The Carnival's in Town

The week's Education Carnival is brought to you by the Hostess with the Mostest. It has my post in which I ponder how I'm teaching spelling in the classroom.

In other news?


Myspace New Years Graphics

Ms-Teacher Sounds Off! (Introduction)

You see that graphic? Well, I customized it all by myself (image from Google images) and I will be using it for a new feature that I plan on implementing on this blog starting this Saturday! Stealing from my first post, already written and ready to run for Saturday is this intro:

This is going to be a new feature that will run on the week-ends on topics that pique my interests. These topics will usually be educationally related, however, there may be times where I go off on a tangent rationally discuss something topical in the news.

This will really be my forum to express some of my views on such hot topic items like merit pay, charter schools, technology, pacing guides, etc. If I see something in the news that is educationally related, I will probably try to write something on that as well. I'm aiming for timeliness on hot buttons issues related to education, but may veer off occasionally to discuss other things that make me see red pique my interest. There will be times that you agree with me and other times where you don't, but I hope that if you have something to say, that it will always be respectful.

Look for my first issue this Saturday. It's on merit pay and what I have to say . . . just might surprise you!

Into Activity for "A Thousand Never Evers"

In honor of Martin Luther King's birthday and in celebration of Black History month, I plan on introducing A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg. Currently, I'm planning out a literature unit and as part of that process, I did some searching online yesterday.

I found this activity on the wonderful Read-Write-Think website. This lesson allows students to thoroughly examine the seminal "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr and compare with “The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.” a poem by Nikki Giovanni. Since I couldn't find an online copy of the Giovanni poem, I ended up purchasing two of her books of poetry, Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People and The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1995. I think that this will be a really good "Into" activity for my students and also will fit in very nicely with the inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama. (In a somewhat related note, I would love to show the inauguration to my students, but don't have cable in my classroom. Will places like CNN livestream this?)

My GATE students will be my guinea pigs on this unit, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it works out well for them (and for me!).

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One of the greatest things about the Internet? Receiving an e-mail from the author of A Thousand Never Evers. I think as a culminating activity my students may be e-mailing or blogging some questions to her! This is something that I think may be of great interest to my GATE students.

rethinking things on teaching

In the past, my students were always given a weekly list of spelling words, helpfully provided by the textbook publisher. The list is on a worksheet that was handed out on Tuesdays, a pretest on Thursday and a final test on Friday. For the pretest, students were given 10 words from the list and those receiving a perfect score did not have to take the test on Fridays. Students retaking the test on Fridays were always guaranteed their best score being recorded in the grade book.

With my students in previous years, they would usually have a class average between 70% to 80% on the final test. This year, my students on average are scoring between 90% to 100% and I'll be honest, I'm not doing anything in prepping them for the pretest or final test on Fridays. The difference from this year to years previous? The two sections of Language Arts that I'm teaching this year are GATE identified and/or Benchmark students. Many for the most part know "how to do school" in that they know how to effectively memorize a list of words. Furthermore, the words provided in the curriculum are not that challenging and really offer nothing authentic in the way of learning.

So, I'm reevaluating whether or not I'll even spend anytime using the spelling lists provided with the curriculum or if I should strike out on my own and try something new. I would love to hear some of the things that teachers are doing in their classroom when it comes to spelling and/or vocabulary.

One of the things that I has kind of piqued my interest is Thinkmap: Visual Thesaurus. This looks like a great resource to have available in the classroom and would tie in to what I want to do with teaching vocabulary skills. I'm also thinking of really spending some time on Vocabulary.com and trying to incorporate some of the words found on this list.

Comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Christmas 2008

I had the camera ready for lots of pictures to take today. So why did I end up only taking a handful of pictures? Hope everyone had a fabulous day!


Guitar Teen wanted some type of new drum beat music maker, which his dad is holding. He was quite surprised that he received this gift as it cost quite a bit. However, the boy is a genius when it comes to making music, well at least in this mom's somewhat biased opinion!


Our two boys have inherited their dad's love of working out. So, we got them something we thought both of them could use . . .


. . . a workout bench! Heh, who knows, I might join them!

All I have heard Artist Girl talk about lately is her love for Guitar Hero. When I was buying my husband his gift (an 8GB IPod), Best Buy had several tables full of the game for a variety of gaming systems. I purchased Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for her. She was SHOCKED!



Here she is jammin'. She blew me away with how good she is.

Artist girl in her new duds. Boppie (my mom) and Poppa (my dad) got her the boots and black shrug. The boots have a peace sign on them which coordinate quite nicely with the top. The top was purchased by me. It was serendipity, I tell ya! Of course, Abbie (our cat) also had to be in the picture.

Please note the big smile. I told her to say "Boobies."

Christmas Greetings!

Graphics for Chistmas Comments

Thank you to all my blogging friends who stop by to read what I'm blathering about now I have to say, leave thoughtful comments, and make me feel connected to a much larger world than I ever thought possible.

You have made me laugh, cry, and think. Those who are education bloggers, you have made me constantly reflect on my craft and have (I hope!) made me a better teacher. For those who are moms, like me, you have made me realize that we are all just doing the best we can.

Thank you for allowing me into your world. I hope that all of you have a Merry Christmas.

Disco Dancin'!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Teacher Tip Tuesday . . .

is on hiatus until school resumes on January 6th.

Please take this time to enjoy your break.

(Of course, you are welcome to peruse my previous teacher tips!)

And The Winner Is!

I'm thrilled to announce that the winner of Ms_Teacher's Edutopia subscription give away is . . .

Mrs. McGrew!

Please send me your contact information and I'll take care of the rest.

Congrats and thank you to everyone else for playing!

Crowned

As in what I'll be doing in about an hour . . . getting my temporary crown taken off and the permanent crown put in. Not Looking Forward to it AT ALL, because even though ms_teacher was able to give birth to three children, two of which she abstained from any pain meds (not because she's a martyr but after the birth of Artist Girl, in which the Nurse totally butchered ms_teacher's arms trying to get the IV tube and after the tip of the epidural needle somehow got mislodged and to this day is still floating somewhere in her spinal columnm ms_teacher decided to go natural), the dentist is not my idea of fun.

But, I'll live and hopefully I'll be able to resume eating food on the right side of my mouth.

Yesterday, Artist Girl and I didn't go to the mall. As I mentioned in a previous post, Artist Girl's boyfriend lost his dad last week. Her boyfriend is going through the grieving process and I think he must be at the angry stage because apparently, all he wanted to do this week-end is fight. Well, Artist Girl hates, hates, hates conflict of any kind, so she hardly slept at all Saturday night and came home around 6:30 in the morning on Sunday.

She ended up sleeping most of the day, getting up around 6 last night really upset about missing out on our time together. I reminded her that I have two weeks off and that we would definitely do something next week, just her and I. She felt better after that.

I'll be announcing a winner for my giveaway this evening. Thank you to all that entered. I've appreciated the comments about my generosity, but suffice to say, that I'm a big believer in karma, so I'm just doing my part.

Christmas Shopping

My daughter and I will be braving the masses at the mall today. I still need to buy gifties for my husband, daughter and smaller items for the two boys.

Yesterday, I really did spend all day simming. Today and up until Christmas will be spent getting the house in order, wrapping presents, and relaxing as much as possible. My in-laws will be coming over on Christmas, which is always an adventure in itself.

Have a good day!

Christmas Break has Begun!

Let the celebrations commence!

Seriously, I slept in until almost 10 this morning. That is the latest I've slept in for awhile. It felt really good, so I must have needed it.

Guitar Teen is home for the next two weeks. He finished off the first half of his junior year with a 3.50 GPA, earning one A, two B's, and a C (in Biology, but! He did really well on his Biology final, earning a B). The one thing I don't understand is that apparently his Biology teacher allowed one student to not take the final. The reason is because this student earned an A in the class. Imho, this makes no sense to me. Does anyone else do this?

We are very, very pleased with GT's work so far this year. He worked really hard for the grades that he so richly deserved. I think he even impressed himself!

My only plans for today is to play Sims 2. It has been a long time since I've taken a day to play and I think I've earned it. Wrestling Fan is spending the night at a friend's house, GT will be out with friends, and my husband needs to do Christmas shopping. So for the most part the day is mine to be extremely lazy if I so choose.

Tomorrow Artist Girl and I will go out Christmas shopping. My plan is to be completely finished with everyone on my list tomorrow. So, we'll head out and so some mother/daughter bonding. She has had a rough week (her boyfriend's father passed away on Monday) and I think she needs to have some undivided attention from her momma.

As a special gift to myself, I brought NOTHING home to grade.

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If you are an educator or know of an educator, please, please let them know about my Christmas Give-Away. The winner will be announced on Monday. On that needs to be done is to leave a comment on the original post. That is it!

Teacher Tip Tuesday #26

Sometimes my teacher tips just kind of fall into my lap. Today's post came about because of a great blog called Two Writing Teachers. A post today was about writing paper and the author's quest to find an online source for her students to use in writing their persuasive essays. After doing a Google Search, she happened to find PrintablePaper.net, which is just as the name implies. This is a free online source that has printable PDF paper that can be used in the classroom. They have lined paper, graphing paper, music paper and MORE!

When I have my students write their rough drafts, I always have them skip lines so that I or a classmate has room to make editing marks. Quite a few students almost always forget to skip lines, so the strategy that I use is tell them to place their finger on the first line (underneath the top margin) and then right underneath their finger, write an X in the left-hand border. They do this all the way down their paper on every other line. I tell them to remember to now write on the lines with an X. Many students continue to use this throughout the year as a helpful reminder to themselves to skip lines. (I didn't think of this strategy on my own, rather it came to me as helpful tip from a former colleague.)

Please remember to leave a comment on this post to get your name entered into the Edutopia membership giveaway.

Ms_Teacher Offers You a Gift!

One of my favorite education related magazines that I love to read is Edutopia, published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Every issue is jam-packed with great information and tends to remind me of all the great creative things that teachers do every day in their classrooms to get students excited about learning.

As a Christmas gift to one of my lucky readers, I'm offering to pay for a one year membership to Edutopia. Your membership will include the following:

• A one-year subscription to the award-winning Edutopia magazine.
• Invitations to quarterly webinars with education leaders and experts.
• A limited-edition copy of The best of Edutopia Cool Schools: Project Learning.
• A downloadable PDF of The Best of Edutopia Heart and Soul: Social and Emotional Learning.

All you need to do is leave a comment. I'll announce the winner on Monday, December 22nd.

Decorating the Tree

This is our Christmas tree. I like simple.

In our house, every year I make home made hot cocoa using the recipe off the Hershey's unsweetened chocolate container and I add a candy cane. This year, I only had four cups because Guitar Teen wasn't home this year to decorate the tree. (Please note the comment on my mug given to me by a true friend. It reads: A good friend knows how you take your coffee, a great friend adds booze.)


My husband is not certifiably insane. I promise. (okay, I take that back. He just came inside with freezing hands. I asked him what he had been doing outside and he informed me that he had washed our cars because, according to him, when it's raining outside that's the best time to do it. It's 43 degrees outside!)


This is the ornament that started it all. We bought this ornament in 1985 to decorate our first Christmas tree, which was in my husband's studio apartment aka the bachelor pad. The only furniture in it was a king size waterbed, two barstools and a t.v. I kid you not.

Going on a Christmas Tree Hunt!

Obligatory family Christmas picture
from L to R: Artist Girl, Ms-Teacher, Wrestling Fan and Guitar Teen
In the Back Row: The Husband

This is the Christmas tree farm we go to every year. We like our trees fresh!

This is a wagon ride with Santa on the back. Unfortunately, Santa is obscured by a Christmas tree!

Guitar Teen going in for the kill starting to cut down the tree.

I guess they are checking to make sure that Guitar Teen is doing the job right.

I can hold this tree with one arm tied behind my back!

Wrestling Fan takes over.

Artist girl and Ms-Teacher doing our part, that is, smiling for the camera!

Hanging out eating free popcorn and hot apple cider provided by the Christmas tree Farm.

Oh! Christmas Tree!

We are going to get our Christmas tree today. We will probably decorate it tomorrow. Guitar Teen is home today, but won't be able to decorate it with us, his choice. His best friend's birthday is this week-end, so I picked up Guitar Teen yesterday and his plan is to meet up with best friend to spend the night, then go back to my parent's house tomorrow.

He really wanted to be with us when we picked out the tree. My plan is to leave some of the ornaments off until next week-end when he's home for the Christmas break so that he can finish decorating it.

Pictures will be forthcoming.

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My mom's half brother passed away on Thursday.

You Have an IPod?

This was asked of me in total astonishment by one of my favorite 6th graders this year. She thought it was even cooler that it was red. I decided to put in my IPod during lunch and turn on the Mamma Mia sound track. Earlier this year, I purchased a small IPod dock with a radio/cd player for my classroom. I like listening to music as I'm grading papers and a lot of times my door is open at lunch for my students to come in and hang out if they so choose.

I love listening to them talk to their friends, just hanging out, be sociable. They respect the fact that even though my door is open, they can't come in and be obnoxious. Many come in, sit at the desks, and just chat. Others come in to peruse my classroom library to read book while others will grab some of the various coloring papers I have. More often than not, they'll come and talk to me. In the past some have shared with me problems they are having with friends and/or frenemies.

Usually about five minutes before lunch ends, I usher everyone out, so that I can take a potty break. Yesterday, I really had to go and I was doing a rather obvious have to go to the potty dance, but don't want to pee my pants in front of my students. One of my other students giggled. I laughed in return and commented about how embarrassing that would be if I were to wet my pants in front of my students.

That is one of the perils of teaching - not enough potty breaks throughout the day. Forget about trying to drink adequate water throughout the day. If I did that, I would need a good supply of Depends :)

There are times when I wonder

what the hell is wrong with me?!

I loaded everything I needed to take with me to school or so I thought. I knew yesterday that I needed to get gas for my car, but also knew that I could make it to school. Wrestling Fan wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home and I left the house feeling a bit frazzled because of all of the stuff I had to bring to school today. I kept running through my head the list of items that I could not leave home: gift for friend, graded notebooks, graded essays, water, phone, flash drive, and jacket. I thought I had everything.

Then, I get to school. As I'm unloading all my stuff, I realize that one crucial item was missing.

That would be my purse. It wouldn't have been such a big deal were it not for the fact that I really needed gas in order to get home at the end of the day!

My terrifically great husband brought it to me during his lunch break. He actually carried my purse across the campus of a middle school. Like Jenn, this is one of the reasons why I know I made a good choice.

Teacher Tip Tuesday #25

Last year, I finally got my hands on a Smart Board, an interactive whiteboard, which has for the most part sat unused. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the main one is that as much as I enjoy technology, finding the time to integrate a Smart Board into my daily lessons has been somewhat overwhelming for me.

That is why when I stumbled upon The Whiteboard Blog, I was thrilled. In reading some of Mr. Nicholson's post, I then came upon another blog devoted to interactive whiteboards, called Teachers Love Smart Boards. Both of these blog provide a plethora of information for teachers, like me, who are looking for ways to use these boards in our classrooms without trying to reinvent the wheel.

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Angela Powell from The Cornerstone Blog, recently received a well-earned listing on the "best of" on Craig's List Rants and Raves (who knew this even existed!). I've been on both sides of the proverbial fence when it comes to being both a parent and an educator. There have been times where I've shook my head in frustration over the audacious actions of my children's teachers or ranted at the audacity of a parent. However, Angela's post really is perfect from a teacher's perspective. Head on over and tell her ms_teacher sent ya :)

Artist Girl Turns 20

I'm hoping that this year is much better for her. She is really trying hard to find a job so that she can get an apartment with one of her friends. She is going out almost daily to put in job applications. The economy sucks, so I think it may be a while before something good turns up.

We will be taking her out for an early dinner. It seems almost impossible for me to believe that she is 20. While she continues to battle some of her demons and has definitely had some bumps in the road lately, I know that she is a good person with a very good heart. Hopefully this will be the year where she starts to find her path in life.

Happy Birthday Artist Girl!

Compare and Contrast Unit

On Friday, I embarked on my second year of teaching my compare and contrast unit. You may remember from last year that my students did their essays by comparing two different candy bars. This year I asked for a dollar donation and spent the whole week talking up what we would be doing on Friday without revealing what we would be comparing and contrasting. My students were very excited about coming in yesterday for the big reveal.

This year, I'm adding two new steps to this essay. The text shows two different types of charts when comparing two items. The first chart is a point by point comparison whereas the second chart is a block pattern. After talking at length what the difference is between the two charts, students were instructed to pick one chart to use when comparing their candy bars.

The other step that will be implemented is students will be required to come up with at least one simile and one metaphor in their essays. Since district testing is next week, students will be working on their first and second drafts in class. I'm going to try to see if the computer lab is available so that they can type and print up their final drafts.

I'm thinking that for my GATE students that I will tell them over the Christmas break, they will need to pick a book that has been made into a movie. They will then need to compare and contrast the book with the movie. Like last year, we will probably spend the last week watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I figured that I can have two chart papers up with the two types of charts we have been using in class. Their only homework will be to read the book, watch the movie of their choice and complete the chart of their choice. (I'll probably not make the due date for a week until after we return from school, so as not to stress anyone out too much).

That's my thinking anyway. We'll see how it works!

Teacher Tip Tuesday #24

Today, I'm highlighting a blog and a website. Both have to do with math, which is a subject I don't teach. However, I am a parent to three children, two of which have had struggles with math. When I decided to go back to school after having said children, I had an Algebra teacher who helped me to finally get math beyond the basic math level. One of my lightbulb moments was when he explained that there was a language to math and that it was critical that students understand this language in order to understand math.

I want teachers and students to have those lightbulb moments. Math is hard to some people and I shamelessly raise my hand and say that I'm one that has had my own struggles. That is why I felt it was important to highlight both of these sites today.

Mr. D hails from Boston, MA and is the blogger behind (the fabulously named) I Want to Teach Forever and his enthusiasm for math is contagious. He is one of those teachers that I wish I had when it came to understanding math.

One of his postings (which I also saw on Betty's Blog - another fine education blog) was about a math website that will be helpful for both parents and students. From what I understand, Mathway allows students and/or parents to plug in math problems and get the answer along with a step-by-step explanation of how to do the problem.

Do you have any math sites that you'd like to recommend? If so, be sure to leave a comment!

A cool thing I saw today

One of my favorite students this year (yes, teachers are human and we do have favorites - don't let anyone tell you different) is from India. Today he had a sign taped to the front of his t-shirt. It read:

Leave India Alone!

I thought that was very cool. He is clearly a minority student in the since that our student population consists of a small percentage of students from India. Middle school is tough and most students strive to fit in at all costs. He felt strong about the Mumbai tragedy and wanted to display his outrage, but in a way that was not too provocative. I felt that he showed courage today by wearing that sign.

I foresee great things for this kid.