180 Days of Inspired Teaching...Twitter in the Classroom

Well....as much as twitter can be in the classroom.

Without acutally being on Twitter.

And....without a computer.

The twitter platform is such a great way to teach students about theme, central idea, and point of view! 

My Twitter Board

How to do it...
1.  Have students read assigned pages.
2.  Put a hashtag {#} on the board all characters in the novel could respond to.  For example, in our novel Schooled, one of the hashtags I put up was #newkid,  #ohmy!, #unbelievable

3.  Give each group/table/pair a character
4.  Allow them time to write a tweet from their character's point of view.  The key is the tweet has to center around the hashtag in 140 characters or less.
5.  If time...let them type the tweets or they can just write them on post it notes!
6.  Put up on your super cute Twitter board!

One of the tweets from Zach's POV

It's fantastic! They learn not to include allllllll the tiny details they just read, how to write about a theme, how to summarize from different character's POV, and how to distinguish the similarities and differences of each character's point of view.  

All of this in 10 minutes or less!

Bonus:  Great ticket out the door & quick formative assessment!

*If you are reading Schooled, you can get the downloads for the bulletin board here.  I can also customize one for you if you would like...just shoot me an email!

Happy teaching,

Felt Footies

I used to really want tennis balls on all of my classroom chairs...they would reduce all of the noise that comes with a 7th grade classroom.

I just couldn't get past the price.

And since I wasn't willing to sell my shoe collection, I had to come up with an alternative.

Introducing...

Felt Footies!

They are soooooo much cheaper, the scrapping noise is gone, and it looks super awesome....don't you just love the little burst of color?

PLUS, I can customize the colors...every table is different! 

For just $27 you get felt footies for 35 chairs!

You can get them here or just click on the right.

Love it!

Happy Teaching,

Chalkboard Bulletin Board

Confession:  I am totally obsessed with chalkboards right now!

I asked my friend Cindy, who owns this awesome education store, All About Education, if they sell chalkboard bulletin board paper??

Nope.

So.....I decided to make my own!

Chalkboard Bulletin Board

It was super easy!

1.  Put up black bulletin board paper.
2.  Rub white chalk {flat side} all over the board.
3.  Rub the chalk in with a white board eraser {I did this in circles}

That's it!!

Here is the final product...

And it was so super easy! Awesome!

Happy Teaching,

Classroom Name Sign for Door

Room 3 is a language arts classroom.

This is my great I Am a Language Arts Teacher name sign!

Close Up View

That I made!

And it was super easy!  Like 30 minutes easy. 

Awesome!!

Here's how I did it...

1.  Print off the Varsity letters

2.  Cut out the letters you need

3.  Trace them on card board

4.  Cut out

5.  Take out a page in an old book and tear into one inch pieces.

6.  Mod Podge the paper onto the cardboard and let dry.

7.  Outline the cardboard letters with a black marker so they will POP!

8.  Attach to the wall with stickies.


Happy teaching,

Classroom Library

Ahhhh!  Super excited!!!  I finished my classroom library today!

Check out the awesomeness...

7th grade classroom library

9 years ago I started with about 20 books.

Now I have hundreds!!

The secret to a great classroom library....great friends (Thanks, Mr. Davis),  Scholastic Book Clubs*, & Goodwill!

*Every ELA teacher should take advantage of Scholastic Book Clubs!  The students love to order books and teachers get free books.  How great is that?!?  I collect orders once a month...It is super easy to do and doesn't take much time.

Now it's time to start decorating the rest of the classroom :)