Winter Doors - Adorable!

I enjoy the We Are Teachers group for giving us great suggestions for holiday door decorations. 

What Do We Do All Day - A Blog

Here's the link to a blog that advocates for unplugging children and doing hands on projects and lots of READING! Erica's blog is full of lists of things to do including lists of seasonal books.

What Do We Do All Day 

Erica writes...

"I believe that simple unplugged learning activities like games and reading aloud will grow your kids into intelligent, curious and connected members of your family.

I promise, it’s not about complicated crafts, or expensive products.

I promise, it’s not about spending every last minute with your child.

I promise, you can do it."

As a working parent, it is a godsend to have easy access to great activities that do not require me to be Martha Stewart or a super-equipped homeschooling parent…I just love that your blog gives my tired brain ideas and energy. – Anon Reader

2018 Notable Books from NYT

The descriptions alone are captivating. This list is mandatory for real readers who love to read. 100 Notable Books of 2018

From the New York Times

Framing Student Conversations

Jennifer Gonzalez's Blog, Cult of Pedagogy, is a wealth of information. Today she reported on a method to get students talking.

Framing Conversations

Here's an small part of her article. Use the link above to read more. 

Jeff Frieden, a high school English teacher in southern California, wanted a less teacher-centered class.  He was looking for ways to get students talking to each other about the content. He’d tried all kinds of techniques— think-pair-share, appointment clocks, groups of four—but none of them gave him the results he was looking for.

Word of the YEAR! And the winner is...

TOXIC

Oxford Dictionary link

The adjective toxic is defined as ‘poisonous’ and first appeared in English in the mid-seventeenth century from the medieval Latin toxicus, meaning ‘poisoned’ or ‘imbued with poison’.

But the word’s deadly history doesn’t start there. The medieval Latin term was in turn borrowed from the Latin toxicum, meaning ‘poison’, which has its origins in the Greek toxikon pharmakon – lethal poison used by the ancient Greeks for smearing on the points of their arrows. Interestingly, it is not pharmakon, the word for poison, that made the leap into Latin here, but toxikon, which comes from the Greek word for ‘bow’, toxon.

Multiple Intelligences Theory: Widely Used Yet Misunderstood

Edutopia article dispels the myth of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences.

Multiple Intelligences Theory: Widely Used Yet Misunderstood

Over 90 percent of teachers believe that students learn better when they receive information tailored to their preferred learning styles, but that’s a myth, explains Paul Howard-Jones, professor of neuroscience and education at the University of Bristol. “The brain’s interconnectivity makes such an assumption unsound, and reviews of educational literature and controlled laboratory studies fail to support this approach to teaching.”

Takeaways:

Do:

Give students multiple ways to access information: Not only will your lessons be more engaging, but students will be more likely to remember information that’s presented in different ways.

Individualize your lessons: It still makes sense to differentiate your instruction, even if students don’t have a single dominant learning style. Avoid a one-size-fits-all method of teaching, and think about students’ needs and interests.

Incorporate the arts into your lessons: Schools often focus on the linguistic and logical intelligences, but we can nurture student growth by letting them express themselves in different ways. As Gardner explains, “My theory of multiple intelligences provides a basis for education in the arts. According to this theory, all of us as human beings possess a number of intellectual potentials.”

Don’t:

Label students with a particular type of intelligence: By pigeonholing students, we deny them opportunities to learn at a deeper, richer level. Labels—such as “book smart” or “visual learner”—can be harmful when they discourage students from exploring other ways of thinking and learning, or from developing their weaker skills.

Confuse multiple intelligences with learning styles: A popular misconception is that learning styles is a useful classroom application of multiple intelligences theory. “This notion is incoherent,” argues Gardner. We read and process spatial information with our eyes, but reading and processing require different types of intelligence. It doesn’t matter what sense we use to pick up information—what matters is how our brain processes that information. “Drop the term styles. It will confuse others, and it won't help either you or your students,” Gardner suggests.

Try to match a lesson to a student’s perceived learning style: Although students may have a preference for how material is presented, there’s little evidence that matching materials to a preference will enhance learning. In matching, an assumption is made that there’s a single best way to learn, which may ultimately prevent students and teachers from using strategies that work. “When one has a thorough understanding of a topic, one can typically think of it in several ways,” Gardner explains.

Science Resource for Teachers

Just a reminder that ELA teachers rely on Science teachers to present plenty of opportunity for students to read, write, speak and listen to rigorous non-fiction texts.  Here's a resource that has just been updated to include specialty blogs.  Hope that it's helpful!

Science News for Students 

From the website:

Founded in 2003, Science News for Students is an award-winning online publication dedicated to providing age-appropriate, topical science news to learners, parents and educators.

Article Types

News Stories: The latest in science news, written for everyone. These are shorter news pieces (typically 350 to 800 words), usually focused on a single research study or advance.

Features: Published weekly, these longer pieces (around 1,300 to 1,800 words) have a broader focus and include reference to several scientists and research projects.

Explainers: SNS offers explainers on many topics, from areas of the brain to the greenhouse effect. Each is designed to help teens and others take a little deeper dive into the concepts that underlie science news and research. Look for these explainers as convenient sidebars within news stories and features.

Cool Jobs: Scientists aren’t just people working in labs wearing white lab coats. This series offers dozens of feature-length articles about careers in science, technology, engineering and math. From scientists who study volcanoes to those who study art, crime scenes or pets, this series has something for everyone. Since September 2015, Arconic Foundation has offered its generous support to greatly expand the Cool Jobs series.

Invention and Innovation: Students today are growing up amidst a proliferation of new technologies. This series offers news stories on the latest in scientific innovations from wet suits inspired by sea otters to tiny robots that work in teams. This series is made possible with generous support from the Lemelson Foundation.

Features for educators: What role does creativity play in research? What’s “wrong” with the scientific method? What benefits come from making mistakes? What’s the difference between mentors and role models as inspirations in STEM? How can educators incorporate current events in the classroom? These and other topics are covered in occasional features geared expressly for educators. They can be found in the “Careers and Teaching” subtopic of “For Educators.”

How to get into research: Many students are stymied on how to find a research project for a science fair or some other activity. The Pathways to Research series, found in the “Teaching Science” subtopic, offers some suggestions. Also, check out two blog series, DIY Science: Snot Science and Cookie Science, which outline (from hypothesis generation to publication) how to do science, and do it right.

Blog posts: Science News for Students now includes several blogs on various topics. 

Just a little background on American Education week from the NEA website.

The National Education Association was one of the creators and original sponsors of American Education Week.

Distressed that 25 percent of the country's World War I draftees were illiterate and 9 percent were physically unfit, representatives of the NEA and the American Legion met in 1919 to seek ways to generate public support for education.

The conventions of both organizations subsequently adopted resolutions of support for a national effort to raise public awareness of the importance of education. In 1921, the NEA Representative Assembly in Des Moines, Iowa, called  for designation of one week each year to spotlight education. In its resolution, the NEA called for: "An educational week ... observed in all communities annually for the purpose of informing the public of the accomplishments and needs of the public schools and to secure the cooperation and support of the public in meeting those needs."

The first observance of American Education Week occurred December 4-10, 1921, with the NEA and American Legion as the cosponsors. A year later, the then U.S. Office of Education joined the effort as a cosponsor, and the PTA followed in 1938.

Other co-sponsors are the U.S. Department of Education and national organizations including the National PTA, the American Legion, the American Legion Auxiliary, the American Association of School Administrators, the National School Boards Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the American School Counselor Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the National School Public Relations Association, the National Association of State Boards of Education, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

American Education Week is always celebrated the week prior to the week of Thanksgiving.

Between Parents and Teachers

Teacher magazine has an article about communication between parents and teachers. Take a look:

Between Teachers and Parents

The Great American Read Results

Can you guess the #1 Book in America?

Go to the results page of the GREAT AMERICAN READ contest.

Great American READ Video Finale! 

OK- here's the list  in the order from 1-99 but if you go to their website you'll find great posters and such for your classrooms. 

Full Results
#1 To Kill a Mockingbird

Outlander (Series)

Harry Potter (Series)

Pride and Prejudice

Lord of the Rings

Gone with the Wind

Charlotte's Web

Little Women

Chronicles of Narnia

Jane Eyre

Anne of Green Gables

Grapes of Wrath

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Book Thief

Great Gatsby

The Help

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

1984

And Then There Were None

Atlas Shrugged

Wuthering Heights

Lonesome Dove

Pillars of the Earth

Stand

Rebecca

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Color Purple

Alice in Wonderland

Great Expectations

Catcher in the Rye

Where the Red Fern Grows

Outsiders

The Da Vinci Code

The Handmaid's Tale

Dune

The Little Prince

Call of the Wild

The Clan of the Cave Bear

The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy

The Hunger Games

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Joy Luck Club

Frankenstein

The Giver

Memoirs of a Geisha

Moby Dick

Catch 22

Game of Thrones (series)

Foundation (series)

War and Peace

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Jurassic Park

The Godfather

One Hundred Years of Solitude

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Notebook

The Shack

A Confederacy of Dunces

The Hunt for Red October

Beloved

The Martian

The Wheel of Time (series)

Siddhartha

Crime and Punishment

The Sun Also Rises

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

A Separate Peace

Don Quixote

The Lovely Bones

The Alchemist

Hatchet (series)

Invisible Man

The Twilight Saga (series)

Tales of the City (series)

Gulliver's Travels

Ready Player One

Left Behind (series)

Gone Girl

Watchers

The Pilgrim's Progress

Alex Cross Mysteries (series)

Things Fall Apart

Heart of Darkness

Gilead

Flowers in the Attic

Fifty Shades of Grey

The Sirens of Titan

This Present Darkness

Americanah

Another Country

Bless Me, Ultima

Looking for Alaska

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Swan Song

Mind Invaders

White Teeth

Ghost

The Coldest Winter Ever

The Intuitionist

Doña Bárbára