Wandering the Halls of Academia - Teaching and Living Today

I am somewhat older than the average teacher, especially those who have "only" 7 years experience as a certified or licensed teacher. I add that caveat because I, like many others, spent 5 years as a substitute, or, as they say Down Under, casual, teacher while I was getting my degree and certification to become a classroom teacher. The majority of teachers with 7 years experience are 30 or 31 years old. I have children older than that! Some of my students call me "Grandpa" or "Abuelo", depending on their heritage.  In fact, our oldest grandson is turns 20 on Friday. At any rate, I remember what it was like to learn from a student's perspective back in the "old days" of the '60s and '70s education system. One of the things I recognize is that, although the methods of delivery have changed, and significant changes in our understanding of how students learn have developed, the actual pedagogy has not. The skills are the same, the de...

Congratulations! You own a business, albeit a small one, but the largest business in history began with a single person or group with a vision of what could be. Your small business may only have a couple dozen products at the moment, and may not have yet generated any income, but that is all right. Some people who begin a teacher-author entrepreneur journey never plan to have it get big. Suzanne and I said, "You know, if we only make $50 a month, that's gas for the car." Thankfully, we haven't seen $50 months in a long time! Our first month, though, was less than $8.00. My point here being that you have the ability to grow your business to what and where you want it in the future. Suzanne's sister has built her store to the point that she has replaced her teacher's salary completely with her early retirement and this income. But how? Customer Lists Build your customer list and following. Regardless of the sales platform, everytime you post a new product, y...

Any game that requires students to use critical thinking is an automatic front of the line game for me, but when it also includes great riddles, and incorporates technology as an option, it's even more special. And this Bundle from Off the Page  really steps up the game! The bundle includes 5 different versions of the game, each. with 20 different "riddle/solution" puzzles to challenge students! What am I? Revealing Evidence Bundle of Games The great "What am I?" questioning style of play forces students to think about what they know of the world and different aspects of life. And although the answers to these riddles are not obscure (an all too often problem with many attempts of this sort), they can still be a challenge, even for teachers! Each round is it's own riddle. For each, players receive 7 "clues". There are a few options outlined in the Implementation Notes for keeping score or determining winners. The technology feature, which ...

From M M, a Teacher-Entrepreneur on TpT: This resource has made me happy!!!! There is so much info FOR FREE when others are changing $200+ for courses to be TPT teachers. I'm trying to stay digital but I find myself wanting to print things out, highlight them, and keep them near me. ¡GRACIAS! From JS, a Teacher-Entrepreneur on TpT: This was a fabulous step by step guide on how to become a teacher author. I loved the perspective and experience you have shared. Thank you!

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...

"I Don't Understand...Why Aren't My Products Selling? What Am I Doing Wrong?" An unfortunately all too common question that struggling sellers often ask, even months into their marathon. The answer usually comes down to two factors: covers, which we've already covered; and product descriptions. You can have a masterful product, a cover that is a work of art Rembrandt would envy, and still not have sales if your description falls flat. And there are a couple of areas where this will happen. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) This is often referred to as "keyword searches" and "search parameters". The simple thing to remember right now, other than that there is a whole section written by a man much more knowledgeable than I on the topic, is that these are the words CUSTOMERS will type into the search bar on your platform when they are looking for a specific product or product type. It becomes extremely important to pepper these terms throu...

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...