Monday, December 31, 2012

What will you achieve in 2013?

13 Things for 2013!! 

Michelle Lundy of "Making It As A Middle School Teacher" has the neatest link up going on that really is inspiring. 
I think it's great to see what each of us has decided to aim for in the upcoming year as well as to think about what we'd like to accomplish personally and professionally in 2013! 

"A YEAR-IN-PREVIEW"

I hope you take a moment to see what various teachers (who are also women, men, mommies, wives, girlfriends, sisters, brothers, daughters, etc.) have chosen to share with you from their list of things to achieve/see/do/create/etc. for this next year! You can view all posts of those participating by clicking above image which will take you directly to the linky party!
Thanks to Michelle for such a great idea to start off the new year!

Happy new year to all of you! 
What's your biggest event, goal, test, hope, wish for next year? Share below~


Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Magic of Silent Movies in Creative Writing!


The Tutor House
I want to give a  SPECIAL "THANK YOU" to Adrianne Meldrum of The Tutor House for being a guest blogger today! She does, without a doubt, always have clever and spectacular ideas/activities to share. So, without further delay...
______________________________________

adrianne meldrum guest post innovative connectionsThere's something magical about silent movies.  Even without dialog, a story is conveyed.  How would the story be different if you could add dialog?  Using silent movies for a creative writing project or exercise could liven up your students creative juices.


I found three fun (short) silent movies that lend themselves well to adding dialog.  Two of them are old silent movies and the other is a modern day silent movie.  All of these videos are under a creative commons license. 


Divide your students into teams and assign a video.  Students will then work together to come up with dialog that goes along with the video.  They will need to come up with a title and then perform the voices for the videos.  Of course, you'll need to set some ground rules with no profane or inappropriate content allowed. 


You could also have students do their own voice over of the videos.  If you would prefer this method, please email me to receive an editable version of the video.






What kinds of stories do you think your students will come up with?


Video Sources: Video One, Video Two, Video Three


Adrianne Meldrum is a private tutor and author of The Tutor House, a blog dedicated to helping tutors find curriculum and business tips.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

A Christmas Stocking Freebie and Teacher to the Core Giveaway Galore!

and a Christmas Stocking Freebie!
I just wanted to share the news of an amazing "Teacher to the Core Giveaway Galore" going on at Katie Knight's blog Teacher Core! (OR REMIND THOSE THAT ALREADY KNOW)
12 Days of Giveaways!!!
Be sure to swing by and see if you can snag some cool teaching resources!! Tell her I sent you! ;)
(Oh, I'm participating in her giveaway too (along w/ many amazing bloggers, so be on the lookout!)She's got TONS of items lined up to dish out to YOU! Congrats to Teacher to the Core on the "200 Followers" milestone!


AND FOR AN ADDITIONAL FREEBIE FROM ME...
In case you've missed my primary freebie in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, I wanted to share it with you (being perfect timing and all...)--It's a quick little activity you can do with your kiddos to instill the magic of "GIVING" during the Christmas Season! I call it "Fill Someone's Stocking with Cheer..."
We all know it's more important to give rather than receive, so without any further rambling, check it out:
A Christmas Stocking Freebie and Teacher to the Core Giveaway Galore!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Homemade Ornaments to Match Our Winter Poetry!

Assess students on vivid language use Fun and Festive activity and craft!
I love doing this activity with my students. The beauty of this lesson is that you can assess students on use of vivid language but on their appropriate levels! So, this fun and festive assignment is great for a variety of ages!
Should you be hunting a writing activity to go along with the Christmas or "Winter" season, this is a great one!! 
You'll find guidelines, suggestions, a grading rubric, a pre-writing template, and a rough draft handout to help guide the students through the very important writing process!
Pre-writing Handout! 
What I hear, see, etc...
The focus is on writing, obviously, so an ornament is included in activity only to serve as a visual supplement. So, the ornament creations are left entirely up to the students -HOWEVER they choose to make them should be JUST PERFECT. 
Grading Rubric &
 Rough Draft Handout
Eliminating any limitations leaves the doors wide open for creativity and imagination, encouraging students to utilize available materials they have at home. I discourage store bought items in order to cater to student imagination and it helps with those who are unable to go buy materials to make ornaments. The purpose of the added craft is to create a visual supplement that is totally homemade by gathering items lying around the house...the result being a creation representative of the child's Christmas/Winter term assigned! 
writing activity to go along with the Christmas or "Winter" season
Guidelines/Suggestions
A super festive idea is to string some colored lights across the top of the dry erase board, a tree, or just across your classroom wall, hanging the ornaments on the lights (or hang them on fishing line if you are afraid to hang them from light strands... lol). 
Poof! Automatic Christmas/Winter display, student work display, and festive fun all crated by the students...no work on your part! 
In addition to the ornaments on display, you can put their poems up too, under the lights/ornaments or on wall around a tree, depending on which way you'd like to display it all! 
Oh, just a little tidbit...I use the terms "Christmas" and "Winter" because many students in my classes over the years have different beliefs and/or religions and I do not want to single anyone out or offend anyone--so if considering it our "Winter Poetry" writing assignment handles that issue.
---AFTER ALL, the purpose is to write a poem about an assigned word, stay on topic, and dazzle the reader with vivid language in connections with an assigned term. And, the visual display (craft) is supposed to represent the student's term! So, it hardly has to be dedicated solely to Christmas, which allows us all to take part in the fun writing/craft activity! You can find this item in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store or in my Teachers Notebook Shop! (Those links are on the top right of blog--or click images to go straight to the TPT product!)

I ASK YOU...

What do you incorporate as seasonal fun into your lessons? 
Please share some ideas below!! Who knows, if enough ideas are out there, we could keep the kids involved in seasonal fun until we are on Winter Break!

Happy Writing,
 Christmas Winter Break poetry writing with ornaments to display
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