Instant Study Cards

Just Sharing...
When I taught special education I found that many of my students struggled with identifying important information they needed to study so I created study cards (and eventually taught them how to make them themselves) from the study guides they received from their other teachers.  Below is an example of a quick, easy, and neat way to create study cards.  You can provide them to students with the information already generated, post them to your teacher page for all students to access, give them just to the students who may struggle with identifying the important information, or you can create a template and have students make their own by typing the information into the template.  What do you think?

Just Sharing...
 

Why can't interesting, important work be fun, too?  We think it can! My colleague and friend, Kira, and I facilitated a three part flex series based on the book The Essential 55 by Ron Clark. The first session consisted of watching the movie, The Ron Clark Story, based on the book. We discussed the connections Mr. Clark made with his students and what practices we feel are 'essential' to enhance the positive culture in regards to behavior and respect for everyone in our building.

 

Over the past few weeks, several of us read the book, explored each of the Essential 55 Rules, and chose/tweaked the ones we feel will benefit our Middle School community (we chose 5).  We then created a proposal to share with our colleagues at a later date. We hope to have the opportunity to discuss and agree to implement these "rules" consistently across the board in every classroom in our school.

 

Some individuals and teams were unable to make it on the dates that we met but they watched the movie, read the book, and provided input on their own time anyway!

  

During the session that we watched the movie we moved the lobby couches into the Large Group Instruction Room (LGI) and ate popcorn! Just a few fun things to make the session more enjoyable- in addition to the great company and discussion!
 

 

Leave your titles and tenure at the door...

Just Sharing...

Today was pretty cool.  We had a rough winter that left us with TEN snow days to make up.  That meant losing days of our spring break, students attending school instead of being off on in-service days, and staff having to make up THIRTY hours of professional development by attending flex hours after school.  I facilitated several sessions and today's was one of my very favorite. 

Today 8 of us met for a "Think Tank."  We all brought articles, book excerpts, and/or video clips to share with the group and discuss.  We talked about making connections with students, ADHD, changing education paradigms, rubrics, programs that address student needs, technology, how to stay motivated as a teacher, and learning difficulties.

Our Think Tank Rule: "Leave your titles and tenure at the door.  When you enter this room we are all just educators and colleagues."  Everyone was encouraged to be honest and share their perspective and to be open and respectful to others' views.  We learned a lot about the topics we discussed, each other, and had a really good time!  You should try it!