conjunction junction

Positively Persistent Teach: School:

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 20:22:26 -0400

positivelypersistentteach:

itssnix:

curiosityofseven:

As a child: Hate it.

As a teenager: Like it because of friends.

As an adult: Its better than work.

Eventually becomes a teacher because= you get holidays off, summer off, weekends off, plus paid…

I agree with ppt! How crazy your days and nights are totally depends on both YOU and the school you’re in. Some teachers (like myself) find it less stressful to take work home so I can do it at my own pace, in front of the tv with a bowl of popcorn. Others will do it all at school and reserve home for personal life. In my first job, I had prep for 2 hours every morning, so I had a lot less take-home work that year than one of the other teachers, who had no preps and only a 30 minute lunch. It depends totally on context.

dailypeptalk: You’re awesome. (Be nice to yourself. It’s hard...

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 20:14:44 -0400

dailypeptalk:

You’re awesome.

(Be nice to yourself. It’s hard to be happy when someone’s mean to you all the time.
via inspiration)

Girls and Courage

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 11:04:22 -0400

Me (as we’re reading a book): She looks pretty confident, huh? Everyone else looks scared though.

2nd grade girl: Yeah, but that’s weird.

Me: What’s so weird about that?

2nd grade girl: Well, she’s a girl and she’s brave. Usually only boys can be brave.

**cue my heart breaking**

Me: I think anybody can be brave, even girls.

(cue me telling her a story about when I was brave and helping her brainstorm times she was brave)

Where is she getting these ideas?! Is she picking it up from school? From the books she’s reading? From TV? I don’t know. But I do know I’m going to be bringing in lots of books for us to read about strong women :)

5 Alternative Teaching Methods

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 16:10:27 -0400

5 Alternative Teaching Methods:

Need a quick refresher on Montesorri or Waldorf? Great quick guide!

"Ten Things I Want To Tell Teenage Girls 1. If you choose to wear shirts that show off your boobs,..."

Tue, 29 May 2012 01:11:44 -0400

“

Ten Things I Want To Tell Teenage Girls

1. If you choose to wear shirts that show off your boobs, you will attract boys. To be more specific, you will attract the kind of boys that like to look down girls’ shirts. If you want to date a guy who likes to look at other girls’ boobs and chase skirts, then great job; keep it up. If you don’t want to date a guy who ogles at the breasts of other women, then maybe you should stop offering your own breasts up for the ogling. All attention is not equal. You think you want attention, but you don’t. You want respect. All attention is not equal.

2. Don’t go to the tanning bed. You’ll thank me when you go to your high school reunion and you look like you’ve been airbrushed and then photoshopped compared to the tanning bed train wrecks formerly known as classmates – well, at least next to the ones that haven’t died from skin cancer.

3. When you talk about your friends “anonymously” on Facebook, we know exactly who you’re talking about. People are smarter than you think they are. Stop posting passive-aggressive statuses about the myriad of ways your friends disappoint you.

4. Newsflash: the number of times you say “I hate drama” is a pretty good indicator of how much you love drama. Non-dramatic people don’t feel the need to discuss all the drama they didn’t start and aren’t involved in.
5. “Follow your heart” is probably the worst advice ever.

6. Never let a man make you feel weak or inferior because you are an emotional being. Emotion is good; it is nothing to be ashamed of. Emotion makes us better – so long as it remains in it’s proper place: subject to truth and reason.

7. Smoking is not cool.

8. Stop saying things like, “I don’t care what anyone thinks about me.” First of all, that’s not true. And second of all, if it is true, you need a perspective shift. Your reputation matters – greatly. You should care what people think of you.

9. Don’t play coy or stupid or helpless to get attention. Don’t pretend something is too heavy so that a boy will carry it for you. Don’t play dumb to stroke someone’s ego. Don’t bat your eyelashes in exchange for attention and expect to be taken seriously, ever. You can’t have it both ways. Either you show the world that you have a brain and passions and skills, or you don’t. There are no damsels in distress managing corporations, running countries, or managing households. The minute you start batting eyelashes, eyelashes is all you’ve got.

10. You are beautiful. You are enough. The world we live in is twisted and broken and for your entire life you will be subjected to all kinds of lies that tell you that you are not enough. You are not thin enough. You are not tan enough. You are not smooth, soft, shiny, firm, tight, fit, silky, blonde, hairless enough. Your teeth are not white enough. Your legs are not long enough. Your clothes are not stylish enough. You are not educated enough. You don’t have enough experience. You are not creative enough. There is a beauty industry, a fashion industry, a television industry, (and most unfortunately) a pornography industry: and all of these have unique ways of communicating to bright young women: you are not beautiful, sexy, smart or valuable enough. You must have the clarity and common sense to know that none of that is true. None of it. You were created for a purpose, exactly so. You have innate value. You are loved more than you could ever comprehend; it is mind-boggling how much you are adored. There has never been, and there will never be another you. Therefore, you have unique thoughts to offer the world. They are only yours, and we all lose out if you are too fearful to share them. You are beautiful. You are valuable. You are enough.

”

- Ten Things I Want To Tell Teenage Girls | Kate Conner

These are things I wish someone had told me, and things that I often tell teenage girls now. Thank you, Kate Conner!

(via roughdraftsinthemaking)

I want every teenage girl I know to read this.

The Power of Tumblr. The Beauty of Strangers.

Mon, 28 May 2012 11:19:32 -0400

detroitsomething:

My name is Ray Stoeser. I am a high school teacher living and working in Detroit. Below is a testament to the power of Tumblr and social networking. Most importantly it is about how 554 complete strangers helped change the lives of my Detroit students.

The Power of Tumblr. The Beauty of Strangers.

Read More

10 Reasons Your Students Should Laugh

Mon, 28 May 2012 10:24:22 -0400

10 Reasons Your Students Should Laugh :

Social Awareness: Humor is a powerful tool in social change. It strips away the fear of those who are committing injustices. Whether it’s Charlie Chaplin mocking Hitler or South Park lambasting Kim Jong Il (oh, he’s dead now? I didn’t even realize he was Il.) satire can be a powerful method of bringing the absurdity of an idea to life. Last year, I played clips from The Onion. Students read “A Modest Proposal.” I wanted them to see how humor can be used to make sense out of the world.

Sometimes, in the serious business of learning and teaching, we forget how joyous it’s supposed to be, and how important it is to have fun learning. Just think of all the crazy things that happen when you put a bunch of people in a room together for 9 months! Definitely a call for some laughs (it’s community building!).

itssnix: This document was the back page of an application for...

Sun, 27 May 2012 08:32:24 -0400

itssnix:

This document was the back page of an application for a school I looked at in my job-hunting stage. I don’t know where it originally came from, or why it was part of the packet, but I found the right two columns particularly helpful when anticipating interviews.

Since there are a lot of recent graduates looking for jobs, I thought it would be a useful resource to throw out there.

Click through to download the .PDF!

teachingliteracy: Lazy Sunday (by Boy_Wonder)

Sun, 27 May 2012 08:31:22 -0400

teachingliteracy:

Lazy Sunday (by Boy_Wonder)

"Northside Independent School District plans to track students next year on two of its campuses using..."

Fri, 25 May 2012 20:23:41 -0400

“

Northside Independent School District plans to track students next year on two of its campuses using technology implanted in their student identification cards in a trial that could eventually include all 112 of its schools and all of its nearly 100,000 students.

Say what! How crazy is this? Or is it a great idea?

I’m personally uncomfortable with this. I thought about how I’d feel if as a teacher, my id badge had a tag in it. I am a pretty big rule-follower, and am always where I am supposed to be, when I am supposed to be, so on one hand, why should I care? However, think of how easily this could be abused—counting up how many minutes I spend in the bathroom, or whatever. I guess it doesn’t break any privacy laws, but how far will they go?

”

- Students will be tracked via links in ids

"You’ve never heard of me, but there’s a good chance that you’ve read some of my..."

Thu, 24 May 2012 22:15:07 -0400

“

You’ve never heard of me, but there’s a good chance that you’ve read some of my work. I’m a hired gun, a doctor of everything, an academic mercenary. My customers are your students. I promise you that. Somebody in your classroom uses a service that you can’t detect, that you can’t defend against, that you may not even know exists.

I work at an online company that generates tens of thousands of dollars a month by creating original essays based on specific instructions provided by cheating students. I’ve worked there full time since 2004. On any day of the academic year, I am working on upward of 20 assignments.

In the midst of this great recession, business is booming. At busy times, during midterms and finals, my company’s staff of roughly 50 writers is not large enough to satisfy the demands of students who will pay for our work and claim it as their own.

”

- The Shadow Scholar—The Chronicle Review

A seriously fascinating read, especially for those in higher ed and high schools. I knew that cheating was rampant, but had no idea that customized work was a part of that. Tell me teachers, would you know if your student bought a paper? Have you ever caught a student who did this?

"I hold up a handful of wooden coffee stirrers and say to the class: “I took these from the Three..."

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:24:02 -0400

“

I hold up a handful of wooden coffee stirrers and say to the class: “I took these from the Three Star Diner yesterday. Would it be correct to say I stole them?”

Heads shake and I’m given reasons why stole is too strong a word.

“How about these plastic spoons from the Carvel store? Ripped off?” Heads shake. Same reasons.

I hold up a stainless steel fork. “Luigi’s Pizza Garden. Stolen?”

“Yes,” everyone shouts, laughing, and from the back of the room a girl calls, “And bring it back! Luigi’s my uncle.” Lots of laughs.

These scenarios lead us into a discussion of the distinctions between synonyms for steal; and by the time we’re through, we have covered the differences between pilfer, shoplift, rob, swipe, purloin, rip off, filch, embezzle, swindle, and any other theft-related word the class offers, including hijack, plagiarize and pirate.

My emphasis, though, is on pilfer, and it’s the only word I ask them to write on their Found Vocabulary list.

“Anybody have a pilfering story?” I ask. A raised hand.

“Yes?”

“My —.” I interrupt quickly. “No names, please.” Laughter.

The funny, outrageous and sometimes plainly criminal stories could go on for an hour. (Sheets and pillow cases dropped from motel windows into waiting arms?)

We talk about the ethics of pilfering by office workers, restaurant goers and hotel guests. It’s a vocabulary lesson, a critical thinking lesson, an ethics lesson. And, as usual, I’m having students associate their vocabulary word with something in their life experience. That’s what makes new words stick most of all.

”

-
Vocabulary Is Where You Find It. By Bob Greenman

Great article on teaching vocabulary.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/teachersatwork/vocabulary-is-where-you-find-it-2012/

(via englishteacheronline)

Hi there!

Thu, 24 May 2012 13:26:00 -0400

I’m a 20-something teacher-wannabe finishing up graduate school in secondary education/reading in the Philadelphia area. I love to read, talk, debate and celebrate everything and anything to do with education (especially English ed)! I’m excited to get involved in tumblr’s awesome education community.

See you around!

Sara

The 28 most tried and true writing prompts

Thu, 24 May 2012 13:14:43 -0400

writingprompts:

50 Alternatives to the Book Report

Thu, 24 May 2012 13:14:34 -0400

50 Alternatives to the Book Report :

theteachersdesk:

Character Astrology Signs

Heroes and Superheros

Create a Childhood for a character

Critique from the point of view of a specific organization

Social workers report

College application

School counselor’s recommendation letter

Talk show invitation

Radio exchange

Movie recommendations

Create a home page

Chat room conversations

E-mail directory

Title acrostic

Cartoon squares

Word collage

Yearbook entries

Letter exchange

Awards

Talk show on issues in the novel

Dream vacation

Scrapbook

Photos or magazine pictures

Music

Poetry

Twenty questions

File a complaint

Tangible or intangible gifts

Talk to the author

Point of view column

Character monologues

Make up a word test for the novel

Answering machine message

Found poems

Name analysis

A character’s fears

Current events

Advertisements

A pamphlet

Draw a scene

New acquaintances

Book choices for character

Community resources for characters

Family history

Detective work

The dating game

Create a character’s room

CD collection

Photo album

A character alphabet

Photo

Thu, 24 May 2012 13:14:16 -0400

Photo

Thu, 24 May 2012 13:14:02 -0400