Cyber Monday Sale for Teachers!

It's shopping time for teachers again: Cyber Monday (& Tuesday) Sale on TeachersPayTeachers! 

Stock up on resources for the rest of 2012 and to start the new semester off with a bang. All my items will be marked down; be sure to take advantage of the great savings using the code CMT12 at checkout.

Over the next few days I'm going to be posting about some great products you won't want to miss! Follow my blog to get all the updates. I'll also be posting some new products that I think you're going to love!


Part one of the essential products you'll want to add to your cart include (middle and high school teachers):

English Language Arts Reading Assessment - This is a great packet for teachers looking for Common Core State Standards-aligned reading evaluations. It includes a lengthy non-fiction reading passage, a shorter fictional piece, writing response, and vocabulary in-context assessments. Appropriate for grades 8-10.


For my elementary friends:

iPad Literacy Common Core Creative Writing Activities - If your students have ever had the opportunity to use an application on an iPad, you can use these activities to generate that excitement of technology into writing activities. Practices many Common Core State Standards skills for grades 1 and 2 (though higher grades seem to like it, as well!). Coming soon: a packet for the older students!


For my clip art fanatics:

Mega Bundle of Teachers & Students Clip Art for Commercial Use - The sale is a great time to stock up on my people bundle. And how can you resist those faces? ;)

What will I be buying?

Kimberly Geswein Commercial License for ALL Fonts - I absolutely love her fonts! I've already purchased several individual licenses, but she continues to create gorgeous fonts (that include great high-school friendly scripts) so I know her store-wide license will be more than worth it.

See you tomorrow for some additional finds to put in your shopping cart! Browse my store on TeachersPayTeachers to find additional resources.

In the comments below, post links to your favorite items that you'll be purchasing Monday & Tuesday. 

The Power of a Talking Dog

The Knife of Never Letting Go By Patrick Ness

Conversation with a student...

“Is this the book about the talking dog?”

“Yep.” 

“Is it any good? I heard it was good.”

“Oh yes, it’s very good. You should read it. In fact, you should read all three.”

“There’s three?”

“Yep. Here’s the first one.”

“Oh...wow...that’s a lot of pages…”

“Give it a shot. I know you’ll love it.”

A couple of years ago I was in Mockingjay-withdrawal. I had a hard time finding good books to read and was tired of reading one then waiting a year for the next one. Then a fellow Hunger Games fan/teacher suggested I read Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy (all three books were already published!). And at first, I wasn’t really getting into the whole “New World” setting and the narrator’s vernacular was annoying. But after a few chapters, I was once again hooked. You know what did it? Manchee, the talking dog. Well, he doesn’t really talk, but you can hear his thoughts. And they are funny. And real. And exactly what the story needed. Just read the first paragraph and try not to laugh out loud.

Conversation after same student is almost finished with the first book… 

“I hate you for suggesting this book! I refuse to finish it!”

“I know...I felt the exact same way. I threw it across the room, I was so mad.”

“Yeah...that’s what I did, too.”

“It helped me writing about it.”

“Well, I’m not finishing it. I’m done with this series.”

“I know. It’ll be here if you want to finish.”

Next day, student waiting at my door in the morning…

“I need to finish it! I couldn’t sleep last night thinking about it.”

“I know. I know…”

The student came back the next day and checked out the next two books, The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men (yep, funny titles. But they make perfect sense in the books.). She read over 1,200 pages in a couple of weeks. More than she had read the previous year. 

Best opening lines. Ever.

It's a powerful series and one that I will be talking about later this week on my other blog, Hunger Games Lessons. There are many comparisons to The Hunger Games--both being a dystopia about teenagers who must fight for survival. And I just completed my teaching unit for The Knife of Never Letting Go, so look for some great teaching materials that go along with it in my teacher store, as well. I correlated everything with the Common Core State Standards, which is why it has been a work in progress for almost two years now. 

I highly recommend the trilogy. It's geared more toward high school, but mature 8th graders should be able to handle the language and violence. If you teach younger students, you MUST read A Monster Calls by Ness. Once you do, I think you will see why I love everything he writes. He has a way of bringing you into the story and feeling exactly what the characters feel. 

You can find both books on Amazon here: Author Patrick Ness

And his website: http://www.patrickness.com/

And...The Knife of Never Letting Go has been selected as one of the books that will be given out on World Book Night (April 23, 2013)! Are you convinced now it may be worth the read? :)

Common Core Tips: Using Transitional Words in Writing

One of the keys to writing is using appropriate transitional words and phrases. For students who struggle with writing a cohesive essay or paper, it is essential that they use words that not only create a natural flow or progression, but link each point together.

Using transitions is also a key aspect in each type of writing in the Common Core State Standards. For example, read the following writing standards for grades 9-10:

For Writing Arguments
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.1c Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims. 

For Writing Informative/Explanatory Texts
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.2c Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.

For Writing Narratives
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3c Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole.
(source: http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/W/9-10)

Each type of writing piece will require certain types of transitions. The narrative transitions will vary from the types of transitions used for clarifying the relationship between claims and counterclaims in argumentatives.

The transitions for conveying a sequence and building suspense differ in a narrative from the counterpoints (or counterclaims) transitions in the argumentative chart.

To make it easier for you and your students, I've created anchor charts of example transitions that are aligned with the writing standards for transitions for grades 6-12. You can download a free PDF copy in my teacher store here: Common Core Transitional Words Anchor Charts

The free download has charts in black/white and in plain text worksheet format, as well.

In my news writing expository presentation (shown below), I give examples of unbiased transitions to use in objective writing pieces. Writing objective summaries is a staple in the Common Core State Standards for writing.

I will be posting a bundle of Common Core writing resources soon, which will include graphic organizers and various exercises. In the meantime, I already have several excellent writing resources that help students through critical phases of the writing process, such as the news writing bundle above and the following resources:

Narrative Writing, Short Stories:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Short-Story-How-To-for-Students-Presentation-Handouts

Informative Writing, News Writing:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Common-Core-Expository-News-Writing-Tutorial-Activities

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/News-Writing-Story-Planning-Handout-Pre-Interview

Writing Style Rules: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Style-Rules-Rubric-Self-Peer-Editing-Checklist-Journalism

Creative Writing, Poetry:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Like-Poets-Teach-Your-Students-to-Write-Presentation-PPT

Informative/Explanatory and Argumentative Writing:
FREE: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Common-Core-Writing-PEEL-Anchor-Chart

Thanks for stopping by my blog. If you find these helpful, feel free to "pin" them and pass them along to other teachers. :)

More Halloween Costumes!

Our high school celebrated Halloween today, so I thought I'd share some of the costumes with you. If you need some ideas, there were some pretty creative ones. My favorites included the "Meme" guys, Ms. Frizzle--your favorite Magic School Bus teacher, the "Toddlers and Tiaras," the 50 Shades of Grey boys, and so many more. Enjoy!

And if you just don't feel like making a costume, here's an idea for a pretty easy one to make: Create a MasterCard "Priceless" sign and wear it around your neck. I wore this one a few years ago:

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Halloween at the High School - Do You Dress Up?

It's almost Halloween and I haven't started on my Halloween costume yet...in fact, I'm kind of a procrastinator when it comes to that, then find myself frantically pulling something together the night before. But, I must say, our teaching staff has been pretty darn good about sporting some cool costumes over the years.

Do you dress up at school? Do your students? Do you celebrate at all? I thought I would share some of our best (and maybe worst) costumes over the years...those I have pictures of, anyway. And to fill you in: my husband teaches at the same school, which is why we are often photographed together. ;]

 Our school has contests each year for best group, best couple, best individual, scariest, most creative, etc. The faculty doesn't compete against the students, but we still like to have fun and participate. A couple of years ago we went as Gilligan's Island (I'm Lovey Howell...with my Andy Warhol wig.)

 The Village People (they even had a dance!)

 My husband was Darth Vader and I went as Princess Leia's hologram that is projected from R2D2. (So my only line all day was, "Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope!") I made my R2D2 with a popcorn bowl taped to a trash can on top of an ab roller. I stuck a flashlight inbetween the bowl & trash can so it looked like I was the hologram. I fashioned fishing line from the ab roller to my boot, so when I walked, R2D2 rolled with me. The students could not figure out how I got him to roll. ;)

Our son went as a Stormtrooper that year, so it was pretty cool when the elementary kids came over and did their parade at the high school. We forgot to get a group shot together, though. :(

Stephen King's Carrie.

 Members of the Lollipop Guild with a fireman.

 Our special ed. teachers always have the best group costumes! (They organized the Gilligan's Island and this Lollipop Guild. Last year they did Charlie Brown. Another year was the Adams Family.)

Our art teacher is always creative, too. Here he is as Snoopy. Below, he's Buzz Lightyear.

My husband and I as King Tut and Sister Wendy. Yes, we are geeked out to the max!

And this was going to be my costume one year. I was supposed to cut out the eyes and go as the "Scream" painting by Munch (this was when I was also teaching art history). But I was so proud of my painting, I just couldn't cut the eyes. lol So I went as Princess Leia's hologram that year. 

If I can find the picture of me as a PEZ dispenser, I will add it. That was definitely a challenging costume to get around in all day!

Here are some of my favorite student costumes over the last few years.

This one I am biased--it's our son as Mr. Bill. :) The crayons behind him are awesome, too.

 Rock, Paper, Scissors...

 Tractor and paper sack guy.

 Tooth fairy.

 Taco Sauce Packets.

 Jelly Belly jelly beans.

 Fruit of the Loom.

 Ken and Barbie in their Dream Car.

 Girl Scout & Boy Scout.

 Miscellaneous class group picture.

 And who doesn't love a pirate? Arrrrgh!

 The Flintstones.

 Bella and Edward (or, Edward's cut-out).

 Will you dress up this year? If so, tell us as what you will be.

And post your links to your Halloween costumes below! :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Writing a Literary Analysis Paper--TED to the Rescue

If your students are writing a literary analysis paper, this TED video is definitely worth viewing. I was happy to see that it encourages students to write the introduction LAST (otherwise students get stuck on writing that first sentence and take days to move on). It also encourages them to get more creative with their hooks--stop using a rhetorical question or a quote; neither is going to draw the reader in.
  In all, it's excellent advice and the video uses captivating animation to clearly model a good introduction for a literary analysis. Check it out yourself:


Thanks to http://hawkinsanity.blogspot.com for the tip!

The Difference Between PNG and JPG Image Files

PNG vs. JPG image files...

When I was going to school to be a journalist in the early 90s, we didn't learn about digital files. In fact, I took an old-school photography class complete with darkroom developing. My, how times have changed. That said, I had to learn the terminology pretty quickly when I became a journalism teacher and a yearbook and newspaper adviser. The hands-on learning and trial-by-error experience taught me more than any college class could. 

One of the most common questions I get is, "What is the difference between a jpeg and other image files?" Here is a condensed explanation to the difference between PNG and JPG files from a previous summer post found here:

The PNG format makes it possible to knock-out the background (or make it transparent), so your images easily layer on top of one another without the white (or whatever color) background overlapping. You cannot layer JPG (or jpeg) files like this. 

To demonstrate, see the image below. The girl on the left is a JPG file and the girl on the right in a PNG file. When each is placed on a purplish background, the JPG file will maintain its white background. The PNG's is knocked-out, allowing you to place additional PNG files on top of it. 

Another difference between the two is PNG files never lose their quality.  JPGs, however, will begin to  degrade every time you open them, so over time the quality of the image will not be as sharp. Because of this, PNG files are much larger than JPGs, making JPGs (and GIFs) more ideal for web browsing because they load faster.

I've picked up a lot from teaching journalism and continue to learn as technology keeps advancing. That's an advantage to teaching: it forces us to keep learning and passing along that knowledge. Of course, I learn just as much from my students as they learn from me.

 

If you need help working with images in Microsoft Word (which, in my opinion, is one of the worst programs for design/working with images), you can download this free tutorial. People who use Microsoft and do a lot of designing would probably be better off using Powerpoint or Publisher. 

Since I am a Mac girl, I use the iWork applications (Pages, Keynote) and Adobe's Creative Suites apps: Photoshop and InDesign. Pages is much like InDesign, but much easier, so I have actually converted to using Pages more. If you use a Mac, I highly recommend it!