November Teacher Talk

Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

It's November Teacher Talk Time.....Can you believe that Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away. Time sure flies.  We have so many great tips and ideas for you from awesome educators. Be sure to take a look at what everyone has to say.

If you're interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog linky, sign up here....The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, be sure to mention one of our names.
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Politics, Elections & Voting, Oh My!
By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

We educators, need to have faith that students care enough about our democracy to become voices of change.
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Holiday Self Care
By Retta London of Rainbow City Learning

My message today is about some ways that you might consider in taking care of yourself during these always fast paced couple of months ahead.
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It Depends on the Angle - Complimentary and Supplementary Angles
By Vicky Rauch of Scipi

Since most students are visual learners, I try to visually help them remember definitions. This is how I visually taught them the difference between complementary and 
supplementary angles.

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Why Does U Always Follow Q in English Spelling?
By Gini Musmanno of Reading Spotlight

Have you ever wondered why the letter U always follows Q in English spelling? Here's the answer.
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  Do You Know These Top 5 Core 2-Word Phrases?
By Susan Berkowitz of Susan Berkowitz

Far too many students never make it to the symbol sequencing stage of AAC use. Whether because of presumed lack of potential or lack of knowledge about how to move students along beyond single words, we end up with many AAC users who are not communicating as competently as they could - and need.

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Avoid Comparing Adjectives That Are Absolute
By Charlene Tess of Charlene Tess

Something can be unique, but not more unique.
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Free Art DecoChristmas Tree Coloring Pages to Support St Jude's Childrens Hospital
By Margo Gentile of Margo Gentile

Get some free "Art Deco" Christmas coloring pages with links to powerpoint tutorials showing how to make Christmas graphics using basic shapes. 
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Five Tips for Teaching Literary Analysis Writing in Grades 5-8
By Marcy Howe of It's a Teacher Thing

Learn five practical tips for teaching one of the most challenging genres in writing.
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Preserving History
By Kathie Yonemura of Tried and True Teaching Tools

History books (& Hollywood) have often depicted Native Americans in very stereotypical and often degrading roles. Researching and creating scrapbooks of California tribes highlights the important relationship between the regions and natural resources, dependence on the land, as well as their beliefs.
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Reasoning with Evidence & Persuasive Thinking
By Tracy Willis of Wild Child Designs

Raise your hand if you wish your students would support their thinking with evidence! Visible thinking's Claim-Support-Question is a great way to build your students' capacity. This post explores how reasoning with evidence can flow across your curriculum with one BIG thinking routine!
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An InLinkz Link-up

Wax Museum Biography Research 3-5 CCSS Aligned with Differentiated Options

Engaging and ready-to-go project that provides excellent support to the history, writing, and literacy curriculum to engage students and motivate students for learning. Tie in black history / women's history month, President's Day, or created your theme for this wax museum. Students can write a 5 paragraph research report or the graphic organizer can be used in place of the report for differentiated instruction. Choose what you want and then print!

There are 6th-8th and 9th-12th versions available!
Wax Museum Biography Research 6-8 CCSS Aligned with Differentiated Options
Wax Museum Biography Research 9-12 CCSS Aligned with Differentiated Options

*3-5th Grade Common Core Aligned.
*You can choose with or without Common Core State Standards on your requirements page.
*There are reference choices for MLA, APA, and CMS formats.
*There are student choice, scene backdrop, and tri-fold versions as options for this project.
*Great for mixed or leveled classes to give students differentiated instruction.  
*Requirements and guidelines are detailed and organized. 
*Students know exactly what to research with the outline.
*Students will write a 5 paragraph research report.
*Gives students a choice for their character representation.
*Practical and easy to understand rubrics for teachers, parents, and students.
*Permission slip to inform parents.
*Easy scoring on a 10 points each category out of 100 points for the rubrics. Or the rubric totals up to 100 points.
*Zip folder contains 2 PDFs and 1 PowerPoint.
*Aligned with Common Core State Standards.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3-5.4,SL.3-5.5,SL.3-5.6, W3-5.2, W.3-5.7,W.3-5.8

The way I use it...
Students enjoy this project! This is a 2-3 month project. Each class is different and each year is different; therefore, I can't do everything the same each time I teach the same subject. I give each student a three pronged folder with the packet inside. As I scaffold and model the information to my students, I have students write in the due dates. I make this an at-school project and have students keep their research folder in a designated location. Also, you can choose themes for your project such as children’s authors, presidents, Native Americans, American Revolution historical figures, American heroes, African Americans, famous people/Americans, scientists/inventors, composers, or historical figures from your state. The choice is yours!

Happy Teaching! 
Sally

Introducing Teacher Talk's Featured Author...Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern!

It's TEACHER TALK'S Featured Author

December 2017

Deann Marin

of

Introducing Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

I taught SPED for many years and for most of that time I taught Emotionally Handicapped Middle Schoolers. My heart went out to them, mostly because of their tough and unfair homelives. Eventually, this took it's toll on me and burnout was inevitable. Since I have double certification, I can teach both SPED and Regular Ed. My dream job opened up when I was offered a 6th grade ELA/Social Studies position and got to co-teach with my best friend. Creating exciting lessons that would turn kids on to ancient history and make it come alive was my new challenge. I so loved seeing the excitement on their faces when they wrote and acted in plays, held debates, trials, and brought in mud bricks to school to make a class ziggurat. 

Now I'm retired and a full time teacherpreneur. I just had my new website built and am so excited to share my knowledge and products with everyone. I'll be starting an email series soon and would love to have you sign up. You'll receive entrance to my FREE resource gem library!

Socrates Lantern Specialties

My new site is for middle school children. My specialty is Ancient History and Language Arts. Another focus of mine is Character Building and Growth Mindset. I also have ESL/Spanish Resources.

Favorite Products

This product is 4 weeks of 5-10 minute warm-up exercises for the beginning of English that will help reinforce grammar, parts of speech, etc. There is a worksheet on nouns and verbs, 2 worksheets on Possessives, a writing prompt and grading rubric. It is used with 6th graders, but can be adapted for any grade level. You can also utilize this if you are teaching a foreign language. 

Best-Sellers

 My PBL History Bundle is one of my best seller sellers. This Project Based History Bundle is a set of hands on activities for your collaborative groups that is enticing, challenging and fun. When you see your kids being actively engaged and truly enjoying their learning experience, it will help you to once again discover a joy of learning with them.

So many kids love to role play, which they’ll do in these lessons. For your What is it Like to Be an Archaeologistsection, Students will break into groups of four and assume a specific role as they go on an imaginary archaeological expedition and find some broken up clay pots with strange markings. They’ll work as a team to assemble the fragments and draw conclusions about the symbols, and what these artifacts were used for.

My 6th graders had a ton of fun with this Sumerian Brick Building activity, called Become a Sumerian Brick Builder. After discussing the fact that the Sumerians were the first brick builders, which truly didn’t phase them, their assignment was to go home and build a brick out of mud just like these people of antiquity did. By bringing this lesson to life, they understood the difficulty in achieving this feat. They especially enjoyed bringing their bricks to school and building a class Ziggurat. Can you guess what their favorite part was? If you said, "knocking it down," you would have been correct.

Hammurabi’s Code of Law Debate goes hand in hand with what is happening in our world today. Controversy over certain laws, the second amendment, equal rights, health care, etc. Hammurabi’s laws are quite severe and kids have a great time debating whether or not they’re too harsh. This activity will help improve abstract thinking skills, public speaking, self image. They’ll also understand terms such as debate, argument, counter-claim, pro/con and so much more.

DON’T YOU JUST LOVE a mystery? My students did, they especially enjoyed being detectives and searching for clues surrounding Tutankhamen’s death in this project based lesson called, Was King Tut Murdered? A Web Quest, Trial & Persuasive Writing activity. This collaborative group project has them taking on different roles for the web quest and trial. Finally, they’ll be asked to write a persuasive essay.

The last activity is a Greek Theater Unit which includes a 17 slide Power Point Introduction to give your students useful background images and information to help understand vocabulary and concepts for completing the activity. In addition, the kiddos will learn why and how the first theater came about. Then they’ll work in collaborative groups to write and present plays in the style of the ancient Greeks. 

The Author's Favorite

One of my favorite products is my Year of Graphic Organizers! 
IF COMING UP WITH INTERESTING PRE-WRITING ACTIVITIES for your kiddos has been a chore, I’ve got you covered with “A Year of Graphic Organizers.” Imagine never having to take the time out of your busy schedule to create them again. They’re put together in a neat little package for you to pick and choose at your discretion.

No Language Arts program is complete without a SET OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS that can be implemented by both new and veteran teachers. You'll love them because they're engaging, creative and fun. There are many to choose from so your students won't get bored and you'll never have to use the same one twice, unless you want to. 

What do you like best about The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative and Teacher Talk?

I truly am thankful for all the wonderful people I've met whom I consider my friends.

December Teacher Talk

Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

It's December and time for our holiday version of Teacher Talk. Getting ready for Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza and New Years, or just looking for some great ideas. You don't want to miss what these creative educators are doing this month.

If you're interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog linky, sign up here....The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, be sure to mention one of our names.
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The Quiltmaker's Gift: Anticipation, Generosity, Reading Lesson Ideas & A Freebie!
By Tracy Willis of Wild Child Designs

In this post, I use a picture book, "The Quiltmaker's Gift" to unpack our thinking about protagonists, antagonists, theme, conflict and persuasive talk and writing. This includes an idea for a motivating Generosity Challenge, too.
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Holiday Musings
By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

For some of us, this is a joyful time, but there are many who are alone, and unhappy.  Some have no money to buy gifts and others are out in the cold with no homes.  It breaks my heart realizing that some people feel alienated from their families which can lead to depression and in extreme cases, suicide. Our kiddos aren’t immune, they see what’s going on and may not know how to deal.  
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The Great Homework Debate Comes Home
By Retta London of Rainbow City Learning

Thoughts on the place homework has in real life. What makes homework authentic and a part of lifelong learning?
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Hour of Code is coming: My top 5 web sites/apps!
By Lisa Robles of LisaTeachR's Classroom

My top five programs/apps for coding!
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Identifying Learning Disabilities in English Learners
By Rebecca Olsen of 2livNearn

Distinguishing between the second language acquisition process and a learning disability can be tough, even for seasoned professionals. But it’s not impossible to tease apart the two in order to make appropriate educational decisions for students. Click to find out more!  
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How Many Ways Can I Use This Toy?
By Susan Berkowitz of Susan Berkowitz

If you're gearing up for holiday gift giving, here are some tips for ways to build language through play.
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Wiggly Kids: 5 Easy Ways to Improve Thinking & Remembering! 
By Thia Triggs of Print Path

Researchers have found evidence for the use of movement tools, but there are some children with whom these tools have the opposite effect.
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Geology Rocks!
By Kathie Yonemura of Tried and True Teaching Tools

Teaching Next Generation Science Standards is easy with the help of theater arts! Students explore the various aspects of earth science while reading, speaking, singing, and dancing about the concepts!
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Bring History To Life With Informational Texts
By Michelle Webb of Teaching Ideas For Those Who Love Teaching

Tips on how to use more informational texts with your students.
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Click on these links and they'll take you to each post. They're all part of our December Link Up....

An InLinkz Link-up