Apparently, Summer Is Over #TeacherProblems

Apparently, summer is over. I mean, it is over for me. As I type this, I am procrastinating going to bed, knowing in a few short hours my alarm will be waking me up for my first day back to school for the 16th straight year.

In remembrance of this summer–which ended much too soon–I made some funny memes so at least we can laugh about having to go back to the long hours of endless paperwork and lesson planning. Hope this helps ease you back into your school year!

I am simply not ready! 

(But I never am. Maybe a year off might help me get caught up on summer projects.)

I know I should be happy I have a job. Getting fresh paint (and new carpet this year, too) may have caused me extra work, but I am truly thankful for my job and the wonderful people who work on it all summer.

Sadly, it takes me a long time to get it back in order.

I wish this were the case. :(

Seriously, how do our feet get out of shape so quickly in the summer?

Let's add HOARD ALL the school supplies, too!

Admit it, you've felt this way a time or two.

I hope you all DO have a great year!

Free Back-to-School Resources for Teachers

It's back-to-school time! Which means it's time to bring you a collection of resources from teachers to help you get back into the swing of things at school.

Each page in these eight Back-to-School resources sampler includes a back-to-school tip, a link to a free downloadable resource, and another resource (priced) that you can check out if you like that teacher's style.

We wish you the best school year and hope you find many great ideas, tips, and freebies to help you get through this school year!

You can download all of the books here:

Grades 7-12 Back to School Science Sampler 

Grades 7-12 Back to School Math Sampler 

Grades 7-12 Back to School Social Studies and Foreign Language Sampler

Grades 7-12 Back to School English Language Arts Sampler

Grades 5-6 Back to School Sampler

Grades 3-4 Back to School Sampler

Grades 1-2 Back to School Sampler

Grades PreK-K Back to School Sampler

Are You Ready for Back-to-School?

Going back to school in the fall is always a mixed bag of emotions: excitement, anticipation, nervousness, and, yes, overwhelming stress. There is a reason teachers need breaks throughout the year: the planning, grading, and performing in the classroom for the toughest audience out there is both mentally and physically exhausting.

But part of your workload and stress can be diminished.

Instead of spending your entire prep time altering your textbook lesson to work for your students, why not try materials that have been tried and tested in the classroom already by real teachers?

I've posted many new resources in my store this summer, with a lot more to come. You can check them all out here: Tracee Orman on TpT

I've also collaborated with my friends at the Literary League, which is a group of secondary language arts teachers, to let you know we'll be having a sale starting tonight and running through August 4th. Don't miss out on it! Use the code BTS15 at checkout to get an additional 10% our already-marked 20% off stores!

Visit their stores here:

Danielle Knight (Study All

Knight)

Darlene Anne- ELA

Buffet

Mrs. Spangler

in the Middle

Created by

MrHughes

The Classroom

Sparrow

The Daring

English Teacher

ELA Everyday

Juggling ELA

Nouvelle

Literary

Sherri

Making

Meaning with Melissa

2

Peas and a Dog

Secondary Solutions-Simply Novel

Addie

Williams

Linda Jennifer

Fisher Reyna

Education

The Creative

Classroom

Stacey

Lloyd

Room 213

Brynn Allison

Open

Classroom

Perfetto Writing

Room

Secondary

Sara

Tracee

Orman

James

Whitaker

The Superhero

Teacher

Created for

Learning

Brain Waves

Instruction

Decorating Your Secondary Classroom {18 Things to Consider}

 

  My friends over at Created for Learning put together an excellent blog post with tips from several secondary teachers on decorating classrooms. You'll want to head over there to get the entire blog post, but I'll share a few here as a tease. ;)

It's weird how sometimes our decorations end up disconnected with how old our students really are. I teach 7th and 8th graders. Some of them come from fine, constant, healthy family and personal lives.

They are the 3rd and 4th sibling to come through our school and succeed. They play Flappy Bird, use Snapchat and Ask.fm, watch videos on Vine and play medieval phone app games before school.

However, while still maintaining privacy, I can share that just last year, I had students bullying each other, students sharing racy photos on social media to improve modeling portfolios, students cutting themselves, students attempting suicide, even students creating fake online profiles to bully themselves to gain attention.

This is the middle school world we teach in. These are the students we are decorating our rooms for. These just might not be clip-art kids. And high school is another giant leap forward (or backward), but it's a giant leap somewhere. What would our classrooms look like if we designed them to engage these minds and attentions?

As a teacher, you can use words in clever ways to ìdecorateî your classroom, not only to fill up walls but also to make your students wise. One idea is to title specific areas of your wall in a

targeted/meaningful way.  Carol used an idiom over her writing wall to teach idioms and open the door to the fundamentals of figurative language. In Johnís class, he uses ìCognitive Content Dictionariesî to be placed in a prominent locations which teaches key academic vocabulary as well as ìTier 2î vocabulary to aid in understanding text for EL learners.  Inspirational or humorous posters and quotes can also be used to fill smaller spaces and give students ideas to ponder on their own.

 

I have several items that I have in my room from my first year of teaching in 1999. Why do I keep them around? Mostly because they are either funny, sentimental, timeless, or related to a favorite book. Here are some examples: 

• (Funny) Close to Home (by John McPherson) comic: It has hung on my classroom door for many
years. I like to show my students that no matter how strict I may seem, I'm nothing compared to Mrs. Mutner. 

• (Sentimental) Pictures of former students: Students love looking at pictures of past students. Plus, it helps me remember the names of my former students.

 

• (Timeless) This quote is timeless (and a great lesson on perspective), funny, and sentimental: my brother was an assistant coach for the St. Francis baseball team at the time (April, 1996). Robert Morris threw in the towel after the fourth inning, but the fact that they persevered until then also shows
character.

 

• (Favorite Book): My To Kill a Mockingbird framed pictures. TKaM is still my favorite book and I love being able to share my love for it with my students. My framed pictures and book review from 1960 are probably my most prized classroom items.

As a 14 year teaching veteran, I have tried countless ways to create bulletin boards for cheap. Cost does become a factor, and something a teacher should think of- we spend enough money on our classes without adding the extra cost of bulletin board decorations.  

I have found that some of my most engaging and most talked about boards were not the ones with flawless borders and themed decorations. Actually, it was just the contrary- Black butcher paper background, with the titles and words written in chalk with borders that were hand-drawn, got quite the reaction from my students. These example pictures will help explain what I mean:

 

Also, don't forget to use items in your room. For example, when teaching about a topic, I hang mentor texts from my bulletin board so the kids can "see" examples of published work that supports the topic. 

 

Remember to keep it simple, engaging, and useful!

All praise and adoration to my teachers growing up, but I can't remember a single one that decorated their room for us guys. And I probably lean toward decorating for the boys...I tend to teach novels that will engage boys. So we deserve it to both genders to take a good long hard look at our rooms and decorations and ask if the boys and girls will be entertained and informed, tantalized and taught.

"But what if I think it's good? What do I do then?"

  Ask our students. They will be honest. Sometimes too much so. But we'll always find out what they think. If we need to, we can do a quick anonymous poll or ballot or something. But we can find out what each gender thinks, if we ask.

CLICK HERE to read ALL the tips for secondary teachers!

Again, thank you Created for Learning for putting together this great blog post with fabulous tips from our fellow secondary teachers! The contributors are listed below:

Blog Contributors Cliff's Notes

Laura Randazzo >>> Blog ||| TeachersPayTeachers Store
The Teacher Team >>> Blog ||| TeachersPayTeachers Store
Tracee Orman >>> Blog ||| TeachersPayTeachers Store 

Created by Mr. Hughes >>> Blog ||| TeachersPayTeachers Store
Julie Faulkner >>> Blog ||| TeachersPayTeachers Store
Students of History >>> Blog ||| TeachersPayTeachers Store 

Created for Learning >>> Blog ||| TeachersPayTeachers Store

Back to School Sale: Secondary Teachers Blast From the Past Yearbook

  Oh, remember the days of middle and high school? How much simpler life was back then? Join your fellow secondary teachers for a blast-from-the-past celebration as TeachersPayTeachers kicks of its Back-to-School sale early this year!

  Life can be simpler for you using resources made by teachers.  The TeachersPayTeachers back-to-school sale is August 4th and 5th (yes, this coming week!). Use the code BTS14 at checkout to get the best savings.

  Stock up on tons of back-to-school/beginning of the year resources, classroom decor, Common Core-aligned lessons, activities, lesson planning, and so much more.

Special thanks to Danielle Knight who compiled all the secondary teacher's pictures and made the *totally awesome* photo above. Comment below with your graduation year (if you dare!) and attach a link to your favorite photo from school (optional...but it's so fun to see all the old pics!).

Here's mine (well, probably not my favorite, but it's my senior picture):

It took me hours to crimp, curl, and tease that hair. I hope big hair is never back in style... 

You'll find everything you need for a successful school year in these secondary stores:

2 Peas and a Dog 

21st Century Math Projects

4mulaFun 

A Space to Create

Addie Williams

All Things Algebra 

Charlene Tess 

Connie 

Created by Mr. Hughes

Danielle Knight

Darlene Anne 

FisherRena Education

For the Love of Teaching Math

James Whitaker

Juggling ELA 

Kate’s Classroom Café

Live. Love. Math

Liz’s Lessons

Making it as a Middle School Teacher

Margaret Whisnant

Michele Luck’s Social Studies

Miss Math Dork

Mrs. S

Pamela Kranz

Science Stuff

Secondary Solutions

Teaching FSL

Teaching High School Math

Teaching Math by Hart

The Career Ready Teacher

The Classroom Sparrow

The Creative Classroom

The SuperHERO Teacher

The Tutor House

Tracee Orman

Stock Up for School

It's that time of year again! The huge back-to-school TpT sale is going on. I have all my items marked 20% off. THEN, you can use the code BTS13 at checkout and get an EXTRA 10% off! Even Grumpy Cat is smiling. :)

The TpT extra 10% ends on Monday at midnight, but I extended my sale another day until Tuesday at midnight (Central time zone).

My latest products...

Common Core Writing Rubric for Informational/Explanatory

and Writing Portfolio Cover Page with Score Sheet

I'll share more about these later (and how we use writing portfolios to collect student work).

Thanks for stopping by!

What Do Your Students Love?

What do your students love? Many of mine are in to A&E's Duck Dynasty, so I made a sign for outside my room featuring the lovable Si Robertson along with my class schedule.

Find out what your students love and use it to make connections with them in the classroom. They may not admit it, but they'll appreciate it.

Would you like your own Uncle Si sign? Click {HERE} to download one FREE. 

Have a great year, Jack! ;)

And don't forget to check out my latest activities to use in your classroom! 

Here are the links:

The Ultimate Common Core Bell Ringer & Exit Slip Bundle

Includes over 155 unique activities!

Common Core #Hashtags Activity

Work on vocabulary and reading skills using hashtags (kids love them!).

Common Core Argument Writing with Visual Aids & Graphic Organizers

Have your students follow the steps for building a powerful claim and strong essay.

Check out all of my newly posted resources HERE!

Elementary vs. High School Teachers: Who has the tougher job?

When it comes to teaching, it's hard to compare jobs with other teachers because each level is unique. And it's probably not fair to make assumptions that one teacher has it easier than the other. But...we teachers tend to do this all the time.

So, I thought I'd take a humorous approach to the comparisons between elementary teachers and high school teachers. (Middle school teachers - you seem to have a happy balance between the two. Besides, dealing with all the hormones with that age group...you deserve a gold medal!)

So, here's the battle between Elementary and High School teachers...

Round 1: Bulletin Boards

Score:

Elementary - 1

High School - 0

Round 2: Classroom Preparation

Score:

Elementary - 2

High School - 0

Round 3: Grading

Score:

Elementary - 2

High School - 1

Round 4: Student Relations

Score:

Elementary - 2

High School - 2

Moral of the story?

IT ALL EVENS OUT EVENTUALLY...

No matter what age group you teach, I think we can all agree that teachers have pretty tough jobs at times. Have a great school year, my teacher friends!