Wandering the Halls of Academia - Teaching and Living Today

#Tacoboutadeal! On Tuesday, June 30th, Amped Up Learning is having their first $2 Tuesday sale! What makes this one different from other sales you've seen is that: Not every teacher-author contributor to AUL is participating; and,  Not every product from participating contributors will be on sale! Gregg Williams, head historian at AUL, asked each contributor who wishes to participate to provide him with 2 of their favorite resources from their stores to be included in a special section on the Amped Up storefront. So what we have are a collection of fantastic resources that span the grades and curriculum, each for $2 for one day only! Here are a few of the highlights: ELA in Middle School will be offering our Dominoes! Reviewing Parts of Speech: Noun Functions, and Myths2Movies: Moving from Mythology to Pop Culture Co-operative Research Project for this event. The Dominoes is an ELA take on the classic game, where players connect the noun function on one "tile" - Subject, ...

I have seen a lot in my near 6 decades on this great ball we call Earth, but there are only a few "Where were you when" moments that I remember. Of course, one of the big ones Alan Jackson sings of, but 9/11 was only one of them. I don't mean the personal tragedies, although each one is personal to someone, but those that make an impact on our societal, and often global, consciousness.  The first one that I vividly remember was that "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." It was the first time I was allowed to stay up late. I remember delivering the paper the morning that we learned "The King" was dead - still, they say he is in residence at Graceland. Challenger. I was in Belgium then. The Wall fell - okay, it was shredded and torn apart and we all celebrated! The crash of the KC-135 at Dyess in 1989; I was part of the recovery team. Columbine and Sandy Hook.  And then, Columbia How do you effectively teach about such a tragedy as a spac...

Math made fun! Not something I would usually agree with, but Enrica Minetti of Matemaths manages to do so! Enrica, a math teacher from Genova, Italy, also authors interactive mathematics products for remote/distance learning as well as in the classroom teaching. She offers these resources through her storefronts on TeachersPayTeachers  and on TheWheelEdu . Distance Learning Probability Practice Online Interactive is one of her latest creations. Available for $3.00 (USD)  from Matemaths! This resource is offered in PowerPoint format, and I was able to easily use it in Google Slides. It offers 20 fast review problems, perfect for students to do over summer or semester break, or as a review before an assessment. Each of the problems is set up as a word problem, with picture representations of the problems as well. Enrica takes the time to quickly review lowest common denominators without students realizing that this is happening! The fast action allows students to work through th...

Available on Amped Up Learning "Become a Biographer" from Homeschool Holiday and Happy Hive Homeschool is a fantastic multimedia product, especially for your younger learners and English Language Learners (ELLs). Created by Christy Gandara, this resource introduces students to the biography subgenre first as a text to be read, and then as a form of writing and reflection with expression. About Christy Gandara Christy Gandara is not only a home school mom of three "bugs" (her term, not mine!), but she is also a California certified teacher with 19 years of classroom experience, all in the K-8 grade ranges. This gives her a unique perspective on resource creation, not only for other home school families, but also for the actively teaching classroom teacher. She both knows and understands the challenges of engaging our students and providing them with rigorous curriculum material that they will WANT to interact with! Become a Biographer - A Multimedia, Interactive Res...

Sometimes as teachers, we just seem to come up blank when we need something for the students. Maybe it's a filler item, maybe a bell ringer, or maybe for a substitute teacher. We just need...something. Well, here's a super option from Toolkits for All. Writing Choice Boards This simple choice board was created for teachers like us by the talented Alyssa Rigg of Toolkits for All. Alyssa is a 4th grade teacher, and teacher-author, in the Big Apple itself. That said, middle school teachers like myself, and some high school teachers, will also find this choice board helpful. The choice board is actually provided to you in PDF format, and the board takes two pages. The first page includes student instructions and 10 prompts, while the second page contains an additional 11 prompts. The great thing with this is that, because it is in PDF format, you can easily upload it to a digital classroom such as Google Classroom, which means it can be used for distance learning as well as...

When I saw this, I was like, "Of course. Why didn't we have one of these?" How to Annotate Test Questions Anchor Chart Download the PDF Ok, so it seems to me more of a "one-sheeter" than an Anchor Chart, but that could just be me. According to the description from Learning Through Literacy , the chart is set to be printed on a single 8 1/2" x 11" standard printer page -  and that is great! I have no problem with giving each student a copy to put into their journals or agendas!  These are some basic, quick, and simple strategies, that if our students did them all of the time, would result in shocking growth in your assessment data. As either a chart on the wall, or a one-sheeter they can refer to, this gives a fast reminder of how to highlight or underline to draw attention, circling and DEFINING unknown vocabulary, and quick-boxing signal words. Each is a sound strategy on it's own, but when combined they give students an edge over thei...

EduKos on TpT So, this seems a little unusual, but the first product for education that I am going to blog about is NOT one from ELA in Middle School! It also is not for ELA, or necessarily for Middle School! You see, our daughter, Laura Gottschall, her husband, Geno (of Geno Gottschall and His Rockaholics fame), homeschool their 3 youngest, Kaliea, Leovani and Joseph. They also live with Nana and Opa, so we help out with the homeschool side as well. And we often find resources for their educational use. One of these resources I recently found is called Spring is Springing!  This is a science resource, and it is my favorite price as a consumer...FREE! It was created by Kaylee Cleghorn, owner and teacher- author of Edukos . Kaylee is a new, and young, teacher and teacher-entrepreneur, but she is definitely going to become successful in both careers! The resource is a four-page PDF, and it teaches your student-scholars to take a scientific approach to nature and watching th...