To practice blending sounds, Marna at Crayon Bits, sings the Hokey Pokey with her students. She shares an example of the words she substitutes into the song, helping her students practice blending the letters: You put a (s- say letter name) in, you put a (m – say letter name) in, you put a (s […]
TODD’S TECH TUESDAY: Google your own adventure
You know those cool choose-your-own-adventure books you enjoyed as a kid? Well, using Google forms, you can create your own for the classroom or you can have students create their own. Read all about it on Bionic Teaching. Reluctant writers might be interested in creating these for their friends or even for younger students in […]
Middle school literacy centers
Looking for a new literacy center format for you middle grade students? At A Teacher’s Treasure, Mrs Zrihen has her 6th-8th grade students create most of her centers in order to give the them ownership and a chance to think differently about the material. On her blog, Mrs. Zrihen shared her latest student designed activity […]
How many syllables are in your name?
Make learning personal by creating class books for various lessons. For instance, you might take a cue from Mrs. Larramore at Chalk Talk and make a book to help students learn syllables. In the book, she included a picture of each student with clapping hands icons to show the number of syllables in their names. […]
Is your math lesson Taboo?
Many times students are able to give you a definition of a math term, but they do not really understand the concept. Challenge them to sharpen their understanding of certain terms and concepts with a game of Math Taboo. We lifted this idea from a high school teacher in Brooklyn who uses Taboo with his ELL […]
The teacher becomes the student
One way to help draw your students into a new writing assignment is to model it for them. NYC Educator writes about the usefulness of occasionally participating in the students’ assignments as they work in class. This model of literacy-in-action can help some learners acquire new writing behaviors (e.g., writing fluently) and can provide others with […]
Fashion forward vocab
Hello and welcome back! I hope you love today’s idea as much as I do. I thought we needed a little fun to welcome us all back to the classroom so this is one that should make vocabulary lessons a bit lighter and even entertaining. I am also recommended a site inside a site today […]
TODD’S TECH TUESDAY: Blogging in biology
Today’s post is a bit different in that the blog itself is the recommended “lesson” or teaching tool! Extreme Biology is an amazing blog maintained by Ms. Baker and her high school biology students. The students blog about many different biology-related topics and are responsible for many different aspects of blog creation and development. Imagine […]
