Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Create Your Own Newspaper


Visit Making The News to utilize a template for creating your own newspaper for printing. Choose your template from Tabloid, Broadsheet, Old Newspaper or Magazine then add your text and images to create. What a great way to share student accomplishments with their parents or inspire students to write and publish their own works. Let your creativity guide you when create your own newspaper or magazine.

Free Playscripts for Students



If you need a site for locating playscripts to use with your students, visit Kidsinco where you can find a great variety to choose from. You can search by styles (fairy tale, fable, myth and more) or categories (from different countries, authors, songs, number of characters and more). Use these for practicing reading, anunciation, performing for your school or invite your parents in for a read-a-long play.

Teaching Poetry Made Easy

I remember fondly studying poetry in my high school English class. I know I studied, created and shared poetry prior to high school, but for some reason it did not have the same impact. Maybe it was the teacher or perhaps the freedom in exploration of poets that struck me. Regardless of what the reason was, my favorite poet is still Robert Frost. I can remember presenting my poem and research on Robert Frost to a class full of students. I created a poster with pictures and the poem written in large text. My only regret to the experience is that I did not have technology to assist me in creating my presentation. If I were to create the same presentation today, oh how different it would look. The same content would be there, but the delivery method so different.

As a classroom teacher, I always hoped to provide a spark in my students when we studied and created poetry that might stay with them as my love of poetry stayed with me. The Poetry Archive can assist any teacher in creating that spark. Whether you need information, lesson plans or ideas for activities, The Poetry Archive is a great resource for teachers (look in the For Teachers section). Under the Poets section, you can hear English language poets reading their own works. The Poem section lets you search for poems by title, form or themes. There is even a section for children's poetry (The Children's Archive).

If you need a resource to assist you in teaching poetry and making it easy, check out The Poetry Archive.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Where Do I Begin?

As educators, we are always looking for ways to keep our students engaged in the classroom and enhance learning. It is "easy" to search for new sites to share, but not so easy to narrow down and find the best ones to meet our needs and the needs of our students. If you need a place to begin or are tired of the hours you spend searching for safe and education friendly sites, you should visit Learning.com and take advantage of TIME. The one place that can assist you with simplifying this search for sites and curriculum related digital content. What you will find on the Texas Instructional Materials Exchange (TIME) will be TEKS aligned digital resources for use in the classroom. Locating resources in TIME is easy and you can be assured that what you find will be safe for your students. Watch this short video for more details.


TCEA and Learning.com present TIME from Learning.com on Vimeo.