Real Professional Development

Raise your hand (or click the like button) if you actually enjoy professional development.  I love professional development.  I love teaching, and good professional development makes me a better teacher and re-fires the passion inside me to do what I love.

Now, perhaps I should clarify my meaning of professional development.  I don’t mean boring, staff meetings where you are setting up a schedule, or doing a mundane task that could have been done via e-mail.  I don’t mean being trained on something that you are not interested in actually using in your classroom.  I don’t mean sitting through an hour long power point on a topic you have already mastered.  I mean working on a collaborative task, learning about a topic that will enhance your teaching, getting new tips and ideas that will help you build understanding for your students.

Now, I have enjoyed professional development of this type in real life.  I like nothing more than to get together with other teachers and have a real brainstorming fest!  However, I have found that sometimes these types of “real” professional development can be too few and far between.  That is, they were until I discovered teacher blogging and other teachers on social media.  Now when I need new ideas, I search out ideas on Pinterest.  I collaborate with other teachers by asking questions on their blogs, or contacting them outright if I have a project in mind.  I also use Facebook groups (like Teachers Sharing Ideas) to enhance my own professional development.  Finally, I take part in webinars and/or watch teacher tip videos on You Tube.

In addition to being more engaging to me, this type of professional development can be catered to my own personal needs and the needs of my students.  I find what I am looking for, or if I don’t find it, I ask others where I can find it.  I connect with millions of other teachers (sometimes teachers in other countries and continents, like on Global Teacher Connect) and those connections help me grow and be a better teacher each and every day.

So, the next time your administrators ask what you are looking for in professional development, share with them some different views on professional development.  How do you use the internet to provide yourself with professional development?

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Twister Math

I LOVE to play board games at home, but I also enjoying using them in my classroom. In addition to encouraging cooperation, turn taking and a variety of other social skills, I find I can often use the games to work on math and literacy skills. So, every Friday, I am going to post a Friday Game Night post, giving tips on how to use a particular board game in your classroom. Here’s this week’s Friday Game Night Tip:

 

++ So sorry this Friday Game Night is coming out on Sunday – I’m having internet issues right now, lol!  Enjoy! ++

Twister - Part 1 (Math)

At this time of the year, it’s important to get kids up and moving and Twister is a great game to do just that.  However, you can make Twister educational too!  Here are some ways you can use Twister when teaching Math.  For most of these variations, you will need to add digits (0-9) to the Twister circles.  You can either write the number right on the circles, or write the numbers on index cards and tape the index cards to the circles. 

(Management Tip: If you can get your hands on multiple twister boards, you can spread your students around the room on various boards with 3-4 students on a board and use one spinner for all of them.  Or, you can die cut colored circles and make a LARGE twister board that will encompass your entire class and tape them to the floor – if you have enough space.  Also, when teaching these variations – you should always be the caller for the first few rounds.  After students understand the concept, then you can let children take a turn as caller, or even break them into small groups and let this be a fun, active center.)

1. Graph Your Hands & Feet – There are tons of graphing opportunities that can created using Twister.  You can simply graph the colors called.  You can graph how many times your spinner lands on feet vs. hands.  You can graph the numbers people put their hands/feet on, or even the characteristics of these numbers (odd, even, less than 5, greater than 5) etc.  There are tons and tons of ways to work on graphing using Twister.  Grab 4 possible graphs and some graphing questions free, from Google Docs.

2. Partner Adding (or subtracting, multiplying or dividing) – Partner up students for this variation.  Have on student on the board being the “twister” and one student with a small white board, being the “thinker”.  When you call out the action (right hand, red), the twister will do the action and call out the number he put his hand or foot on to his partner.  The partner will write down the number on the white board.  This will be repeated with each action called out, but with each action, the thinker must add the new number to the old number (or old total), creating a bigger number.  If the thinker gets the answer wrong, that team is out of the game.  If the twister falls, that team is out of the game.  (You could also play for points if you would like.) 

The same could be done for multiplication, or if you’re working on subtraction or division, you could give students a number to start from and have them subtract or divide each number landed on. 

3. Number Creation – For this variation, split your class into 2 teams.  The teams will take turns being “twisters” and “thinkers”, using a 3 strikes policy.  After 3 strikes, the teams switch.  “Twisters” get a strike by letting a body part other than their hand or foot touch the ground.  “Thinkers” get a strike by coming up with the wrong answer. 

Each time you call out an action, the “twisters” complete that action.  Write the numbers on the board and challenge the “thinkers” to use the digits to make the biggest number, the smallest number, the biggest even number, the biggest number they can get to counting by 5, etc. – whatever category you would like. 

 

I hope some of the ideas will help you use Twister in a new, different way. Find more ways to use board games in your room by clicking HERE. Keep playing games and watching your students learn.

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Enhance Your Calendar Math

One of the best things I’ve done this year is to add Calendar Books to my Calendar Math program.  I love using calendar math to get my students looking more at numbers in a more in depth way.  I think the routine of calendar helps students to internalize numbers and gain a better understanding of the workings of numbers.  My calendar books have made my students more engaged during our whole group calendar time, and have given them some ownership over the learning that happens there.  I’ve made a little video for you of how I use these calendar books.

 

 

Next year, I want to do more with this concept, so I started making different levels for my learning pages.  I know have 6 levels, of which I think I’ll use 3 next year, and I have 12 different cover pages, one for each month.  I put them all together into an E-Book to share with you.  You can even grab two sample books for FREE – one for June and one for September at Raki’s Shop, or download all of the leveled pages and covers for $7.00.  This product is available exclusively at Raki’s Shop, grab one and be ready for a year’s worth of Calendar Math.  I will be so excited to use this from the beginning of the year last year – don’t you hate when you figure out something to works great, but the year’s more than half over! 

I’d love it if you tell me how you use Calendar Math in your classroom.

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A New Take on the End of the Year Project

It’s time for the Wednesday Website suggestion!! For two years, I was the Technology Specialist at a school in Georgia. During that time, I amassed a large collection of websites that I use with my students. If you want to search through some of them, you can check out my IKeepBookmarks site. Or, you can check back here each week for the Wednesday Website suggestion.

 

The end of the school year is a great time for students to work on projects.  I know many teachers have students create posters and other projects at this time of the year.  This week’s website suggestions is a new way to create that end of the year project – a Glog.  Glogs are online posters, so they can include a large variety of text and graphics.  However, they can also be interactive, and include links to websites, videos etc.  They are simple to use and if each student signs in on their own account they are free.  (There is a way for you to monitor all of your students, but that is a paid service.)

Another use for www.edu.glogster.com is that as a teacher, you can create an interactive poster for students to use during their computer center.  I have created a glog on Egypt (click HERE to view it) that my students are using to complete their Egypt country book.  (Feel free to grab a free copy from Google Docs.) The students love that they can click on the weather box and find out what Egypt’s weather is like today.  For my students who need everything clearly given to them, all the answers are right on the main page, but for those students who need a challenge, there are links to further information, allowing them to delve deeper into the subject.  So, Glogs have become a great way to make my computer center into a more involved and interactive experience.

How could you use Glogs in your classroom?  I’d love to hear some of your ideas.

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That Word Sounds Like….

My class consists of 20 students, of which only 1 speaks English only in his household, and even he began his life in a bilingual environment. The other 18 speak at least one, if not two other languages in their homes, and go to school in English, although they don’t live in an English speaking country. Due to my unique teaching position, I have had some readers ask for tips on teaching English Language Learners. Here’s this week’s Tuesday TESOL Teaching Tip:

ELL Teaching Tip #26: Help Your Students Explore Cognate

All languages are related, and there are words called cognates that help language learners to “guess” the meaning of new words.  Cognates sound and/or look the same in two or more languages.  For example:

Night in English is nuit in French, noche in Spanish, nicht in Scots and nat in Danish.

Star in English is etoile in French, ster in Dutch, sterk in Kurdish and estrella in Spanish.

Active in English is actif in French, activo in Spanish, ativo in Portugese and attivo in Italian.

Family in English is famille in French, familia in Spanish, familie in Dutch and pamilya in Fillipino.

 

Sometimes we have what is called “false cognates”, where words give us meaning clues, although they may not be exactly the same.  For example:

Snake in English is serpent in French.

Glacer is a large piece of ice in English, glace means ice in French.

Molest in English means to abuse, molestar in Spanish means to bother.

 

When we are learning, or teaching, a new language, these cognates help us to learn and remember new vocabulary.  Help your students learn these cognates by being aware of some yourself.  Here is a website with a list of common Spanish cognates.  Here is a website with a list of common French cognates.  A Google Search will reveal cognate lists for other languages as well.

Also, when introducing new vocabulary, encourage your students to tell you if they can find a cognate in their home language.  Have students write these cognates in a “Words I Know” or “My Own Dictionary” type of book, to help them spark their memories.

Do you enjoy the weekly TESOL Teaching Tips? Would you like to view an hour long presentation on this topic? I recently presented on Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners at the Everything’s Intermediate Expo. Now you can grab the presentation for just $4.95 from Teacher’s Notebook.


Find more TESOL Teaching Tips here, and come back every Tuesday for a new tip!

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Custom Order Clip Art

Are you looking for a clip art graphic, but can’t find the specific graphic you are looking for?  My husband, Khalil, and I create clip art and we have just recently started taking custom orders.  if you are interested, simply fill out the form below and we’ll get back to you ASAP to get you the cute clip art you are looking for.  The pricing on these custom ordered clip art starts at just $0.50 per graphic.

We do have clip art packages readily available already at Raki’s Shop, Teacher’s Notebook and Teachers Pay Teachers.  Here are some samples of the graphics we currently have available:

 

 

 

 

What do you use clip art to make?

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Summer Homeschooling

In addition to teaching, I also “homeschool” by two older sons in English.  They both go to school all day in Arabic and French, but I don’t want them to lose their academic English level, so we also do English activities throughout the week, including reading, writing and math.  Over the summer, I plan to work with them on each of these activities, but I also try each summer to make sure my kids have a lot of experiential learning.  Two years ago, we used my summer scavenger hunt to guide our experiential learning.  (Grab this summer scavenger hunt for FREE from Google Docs.)  Last year, we went to Washington D.C., New York City and then moved to Morocco which provided plenty of experiential learning.  For this summer, my kids and I made a “Summer Bucket List” of 60 things to do this summer, and we’re going to try to do one a day.  (BTW – I got this idea from That’s So Cugely.)  Here’s what my kids want to do this summer – as we check things off of our list, I’ll keep you updated on what my kids are learning.

1.  Go Fishing

2.  Play Monopoly

3.  Make Donuts

4.  Make Origami

5.  Do Every Puzzle in the House

6.  Have a Movie Day

7.  Camp in the Living Room

8.  Make S’mores

9.  Paint Ceramic Pots

10.  Use Every Block in the House to Build a Huge Castle

11.  Be a Marching Band

12.  Make Brownies

13.  Make Jewelry

14.  Have a Tea Party

15.  Visit the Forest

16.  Make a book

17.  Make a movie

18.  Collect & Sort Rocks

19.  Play Simon Says

20.  Play Card Games

21.  Color a Whole Coloring Books

22.  Make Scrapbook Pages

23.  Use the Scale to Weigh Things in our House

24.  Race the Toy Cars

25.  Hide & Seek with Toys

26.  Clean the Whole House (yes the kids added this to the list!)

27.  Have a Scavenger Hunt

28.  Work in our Math Workbooks

29.  Have Different Types of Races

30.  Make Glogs (www.edu.glogster.com)

31.  Play House

32.  Make Storybirds (www.storybird.com)

33.  Have Dinosaur/ Superhero Battles

34.  Play with Bubbles

35.  Do Science Experiments

36.  Have a Ball Race

37.  Make a Big Playdough Picture

38.  Have a Records Day (Who can bounce the ball the longest?  Who can stand on one foot the longest? etc. – My oldest son is obsessed with World Records right now. )

39.  Build Boats

40.  Play Souk (Market)

41.  Read 20 Books

42.  Mage Bagels from Scratch

43.  Go Horseback Riding

44.  Have a Fake Karate Tournament

45.  Make Raviolis from Scratch

46.  Learn Everything we can About Another Country

47.  Go to a Music Festival

48.  Go to the Zoo

49.  Make Obstacle Courses

50.  Go Roller Skating

51.  Play Tag

52.  Read all the Street Signs

53.  Play with All of the Train Tracks

54.  Write letters to family

55.  Participate in a post card exchange

56.  Bake Cookies

57.  Go Bird Watching

58.  Play Flowers

59.  Put on a Puppet Show

60.  Play School

What’s on your Summer Bucket List?

 

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