that I don’t always pay attention to the heartwarmers, I was…inspired. In the story a woman who is facing adversity boils a carrot in one pot, an egg in another and a coffee bean in another. The carrot gets mushy and the egg hard, but the coffee bean? Changes the water. School isn’t always easy, but we all, teachers and students alike, have a choice in how we respond to challenges.

I thought about the ways in which my students have been the bean this year. Making bracelets to raise money to provide clean water in Africa, welcoming students with special needs to their classroom, writing award-winning speeches, assisting teachers in a grant-writing project to provide a defibrillator for our school, pitching in to help our custodian while another has been on medical leave for four months, and the list goes on.

I want to be the bean everyday for my students – challenging their minds, dispelling myths, breaking up stereotypes and always, always pushing for more.

I want to be the bean everyday for my colleagues – smiling, working as a team player, and helping in any way I can.

I want to be the bean in my community – listening, advocating for students  and speaking positive words about my school.

How about you? In what ways have your students been agents for change this year? In what ways do you want to be the bean?

Kendal teaches 7th grade social studies and blogs at a spacious place

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Teaching kids (and ourselves) about being judgmental

by angela_watson on April 5, 2012

Have you seen this video? It’s been making the rounds on the interwebz for awhile and recently gained attention again when a high profile video-curating site shared it. Currently it has over 70 million views. Take a look–it’s only 45 seconds:

What thoughts floated through your mind as you listened to this child sing?  Maybe you had some of the same ideas as the people who commented about the video on YouTube: Yeah, he’s cute and all, but isn’t it sad that this child is so fat? How could his parents feed him so much junk food? Letting a kid get that big…wow…almost seems like child abuse.

Now watch this video the young man, Sam, made a few years later:

Well. It turns out that Sam is not obese at all. He happens to have a chronic, aggressive kidney disease which results in extreme swelling in his body, and the medication he takes to control the disease often makes the swelling worse. His weight problem has nothing to do with what he’s eating (or what his mom has been feeding him.) In fact, take a look at these two photos of Sam, one before he was inflicted with the disease, and one just a few weeks later:

Cuppycake boy before and after his disease

Isn’t it amazing how that one extra piece of information about Sam’s health completely transforms the way you view this young boy and his family? One missing link can alter your whole perspective of a situation.

I commend Sam for taking the criticism he received and turning it into a lesson on compassion and refraining from judgment. You can show the first video to your students and ask them to share their preconceived notions about Sam, then show the second one and talk about how their feelings changed after watching the second video. Here are a few teaching points you may want to guide them to understand:

  • People you see on the internet are real people, with real feelings.
  • The things you write on the Internet could be seen by the person you’re writing about and could be hurtful.
  • Watching a 45 second YouTube video does not give anyone enough information to make a judgment about a person.
  • Sometimes truths which appear to be self-evident are completely false.
  • We should always show compassion to others, because we have no idea what the extent of their problems might be.
  • It’s better to believe the best about others and give them the benefit of the doubt before criticizing.

What other lessons could you draw from Sam’s story? I’d love to hear about your (and your students’) reactions.

Angela Watson is the creator of The Cornerstone, a collection of print and online resources designed to make teaching more effective, efficient, and enjoyable. Angela was a classroom teacher for 11 years and currently works as an instructional coach and educational consultant based in New York City.  She conducts webinars and writes books centered on her passion for helping teachers build strong classroom management and a positive mindset so they can truly enjoy their work. Angela’s website, TheCornerstoneForTeachers.com, features hundreds of free teaching articles, lesson ideas and activities, classroom photos, printable forms/posters, and more. You can follow her on Twitter at: Angela_Watson .

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Martin Luther King Jr. Lesson Ideas and Videos

by Laura Gurley on January 12, 2012

Whether we recognize it or not, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s influence reaches into every classroom in America today. This Baptist preacher from Alabama  refused to step down in the face of injustice– despite being imprisoned 20 times, being stabbed in the chest, and being threatened and defamed during his years of public service. His house was bombed at one point, and he eventually suffered the ultimate blow for his role in peacefully standing for equality.  But, as I read recently,

“Ideals are bulletproof.”

And aren’t we glad they are?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is celebrated the third Monday of every January. You won’t have kids in school that day, but if you are looking for a quick lesson idea to remind students about the inspirational leader Martin Luther King was, consider showing this four minute video from the Biography Channel and then this clip from his famous I Have a Dream speech.

For more resources on Martin Luther King, Jr, consider this 4-minute video by BrainPop about King’s life. It is an animated video, targeted towards children. The lovely Laura Candler from Teaching Resources has put together a packet of activities that correlate to this video about King’s life.  All resources and lesson plans are free.

 

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Justin Bieber Visits a Needy School

January 4, 2012
Justin Bieber Spreads Inspiration to a Needy School

If you work with students in any capacity, you know Justin Bieber.  Our family is homeschooling in Thailand, and we even have a cat named after the guy. {Bieber is a cute kitty name, is it not?} Much to my surprise, and to the delight of my eight-year-old daughter, I came across this inspirational story [...]

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A Different Kind of Queen

November 4, 2011

Sometimes the selfish, entitled attitudes of the students I teach astound me. Cars, Facebook, cell phones, and image prove more valuable than the feelings of others. Other times, my heart swells when I see teenagers act in a truly selfless way. See, I know teens who tired of the usual prom court royalty. Who longed [...]

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The Surprise of Six

November 4, 2011
The Surprise of Six 3-Pointers

There is a goodness in humanity– even teenage humanity– that rises in the form of a mosh-pit on a basketball court when a certain someone nails another three-pointer. Evidence that sometimes even the unassuming can surprise us with greatness we never expected. And perhaps one of our greatest roles as educators is to be the [...]

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Think Different {A Lesson Plan for History and Individuality}

October 26, 2011
Think Different {A Lesson Plan for History and Individuality}

The following is a simple lesson plan for middle school and high school history, but it can also serve as a lesson idea teaching individuality and creativity, too. You can use the video and discussion questions for a quick ten-minute character lesson, or you can stretch the lesson into a more in-depth education of modern-day [...]

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Help

October 4, 2011
Help

Congratulations to the winners of our Thai ring giveaway . . . Caroline L. {subscriber}, PennyBugMom, and Jennifer J. P. Email me your address, ladies, and I will get those in the mail this week. {lauraleighparker @ gmail . com} Thanks to those who tweeted and shared and followed.  We’ll be giving something else away [...]

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