Tag Archives: Teacher

December 18, 2011 · 1:16 PM

Teen Ink…a Wonderful Resource Site for Parents, Students and Teachers

I wanted to share a great resource site to get your child/student excited about writing. This site is a wonderful teen site, where all the articles are written by teenagers.  I encourage you to check it out and let us know your thoughts.  We need to speak their language (perhaps not agree with it) bu t try to understand it, if we hope to take them to new heights in the classroom. TEENInk~ A wonderful magazine for teens written by teens.

TEENInk

Books, Magazine and  Website Designed for Teens

by Teens since 1989

  • Teen INK  is a site where young writers can write and submit poetry, fiction and non-fiction to be critiqued and reviewed by other teens
  • Teen INK pays teens for articles written by teens for teens and host various writing contest throughout the year
  • Read current news articles from Around the World, written by teens
  • A plethora  of writing samples to read, get ideas from and increase your lexicon

May we continue to seek knowledge in all things,

Denise

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December 15, 2011 · 4:18 PM

Making Science Fun with Science Competitions that Promote “Out-of-the-Box” Thinking

Science is FUN!

It is almost January, and educators and parents start the “Science Fair” discussion with children and students.  This year, there are some cool science contests out there and Google Science tops my list.

Regardless if Science was your thing or not, if asked, we all could probably pull forward one science fair memory from the recesses of our minds. Volcano eruptions, eye ball blinks, inertia, plant growth with various musical tunes you name it, science fair time can be an exciting time of discovery or a mad dash to finish a deadline imposed by the ominous science teacher.

The Important Role of the Science Teacher
Given the teacher and they way material is presented, science can be fun! The world of science can open many doors for children. Doors to worlds that can increase awareness of saving our planet, living a healthy life, or even saving a life one day, by creating a cancer-saving cure…imagine. Many children in this country have limitations on travel and are limited to specific environments and economic resources. However, science is that one area where it is “cool” to recycle, utilize imagination and create! Memories of utilizing paper towel and toilet roll holders to demonstrate magnetic pull, keeps bubbling up to remind me that in science, the sky is the limit on creativity and ingenuity.

Science Fair Contests

*Google Science Fair 2012

  1. Children must be 13-18 years old
  2. Individual or groups allowed; groups can consist of two or three teams only
  3. Children “Scientists” must create a Google account and submit a Sign-Up form online
  4. Once confirmation is given, plan, execute and cite results, remembering to follow directions given and complete all sections outlined on the Google Section Submission Site
  5. A two minute video or 20 page slide presentation giving an overview of project are required to enter contest…entries are due by April 4th with submission form

This is a great contest that can allow educators to collaborate from various schools to come together with “Science Teams”, churches and or youth groups to utilize science as a way to spark the imagination of our children and enhancing team building while instilling (hopefully) a love of science.

*International Online Science Contest

The International Online Science Contest website has a wealth of resources for teachers and parents. This site offers a variety of science contest that run all year. Students can visit this site to view other science projects and read judging tips to get an overall appreciation for the “Science Fair” process. Parents can visit site to read and download a Parent Guide that provides step-by-step instructions, parent testimonials and defines the roles of parents throughout the “Science Fair” process. This is a one-stop shop for learning all about Science Fairs and a great resource for classroom teachers as well.

Science Buddies

Science Buddies website is an all encompassing site that provides its reader with a list of various science competitions. Competitions are broken down by grade levels, format, eligibility and if teams are allowed. This is a great site for young people who might be interested at ages eight or nine in science and can watch some “advanced” science fair project videos on various projects to plant a seed for the future. For schools who do not have a “gifted” or advanced science program, this might be the site for you.

“Out of the Box” Teaching

A school, with a very creative, “out of the box” science teacher, could utilize the contest found here or at any of the mentioned websites, and take students who demonstrate an aptitude for science to the next level. Teachers who are looking to collaborate or parents who want to take more of an active role in this process can find science community blogs as well at http://www.sciencebuddies.org to glean insight and support throughout the Science Fair process or to even supplement or increase the love of science in the life of a child.

Science Fair Project Ideas

Happy creating and for additional science fair project ideas, check out the following sites to ignite the imagination:

Imagine if we could ignite the imagination, plant a love of learning for science via writing, creating, utilizing music, labs, nature and utilize all the other multiple intelligences, there is nothing we could not accomplish or overcome.

May we seek knowledge in all things,

Denise

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November 17, 2011 · 8:39 PM

6th Grade Teacher Makes Science Fun with Cell Process Cartoons

Who said science wasn’t fun?
While in a school today (St. Mary School Royal Oak, Michigan), I stopped to look at these fabulous displays of creativity.  Not only was this hallway display colorful and creative, it was educational and funny!
 

 
We would love to share your classroom Best Practices with our readers. It is in this collaborative process, that we all grow as educators…as parents…as a society!  Good ideas are meant to be shared.  We try to share them as often as we can!
 

 

May we continue to seek knowledge in all things,
Denise
 
 

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September 21, 2011 · 9:36 PM

Odyssey of the Mind and Team Building Lessons for the Classroom and Home

As the school year has just begun and we are busy in schools, I thought I would share a couple of great sites that offer “team building” lessons for students.   We are excited to hear from and meet new teachers this year.  I think that these sites provide  great problem-solving scenarios for students to work through and can enhance any lesson in any discipline and be modified for any age to meet the needs of all students.  Enjoy and have a super school year full of many new discoveries!

Odyssey of the Mind

http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/

Computer Science Unplugged

http://csunplugged.org/

Computer Science Unplugged  is a great site to utilize in the classroom because it offers creative scenarios to solve or work through without utilizing a computer.  This site has various activities for both teachers and parents to utilize with students to enhance team building and higher-order thinking.

I love to know your thoughts, ideas or lessons found successful in enhancing these skills. Please keep sharing. Together we can make a difference!

May we seek knowledge in all things,

Denise

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August 29, 2011 · 1:59 PM

F-R-E-E Educational Webinars for Teachers and Parents

Given our economy, professional development has been slim for many educators. There is a plethora of free webinars online. Have fun learning!

Life is busy and for those of us who do not have time to attend a class for learning or pleasure, webinars can be just the tool needed to achieve our goal. Given technology, webinars can be the next best thing for teachers too.

PBS Teachers Live Should be in Every Teacher’s Toolbox

PBS Teachers Live offers a wealth of webinars in many areas across the disciplines. For example, if a teacher were interested in educating students about Earth Day in April (hopefully), then PBS Teachers Live would be
a valuable tool. Teachers sign up for free and log on to various webinars, full of ideas, lesson plans and across the curriculum connections, to name a few.

Webinars, an Awesome Resource for Educators

After doing some research, here are a few webinar sites across the Internet that is recommended by those within the world of education:

Education Week (one of my personal favorites) offers many enlightening webinars. Check out “E-educators’ Evolving Skills”…talk about relevant!

American Statistical Association offers various webinars…currently hosting a K-12 “Meeting within a Meeting” for Science and Math Teachers

Exploring Middle School MiddleWeb is a blog powered by Typepad. They are a promoter of 21st Century Learning and offer live and archived webinars. Check out the latest webinar: The National Middle School Association is teaming up with the NSF-funded Middle School Portal to offer “Free math and Science Webinars”…the goal was to not only make the training affordable but user friendly; teachers could watch from home.

Webinars and Educational Professional Development

The life of a teacher is very demanding and organization is necessary. This is also true for those entrusted to lead and provide professional development for their educational staff. Given this amazing age of technology, regardless of budget, there is no reason that professional development is not occurring within schools.

All of the webinars posted here in this article, can be utilized to strengthen and enrich any school faculty. Educators can watch at their own pace or gather and watch as a team. This type of professional development is only going to increase not decrease as we progress further into the world of technology. There are many curriculum developers/professional development trainers, who utilize programs like these mentioned to create meaningful professional development for educators around the world.

OneNote and Education:
This MSDN blog was created to have a dialog about OneNote and education, including sharing ideas, resources, and building community with teachers, students and faculty.

Parents are the first teachers. All of these webinars mentioned are open to anyone interested in learning and changing the life of a child. This will be one of many articles written on the topic of professional development within the world of education. There is a plethora of free programs out there for all of us to learn and use, to meet the needs of our children,
our future.

May we continue to seek knowledge in all things,

Denise

 

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August 21, 2011 · 7:04 PM

Teachers are Planters of Seeds…What Kind of Seeds are you Planting?

As I sit and review my notes for Unlock the Teacher‘s first professional development session for the 2011/2012 school year, I reflect and wonder, what
words can I provide that might inspire and instill hope for all the amazing teachable moments that will happen in the life of the teachers with whom I will be speaking to tomorrow. Teaching is SO much more than a job, I honestly believe it is a calling; an urge that a person feels to make a difference, and is played out in the classroom.

We often think about all the teachable moments that happen throughout the school year for our students, our future. However, I also think of the amazing teachable moments that occur for the individual teacher. I hope that at this time of year, the teacher is reflecting and writing a curriculum map for the school year that will be used as a master plan.

The teacher, who starts the school year, is often different from the one who finishes it. Hopefully, this is the case, as a true reflective practitioner will evolve throughout the year as his/her students will…keeping in mind no two students are alike, no school year should ever mirror another for a teacher.

In regards to a teacher’s master curriculum plan, this is just a tool that is utilized to create lessons full of discovery for each quarter, with one scaffolding on the next to ensure that students are maximizing their potential. However, this is just a plan, as all good teachers know, true
“teachable moments” sometimes just happen and must be capitalized on in the moment.

I have chosen the theme of “Teachers are Planters of Seeds” for tomorrow.  I have had the pleasure of working with this staff on curriculum alignment and I am honored to be asked back into their building on their first day back to school before their eager students arrive next week.

I think as teachers, we have the awesome power to create new worlds in our students’ minds. We can take them to places they might not ever get an opportunity to experience, tell them and show them how to achieve the impossible dream OR we can crush the human spirit with one angry glance or snide comment.

Think about what kind of world we hope to have in the future and remember that it all begins with how we treat our children today, what opportunities we provide, what words of encouragement or defeat did we choose to utilize at the moment of chaos in the classroom. When we train our eyes to see the good and choose to use words to share the good, amazing things can happen!

 

Children Learn What They Live

By Dorothy Law Nolte

 

If children live with criticism,
They learn to condemn.

If children live with hostility,
They learn to fight.

If children live with ridicule,
They learn to be shy.

If children live with shame,
They learn to feel guilty.

If children live with encouragement,
They learn confidence.

If children live with tolerance,
They learn to be patient.

If children live with praise,
They learn to appreciate.

If children live with acceptance,
They learn to love.

If children live with approval,
They learn to like themselves.

If children live with honesty,
They learn truthfulness.

If children live with security,
They learn to have faith in themselves and others.

If children live with friendliness,
They learn the world is a nice place in which to live!

 

What kind of seeds are you getting ready to plant this school year?

May we all continue to seek knowledge in all things,

Denise

 

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June 27, 2011 · 8:30 PM

Teacher and Parent Resource Websites

 

Parents are the first responders in regards to education.  The following sites can be viewed by parent(s) and or caregiver and lessons or objectives can be giving for children ages 6 to 18 each day to enhance learning over the summer. Many of these sites have free educational webinars or videos where parent and child can learn together and have some educational fun! 20 minutes on computer at one of these sites can help your child explore and learn.  Great ideas can be extrapolated from these sites, in regards to family outings, educational vacations, field trips and fun summertime projects at home.

 

Great Learning Games~ www.funbrain.com

Large Resource for Language Arts, Reading and Writing~ www.mrsgoldsclass.com

Great Science and Math Activities~ www.edheads.com

Create Puzzles ~ www.edhelper.com

Educational Webinars~ www.pbs.org

Everything Jan Brett~ www.janbrett.com/

Great Science Site~ www.chem4kids.com

A Typing Site for Kids~ www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing

Everything Eric Carle~ www.eric-carle.com

A Variety of Activites~ www.apples4theteacher.com/

May we seek knowledge in all things,

Denise

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June 11, 2011 · 11:55 AM

We Have Found an Amazing 7 Year-Old Writer and Her Mom Writes Too…Check out Her Blog

In one of our Writing Workshops in May, I was thrilled to spend time with Amy Foret.  She is a young mom who is a wife and a mother of two. Her articulate and well-read daughter is 7 and she has an amazing son who is 5.

Her daughter started reading when she was only 3 1/2, and has been writing stories since she started kindergarten. Now she is in second grade. She reads about a book a night, and writes at least one short story a week.

Please check out and welcome these new writers to WordPress and the writing arena.

For all of our readers who love to get great ideas on books to utilize in classroom or read to your child, we highly recommend Amy’s blog MY Garden Patch of Books.

Please check it our and share your thoughts here on your great reading finds 🙂

I am on my way to VA to meet with Trisha and conduct some Unlock the Teacher LLC “How to ePublish” Workshops…

Stay tuned as the next Katie’s Adventure eBook is almost ready to hit Barnes and Noble.com.  The OLQM first graders who wrote and illustrated the book did an amazing job!

You learn something every day if you pay attention.  ~Ray LeBlond

May we seek knowledge in all things,

Denise

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April 1, 2011 · 6:17 PM

A Fabulous Middle School Teacher Utilizing “Out of the Box” Techniques to Teach Peace

I always enjoy going into St. Mary’s School in Royal Oak.  The atmosphere is inviting and the teachers are friendly.  I want to share with readers, a fabulous teacher utilizing “out of the box” techniques to teach peace. Linda Irwin teaches middle school literature and even if that knowledge wasn’t known, one could tell just by walking into her classroom.

 
While visiting this past week, I coud not help noticing this awesome bulletin board as I walked down the hall in front of this classroom.  I walked in and asked Mrs. Irwin all about it.  The students are reading, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
 
Students are working together by individually designing a quilt square that will be added to a “Quilt of Peace” created by the entire class.  I was fortunate to have witnessed one child designing one of these squares, that was beautifully done.  When asked, the students were so excited to share insights from the book and excerpts from the great discussions they were having in class generated around their reading.
 
As a certified ELA teacher, whenever I hear students excited about reading, my heart soars!  Great job Mrs. Irwin for passing on you passion and utilizing relevant and current books to engage your students. 
May we continue to seek knowledge in all things,
Denise
 
 
 
 
 

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February 24, 2011 · 7:58 PM

Six Attitudes of High Achievers…Are You a High Achiever?

This blog is about sharing the good found in all things. Today I read a great article I found on my bookcase in a Franklin/Covey’s Seven Habits Organizer on Noe’s, Peak Performance Principles.

NOTE: Organizer belongs to my husband and I am just realizing that it is chuck-full of great inspirational and leadership advice…this organizer has various inserts that he has pulled out of his planner for the last six years to make one awesome leadership reference tool!

Noe breaks down the attitudes he correlates to those who are high achievers into six easy steps:

  1. High achievers make no small plans. Although he states that big plans attract big people, he reminds his reader that a high achiever recognizes the small everyday choices that build the cornerstone for the big plans.
  2. High achievers are willing to do what they fear. “You don’t conquer fear with clichés, but with action.”  Personally, I love this.  When I was stationary in one classroom, I always had the Latin phrase, acte non verbe on my wall; it quickly became class motto.  Noe states, “That fear is fraud and that only 8% of our fears are legitimate.”
  3. High achievers are willing to prepare. We all can organize, plan and prepare for situations or events in our life, but Noe stresses that the high achiever, “gets more excited about what they are becoming than what they have done.”
  4. High achievers are willing to risk failure. “Failure is not the enemy of success.  It is the teacher-a harsh teacher, but the best if you are going to be a high achiever…you must learn to “fail” your way to high achievement.”  Imagine if we taught this to our children, our students… what a great lesson to learn early in life.  It could help individuals deal with or look at depression, stress and the plethora of negative influences we encounter daily, in a more positive fashion.
  5. High achievers are teachable. Noe explains in this article, that a high achiever seeks knowledge, spends time reading, observing and listening to those around them.  When I was in the Army, the Drill Sergeants in basic training would often state that “if you see another soldier doing something right, adopt it and make it your own.”
  6. High achievers have heart. This point stresses that when we look at the plot in great literature, we usually find conflict.  However, unlike literature, the conflict that often occurs in our lives usually does not have a detailed rising action, which hints to what is ahead…it just happens, in a flash of a second and we either crumble or inhale and rise to meet it head on.  Noe expresses in this piece, that he feels that it is during these times of conflict in our lives that we can be propelled to our highest goals…if only we demonstrate courage, persistence and perspective.

If I did not find the six detailed attitudes for high achievers motivating, Noe’s last paragraph in the article definitely did it for me.  To describe the algorithm of achievement, Noe utilizes the analogy of mountain climbing.  A mountain climber would not go from peak to peak, they would reach peak, travel down again, to experience the thrill of a new adventure with climbing up to another peak.  I found this analogy motivating and a visual reminder I can use when encountering a stressful situation.

If we dedicate ourselves over and over again to the goal of climbing one peak to the next…resisting the urge to become discouraged by the task-every one of us can become a high achiever. ~John R. Noe, Peak Performance

Have a great weekend and may we all continue to seek knowledge in all things,

Denise

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