There are tons of great Scholarships For Moms Going Back To School. It may take some time and thorough reading to find what is available in your area and at your school but don't fear there are always options available for everyone. We've compiled a few tips on how to…

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Teach students to use They Say, I Say summary and response essay writing to join academic conversation. These questions will help students be successful…

A Choral Director posted this on the Facebook page of a major choral music organization. Here are her accompanying comments in blue. This is my philosophy. What do you think? This is from an article on cultivating children's choirs from the most recent issue of the ACDA magazine. It was posted 12 hours ago. In that time, there have been over 300 likes/loves, and over 100 shares. Almost all of the people who have responded are in total agreement with the sentiment expressed in it. They've written comments like "Preach", "Amen", "I'm posting it in my choir room", and more. I died inside just a little bit when I read all of this. As a middle school educator with over 24 years of experience teaching in a diverse public school setting, all I thought about was how many singers are lost each year due to this sort of philosophy. It feels so "old school". It reminds me of corporal punishment. It's like 1953. It brings back memories of the way we used to train dogs not to poop inside the house... ...by rubbing their noses in it. Yuck. It is this sort of antiquated attitude and approach that causes so many middle school choral programs around the USA to be so small. The students run from it because it is feels like drudgery taught with a scowl. Have we forgotten that "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down?!" I find it so hard to believe this was printed in such a major choral director's magazine (giving it credibility), and I am amazed that so many people have piled on in agreement. If you want to fail as a middle school choral music teacher, you should definitely follow the advice ("It's not about having fun") in the above posting, and let it be your guiding light. People with this philosophy should not teach middle school. I've seen so many of my colleagues come and go over the years because they approach the classroom in this manner. They need to be teaching at college or teaching only the most elite high schoolers...and even then, I think fun is near the top of all priorities. I was a volunteer in a major singing organization in my area for several years, and I absolutely adored singing with the group. The director was incredibly competent and musical. She was able to get a super, dynamic sound out of volunteers. The group was one of the largest of its kind in the country. There was never a single night when I didn't get goose bumps as we created art together under her leadership. I looked forward to every 2 1/2 hour rehearsal on Thursday nights. Each night, there was laughter amongst us and between us as we worked to perfect the music. A new choir director came in, and it was no longer fun. The approach was very disciplined, but there was no laughter and no time to just be a human. The quality of the singing the group produced was no better than the previous director. In my view the sound was sterile and unemotional, and the process of learning was much less enjoyable. So, I left the group...and I'm old. We all need fun and laughter. The group has continued to shrink and age along with it's audiences. Fun and singing go hand and hand. Here is what I know based on my experience: Our middle school beginners must have fun. Is it going to happen every minute of every day of every rehearsal? No...but we have got to stay connected to what helps open up their hearts and allows them to enjoy the process of learning to take the signs and symbols off the page and make art from it. It's also about structure and boundaries in a huge way, but without fun and laughter occasionally, you are not going to attract students to your program. Kids talk. If your class is a bore, no matter how good they sound or how many superiors you get at adjudications or how many Allstate Chorus members you have each year, your program is going to stay small. I teach 340 volunteer middle school students each and every day in classes with as many students as 84 from "bell to bell". It's nonstop. They work. I give them structure from the very first day, and I tolerate very little. I do everything I can do make the process of learning to read music as enjoyable as possible...again, from the very first day. Middle school children need to be understood, and sometimes we need to allow them to fail. I've covered this stuff on my YouTube Channel and in my blog for years now, so if you want to read more about my approach to the classroom, just type in "classroom management", and you can watch and read ad nauseum! I couldn't do my job if I were easy on them...if I didn't have processes in place...and if I scowled all day and made it feel like work. There is a balance...and the "fun" part is what tilts it in your favor. Before I created S-Cubed Middle School Sight Singing Program for Beginners, I created a product called "What do you MEAN I can't Smile Before Christmas?!?" because I so strongly believe that middle school students need structure and boundaries, but they also need FUN. They need to see the human side of us. We have to help this age group WANT to work with us. We have to find a way to make work not feel like work whenever we can so we can keep these young singers singing! And life is way too short not to have fun. I hope the end of your school year is going great! ****I created this blog post on May 24, 2016. Two days later, a version of this video went viral and as of today (June 2, 2016), it has gotten over 15,000,000 views. Middle School Choir "Watch me". Watch it! More of us need to do stuff like this with our students as a part of what we teach. These kids are experiencing pure joy! I LOVE IT! Check out my blog!

Starting college as an adult can be tricky, but with these helpful tips you can achieve your goals today! Working adults can get a second degree.

Sure, all teachers learn and improve their practice each school year. That's especially true when a veteran teacher changes courses, grade levels, or school buildings. But that first year or two brings special challenges. I *thought* was prepared. I had all kinds of tangible and theoretical tools from my grad program; I'd had a good student teaching experience. But there are a few things that no mentor teacher, master's degree, or orientation told me. Let me save you the trouble of finding these out the hard way! 1. Don't blow your entire back-to-school budget BEFORE the first day. Even if you have taken others' advice and satisfied all of your own Pinterest-worthy-classroom dreams, you won't entirely know what you need until you're in the room, WITH your students, for at least one full week. Experience your new schedule fully, and THEN go finish shopping. I wasted money on an attendance book that was all wrong for my needs (and made this one instead), bought folders and files that weren't necessary, and got tools that didn't end up being relevant after all. Unless you're REALLY confident about your curriculum, procedures, and audience, allow yourself to buy a different clipboard or re-do that teacher binder a week later. 2. Don't over-promise, either literally or figuratively. Yes, you might be discussing a syllabus, setting rules/procedures, and trying to create a safe culture that first week. But while doing all of that, don't get too confident and make big statements promising things like... How fast they will get papers back* What your grading style & amount of feedback will be What the prize for something will be What units and lessons are happening (unless you truly know this) Routines that are time-consuming (ex: guaranteed minutes of reading time per day/week) Verbal promises aside, don't figuratively over-promise by creating expectations that will be hard to maintain, either, especially... Bulletin boards or displays that constantly need updating (or redone entirely) Extremely frequent changes to seating charts Playing a new video every day A "new books" shelf that begs to be restocked Look, I'm not saying that you CAN'T pull all this off. Far from it! But don't let the glow of New School Year Enthusiasm trap you into a promise that you won't want to maintain in January. (*And if you want HELP with that grading/feedback time, a lot of teachers like my grading helper forms!) 3. Don't lose your personality in favor of professionalism. Yes, fine, agreed - you don't want to be TOO soft, or try TOO hard to be their friend. But the kids are sizing you up on several levels, and they need help to not only figure you out, but know what kind of relationship they can have with you. Are you going to be someone who will recommend great books? Are you a teacher who also digs Star Wars? Are you the teacher they will go to when they need help? Find an appropriate way to show who you are, and not just what you teach. I often have a 3-slide PowerPoint of just photos to introduce myself on the first day, showing students things I did that summer, hobbies I have, or life milestones (especially my dog). It helps them get to know who I am as a person faster, just as I'm trying to figure THEM out! 4. Don't wait too long to start learning new things. Trust me, I get it. My back-to-school season involves a syllabus, community-building, pre-tests, and dealing with their summer reading assignment. BUT. If you wait too long to start tickling their brains with new learning, then students will decide that this class is boring, or maybe easier, than it actually will be. Then the acting-up or tuning-out might start sooner than you want. The same applies to teachers who talk too much the first few days (instead of incorporating student talking and/or movement). Combat this by using bell-ringers, the start of your first unit, or a really worthy project as soon as you can, even if it's concurrent with the more dry stuff. Resist the urge to dwell in the aroma of new crayons for TOO long. 5. Don't wait too long for the first confidence-booster. Notice that I did NOT say to give a prize, show a movie, or bribe them with candy early on. But students of all ages DO need to have hope that they can succeed in this class, that their efforts can result in good results, and that you are on their side. Maybe you'll choose to give a quiz that isn't too tough yet. Or make a group assessment. Or teach something firmly within their ZPD, with a method that's guaranteed to click. But whatever you do in the first weeks, try to ensure that your students choose to believe in themselves, in this class, and in you. The most important part... Finally, believe in yourself. You were hired for a reason, you are qualified to be here, and you CAN do this. Self-confidence is the best trick to NOT looking like a rookie, so stand firm in who you are and why you became a teacher. You have so much to offer! Good luck! :)

Time to go back to high school!

Hi all, It's Shana from Hello, Teacher Lady here. Today I'm going to share with you one of my favorite back to school activities -- it combines my trusty Google Forms/Sheets with everyone's favorite techie game, Kahoot! In the past, I've had students fill out short little "inventories" at the beginning of the year -- which have been helpful to a certain extent, but I found that I didn't look at them as closely or as often as I should have. Stacks of paper usually don't survive long with me and ultimately end up tucked away in the filing cabinet of doom. Since I started drinking the digital Kool-Aid and had been using Google Apps for Education for just about everything else in my classroom, last year I decided to nix the paper and create a Google Form for my students to fill out instead. That was a pretty good idea on its own, but then I had a lightbulb moment: why not turn the obligatory getting-to-know-you form into a class game! And that's where Kahoot! came in. On the Google Form, I asked students to list three "fun facts" about themselves and made sure to note that some or all of the information collected would be shared with the class. I also mentioned that we will have to guess who's who during a Kahoot! game in a later class period, so I encouraged students to be creative and try to list things that aren't super obvious or that others might not know about them. The results of the Google Form were then displayed nice and neatly in a Google Sheet, and it was a lot of fun reading through these facts and seeing what each student wanted to share about themselves. It also provided some unexpected insight, as I had one student write that he was a "good liar" who is "very lazy" -- yeah, definitely expect that one; we had an interesting year together. Anyway... This next part was a little time consuming, but totally worth it. I took the information shared and compiled them into statements about each person (without using their name, of course) in a Kahoot! game for each class period. Sometimes I used all three facts, sometimes I only used one or two; it just depended on the type of information. For my smaller classes, I created extra statements based on some of the unused information, so some students' names appeared more than once. Below are a few screenshots of statements from one of my classes last year: In the answer section, I included the correct student's name and then chose three other names at random. I also included a statement for myself and sprinkled my name in some of the choices throughout the game as well. So not only was I getting to know my students, but they were getting to know me too! Pretty sure no one expected to learn that their teacher is a Star Trek nerd who played Rugby for 5 years. :) Guys... we had SO. MUCH. FUN. playing this game! I can't wait to play it again this year with my new students. It can get a little rambunctious, but again -- so worth it. For the record, since I'm an ELA teacher, I also gave students a separate reading/writing interest survey, which was crucial in getting to know their interests and habits on a more academic level. However, this year I am going to utilize Google Forms for that as well. I just don't seem to get along with paper, and Google Sheets can be accessed from anywhere! Tomorrow's post by Lyndsey from Lit with Lyns will go into more detail about using digital student interest surveys, so stay tuned! Psssst -- there's a giveaway happening on my blog right now. Come on over to check it out. :)

I’m a mom to 3 boys who is passionate about blogging about food, relationships, style and travel. If you love all of these things too, you are in the right place. I’m so glad you are here!

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