Boundaries, Excellence, and WorkLife Balance (Episode 39)

       Today, we talk about how we teachers can still be excellent while holding firm boundaries between work and rest ... and how we can model and teach our students how to do this too.
       Watch the YouTube video here >>> https://youtu.be/RZgBYb3lshk
       This conversation is very unscripted and covers a lots of mini topics within this whole conversation. Enjoy! We'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic and where you're at in your journey. Let's travel this together. :)
       Conversation of the Day: What task do you feel like you must do during the summer so you can survive the next school year?
       Hop on over to watch the video and share your thoughts in the conversation.

Let Google Earth Liven Up Your Lit Lectures

(Watch Part 1 here) Use Google Earth to enhance your literature and novel studies. If you're interested in resources like this for use in your classroom, we have these available for many novels.


        Conversation of the Day: How would this fire up and engage your students?

Win a Classroom Set of Novels

        Recently, a teacher commented that they would love to use one of our Complete Novel Units, but they didn't have a classroom set of books to use with the students.        This got me, Lisa, thinking about how I would love to be like Oprah or Ellen and give away classroom sets of books.  "A classroom set for you! A classroom set for you!"

        We checked our budget and decided it would be really fun to give away one classroom set. Thanks for understanding that we lack the sponsors of the aforementioned talk-show hosts.
        With February, Black History Month, coming close, we thought we'd offer a way to win a classroom set of novels (up to 35 books) for either Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis or Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor.

        If you, or someone you know, has wanted to teach one of these novels in their class, we are providing one possible way to get the books needed to make it happen.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

HOMESCHOOL PARENTS we haven't forgotten about you!
You can win up to 3 books.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure you read the giveaway Terms and Conditions in the Rafflecopter. They include:
The winner must choose between **Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963** or **Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry**. 
The winner of the classroom book set must be a classroom teacher and provide us with their school address in order for us to mail the books to that address.  
Five (5) runner-ups will win a complete novel unit of their choice from our store.
All winners will need to be willing to communicate through email in order to receive their winnings.  
The winner is responsible for checking with their school and/or district to ensure they are allowed to use the novel choice in their classroom.
We are not responsible if the winnings get lost in the mail or any other situation beyond our control.  If you win, we will buy you the books and use the address you provide us for the mailing address.

 

ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY Quickwrite Writing Prompts

        This week, my 7th grade English classes started reading the novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. We started with some background discussions and research on Jim Crow Laws and Brown vs. Board of Education. We looked at the Great Depression and unemployment at the time.
        After we had an idea of the world we were going to read about, we started reading. And in my class, that means we stop every other day or so to write about what we're reading. They have 5 minutes to write � a page. Full credit will be earned for � a page of serious thoughts on the subject. The goal is to just write, to write write write their thoughts on the topic and anything connected to the topic.
        I don't know about your students, but I've noticed my students have a hard time having something to say. They put down the exact thought, then can't explore the idea, pursue different angles, and talk about all the sides. So we spend time exploring our minds and writing it down. Then talking about it in group discussions. After a while, they're able to get more and more thoughts down. It's pretty awesome!
        Our Quickwrite Writing Prompts from today:

 Here are some action shots of my students writing their responses.

>>> Get the Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry QuickWrites Writing Prompts here
>>> Get the complete Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry teaching unit here.