There's really no middle ground here. You're either a lap-book-loving teacher or you're not. I've heard, "I LOVE them!" and "I HATE them!" but never, "Yeah, they're kind of okay, I guess."😂 Teachers on the thumbs-down-side cringe at the thought of lap books because they seem tedious and labor intensive, like scrapbooking. I totally get the scrapbooking thing... that's way too much work. I have … [Read more...]
A Big Bag of Writing Ideas
My last post, Gathering Writing Ideas: 5 Tips to Generate Ideas, really should've been 6 tips because I totally forgot about this idea... A Big Bag of Ideas. This idea is similar to the strategy of using children's literature to generate writing ideas, but instead I use my own personal treasures to stimulate thinking about topics. It's super simple, but very effective. All you'll … [Read more...]
Gathering Writing Ideas
You know, some days are like this... it's just the way it goes. And it doesn't just happen to kids. It happens to me, too. Sometimes, it seems like coming up with a good idea is the hardest part of writing. Our writing workshop is one of my favorite times of the day, so helping kids generate and maintain a wealth of topics is critical to our success. No ideas... no writing. This is what I've … [Read more...]
Having Fun with the Famous!
Before I even start, I have to explain the horrible desk arrangement in the background. Usually, the desks are grouped together in student teams of 4, but it's standardized testing time. You know the spiel. "The students have to be separated. Remove any visual aids. Yadda, yadda, yadda." Our counselor doesn't really say yadda... that's just what I hear. So the room is super boring and … [Read more...]
Writing and Sharing Our How-To Books
This is a piggyback-post to an earlier one: Getting Ready to Write How-To Books. I finally did the software updates on my computer and some of the applications changed. I usually hate when that happens, but this time Apple added something to my dock called "Photos" and pictures I thought I had lost were suddenly available!! Honestly, it felt a little like Christmas. And when I looked through … [Read more...]