Teaching Tip of the Day - Prezi Help

How much do you love me? Ok... how much do you like me? Well even if the answer to that question is "you're ok" then take a moment to sign up for the new and engaging presentation format: Prezi. If only 3! people sign up using my referral link, my account gets upgraded for free! Help the youth of today receive awesome Prezi Presentations by muah.

Use this online presentation site as a teacher or as a student.  It's an upgrade (in some ways) from PowerPoint and is very eye catching.  I think this is where the new wave of presentations is going.  Check out my previous blog post on Prezi to see what Pros and Cons it has.

Also check out Secondary Solutions to see how you can make a presentation in less than 15 minutes!

Teaching Tip of the Day - Nix the Rules

Of course, none of us have ever heard a student say "F the rules!" As a preventative measure, students will no longer have any rules to say this about, therefore making this obscene phrase null and void.  They will instead have a "Recipe for Success." How cute. "F the Recipe for success" doesn't quite have the same ring as "F the rules."

I got the idea from a teacher of the second grade at A Love For Teaching. I added my own flair to the recipe card spin off of classroom rules.

Teaching Tip of the Day- Giveaway

Katie from http://sparkingthemind.blogspot.com/ is having a giveaway.  Check out her blog to see what is up for grabs! Many teachers collaborated on this giveaway from K-12!  So many chances to win!

Teaching Tip of the Day: Freebies!

Just for following my blog, you can get this FREE Plot Structure Worksheet.

In more complicated texts, there are multiple plot lines. Even in TV shows, movies, etc. there are multiple plot lines. For example, in The Walking Dead TV show, the outer story is connected to survival and not becoming a "walker." The inner story is connected to whatever that episode is about. For example, Lori is pregnant, Merle is on the loose, etc. 

You can use this graphic organizer for a prior knowledge activity; you can use it to assess student learning while reading a group text; or you can use it to track individual student learning in stations. 

Teaching Tip of the Day - Survey for the End of the Year

At the end of every school year, I have students answer a survey from surveymonkey.com.  The survey has questions that pertain to their opinion of my teaching style.  I also throw in fun questions like "What was your first impression of Ms. Carew and was your first impression right?"  

Example of Responses to "What was your first impression of Ms. Carew and was your first impression right?"

"My first impression of ms.carew a young teacher filling in who may of not had a plan on how to teach us but i impression was dead wrong"

"i thought she was too young to teach,thought she was a student herself"

At the end of the survey, I tell students they can write me a note with or without their name giving me suggestions, words of gratitude, comments, or anything.  Not everyone responds to this question (the other questions are mandatory), but the responses I received were very nice to read.  

Touching Responses:

"thank you for all you have done you have been a great teacher this year and im going to miss you <3 you have inspired me in so many ways"

"Ms. Carew You teach me many things that seemed hard. hard I learns to be a better reader and got me ore interested in reading books. I enjoy reading Romeo and Juliet. The best part of the year was the part about Greek mythology. It was the best and still is. Thank you so much for being.my teacher this year."

"Thank you for the knowlege, you made it really easy to learn"

Groupie Responses :) lol

"YOU ARE THE BEST MS. CAREW! I HOPE I GET YOU NEXT YEAR FOR MY TEACHER. I actually learn in your class and enjoy coming to your class every day. I love the way you teach!"

"You are the best teacher ever!!!! i loveeeeeee being in your class and i wish i could have you next year. i dont know if i am going to be but i hope i am. i learn a lot in your class and i actually understand what i am learning!!!! you are very pretty and you wear the BEST! clothes."

Teaching Tip of the Day- Free Rewards for High School Students

As many of us wrap up this school year, it's hard not to think of next year. I have been thinking of a reward system for good/model behavior. In the past I have bought trinkets from the dollar store and had students collect two good reward tickets in order to redeem them for a prize. One of their favorite prizes was the "tattoo sleeve". Here is a link to some more reward ideas I had last year.

I have so many things in my personal life to spend money on that I don't want to have student rewards come out of my pocket. In a way, it would be like I would be paying students to behave, when in actuality, students SHOULD be behaved anyway.

Project of the Day- DIY Silhouette Artwork

This post is once again inspired by: LIVELOVEDIY. My idea to use deer silhouettes came from LIVELOVEDIY, but my delivery is different than hers. Check out her post too!

Materials needed:

• Construction Paper/Scrapbook Paper
• Scissors
• Glue Sticks
• Mirror (Mine is from the Dollar Store)
• Doodle Buddy app (not required)
• Pencil

Directions:

1. Find an image you want to replicate.
2. Animals (birds) and plants (things from nature) are all good ideas.
3. Put that image in doodle buddy and create a grid, by eye, over it.
4. Create a grid on your scrapbook paper.
5. Freehand the image following the grid.
6. Cut the image out carefully. (Could even use an exacto knife)
7. Glue the entire back of the paper.
8. Place on mirror.
9. Voila'

This is part of a larger project so I don't have a picture yet to show of it placed on the wall.

Teaching Tip of the Day - Sign up for Teachers Pay Teachers

I have already posted about Teachers pay Teachers.com before in this post.  But I just found a new tool in there that I would like to implement.  If you sign up by using my link, I will receive part of your commission on products you sell.  It's a win/win.  If you make a sale, you still get the percentage that you would normally get, except Teachers pay Teachers have to pay me a percentage of their share.

Benefits of an account:

• It's free to join.
• There are free products everywhere to download... yes for Free.
• There are for sale items for you to buy whole units if you'd like.
• You can get inspiration for your own classroom activity.
• You're staying technology savvy. 
• You can make money on YOUR assignments/PowerPoints/worksheets/etc.
• It will make me money too :)

If you are interested, please use this link below:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup/referral:Misscarew

Here is a sample of a product I have on the site:

A SMART Board Notebook file with Greek Mythology Prompts

Teaching Tip of the Day- Creative Discipline

We are patted on the back when we come up with creative lesson plans and assignments which ARE effective methods of teaching. Since it's the end of the year, behavior has been more of a nuisance than ever. Obviously. I find myself giving the same students the same writing assignment for a different "crime" which is worthy of disciplinary action, yet not enough to send the student to the office. Some parents never responded to me through emails and phone calls so I'm not left with many options.

I had a light bulb moment. Why not get creative with my discipline too? Well there is a clear reason why I will try to avoid getting too creative in the future, but for now hear me out. In a book, Restorative Discipline, it says that students should receive an equal form of discipline. For example, if a student throws a paper ball on the ground, the student will have to pick the paper ball off the ground and throw it out. If a student writes on a desk, the student will have to clean the desk. It clearly says to NOT have the student clean ALL the desks because that is not fair. Personally, it sounds fair to me, but anywho.... I would have to think quickly and use students' behavior against them.

Here's where I got creative: Students are divided into groups working on posters with big yellow lined post it paper supplied by me. One student decided to use the paper to create a terradactyl (sp?) size paper air plane. Cute. Real cute. (It actually was pretty hilarious because that thing zoomed across the room). He threw it and it hit another kid in the back of the head and all the kids laughed including the student that just got rammed by on over sized flying post it. I even had to with hold my laughter. But he needed to be addressed so that the other students didn't decide to become paper engineers as well.

I asked him to pick up his air plane and bring it to me. No no that wasn't enough. He needed something more. He needed it to back fire since his prank was such a success. Ah ha. My genius idea (that would give me anxiety for the rest of that week) was to make him wear it. He and I have a friendly enough relationship and he's pretty outgoing so I knew he would go along with it. I told him to turn around because he was going to wear the weight of his decision on his back. Actually I didn't think of that clever line until now. I said "You're proud of this? Great. Cool. I want you to be so proud of it. You're going to show it off proudly to everyone a little longer." And that's when I began to tape the giant paper of flight to his back. He laughed and the kids laughed and I was like a hyena inside. I was like my own comedy show at that point. I had myself in knots cracking up. So he rocked it for about 5 minutes and then I called him back up to have it be removed. And I thought of a witty phrase to say to disguise my overwhelming sense of guilt from the possibility of getting in trouble for taping a kid. "Next time, think before you act because your decisions may be a little more permanent than you originally thought." I said it with dignity like the entire thing was planned from the beginning.

Oh yeah. 1 other thing, I couldn't capture a photo of him sneakily on my own, so I just was upfront about it and asked him if I could take a pic. He was a good sport and allowed it.

Reflection: I'll probably never do that again. Writing assignments it is.

Do you think this was a good idea or a bad idea?

Project of the Day- Upholstered Headboard

I've been wanting to get rid of my sheet turned headboard/curtain for a while and upgrade to an actual headboard. Reupholstered headboards always looked nice to me, but the price wasn't something I was willing to pay.

If you follow my blog posts, you know I'm a pin-head (like a crack head minus the crack, plus the Pinterest). I have come to blog quite a few upholstered headboards and some pins even came with directions.

See those prices! From $158 - $840!

(Link)

For the prices seen above, I decided to take the leap and attach a 4x8 piece of plywood to the top of my sedan and bring it to my work space: a.k.a. my parents' backyard. In progress photos to come, but here is the final result:

My budget was $30, and I exceeded that by double. I don't know where these other bloggers were shopping for materials, but it sure wasn't Connecticut. Even with coupons and teacher discounts, it was still more expensive than I initially budgeted which made me want to give up in Lowes. I'm glad I didn't though, because even though the project was over budget, it came out beautifully and I am really pleased with the results.

This is what I had to buy:

• 4x8 foot Plywood $24 (Lowes)
• Batting for a twin bed $15 (Joann Fabric - it was 40% off the original price)
• Elmer's Spray Adhesive $7.99 (Joann Fabric)
• Drop Cloth: $12 (Lowes)
• I (my dad) had a staple gun and a jig saw already.

Nail Head Trim:

I also wanted to add nail head trim, but this is an expense I am going to hold off on.  After seeing my completed project, I may not even add it at all.  

Attaching it to the bed/wall:

Since I live in an apartment, I can't make too many marks on the wall.  Instead of attaching my headboard to the wall like many have done, or screw it to my bed frame, I just placed it behind my bed tightly.  It shouldn't mark the wall at all because fabric covers all the edges.  I intentionally made my headboard floor length to make sure I could "attach" it this way.  When I move, there will be no hassle with filling holes or using a drill or any of that.  Just lift and go.

You:

Make one for yourself with this helpful link or ask me to make one for you for the cost of materials, labor, and delivery.  It will still be cheaper than those store prices!

Mac vs. PC

I'm desperately in the market for a laptop. I currently only have an iPad and I use a PC at school, but I have no personal computer. I am limiting my technological, creative, and professional capabilities by not
purchasing one. Times are tough, however I am still very interested in getting a MacBook Pro. Along with my laptop, I want to purchase Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop. With all of these combined, I'm looking at a hefty bill.

Apple offers an education discount so that reduces my costs, but then I'd like to add memory since I always run out. My total not including software purchases will be $1089. And even though that's a great price for what I want... Is it really worth the huge splurge?

Part of me is considering just getting a temporary laptop from a different brand because I'm uncomfortable with spending over $1000 on a computer. The only time I ever spent over $1000 was when I paid my security deposit for my apartment.

My question is, in your opinion, is a Mac worth the splurge or will I be satisfied with a different brand? If so, what brand/style?