So I wanted to share with you some fabulous products! Teachers Pay Teachers is having a site wide sale beginning tomorrow (January 20th) and extending to January 21st. It's a wonderful time to stock up on products on your wish list.
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Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Start Your Year Inspired! TPT Sale!!
One of my favorite things about Teachers Pay Teachers has been all the wonderful educators I have connected with throughout the world. It's been such a fantastic journey!
So I wanted to share with you some fabulous products! Teachers Pay Teachers is having a site wide sale beginning tomorrow (January 20th) and extending to January 21st. It's a wonderful time to stock up on products on your wish list.
So I wanted to share with you some fabulous products! Teachers Pay Teachers is having a site wide sale beginning tomorrow (January 20th) and extending to January 21st. It's a wonderful time to stock up on products on your wish list.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
New Year's Ideas & Giveaway
Well, Christmas break is coming to a close and it's time to prepare for going back to the classroom. Most of my students have been spending their break sleeping in, playing video games, and hanging out with their friends. Very few (if any) have spent anytime looking back at the past year or looking forward to the year ahead of them.
Goal setting is not an automatic skill with middle schoolers but it an essential life skill. Most students get overwhelmed with goal setting because they focus on the goal and it's overwhelming. It doesn't occur to them that breaking the goal down into steps makes it all less scary and easier to attain each step along the way. It's less stressful to be working toward the big goal by achieving the steps. This allows them success with long-term goals and showing the importance of short-term goals through the process. Students need to be taught the process of goal setting, including breaking the goal into smaller, manageable steps and creating a timeline to achieve the goal.
My students struggle with both goal setting and assessing progress towards those goals. So the start of a new year is the perfect chance to offer practice with these life skills. One way I do this is using my Looking Forward Looking Back activity. This activity does two things:
1. It prompts students to look back at the past year and reflect on their hits and their misses. They are asked to talk about their proudest moment and the best part of the past year. They are also asked to reflect on something they would change from the past year and talk about how they would change it for the better.
2. It prompts students to look forward to the new year and practice goal setting. Some sections offer fun, creative ways to put down on paper things they would like to do during the upcoming year (places they would like to go, experiences they would like to have). But there are also in-depth, real life examples of the goal setting process that students must work through. They are asked to come up with two resolutions for the new year (one for home and one for school) and then they must take that resolution (goal) and break it into manageable steps. This not only lets them practice goal setting, which I feel is the easier portion of the process, but it pushes them to break down the long-term goal into smaller short-term goals (or steps) to help them work toward their goal. It is more likely that their long-term goals will be kept if they also create short-term goals that they can attain to keep them motivated to stay on track.
You may download my Looking Forward Looking Back activity by clicking here.
Feel free to look at my other New Year's products in my TpT store while you are there.
Happy New Year!!
Goal setting is not an automatic skill with middle schoolers but it an essential life skill. Most students get overwhelmed with goal setting because they focus on the goal and it's overwhelming. It doesn't occur to them that breaking the goal down into steps makes it all less scary and easier to attain each step along the way. It's less stressful to be working toward the big goal by achieving the steps. This allows them success with long-term goals and showing the importance of short-term goals through the process. Students need to be taught the process of goal setting, including breaking the goal into smaller, manageable steps and creating a timeline to achieve the goal.
My students struggle with both goal setting and assessing progress towards those goals. So the start of a new year is the perfect chance to offer practice with these life skills. One way I do this is using my Looking Forward Looking Back activity. This activity does two things:
1. It prompts students to look back at the past year and reflect on their hits and their misses. They are asked to talk about their proudest moment and the best part of the past year. They are also asked to reflect on something they would change from the past year and talk about how they would change it for the better.
2. It prompts students to look forward to the new year and practice goal setting. Some sections offer fun, creative ways to put down on paper things they would like to do during the upcoming year (places they would like to go, experiences they would like to have). But there are also in-depth, real life examples of the goal setting process that students must work through. They are asked to come up with two resolutions for the new year (one for home and one for school) and then they must take that resolution (goal) and break it into manageable steps. This not only lets them practice goal setting, which I feel is the easier portion of the process, but it pushes them to break down the long-term goal into smaller short-term goals (or steps) to help them work toward their goal. It is more likely that their long-term goals will be kept if they also create short-term goals that they can attain to keep them motivated to stay on track.
You may download my Looking Forward Looking Back activity by clicking here.
Feel free to look at my other New Year's products in my TpT store while you are there.
Happy New Year!!
Friday, January 1, 2016
Favorite Posts of 2015
Hey all! As we close the books on 2015 and go forward into 2016, I'd like to share with you three of my favorite blog posts from 2015 by linking up with Sara @ Years that Ask Questions.
This post combined my two loves: Christmas and Reading. And it was a great moment in my classroom that allowed my students to reflect on that one favorite book they had read recently.
I loved linking up with Whitney @ With Love From Texas. Whitney challenged us to put down in words our core teaching beliefs. It was a great way to get geared up for the upcoming school year. It gave me some time to reflect on my own beliefs and showed me that even though I knew what I believed in, it wasn't easy to get them down in words. Sometimes beliefs are in the heart and hard to pinpoint. This was a great lesson for me that it's always important to ground yourself in your core beliefs. These beliefs should always be your guiding force.
This was the blog post that started my journey. I was late to catch the blogging bug and I still struggle keeping it. I often struggle with things to say and roping the fine art of getting myself down in words (which shouldn't be all that hard for an English teacher). So this reminds me of where it all started and what my focus remains today.
Thanks for taking some time and stopping by to see my top posts of 2015. Happy New Year and enjoy the second half of your school year!
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