GrimmFairyTales.com The Secret to Feeling Energized at Work? Autonomy. Imagine there was something you could add to your car’s engine, so that after driving a hundred miles, you’d end up with more gas in the tank than you started with. Wouldn’t you use it? OK, that product doesn’t exist, and maybe never will. But there is something you can give your team that will have the same effect: interesting work. Most of us think of interest in our work as a luxury — something that is pleasant but unnecessary, like chocolates on your hotel pillow. But it’s not a luxury, it is, in fact, a powerful motivator. In their studies, psychologists at California State University gave participants a task to work on that was particularly draining, and then varied whether the next task was difficult-but-interesting or relatively easy-but-dull. In another study, the researchers found that working on something interesting resulted in better performance on a subsequent task as well. Liberally share your goals. Allow your team to dictate their personal processes. How about you?
Blended Learning: Working With One iPad My class has one iPad. Just one. But I have found ways to put this single iPad to use in such a way that everyone in my class benefits. Having mastered one app -- the Show-Me app -- I have been able to create podcasts for my students, allowing them to access my help on their assignments while they are at home or when I am unavailable for face-to-face teaching or tutoring. After I became comfortable with using this app, I began to brainstorm ways I could use it within my classroom. First, I take pictures of selected problems that align to the standards I am teaching. With help from my technology coordinator, I learned how to project the podcasts that my students made onto my whiteboard. Although the idea of students teaching each other is not new, utilizing this app as the means to do so provides additional benefits beyond the immediate process. I have found that I can use student-produced podcasts as formative assessments.
Anchor Charts Here are some other Pinterest ideas that I have made into small anchor charts. I don't know about you, but my classroom is limited on space to display all the charts that I would like to. I made this alphabet because I'm tired of the one in my classroom that takes up so much space. I hope this will be a better fit and give me room to display my sound cards as well. I got this idea from Pinterest a couple weeks ago. Wanted I just finished reading Daily 5 and I'm gearing up to start it at the beginning of next school year. Good Fit Book Leading Innovative Change Series – A New Staff Experience I wanted to try my hand at writing a series of blog posts on “Leading Innovative Change.” As I am looking at writing a book on the same topic, I thought I would put some ideas out there and hopefully learn from others on these topics. I also want to give these ideas away for free. A New Staff Experience “The only source of knowledge is experience.” — Albert Einstein Staff meetings were something that I dreaded in my beginning years as a teacher. I saw the following quote on a slide, and I have shared it many times in talks that I have given to leadership groups. “If I die, I hope it’s during a staff meeting because the transition to death would be so subtle.” Time is limited, but is this how we want it to be remembered? Epiphany A few years back, as principal in a school, I had an interesting conversation with my brother (Alec Couros) and Will Richardson. That changed everything. “…And truth be told, teachers should be responsible for their own PD now. A New Look Staff Experience Forward
Movies and famous people lesson plans Page Design Peter Snashall Copyright 1999 ESL Lessons for Teaching Movies/Theatre <span><a target="_blank" href="/search.html">Search</a> | <a target="_blank" href="/PreIntermediateLessonPlans.html">Past, Present,Future</a> | <a target="_blank" href="/describingplaces.html">Lifestyles/cities/houses</a> | <a target="_blank" href="/futuretenselessonplans.html">Plans/Predictions</a> | <a target="_blank" href="/complaintsandrequestslessonplans.html">Complaints/Requests</a> | <a target="_blank" href="/interculturalcommunication.html">Intercultural Comm. Movie worksheets and exercises Famous people/celebrity lessons for ESL students
Connected Educator Month...What You Need To Know #CE13 "Alone we are smart but together we are brilliant." October has been declared by the U.S. Department of Education to be Connected Educator Month. Started in 2012, an entire month of webinars, blog posts, ideas, discussions and more are dedicated to increasing awareness of the importance of educators to get connected. I have been honored to be a part of the planning process and give input and ideas to the entire team that is working tirelessly to promote various events, tools and resources for educators to use throughout October. What do you need to know about Connected Educator Month? The main website is The hashtag is #ce13 While the calendar on my laptop says September, events have already begun. One thing that can be tough to do is explain what exactly a connected educator is and why it matters. Another set of resources you want to be sure to take some time to check out are the Starter-Kits. The other not-to-miss resource is the District Starter-Kit.
ESL Classroom Fun Teaching Tools - Game Count Down timers Free ESL/EFL Online & Classroom Games ESL Games World is the ultimate English learning fun lab with lots of interactive exercises for teachers and students of English. This site is brought to you free of charge by the same team that brought you the ESL-galaxy.com, englishmedialab.com and esltower.com. We are committed to making teachers' & students' lives a lot easier by providing useful free esl resources for teaching and learning English as a Foreign or Second Language. We have no doubt that you will find this website a handy tool for your teaching and learning of English. ESL Powerpoint (PPT) Games If you are the type of person who prefers to have games on powerpoint or as printable handouts, we have been thinking of you. It is total fun and highly engaging fun lessons with these resources. Printable ESL Board and Card Games We offer a variety of printable ESL board games and card games to help give your students lots of communicative practice.
4 Apps For Optimizing Teacher Workflow We know that you’ve got a lot of cool tools in your digital arsenal that help to make your life as a teacher easier. Things like Google Drive and Dropbox make for paper free classrooms and never losing assignments that your students hand in. But beyond these basics, what’s worth spending your time (and sometimes money) on? There are a lot of apps and web tools out there that are designed to optimize your workflow. There are a lot of very good ones that will only be useful for teachers of specific subjects, and others that will be great for someone who is super detail oriented, but awful for someone who isn’t. Some are designed specifically with teachers in mind, others are not, but we think that these all deserve a shot at a spot on your home screen. Oxito Oxito is a web tool and app that serves as a one stop shop for you to access all of your cloud- based resources. TeacherKit (formerly TeacherPal) *Coming in a close second, we really love TeacherTool as well. Essay Grader Good Reader
Curriculum Guides Featured Curriculum: Understanding News Media The goal of Understanding News Media is to help young people think critically and act responsibly as they navigate communication media. The features and graphic organizers were created for middle school students but with modification could be used by younger or older students. Courtesy of the New York News Publishers Association NIE Program. New York Times NIE Curriculum Guides These New York Times curriculum resources are made to be used with any daily issue of The Times. English Language ArtsWriting Skills and StrategiesGrammar RulesThe Careful ReaderCurtain Up, Teaching About TheaterSAT Success History, Government, Social StudiesGlobal EconomicsChecks and BalancesGeography ThemesHuman Rights in History and Today ScienceCurrent Knowledge InterdisciplinaryLiteracy Skills Across the CurriculumElementary Enrichment Document-Based Units of Study Developed with CUNY and LaGuardia Community College
How to deal with co-workers who constantly complain Whether it’s in the teacher’s lounge, staff meetings, or just passing one another in the hallway, even a short conversation with a negative teacher can be totally draining. Everyone complains from time to time, of course. But what about those colleagues who never have anything positive to say and seem determined to tear everyone else down? Here are 11 tips to help you head off chronically complaining coworkers at the pass: Seek out the positive, fun people in the room and sit near them. If the main conversation devolves into something you don’t want to listen to, you can just strike up a quiet discussion with the person next to you. Set the tone by starting the conversation topic yourself. Find topics beyond work that you have in common. If you don’t have anything in common, ask the most positive (or most talkative) person in the group a question. Be blunt. Refuse to comment on complaints. Don’t attempt to validate the complaints or prove them wrong.
Kids.Gov Teachers Resources Skip to main content Kids.gov A safe place to learn and play Next Teachers and Parents, get e-mails from Kids.gov Enter Your E-mail address: Learn About Your State Most Popular Kids Should Eat Healthy Kids.gov is the U.S. government's official web portal for kids Powered by Deeper Learning Blog Carnival: Six Questions for Better Professional Development After last week's carnival (see below for previous entries), we now digging into what makes effective professional development. Allison Rowland from Envision Schools describes her and Envision Schools approach to late night fun -- planning deep and engaging PD! What Makes PD Stick? The night before I run professional development, I can't sleep because I'm excited about the plan. I thought that I would rest easier when I stopped being a classroom teacher, but I still stay up with familiar butterflies. The tossing and turning at 1:00am stems from feeling the huge potential for PD to do something big. As a leader of PD, I continually ask: What makes professional development stick? Over time, I have come to the realization: excellent PD is excellent teaching, not so different from classroom teaching. Thus, I prepare for PD like I'm preparing for a class with students. 1. Want to get off to a good start? Do these sound like agreements in a strong classroom culture? 2. 3. 4. 5. A. B. 6.
Teachers for Global Awareness | Blog Details By Sharon Hill, The Windsor Star The cheery yellow background of the quilt block belies the jarring image of a man running away from his wife and children. The woman walks leaning on a tall stick, and in Uganda where disability can be seen as a curse, she is one to be abandoned. But she is not forsaken by Windsor’s Dane Macri. He gathered the stories of northern Ugandans facing disabilities and discrimination quilt block by quilt block in 2012. “It’s just trying to give a voice to those who have a voice but their voice isn’t being heard,” Macri said this week. People with disabilities in developing countries are the most marginalized, he said. “There’s a pervasive lack of accessibility,” Macri recalled from his visits in 2011 and 2012. A second accessible facility has been added since his visit but still it means travelling five to 15 kilometres by wheelchair to find an accessible toilet, he said. Denish Opoka Ojara is in his early 20s and had polio.