Inspirational Words

Poem of the Day

What is a Teacher?
By: Barbara Cage

A teacher is someone who
sees each child as a unique person
and encourages individual talents and strengths.

A teacher looks beyond each child's face

and sees inside their souls.

A teacher is someone with a special touch and a ready smile,
who takes the time to listen to hear  both sides and always tries to be fair.

A teacher has a caring heart that respects and understands.
Someone who teaches the entire child
and helps to build confidence and raise self-esteem.

A teacher makes a difference in each child's life
and affects each family and the future of us all.

Inspirational Words

Inspirational Words

Giving Thanks to Jesus!

This Bible Class activity focuses on allowing my students the opportunity to reflect on the wonderful blessings they have been given by God and His son Jesus Christ!
In order to thank Jesus for all that he has done in their lives, my students made a flower that reads, "I love Jesus Because..." and each of their flower pedals expresses one reason they love Jesus!

Materials:

*Scissors
*Construction Paper (Different Colors)
*Markers (Different Colors)

Inspirational Words

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. It might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

- John Steinbeck

Celebrating Diversity in the Classroom

The school I interned at hosted  a Multicultural Day to celebrate and educate our youth and their families about various cultures that are represented amongst the families at our school. Some of the cultures that were represented were the following: Egyptian, West African, Asian, Latin, Jamaican, Portuguese, and many more!

During the fair, several dishes were prepared for people to sample, live music from around the world was performed by our band teacher on the bass and his friend who is a guitarist, and there were a number of arts and crafts, as well as games students and their families could engage in like calligraphy and origami.

In order to kick off our Multicultural Fair day, we read a few books to help my students understand that we all are different in many ways, but that we should celebrate and embrace our differences because those aspects of ourselves make us special in our own way. The following are the books we read!  

After reading Elmer during Shared Reading, my students completed a writing activity for one of their literacy centers. They had to respond to the following prompt: "I am one of a kind like Elmer because..." 




Materials:
*Tissue Paper (cut into squares)
*Construction Paper (cut into squares)
*Glue
*Elmer Worksheet template)
*"I am One of a Kind" Worksheet
*Pencil

In correspondence with reading Corduroy during Shared Reading, my class completed an activity to demonstrated that they still accept and love Corduroy just the way he is.

 

 Materials:

*Construction Paper (brown and various other colorful paper)
*Scissors
*Glue
*1 Button (for each student)
*Googly Eyes
*Markers

Inspirational Words

Students who are loved at home,
come to school to learn.

And students who aren't,
come to school to be loved.

-Nicholas A. Ferroni

Reading: At Home

In order to promote literacy at home, I use reading calendars so my students can track their reading every night for each month. It is recommended that each student engages in a minimum of 20 minutes if they are in kindergarten through second grade and 30 minutes of reading per night if they are in third through sixth grade, but they are encouraged to read more if they would like. As a way to motivate my students to complete their reading and calendar per night, at the end of each month, I tally up the number of minutes they accumulated individually and the two with the highest amount is recognized in a school wide reading celebration where they, along with the rest of the winners, receive a certificate and a special treat like ice cream.

I also like to post my students' totals for each month on a class bulletin board so that their parents and others at the school can see the hard work my students are doing at home to become better readers!

Poem of the Day

I call my students
"my kids" because
in our year together
they aren't just kids
on my class list,
they become a part
of my heart.
-Anonymous

Poem of the Day

 

 Teachers

By: Kevin William Huff
 
Teachers
Paint minds
and guide thoughts
Share our achievements
and advise our faults
 
Inspire a Love
of knowledge and truth
As we light the path
Which leads our youth
 
For our future brightens
with each lesson we teach
Each smile we lengthen
Each goal we help reach
 
For the dawn of each poet
each philosopher and kind
Begins with a Teacher
And the wisdom we bring

Poem of the Day

Teachers Who Are Different

Here's to teachers who are different.
The ones who help children earn A's.
Ones who may have years twice the length of their peers,
And files that go on for days!

Here's to teachers who are different,
Who don't know if they're crazy or brave.
The ones who don't fit in a world without wit,
In hopes that a child they might save.

Here's to teachers who are different.
The ones who always make waves.
The ones who work hard to see that bright star,
Of learning within a child's gaze.

- Unknown Author

Inspirational Words

 

To the World

To the world
you may just be a teacher
but to your students
you are their HERO!

- Unknown Author

Poem of the Day

Children Learn What They Live

By: Dorothy Law Nolte

If children live with criticism
They learn to condemn

If children live with hostility
They learn to fight

If children live with ridicule
They learn to be shy

If children live with shame
They learn to feel guilty

If children live with tolerance
They learn to feel patient

If children live with encouragement
They learn confidence

If children live with praise
They learn to appreciate

If children live with fairness
They learn justice

If children live with security
They learn to have faith

If children live with approval
They learn to like themselves

If children live with acceptance and friendship
They learn to find love in the world.

Teachers College Reading & Writing Project

Over the weekend, I attended the Teachers College Reading & Writing Project 86th Reunion at Columbia University. This informative professional development offered more than 140 workshops, keynotes and closings on state-of-the art methods in the teaching of reading, writing, performance assessments, and the Common Core. The topics included were the following: argument writing, content area reading and writing, opinion writing for very young writers, writing about reading , getting students to CCSS levels, Danielson and teacher effectiveness, phonics, guided reading, critical literacy, digital literacy, and etc.

Along with several hundred public school teachers, I had the opportunity to pick a number  of workshops that interested me to attend throughout the day! The first workshop I went to was lead by Audra Robb. She spoke about different strategies teachers can use to educate their 4th-8th grade students about poetry. Robb discussed ways to help students interpret poetry. 

Poetry Example:

In Mother's Shadow by: Janet Wong

I walk behind Mother
through the woods
careful
not to touch the poison oak
she points to with her stick

She sees snakes before 
they move.

She finds her way
by the smell of the trees.

She stops to rest
the very moment
my shoes grow
heavy
she gives me water,
she gives me shade

in her steady 
shadow.  

Prompts to Stimulate Discussions:
1. Students work in groups of two and have a debate.
*Partner 1: views Mother as a positive figure. 
*Partner 2: views Mother as a negative figure.
2. Good readers can see both perspectives.
*Whose perspective do you see? 
*How does your perspective affect your understanding? 
3. Sometimes words can have literal and metaphoric meanings.
*What does the woods symbolize?

Colleen Cruz presented a workshop that posed another view on video games. She discussed how video games, like Minecraft, can be used to help students learn and strengthen their reading. Cruz mentioned several aspects of a gamer that teachers must understand and consider when using this approach to reading, like the following: semiotics, persistence, feedback, and social connections.
Semiotics
-This includes vocabulary and the rules of the discipline.
-Educators should teach students that reading is another world of semiotics. When gamers play a new game they ask themselves, "What kind of game is this?" the first thing they do is try to drive a car. If they can't do that, they try to find a weapon and their targets.
- Students should think of reading a new book in the same way. They should ask themselves, what kind of book is this? What language do I need to know? What rules do I need to know?
*Example: If a book is fantasy, students can ask themselves: "What do I know about Fantasy?"

Persistence
-Students should realize the same persistence they, as gamers, use to solve levels in a game is the same for when they are reading. 
*Example: When students reach a word in their books that they don't know how to read, they should try everything just like with Minecraft. They should keep trying until they get it.

Feedback
-Gamers are attracted to games because when they solve a problem or accomplish something in a game, they instantly receive feedback with an award. In Minecraft, for example, when gamers create something, they receive immediate feedback when their creation immediately works, which is their reward for their hard work. 
-In the same way, educators should reward their students and give them immediate feedback when they reach their reading goals or use a reading strategy to pronounce a word as he or she is reading.

Social Connection
-When gamers play video games they aren't playing alone. They are playing with other games around the world. 
-Educators need to think about how they can provide opportunities for their students to experience social connections while they are engaged in a book, just like when they are playing games.