Teacher Appreciation, Inspiration, and Motivation

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Day 2017, I've collected some great quotes to keep us teachers inspired and motivated to persevere through this profession's challenges and society's misconceptions of us. 

Alexander the Great basically says his greatness comes from his teacher, Aristotle!

Truly, I can't even count the number of facets of my life that have been impacted by teachers!  And it is my humble prayer that I do the same for today's youth.

These educators who teach with their hearts not only make us smarter but they make us better people.

Teachers, let's ignite that fire that makes our students lifelong learners and overall happy, successful people.  Finally...

This is super important to me: as educators, if we don't motivate and support each other, then NOBODY else will.  As challenging and draining this profession is our lives, I hope that we can find a flicker of positivity with our inspiring colleagues. 

Thanks, teachers, for all that you do, have done, and will do.

Re-telling and Summarizing: Strategies and Interventions

So, how are your interventions going?  Are your students making progress in the area of re-telling and summarizing?

As teachers of reading, we all know that if a student cannot re-tell the story, he/she will have difficulty making deeper inferences, answering questions about the text, connecting with the characters, and, most importantly, enjoying the story. And re-telling, along with summarizing, is a skill that can be honed beginning in kindergarten all the way to college (think of all those undergraduate and graduate students who write abstracts summarizing research).  As an interventionist teacher supporting second and third grade students in the area of reading, I am constantly grappling with how to best support my little friends with their re-tell and/or summary {fiction texts...nonfiction texts need their own blog post!}.  After reading a book during guided reading, I would pull out a graphic organizer, and think to myself, "this doesn't really match the story structure," or "this doesn't allow the student to include the most important details."  So I began to look at the results of my assessments more carefully, searched some of the professional literature, and began differentiating my approaches in order to better break down this important component of comprehension.

TPT Gift Card Giveaway...another one!

I am so excited that I get give away another Teachers Pay Teachers gift card!! It truly is such a treat to be able to brighten a teacher's day.

Please comment with the product that you can't wait to buy from TpT. It could be any product, not necessarily from my store.I'll be talking submissions until Monday, February 6th at 9 PM. I will randomly select a winner and post it on the blog, Facebook, and Instagram.

Feel free to post on my Facebook and Instagram pages for additional entries!

UPDATE:

Congratulations to CrazyCharizma for winning the gift card giveaway!!  Now she can do some shopping at the Teachers Pay Teachers #tptbemine sale!

 

Holiday Greetings & New Year's Wishes...with a freebie!

I hope everybody is enjoying his/her winter break!  What a blessing it is to be able to take some time off to relax, eat, spend time with family, sleep, and then eat some more.  Eating is my favorite. ♥

But I also know that so many teachers are already thinking about lesson planning for the New Year.  I know I'm already thinking about how to create resolutions with my little friends with the support of a good read aloud.  Last year I had used Extra Yarn, which is an incredible book with an awesome  female lead character.  And the book exemplifies how a person can have such a huge impact with a simple act of kindness.  But I didn't feel like the students developed strong personal goals after hearing that story.

This year I would like to incorporate more of a growth mindset with creating the resolution.  I've already read The Dot, so I'm thinking of reading What Do You Do With An Idea? or The Most Magnificent Thing.  I'm not sure which book to use...but it will eventually come to me...and I'll post it here on the blog and on my Facebook page.

Giving thanks...for you...with my first ever GIVEAWAY...

During the beginning of the holiday season, we often reflect what we're thankful for. Truthfully, along with being very grateful to God for good health, my wonderful family, for having a home and a job, I'm also incredibly thankful for all my followers on Teachers Pay Teachers. Your lovely comments are truly humbling.  To be part of this community of wonderful educators and to have the opportunity to create and share teaching materials that hopefully have a positive impact on children (and make teachers' lives a little easier!) is inspiring.  So to you,

So, what's the best way to thank you?

I'm ECSTATIC...better yet, ELATED, to be giving away a $10 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card.  My first ever giveaway!  Yay!

There are a couple of different ways to enter:

1.  Please comment on this blog post with a product (or products!) that you would like to buy from Teachers Pay Teachers.  It could be any product, not necessarily any from my store.

2.  Follow me on Facebook and comment under the TpT Gift Card post with the product(s) that are on your TpT Wish List!

I'll be talking submissions until Monday, November 28th, 2016, at 8 PM.  I will randomly select a winner and post it on the blog and on my Facebook page by 9 PM. 

After you win the gift card, you can go do some shopping...

Please be sure to share!  Thank you again!!!


***GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED!  THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED ON THE BLOG AND ON FACEBOOK!  I CAN'T WAIT TO DO THIS AGAIN!!***

Surprise Sale!

So, TpT is throwing another back-to-school sale!  A little gift for the teachers who are beginning the school year in September, like myself.  Or for those who are already in the grind of the school year and needs some extra stuff here and there.  My little store is on sale for 20% off, and TpT throws in another 10%, to make it a total of 28% off.  Check it out!

And if I may, I have a new product that I've been using myself for a few years.  It's a word wall alphabet for small spaces because I've been sharing a classroom every since I became an academic support teacher.  It's also goes with a blue color scheme or space/star theme (which I currently have both in my room).  Check it out!  And, as always, thank you!!

Monitoring Your Reading = Passing Level 1 of a Video Game

So I've put in a few years of trial and error into creating this resource, Re-telling and Summarizing Fiction Texts:  Interventions and Strategies.  I can tell you how I've put in my heart and soul into creating these graphic organizers and anchor charts to help my students, and I really think they will help your learners, too.  And eventually, I will get into the details of each strategy and how they address specific student needs and text structures.  But instead, I'm going to begin with the ending because it's my favorite part of this story, really the best part of the story:  winning level one of the video game.

Clip art courtesy of Paula Kim Studio

Cyber Monday Sale!

I'm sure you're pumped for Cyber Monday; I know I am.  Teachers Pay Teachers is graciously offering 10% off on top of our individual sales.  I'm putting all the products in my li'l old shop on sale, 20% off.  Let's all purchase the items on our wish lists!

Clip art courtesy of Krista Wallden. 

Character Traits List & Vocabulary Support

As we have entered the month of August, every teacher, whether she likes it or not, starts thinking about school.  Some of us have dreams (or nightmares).  Some of us go on a Pinterest spree.  We walk through Target and ask ourselves "What do I 'need' from the dollar section?"

You don't do this?  Okay, maybe it's just me.  Anyway, we are also thinking about what were some of our students' challenges last year, and how we will address them this year.  My third and fourth graders had difficulty with vocabulary and making inferences, which was evident in how they would describe their characters:

Nice

Mean

Sad

Oh my.

Teacher Appreciation 2013

Thank you.

Thank you for choosing to be a teacher.  It takes a really strong love of learners, a sense of sacrifice and commitment to enter this challenging profession.

Thank you for those long hours, for your incredible patience, your humor, your kindness,  your determination, your academic excellence, your perseverance. 

Thank you for inspiring me to be a better teacher.

Jen Jones at Hello Literacy has a lovely blog post about Teacher Appreciation Week.  Check it out!!

I hope your week started out well with lots of love and adoration from your students and PTO.  I am joining all the wonderful sellers on Teachers Pay Teachers and throwing a sale to honor all of the hard-working educators!  All my products will be 20% off with the additional 10% off coupon code at checkout (TAD13). 

More importantly, I wanted to point out that I've updated my Writing Workshop K-2 Resource with some additional writing pages.  Please make sure to let your friends and colleagues know about it...pricing will go up after this sale!!

Moreover, check out my new Teaching Setting product.  It's a small resource, but really handy for small group instruction.

I hope your week is filled with much gratitude and admiration for all the wonderful things you do!  Thank you again!!

Yay for teachers!

So, I've forgotten what it's like to be a blogger.  One day, I'll get my act together.  Sigh.  In the meantime, I have to make sure that I mark this story for posterity.

 

I am so thrilled for Deanna Jump!  She is truly an inspiration, and I wish her so much more success in the future.  There is an awesome article here with tips for success.  And of course, Teachers Pay Teachers is the venue that made this all possible.  Please, please, share this wonderful story with others!

I think you should all get a nickel every time I start a post with "It's been a while" or "I've been busy" or some other concocted excuse for not blogging.  Let's just say it's been one of those...years.  Not bad necessarily, just hectic and tiring.  I've been creating blog entries, TpT products, and free resources in my head for the past few months, and I've been itching to actually post them.  While I get my act together, here's a small sale, in appreciation of all the wonderful things that teachers do for this world.

My products are 20% off and I will also extend my sale until Thursday.  I hope you enjoy all the Teacher Appreciation promotions that are out there this week.  I know that I'll be on the look out, in between state testing, writing my professional development plan, filing papers, going to meetings...

Finally...

How do you bloggers and blog-stalkers do it?????  I have the best intentions to post on a regular basis but this year has been kicking my behind, and it's not my first year teaching!  I have the sincerest admiration for all of you hard-working teachers who can write these lovely and meaningful blog posts while cooking, cleaning, raising families, and of course prepping those fabulous lessons.  I miss all the writing, the comments, the feedback...I would like to say that I'll be on here soon, but I haven't been good with my promises...

I did want to take this opportunity to post about the wonderful Teachers Pay Teachers sale that's taking place on Cyber Monday.  There is a coupon code for 10% off along with my 20% off.  After all, 'tis the season to be merry, and sales are certainly merry.  So click below and check it out!

I hope you and your families have a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving!  As usual I have so many little and big things to be thankful for...which includes having you as followers and readers on my humble little blog.  Thank you again!

Gobble, gobble!

Stress and TpT sale :)

I don't know about you, but I'm definitely feeling the crunch, and school doesn't start until after Labor Day.  All the things that are floating in my head:  the new reading and writing curricula, how can I improve on my math strategies, how can organize and maintain my anecdotals...how many pennies until I fill my piggy bank so I go cash them at TD Bank.  All this stress!