Teaching Resources & Products

10 Books for Girls that Encourage Strength

by Amy Sullivan on November 16, 2012

In honor of Malala Day (You know Malala, she’s the fourteen-year-old girl who was shot in the head a little over a month ago because of her stance on girls’ education), I developed a list of books to inspire the young girls who line our lives. When the girls in our class (or our own girls) are faced with a challenge, it’s my hope they stare that sucker straight in the face. On with the list…

1. You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer. This book first caught my eye because of our own, ten-year-old Amelia, but open the pages and the reader will find a sassy, world changer who wants to climb trees, ride bikes, and live an adventurous life without having to worry about the dreadful ‘ol skirts she’s required to wear. Thanks, for your good taste in books, Auntie Sara.

2. A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Women. A celebration of the achievements of the under noticed women achievers in America.

3. Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman. I never knew Wilma Rudolph endured polio as a child. She overcame many obstacles and proved doctors wrong. Discovered this one through a fifth grader.

4. The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq. Based on a true story about a woman librarian in Iraq who worked to save her community’s library.

5. Me…Jane. A book about Dr. Jane Goodall, a woman who worked her entire life to make a difference for all living things.

6. Sojourner Truth’s Step-Stomp Stride. Sojourner Truth step-stomp strides along bravely and pushes to fight injustice in America.

7. Fearless Female Journalists. Short biographies of little known, but great women who risked their lives to tell the story.

8. Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange. Fine, this one is included because I’m a photographer wanna-be (minus even owning a camera). Dorothea Lange pushed the world to see images of the Depression and World War II, a very big deal because at this time in history, a woman’s place was not behind a camera.

9. Girls Think of Everything. This book focuses on the important and practical inventions girls have made throughout the years. Any idea who invented the windshield wiper? Yep, it was a girl!

10. Rosa’s Bus. Seamstress, Rosa Parks ignited some serious fury when she decided to keep herself firmly planted in her seat on bus #2857.

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Amy L. Sullivan teaches Special Education, and spends her time loving two strong girls who happen to live under her roof.

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Why Teach Mental Math?

by Shelley Gray on October 10, 2012

Mental math is an important part of today’s math curriculum, especially those that are implementing the Common Core. Even if this is not the way that you learned math when you were in school, I will promise you that it is extremely effective and REALLY makes sense once you get started with it.

Rather than writing everything out here, I am going to share a couple of videos that I created last year. They will give you a quick overview of some of the most effective strategies as well as a recommended order of teaching.

The first video explains Mental Math addition strategies:

 

This video explains Mental Math subtraction strategies:

 

I hope that these videos are useful to your mental math instruction!

 

Have a great day,

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Erasing the White Walls – Publishing and Presenting Student Work

by Kendal Privette on October 8, 2012

She was fourteen-years old and holding her boyfriend’s hand at the water fountain. “That one’s mine,” she told him as she pointed to her Venn diagram comparing and contrasting Hinduism and Buddhism hanging on the wall.  She was pregnant. The boyfriend, already sixteen in the 8th grade was trying to hold down a restaurant job so he could take care of his girl. And they cared to look at her carefully drawn circles on the pink piece of construction paper. He, this young man who rode a moped to a job at night, listened as she explained her process.  I was stunned. I have always hung student work in the hallways, but until then, I thought I was just contributing to the aesthetic appeal of our school. I didn’t realize that even big kids care. According to Rick Wormeli, a national education consultant and veteran educator, one of the five ways educators should transition students through the formative adolescent years is to understand students’ concerns about belonging by, “Design(ing) classrooms and hallways with student interests in mind, with student work prominently displayed.” Publishing and presenting work for authentic audiences, even if it’s other students in the school, provides students incentive to persevere to quality learning and product. My principal has made unique connections with students this year by having them show him their work in the hall and then photographing the pieces with his phone. He shares his collection with others as they visit our school building. I’ve compiled a list of a few ways that middle schoolers at my school publish and present their work. I would love to hear what you do in your school!

  • posters
  • student-led conferences
  • writing contests
  • web-based, digital presentations such as Prezi, Glogster, Storybird
  • Power Point presentations
  • Post-it notes
  • phone images
  • Email or blog comments
  • letters
  • videos
  • performances

What are your favorite ways to publish student work?

photo credit

Kendal’s personal blog is a spacious place.

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Make This Fire Safety Big Book

by Laura Gurley on October 2, 2012

October is Fire Prevention Month and many early childhood teachers are gearing up to discuss this topic with their students. It can sometimes be a difficult concept to address with our littlest learners, and teachers are often walking a fine line here. On one hand– our kids definitely need to know about fire safety, but on the other hand– it can be a scary topic for young students. How do you get them the information they need to know without making them too fearful?

 

One idea that I had was to create a Fire Safety Big Book for teachers to share with their class. I decided to use Carson Dellosa’s Fire Safety Bulletin Board Set (CD-110129). I really liked this set because it clearly illustrates the important fire safety points that kids need to remember, but the drawings incorporate cute characters that help to keep the topic less scary for students. I just typed up a few pages of text to coordinate with the bulletin board set and attached all of the pieces to large orange sheets of construction paper and bound with book rings.

 

Fire Safety Big Book Cover

Fire Safety Big Book Cover

Fire Safety Book Page 1

Page 1

Fire Safety Big Book Page 2

Page 2

Fire Safety Big Book Page 3

Page 3

Fire Safety Book Page 4

Page 4

Fire Safety Book Page 5

Page 5

Fire Safety Book Page 6

Page 6

Fire Safety Book Page 7

Page 7

Fire Safety Book Page 8

Page 8

 

Need the bulletin board set? Click Here

What other big book ideas do you have for your class? I’ll be sharing one more fall big book idea with you soon!

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A Teaching Tool You HAVE to Meet!

September 26, 2012

Looking for a great study tool for your students? Check out Quizlet – the leading study site in the US. I learned about Quizlet from my high school sophomores, who use it all the time. And it’s easy to see that Quizlet’s tools can be used for all ages. Quizlet was created by Andrew Sutherland [...]

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Prepare for your Early Finishers: Giveaway!

September 12, 2012

What do your students do when they are done their work? Read? Finish up homework? Become a classroom management issue? In order to address the issue keeping fast finishers engaged once they have completed their work, I created an Early Finisher Board. On the board, there are seven sections: Read It, Write It, Solve It, [...]

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On Feeding the Planet and Learning in the Process

September 7, 2012
On Feeding the Planet and Learning in the Process

It’s my favorite kid-friendly site on the net. Free Rice.  Sponsored by and supporting  the United Nations World Food Programme, Free Rice has two goals: to provide education to everyone for free. to help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free. How does it work? Players answer quiz questions, and for [...]

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When They Learn Differently

August 20, 2012

Some call it lazy. Others think it’s a lack of discipline. If that kid could just get organized, stop talking, understand facial expressions, and do the assigned homework, success would follow. Right? But that kid in your class, the one with the learning disability, the one you like, but you struggle to reach, can’t seem [...]

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Free Resources for Back-to-School

August 8, 2012

For many of you, back-to-school is right around the corner. For others, you may already be back in your classrooms with another group of students. Regardless of your current situation, chances are good that you are always on the prowl for resources for your classroom. As an author on TeachersPayTeachers, I have rounded up some [...]

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Free Video Clips to Enhance Your Character Education Lessons

July 16, 2012

Looking for the perfect video to introduce a character trait? Look no more. Wing Clips contains a treasure trove of movie clips to inspire and illustrate, and guess what? You can use Wing Clips for free. Yep, for free. Need a clip to illustrate teamwork? Wing Clips has twenty-three. What about this clip from the [...]

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