Teacherof20

My school is involved in the Creative Learning Initiative this year. Our got training at the beginning of the year, and CLI coaches come to our campus and co teach with teachers to help them implement the strategies we've learned. My big take away from the first session in August is that drama based instruction (which is what our trainers refer to it) is a lot like cooperative learning strategies. A strategy I tried this semester was the character x ray, where after reading a story you give students an outline of a body. They are supposed to write events of the story on the outside, and feelings the character might have felt because of those events on the inside. It was a very challenging activity because the characters don't always say how events in the story made them feel. We went to a follow up training a few weeks ago. Here are some strategies I took away: 1. People to people: students walk around the room. When the teacher says "people to people" students fin...

While most of the country is Common Core aligned,  Texas bases its standards on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, otherwise known as the TEKS. Our standardized test is called the STARR. In it, a vast majority of the questions require 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders to use their background knowledge in combination with what the author has told them to make pedictions, or inferences, about the text. The problem is, how do STARR test writers know what background knowledge children have? How do you write inferencing questions that ensure the background knowledge required to answer them is  the background knowledge that most 3rd through 5th graders have? As a reading specialist,  I provide support in a 3rd and 4th grade classroom this year. I have been on the look out for ways to make teaching inferencing easy. So many teachers have told me  it's a hard skill to apply, and that it may not be developmentally appropriate. Unfortunately, we still have to teach it. Here a...

I just finished my October Word Work packet and it's on sale on my Teacher's Notebook shop. Enter to win it by visiting my shop and clicking on "promotions." It has printables as well as interactive games that teach vocabulary related to the month of October. It is 65 pages long, and has enough activities to last through the whole month of October in your word work center! See it here. Also check out my October word work freebie here. It has select activities from the pack mentioned above. Watch for more word work packs to be posted soon! December is already posted and November is coming soon!

One Teacher's Adventures is doing a giveaway! Visit her blog to find out more!

I am today's featured seller in Ainse's blog! Check it out here. August is coming up. I hope you all are enjoying your last days of summer. Be sure to read my post about the five things to do before beginning the school year. It will help you get off to a good start. Also, check out my store. I just put my store banner up, and have added some new things to old products.

Hope is doing a back to school giveaway. Teacherof20 is one of the sellers featured in this giveaway. Check it out here!

I recently joined Teacher's Notebook. If you follow my store, you can get my voracious vowel pair ee/ea edition for free! Here is the link to my store!