FREE digital textbook for Civics and US History

FREE digital textbook for Civics & US History

Just in time for the start of the school year, the Bill of Right's Institute has the perfect resource that will make lesson-planning a breeze. Their FREE digital textbook, Documents of Freedom, is a tremendous resource for teachers looking for a helping hand in the classroom. The book covers history, civics, and economics, and it contains great lessons, interactive activities, and material relevant to today's America.

You can sign up for Documents of Freedom here.

Anti-Bullying Resources for our Schools

I came across this site over the summer and was immediately impressed the the amount of content available.  Peruse through and look for some great resources to use in the classroom for anti-bullying lessons and activities.

Anti-Bullying Resources for our Schools

As we all know, there was a tragic suicide of a middle school student in a neighboring town last spring. I am sure many teachers, parents, and administrators there are reflecting on what happened and how cyberbullying allegedly played a part. 

During our PD Day, I hope to share some resources that we can use in our classes to promote proper digital citizenship, especially as our students receive phones and online access earlier and earlier each year. The two resources are from Tolerance.Org and CommonSenseMedia.

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STANDARDIZED TESTING

Test Prep Doesn’t Have to Be Overwhelming

Help your students use technology and build their confidence—and teach them to speak the tests’ language.

By Heather Wolpert-Gawron

March 10, 2009 Updated March 15, 2017

Testing is just around the corner. Whether tests are designed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SCAC) or the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), schools nationwide are most likely beginning those additional meetings, signing legal documents full of security warnings, and sending out robocalls with such sage wisdom as “Get sleep.”

Test prep generally takes the form of practice questions, daily drills at the start of class, or worse, a halting of curriculum altogether for the sake of administering entire packets of daily test questions. I recently  (continue reading>>)

Why Students Forget -- and what you can do about it

Our brains are wired to forget, but there are research-backed strategies you can use to make your teaching stick.

By Youki Terada

September 20, 2017

Teachers have long known that rote memorization can lead to a superficial grasp of material that is quickly forgotten. But new research in the field of neuroscience is starting to shed light on the ways that brains are wired to forget—highlighting the importance of strategies to retain knowledge and make learning stick.

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This blog by Richad Byrne offers so much technology links, tips, and help for teachers, and it is all for FREE.  Can't get any better than that.
There is a lot to look at here and I encourage everybody to peruse his page.



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FREE Illustrative Mathematics 6–8 Math Curriculum Now Open

FREE Illustrative Mathematics 6–8 Math Curriculum Now Open

One of my favorite websites for math has been Illustrative Mathematics, an incredible resource for K-12 mathematics instruction. That is why I was so excited by the news that they have just released a NEW 6–8 Grade Math curriculum as an Open Educational Resource, which means it is FREE!.

You can

Helping Ease Student Anxiety

Helping Ease Student Anxiety

Here is an interesting article by ASCD titled "Helping Ease Student Anxiety." After all, when we tell anxious students to "calm down," we're assuming they have the skills to do so. These classroom practices can build students' capacity to self-regulate—before they fall into a rabbit hole of worrying thoughts.

One student passed out in the middle of a U.S. history presentation. "I watched her crumble and had to run and catch her," recalls Karen Grace, who teaches at Roosevelt High School in Seattle, Washington. Another student had a "full-on panic attack" during class.

The anxiety in the air these days is so palpable you can almost feel it, Grace says. "I walked more panicked students to the health center this year than in all my previous 15 years of teaching.

"Students are just coming unglued."

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Self-Care: 5 Ways to Make Sure That Work Isn't Your Everything

5 Ways to Make Sure That Work Isn't Your Everything
by Jane Burnett
Sept. 12, 2017
There's nothing wrong with loving your job and going above and beyond to make sure that you do the best you can and meet your professional goals.  Being passionate about your work is definitely a good thing, but there's a difference between that and letting it completely take over every waking moment of your free time.

Here are five ways to feel fulfilled outside of the office.
(link to full article)

Empower Students through Collaboration

Three Ways to Empower Your Students in 2017

The new school year is here, and you might already be feeling overwhelmed. Not to worry! There’s plenty of great classroom tips and new teaching methods to go around in 2017, and we’ve got a few of them for you straight from EdmodoCon 2017! (click here for the article)

Sign Up (free parent teacher conference website)

The last couple of years I have shared with the staff a website to help with scheduling parent teacher conferences.  I just learned today that website is no longer free.  Bummer.  Well, after looking around it looks like I found another company, SignUp.com.  Watch the introduction video below.  Good luck.

60 Ways Math Teachers Can Use Google Classroom

 | Apr 13, 2015 | 

I have been asked by math teachers how they can use Google Classroom. Google Classroom is great for any subject area, especially math! Earlier I had posted on 5 ways Students Can Use Google Docs in Math. This builds on those ideas with a list of 60 ways Google Classroom can be used by Math teachers.

1. Create a blended classroom: Google Classroom is the perfect tool to transform a traditional class into a blended model.
2. Go paperless: There are many ways that Google Classroom can support a paperless classroom. Stop standing at the copy machine and use Google Classroom instead.
3. Distribute (click here for full article/post)

Achieve the Core's New Math & ELA Instructional Practice Toolkit

Achieve the Core's New Math & ELA Instructional Practice Toolkit

Achieve the Core is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping teachers and school leaders implement high-quality, college- and career-ready standards. The website has three avenues for teachers: Professional Learning, Planning & Reflection, and Classroom Resources. 

Now, it is featuring an Instructional Practice Toolkit. Check out the information below from their website:

There are few things more rewarding than seeing your students succeed with a lesson. It is a moment of accomplishment for them and pride for you. It is also a moment to reflect on why things went well.

Was it the design of the lesson? The structure of the student activities? The framing of the questions?

The new Instructional Practice Toolkit professional learning modules (available for math and ELA/literacy) help you make these connections. Through analysis of lesson plans, real classroom videos, and student work, you'll deepen your understanding of how each component of a lesson contributes to student success.

Each module contains:

• A PowerPoint presentation and facilitator guide
• Participant handouts and activities
• A lesson plan
• A full-length classroom lesson video
• Student work samples
• A teacher interview video

Teaching Strategies -- Teacher Tech: How the Google Suite Can Enhance Open-Ended Math Exploration

TEACHING STRATEGIES

How the Google Suite Can Enhance Open-Ended Math Exploration

(iStock/shironosov)

By Katrina SchwartzSEPTEMBER 4, 2017
Stanford education professor Jo Boaler’s message about teaching math in visual ways that don’t emphasize one right procedure has become a rallying cry for many math educators ready for a seismic shift in how American schools teach mathematics. But her ideas also challenge much of what has been done in classrooms for decades, including the ways that current teachers and parents learned themselves. Alice Keeler is (click here for the rest of the article)....

LEARNING STRATEGIES How to Build Community Leaders of Today—and Tomorrow—Through Student Genius Hours By Jen Schneider Sep 4, 2017

The following article shares with teachers the benefits, and workings, of Genius Hour.  This year I am conducting an elective class for 7th graders called Genius Hour.  Before letting them fully IMMERSE themselves in Genius hour, we will be completing two Project Based Learning assignments.  The first marking period the topic is entitled Million Dollar Classroom, and the second marking period is ENDANGERED Species.

Perhaps the following article can help some of you and your students to tap into their genius.

LEARNING STRATEGIES

How to Build Community Leaders of Today—and Tomorrow—Through Student Genius Hours

By Jen Schneider     Sep 4, 2017

When it comes to personalized learning in the classroom, no single thing has been as powerful as Genius Hour for my students.

Genius Hour has its early foundations at companies like Google which gave their employees 20 percent of their work week to study and implement innovative ideas that would better the company. Ideas like Gmail, Google News, and Adsense were born from this time.

It’s not a bad model for teachers to emulate, either.

In my classroom, Genius Hour means

(click here for link to article)

Professional Learning Opportunity -- PARCC ELA Prep: Essential Literacy Work

PARCC ELA Prep: 
Essential Literacy Work
Oct. 2, 20179 am - 3 pm at FEA
Presenter: Sarah Tantillo, Ed.D.
This session will lay out fundamental literacy work your students need to engage in — addressing the comprehension process, how to teach paraphrasing, how to teach close reading, etc. 
Fee: $149

Always a quality experience with quality instructors at these workshops. Despite being a little bit longer travel for a workshop that you may be used to, it is an experience and an education as well worth it. And nine times out of 10 they actually offer you lunch at these workshops In Monroe.  (inquire before signing up if you like)

http://secure.njpsa.org/NJPSApublic/Core/Events/eventdetails.aspx?iKey=PD943

EDSITEment Social Studies and Literacy Materials

EDSITEment Social Studies & Literacy Materials

The National Endowment of the Humanities has a great educational resource called EDSITEment, that is an incredible clearinghouse of all things American history, literature, and art. (In fact, their CLOSER READINGS blog is an awesome literacy tool.)

they also have a monthly EDSITEment newsletter that features high-quality content that teachers will love! Here are some social studies highlights for September:

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Back to School 2017 We’ve culled our most popular lessons in history, literature, art, culture, philosophy, and world languages to jump start your class. U.S. History and Social Studies; World History; American Literature; Contemporary American Poetry; World Literature; Folktales, Fairytales, and Mythology; Philosophy; Art History; World Languages

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Constitution Day, September 2017 This year, we’ve updated our portal with over 30 lessons on the origins, ratification, amendments, and impact of the United States Constitution.

Kindness for Christopher school assembly, Tuesday, September 19th

This Tuesday, we will be welcoming Chris and Laura D'Amico.  Together they will be speaking on the Kindness for Christopher movement to students and staff.  The original assembly date was September 26th, but has been moved to this Tuesday.  (Bring a tissue box.)