Skip to main content

Three Resources for Back-to-School


Where I live and work in Virginia, school does not start back for another month. In other words, we are still in full summer vacation mode. However, schools across the country, and even in some parts of VA, start back soon or have already started. So, today's post is about three online resources that provide great ideas and tips for back-to-school.

This newsletter is chock full of great ideas! My favorites for teachers are on creating a classroom library and a literacy-rich environment. Other articles include ideas for back-t0-school night and a parent involvement checklist. Another favorite is an interview with Grapes of Math author Greg Tang! There is much more, such as websites for interactive white board games, websites for teaching and learning, and ideas for parents.
This issue of CC includes an annotated list of back-to-school read alouds. young adult books featuring gay teens, and a list of professional development books for teachers on teaching grammar and spelling. These resources are invaluable for adding meaningful selections to a classroom or professional development library.
The folks at Choice Literacy who publish The Big Fresh never fail to provide great resources for teachers. These resource aren't just lists or written ideas, often they include short video clips and photos, which are invaluable for visual learners like me (a picture is worth a thousand words). This week's newsletter is about building community, which is by far the most important thing a teacher can do to set the stage for learning all year long. Features include "All About Us" bulletin board and great writing quotes for the walls, nooks, and crannies of your classroom, a collection of links to videos that build interest in favorite children's books, and a "starting school" list of read-alouds with very young learners.

That's it for now! More resources later.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fun and Inspiration

In this post, I'm sharing a few YouTube videos that have been quite inspiring and some that are just fun. Below is a TED presentation by spoken word poet and teacher, Sarah Kay . You MUST watch it and be inspired! I also watched a documentary titled, Louder Than A Bomb , about the spoken word poetry contest held in Chicago Public Schools. It was also extremely inspiring. Below is the trailer : Finally, does everyone but me know about the book, Goodnight iPad , a parody of the original by Margaret Wise Brown? Hilarious! See the YouTube video below...does it not perfectly capture what goes on in the homes of many of our children today? Reminds me of a colleague who told me she texts her children to tell them to come to dinner. The video below it is in stark contrast, titled: The Joy of Books . Enjoy!
Post a Comment
Read more

NCTE was AMAZING!

I loved NCTE --not the "getting ready to go" part, which I hate, but the actual "being there" part. I learned so much from many great educators and authors. One of the many highlights of the conference for me was the Authors' Blog session, which I chaired. Laurie Halse Anderson, Maureen Johnson, Justine Larbalestier, Barbara O'Connor, and Lisa Yee were all on the panel and let me tell you -- these women are amazing! I didn't have my camera but several of the authors have already blogged about the session--check out Laure Anderson , Barbara O'Connor , Lisa Yee and Justine Larbalestier's blog posts. During the question/answer phase of the presentation, the authors discussed and raise very important issues that I think all teachers should consider. One of the questions I asked was about receiving posts that contained personal information. Children and young adults become very connected to these authors through their books and the authors' blog...
2 comments
Read more