We Teach So Hard....Episode 19 STOP the INSANITY! Teacher Self Care

 

We might be aging ourselves, but remember that fitness guru Susan Powell and her "Stop the insanity" commercials? That sums up our teacher angst this time of year. Stop the insanity...cuz we wanna get off this bus! December always feels like cardiac arrest for teachers. Give us a listen as we laugh and cry our way through self-care ideas!

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Tracy @ mossyoakmusings.blogspot.com/ 
Kathie @ www.triedandtrueteachingtools.com/ 
Deann @ socrateslantern.com/ 
Retta @ rainbowcitylearning.blogspot.com

We Teach So Hard......Episode 17 Stem...Steam...PBL? Decoding the Acronyms

 

STEM? STEAM? PBL? What's the difference? Give us a listen as we discuss the differences, the reasons for incorporating it in your classroom, as well as some practical tips and tricks for success. Let us entertain you with a few fails of our own, as well!

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 Like what you hear? Visit us at our blogs below! We promise, you won't be sorry you stopped by! Don't forget to comment or rate our podcast!  
Tracy @ mossyoakmusings.blogspot.com/ 
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 Deann @ socrateslantern.com/ Would you like to take a look at some of our PBL 

Resources and Activities? Just click the images below. 

 

We Teach So Hard...Episode 16...It's a Teacher's Thanksgiving

Mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries and TURKEY! It's a buffet of Thanksgiving topics for teachers! We're laughing and crying our way through Thanksgiving cocktails, teaching ideas, sing-a-long songs, culturally responsive teaching, and more! You don't want to miss this episode...we PERFORM a head banging rendition of our favorite Thanksgiving song! The words are included for you below!  (To the tune of Frere Jacques) Turkey dinner, turkey dinner, gather round, gather round, who will get the drumstick... yummy, yummy yumstick? All sit down, all sit down. Cornbread muffins, chestnut stuffin' pudding pie, one foot high. All of us were thinner, 'til we came to dinner, me oh, my... me oh, my.

Take a listen on iTunes Don't have iTunes click the image below  

Like what you hear? Come visit us at the links below! 

Tracy @ mossyoakmusings.blogspot.com/

Retta @ rainbowcitylearning.blogspot.com/

Deann @ socrateslantern.com/

Kathie @ www.triedandtrueteachingtools.com/ 

And don't forget to enter our giveaway! It closes this Sunday. You could win $100 for Amazon, Tieks, Starbucks, or Teachers Pay Teachers! Check out the link below!

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We Teach So Hard...Episode 15...Attitudes of Gratitude

Do you have an attitude of gratitude? Do your students? How do you teach gratitude? Join us as we explore books and resources for teaching gratitude, not just in November, but all year long! The research says our brains and our bodies are healthier when we learn how to incorporate gratitude into our daily lives.

We end this podcast by THANKING YOU, our listeners, with a $100 giveaway! We've got big things planned. 
Join us! Take a listen on iTunes
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Deann @ socrateslantern.com/

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Thanksgiving Recipe Swap

By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

Don’t you just love the aroma of turkey roasting in the oven? Sometimes I think that it smells better than it tastes. My mouth waters just thinking about it. Since Thanksgiving is the time for savory, mouth watering delights, how about having your class participate in a favorite recipe swap. This will get them ready for the holiday and have some fun while doing it.

Introduce this activity by talking about foods eaten for the holidays such as Easter, Yom Kippur, Chinese New Year,Thanksgiving Christmas, etc. Write all suggestions on the board. After this is finished, let them know that they will be participating in a recipe swap. Ask them to choose their favorite Thanksgiving recipe, write it down, and make up questions about it. I've come up with blank recipe cards as well as question and answer cards. By the way, you should make a copy of your favorite recipe too.

When the anticipated day arrives, they can break into their collaborative groups, have one child read their recipe, and then ask questions about it. Make sure you have enough time so that everyone can participate.

Collect the recipes and photocopy them so that each child has a copy. If this is too tedious, have the children choose the recipes that they like the best and have them copy them on the cards. Once finished, they can be stapled together and put into a little booklet that can be taken home and shared with their families.

As a culmination to this activity, and if time permits, have a tasting party, let each child bring in their favorite dish. if you decide to do this, you can let your class decorate festive placemats for the occasion.

*Turkey image by: Sticky Foot Studio

Thanksgiving Recipe Swap

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This is part of our November Teacher Talk, check out these great blog posts.

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It's BOO-Tober Time for Some Sensory Poems

By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

It’s BOOtober and the perfect time to get those creative juices flowing in your 5-8 grade students. Fall is the perfect season for this. Can’t you just hear the rustling of leaves under your feet, or the howling wind as the days begin to grow colder. How about biting into that first crisp red apple of the season. I just love Macouns, my tongue waters as I think about the tart sweetness of my favorite

fruit.

Flip Book:Sensory Poems @Socrates Lantern

                    I love the smell of maple syrup as it’s being removed from the trees? A friend of mine tapped hers one year and I remember the sweet, delicious aroma that permeated the air. I could just taste the syrup on some buckwheat pancakes, yum!

October is the perfect month for using your senses, the sights, sounds, tastes of the season are all around us. Why not take advantage of it with a poetry writing activity that I've finished in time for Halloween.

To get you started, bring in some paper cups or paper bags. Place a different object into each one. The children are to close their eyes and feel it. With Halloween in mind, use some items that work well with the holiday, for instance, a grape feels like an eyeball, yuck!  Silly putty, marshmallows, even those squishy spiders or snakes that you can purchase at a dollar store, would do the trick. A dog toy shaped like a frankfurter would feel like intestines. I know the kids will love the creepiness of this and they'll want to write about it. Other objects you could use are tiny pumpkins, sandpaper, hair, something rubbery. Pumpkin seeds, chocolate, hard candy, those weird tflavored jellybeans would be great for tasting. Use your imagination and you'll come up with more.

This other activity is called Halloween Spooks, it's a great way to get those minds thinking and writing some spooky stories in collaborative groups and or individually.

Halloween Spooks Creative Writing @Socrates Lantern

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Summer Writing Ideas for Your Children

By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

Socrates Lantern

Calling all parents, summer is the time for fun and relaxation for everyone, esp the kids. However, you don’t want them to lose some of the writing skills that they learned during the school year. Here are some fun things to do to keep their creative juices. flowing.

                                                               

When I was a kid I remember having a pen pal in France that I kept in contact 

with for many years, I so enjoyed getting her letters, she understood English. Little did

I know that communicating to her in this manner would help to improve my writing skills. 

One year my students had pen pals from all over the world and they loved

hearing from them. They told me that they kept in contact with them throughout 

the summer. 

 Here are some penpal links:

 http://www.linguistic-funland.com/addapal.html

 http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/

 https://www.reference.com/family/can-pen-pals-

 kids-b5170517e3e3ff73?qo=cdpArticles

In this age of technology, your children are probably on the computer or their tablet

all thtime. If this is the case, you can encourage them to write a summer blog

about anything that they are interested in. You can help by giving them ideas 

and proofreading with them. 

There are many free blog sites that you can use.

 www.blogger.com

 http://kidblog.org/home/

 http://kidsblogclub.com/

Looking for some interesting topics, here are a few:

Going to camp.

A family camping trip.

Sports

How to do something

The family pet

How to play computer games.

Cooking

How to make a video game/Discuss your favorite game/Explain how to play.

Have the kids get together with friends or siblings to write a play about anything that interests them. After the play is written, they will need to spend some time rehearsing  and learning their lines, as well as making costumes, props and scenery.  When they’re ready, they can present the play to the family.  You can even turn this into a neighborhood event by making signs, posting them, and sending out invitations.

Great playwriting link for all ages.

http://www.teachkidshow.com/teach-your-child-how-to-write-and-produce-a-play/

  We all love a good laugh. How about having your children write jokes and make their

  own joke book.  They will need to decide what type of jokes to write. It could be 

  about current events, games, your pet, themselves.  Then you can have comedy night

  with family and or friends.

   Here is more information about joke writing.

   http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Good-Joke

 For those kids who are interested in journalism, a summer newspaper about things

 happening in the neighborhood would be a great activity. If there are a few children

 who would like to do this it would work very well.  You might have reporters 

 asking questions of neighbors you can trust. Decide what types of articles you’d 

 like, they could be about sports, a trip, a movie or tv show, crafts, comics, pets, etc.

 Check out these links about newspaper writing:

 http://www.timeforkids.com/homework-helper/a-plus-papers/news-story

 http://www.layers-of-learning.com/newspaper-article-template/

That’s it for now. These should be enough ideas to get you started. Have a great summer.

Deann

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Flower & Wave Graphic by Whimsy Clips

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Let's Celebrate Martin Luther King's Life

By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

As a child of the 60’s I remember so vividly that fateful April day in 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was brutally gunned down by James Earl Ray. I remember sitting by the television set, just horrified by what I had just witnessed. Thoughts kept racing through my mind about our freedom, I just couldn’t understand why such a heroic person was dead because he had “a dream.” When Bobby Kennedy was murdered in June of that year, again I sat with disbelief as I watched his assassination, live, on the television. Their deaths as well as the killing of John F. Kennedy in November of 1963 were the turning points in our lives. I felt enraged that these things could happen in our day and age.

 In January,  we remember Martin Luther King Jr. and what he stood for. Equal rights, de-segregation, tolerance of other races are essential especially now-a-days with so much persecution of human beings.

It is so important to stand in another’s shoes and feel what they have felt. The old adage "one picture is worth a thousand words," is so true, you can discuss racial injustices, but to actually see a film about it will bring it to life. An excellent flick that will get this point across to your student is Selma.  After viewing it, have an open discussion about it. Have the children role play different people from the film, such as Dr. King, Coretta King, a black/white civil rights marcher, a black person living then, Annie Lee Cooper, President Lyndon B. Johnson, etc. Finally, have them write a paper from the perspective from one of the characters they encountered in the film. 

I’ve just finished a Martin Luther King Jr. History and Literacy Bundle with many activities that you can use with your 5-8 grade classes. Here is a study guide with historical facts about him.

Thanks for stopping by
Deann

No Prep Martin Luther King Literacy Activities

http://teacher.scholastic.com/writeit/PDF/master_class_king.pdf

Http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/martin-luther-king-jr-interactive-timeline

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-resources/major-king-events-chronology-1929-1968

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Did You Know That Writing New Year's Resolutions Are Ancient History?

By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

Did you know that writing New Year’s Resolutions dates back to around 4000 years ago?

At the beginning of the new year, the Babylonians made promises to their gods to return borrowed items and to pay off their debts.  Back then, the new year didn’t begin on

January first, it started in mid-March because that’s when spring begins and crops are planted.  It was important for them to keep their promises and please their gods so that the crops would grow and they would have a good harvest.  The Babylonians believed that an angry god would cause hardships and they didn’t want to take the chance so they made sure to keep their resolutions.

This practice was carried over to the Romans who offered resolutions of good behavior to their god Janus who represented “beginnings and endings. “ Janus looked back at the old year and forward to the new. 

During Medieval times, the knights started their year by taking the “peacock vow,” which

acknowledged their commitment to chivalry.  The Christians  understood the first day of the new year was to be spent pondering their past mistakes and vowing to improve during the next year. The majority spent the night praying and making these promises at their Watchnight Services.

There are other parallels found throughout the world. One example cais in the Jewish religion. During the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah, and  Yom Kippur or Day of

Atonement, they are to think about their wrong doings and hope for forgiveness of these sins.

Now-a-days, we make promises to ourselves, rather than to the gods. Though many of us have the best intentions, we rarely are able to keep our resolutions. Perhaps because we know that the gods won’t punish us for our failure..

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With this in mind. I’ve created a  No Prep New Year’s Resolution Writing Activity for Middle School.  A great way to start to begin the first few days of the new year with yourstudents.   If they make resolutions that they know they can keep, they will feel as if they've accomplished something throughout the year.

 http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-news-general/ancient-history-new-year-s-resolutions-001185

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