Vocabulary Continuums

This is a very simple lesson, but I really liked how well it seems to help my students understand the different foreign polices AND practice our vocabulary - two very "unfun" birds. One stone. 

We had studied early foreign policy along with the War of 1812 prior to this activity. Today, we took our vocabulary notes, I had them take out whiteboards and make a continuum. 
One side had "No Involvement" while the other end of the spectrum had "Total Involvement". The kids then, independently, placed our vocabulary words on the spectrum where they believed it should go. 
Monroe Doctrine
Embargos 
War of 1812 (Declaration of War)
Peace Treaties 
Isolationism 
Neutrality 
They then got up and found other people from different groups to share their words.
I love this simple, authentic activities that help reinforce skills and vocabulary while allowing students to really take charge of their learning and THINK for themselves. 

 We also did a quick review over the War of 1812 by going around the room and reading a powerpoint lesson. Instead of presenting the lesson and having the kids take notes, I simply printed it out and placed the information around the room. Student then walked around and read each slide, filling out an I SEE, I WONDER, I LEARNED sheet. Another SUPER simple way of giving students more autonomy with their learning and thinking. 

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MY LIFE MOMENT: During the fall, my husband and I participate in our University's Intramural flag football program. We are going on 11 years, since our Freshman year. I just have to give huge shoutout this man of mine - his team, Old and Slow, won the Championship game! 

#Stillgotit

How do I love Middle Schoolers? Let Me Count the Ways.

I love them to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling in a funk
For the ends and beginnings of breaks.
I love them to the level of every day’s
Most NOiSY need, by florescent light and basketballs.
I love them freely, as teacher's strive for learning.
I love them purely, as they respond to praise.
I love them with the passion put to use
In my daily griefs, and with my teacher faith.
I love them with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost patience. I love them with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love them better after they leave my classroom. 

- Mrs. B's adaptation of Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

A HUGE shoutout to my awesome 8th grade class and the SUPER sweet 30th birthday they threw for me. I felt loved. Came into 5 of my students surprising me at 7:00 am, jumping out from behind my couch to sing happy birthday, complete with a steamer decorated classroom.
Yes, the Lord knew my heart needed these kids and these kids needed me. 
#blessed.
Dude. You KNOW you are loved with an 8th grade boy makes you a CAKE. WHAT?! All the feels.

A student made me a paper mache tree since the one I made in the classroom got ripped and knocked down - lol 

Another student drew me an incredible drawing of my favorite animal! 

Also, if you have never received a heartfelt card written by a middle schooler, you have never experienced pure happiness ;0) 

Of course, my adult friends KILLED it as well - love them all. 

#30doesntsuck

My Life: teacher STYLE

Teacher fashion.

ha!
Oxymoron? 
Throughout the years, the idea of "fashion" in the world of teachers has often been limited to styles of which we are all very familiar with .... .. ..

Dark colors, tight buns, high collars (early 1900's)

Polyester dress suits (mid 1900's)

"Teacher sweaters" - how I loath remember these. (Late 1900's) 

and the more current "comfortable" direction of Khakis, polos, and solid button up sweaters. 

These days, there are so many fabulous teachers completely breaking the rules on what is considered "teacher wear" and I think it is great! Wearing something fashionable, fun, or a little bit kooky not only shows your kids great personality, it also keeps you going and doesn't allow you to get "stuck" in wearing the same old thing everyday - unless you have a uniform, then I suppose this post does not apply to you! {sad face} 

Meghan over at A Teachanista's 365 Wardrobe inspired me to share a little bit of my own teacher fashion from this past school year. 

I believe four things make for a good teacher wardrobe. Professionalism. Style. Staples {no, not for the stapler ....}. and Spunk. 

Professionalism is important especially in upper elementary and above. These kids are LOOKING to teachers as role models for how to dress. This will impact the way they see you, respect you, and possibly how they will dress in the future for their own professions. If you don't think it makes a difference, change your wardrobe for a week, wear dress pants, a skirt, a nice blouse and set the blue jeans aside - they will notice. Also, keeping the cleavage, tight clothing, and general inappropriateness away keeps you safe both with staff and kids. Kids are strong critics: Students were asked in our district a few years ago to rate student teachers by their appearance for a collage research paper. Here are the things the KIDS picked out as "not professional": Blue jeans, a nose ring, tattoos, t-shirts. I am not saying that if you wear these things you shouldn't or that it makes you "unprofessional, I just want to be clear that kids DO NOTICE and have their own beliefs on what is professional for an adult and what is not. 

Style is personal. I am not one to dress too casual for work. I tend to be more along the lines of  dressy casual .. . once in a while veering more toward one side or the other. But for my own sanity, I try and change things up a bit not only in casual/dressy but also by changing between dresses, skirts, pants, leggings, etc. 

Staples: No matter what style you have, there are always fashion MUST HAVES that go with so many different outfits for work. These are those plain things that create a base for wardrobe creativity! 

 My teacher MUST HAVE's include: 

         black skinny dress pants {preferably more than one pair!} 

         good black dress flats {these get utterly destroyed by the end of the year!} 

         white skinny pants 

         black leggings

         no-show socks
         Jean Jacket 

         Plain colored camis and sweaters

         brown dress boots {no heel - otherwise you are killing your feet!}

 SPUNK! Have something that identifies you. Something that is fun and yours. It doesn't have to be one thing, but make it a fun accessory or style that the kids identify to you. Our school has a dress up day where the teachers are supposed to dress like the kids and the kids like the teachers - it was awesome seeing what they identified us with. My girls all had big flowers in their hair and leggings, my partner teacher's kids wore long maxi type skirts and BIG earrings!

Teacher switch day - my signature items: dresses with leggings, side buns, boots and flats, scarves, and big flowers in my hair.
and YES, that is a boy dressed as me = AWESOME!
 NOTE:  I was  dressed as a mixture of all my kiddos styles both boys and girls. My GIRLS wear those tutu skirts ALL the time, also chunky necklaces. My BOYS wear a lot of jersey's, tall socks/tennis shoes, and those titanium necklaces. 

Spunky ideas: 

     Fun, retro head scarves 

     Head bands
     Great leggings

     Statement jewelry pieces 

     Repeated items 

     Scarves! 

     Exciting tights or leggings

     Cool shoes! 

     Fun socks {I still remember the fun socks my high school math teacher used to wear!}

     Hair accessories - I am a huge fan of big flowers! 

Lastly, be willing to DRESS UP! If dressing up for lessons is not your thing, than at least put a little effort into holidays and school spirit weeks! Nothing kills a kids ability to dress up more than a teacher not being willing to put aside their insecurities and make dress up days something COOL to do! (Particularly in upper elementary! It takes a whole lot of encouragement!)  

 

I would love to hear your teacher wardrobe MUST HAVES and unique SPUNKINESS you bring your teacher style! 

Summer Shenanigans and the FIRST week

Another busy, jam packed summer behind us. I know I have to be the WORST blogger ever. But honestly, we are NEVER home in the summer, and when we were this year, we were doing home renovations, and posting about it in my personal blog, Ink & Delight, kept me super busy.

2013 Summer Recap: 

New Home

Renovations of the kitchen, hallway, and bathroom {See Posts}

Four Weddings

Marathoning "Once Upon a Time" with little sis

Family Visits

Vacation to Mackinac Island {See Post}

Grand Hotel: Working out in the morning with the family - we are hardcore like that ;) 

It's been a busy summer!

 However, my school blog AWOL does not mean I have not been performing my share of school related shenanigans. I have now finished my second week of school. We really haven't done too much content learning as of yet, mostly just procedures and practicing working in groups. This group is struggling a bit with this and with our kindness toward each other so we have put a MAJOR focus on this! Starting tomorrow, we are hitting content HARD!

First Week REcap:

 Team Building Activity:

• 20 pieces of dry spaghetti noodles
• a yard of masking tape 
• a yard of string 
• a marshmallow

Object: Build the tallest structure that holds the marshmallow at the top. This is a good activity to talk about failure and how (most of them fail) failure is often the road to success, not the end of the road. I ask them if they think after failing if they could build a better structure that wouldn't fail and they all think they could.  like to use the acronym F(first) A(attempt) I(in) L(learning) to show them that failing is okay in this room and that it helps us grow! 

 Team Building Activity: Save Fred!

• One gummy worm, one lifesaver, 6 paper clips, plastic cup

Object: Fred's boat has capsized and he is on top but his life preserver is inside, help save Fred without touching Fred, the lifesaver, or the boat with your hands. You can only use your paper clips. 

First: I have them try this activity without talking

Second: I allow them to talk their strategy through and then perform the task talking 

Third: I encourage those groups who get done early to encourage groups that aren't done verbally (they are not to actually help them) so that we are all working as a team (that is what you are seeing in the last photo) 

Genre Umbrellas - Fiction vs. Nonfiction Lesson

Genre Book Sort - use old scholastic book orders to cut apart books to glue under the appropriate genre heading. Great lesson idea from Lessons With Laughter

Took out all of our books from the classroom library - went through and made lists in our Thoughtful Logs about which ones we want to read throughout the year. Then we sorted them into categories and genres and put them back in newly labeled bins. 

Began the first unit in our new Greek and Latin Root Word program - The Olympians. AWESOME! The kids are really liking this program! We begin each section with a brief story of the god or goddess that is highlighted and then work during our word work time on the roots. The first set was NIKE and you can see the words up on our word wall. Each day that we learn a new root we will add words that use the root under the root on our wall. 

So that is a little bit about our first week of school! Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of their school years!

I would LOVE to hear some activities that you like to do on the first week - particularly what do you do for team building???