Walt Whitman: Words for America

Written by Barbara Kerley. Illustrated by Caldecott honor artist Brian Selznick. Published by Scholastic Press.

First Impressions

A perfect picture book for older children just getting introduced to the life and works of Walt Whitman. This book looks like a present at first glance, with its gilded lettering, cut-out picture frame and Robert F. Sibert silver award medallion. The illustrations are well done, and blend the intimate with the unexpected, and the incidental with the iconic.

Tidbits Learned

Walt Whitman was working as a printer’s apprentice by the age of twelve, and publishing his own newspaper at nineteen. After traveling the country to write poetry celebrating the common everyday people, he because deeply passionate about the Civil War and the suffering of the soldiers. A great deal of his work also focused on them.

Personal Verdict

A well-developed piece worthy of inclusion to any collection or study of Mr. Whitman’s works.

Photo Credit: Scholastic 

Pancakes for Supper: A Book Review

Written by Caldecott honor book author Anne Isaacs, this pioneer themed tale is set in the American wilderness. This Scholastic Press title is boldly illustrated by Mark Teague.

PERKS

Opportunities for student story predictions.

These exist each time the main character, Toby, meets a new forest animal. Since she trades one item of her winter gear for her safety each time, this provides a built in infrastructure for repeated instruction during the very first group reading.

Repetitive language.

Each time Toby or the animals speak, there are certain repetitive phrases used. This provides a consistent set of chances for young readers to gain confidence and accuracy with those phrases.

Integrated rhyming pairs.

On the majority of pages in the book, numerous pairs of rhyming words are available for student identification. This makes for a great whole group, reading buddy or independent study activity.

Inspirational illustrations.

The scale and color pairings chosen for this title’s pictures are such that children will be able to draw inspiration for their own literature-based art projects without feeling overwhelmed.

Built in pancake recipe.

The complete pancake recipe on the back of the book is a nice extra. Perfect for homeschooling parents looking for an extra extension activity, or teachers who love cooking in the classroom with students.

QUIRKS

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with the ending the first time around. I found the “melting” of the animals, and the fully boiled and reduced syrup coming out of the tree instead of the more accurate clear sap to be a bit of a let down after the solid story build up of individual animal encounters. I also wasn’t quite sure why the title connection wasn’t worked in until the very end.

That being said, I did read on the interior book jacket flap about Anne Isaac’s affinity for tall tales as a story form. If this was the author’s intent, then teachers have an opportunity here for instruction by assigning the investigation and identification of the specific tall tale elements towards the end of the book, and in other parts of the story.

Have you had the chance to read Pancakes for Supper? What were your thoughts and reactions?

Photo Credit: Amazon.Com

Guest Post from Karen Schweitzer: 20 Professional Development Resources for Teachers

For most teachers, education doesn’t end when a degree is earned. The teaching profession demands continuing education, and in certain cases, advanced education. Fortunately, there are many online resources that can help teachers with professional development. Here are 20 resources for educators to explore:

NCATE – The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) accredits schools, colleges and departments of education. The NCATE website is a good place to find lists of accredited institutions and scholarship resources.

 NEA – The National Education Association (NEA) is an advocate for teachers and students. Members can access classroom management and professional development resources as well as web and print tools.

 AFT – The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is a teacher’s union that offers many interesting resources on their website. Teachers can view salary surveys, education news, and publications and reports on a wide range of topics.

 ASCD – The ASCD is a non-profit organization with members in more than 100 countries. The organization offers an excellent professional development survey on their website as well as several other professional growth resources for teachers.

NBPTS – The National Board for Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is a non-profit organization that was formed to advance the quality of teaching in schools. NBPTS offers information about education standards on their website and provides numerous development tools for teachers.

RISE – RISE (Resources for Indispensible Schools and Educators) is a non-profit organization that dedicates itself to connecting teachers with low-income public schools. Teachers can use the RISE site to search and apply for jobs.

PBS TeacherLine – This PBS site is an online professional development resource for teachers. TeacherLine provides standards-based graduate-level courses for credit as well as a few free resources to encourage professional growth.

Thinkfinity – The National Verizon Thinkfinity Training Program provides many free training opportunities and resources for educators and after-school practitioners. Offerings include state-specific professional development, instructional videos, and free courses for graduate credit.

Learner.org – Learner.org offers many free professional development video courses to teachers. Courses cover a wide range of subjects and provide information on how to teach today’s standards-based curricula.

Teachers Network – The Teachers Network is an advocate for teacher leadership and student learning. The organization provides many free professional development resources for teachers, including articles, how-to’s, and lesson plans.

Teacher’s Domain – This online teacher library provides free digital media for the classroom and professional development. Teachers who register for a free account can store and share resources online.

TeachersFirst – TeachersFirst offers a series of free online education sessions for teachers. Known as OK2Ask, these sessions last approximately one hour and can be attended from any computer with an Internet connection.

The Teacher’s Podcast – The Teacher’s Podcast provides PD resources for teachers who are interested in integrating technology into the classroom.

We the Teachers – We the Teachers is a social network for teachers. It is a great place to meet other educators and discuss professional development opportunities.

The Apple – Created for current and future educators, this social network provides career advices, education resources, message boards, free job postings, and many other online resources.

Applebatch – This K-12 teacher community was created to help teachers advance their careers. Teachers can join groups in their profession, share resources, build their network, and apply for new jobs.

TeachAde – TeachAde is a social networking site for teachers and other education professionals. Members can network with other educators around the world, search for resources, and create resources of their own.

FolioSpaces – FolioSpaces is a unique social networking system that can be used to create free electronic portfolios.

Fund for Teachers – Fund for Teachers is a non-profit organization that provides teacher grants and other professional growth resources. New grants are awarded each year.

Scholarships and Grants for Teachers – This blog post provides information on a wide range of grants and scholarships for future and current teachers who are pursuing continuing education or degrees in education.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online colleges for OnlineColleges.net.

Other articles from Karen:

Tuition-Free Education Courses for Teachers

25 Free Apps and Web Sites for Tech Loving Teachers

40 Places to Find Free Lesson Plans

Back to School Ideas for the Classroom: What to Do for the First Day

We all scramble every school year to find balance between getting our classroom management and discipline procedures up and running and providing those first day of school activities that go the extra mile in style. This article covers both in detail.

Last year, I wrote an article on strategies to start the school year off right. It covered ways to set a serious academic tone while having a stylish classroom. While that article is still more than worthy of a serious read, I actually have a few other ideas for the back to school scramble. Many of them are my own supplemented by specific online instructional pieces, others are ideas straight from some of my internet colleagues. Enjoy!

Make sure your bulletin boards mean business.

I like to have great looking bulletin boards too, but quite frankly many teachers spend valuable time on them every week or month that could be going into lesson planning, extra attention for students or just plain having a life. Let’s face it, if you’re balanced and rested your students will respond accordingly. Try some of my year long bulletin board ideas or some of the tips the article Twelve Bulletin Board Ideas for Older Classrooms. Your room will still look great, and the students will know you value their work and take classroom time seriously.

Throw a New Year’s party.

 I actually found this great back to school idea from YesITeach.Org. They actually suggest picking up New Year’s themed party supplies on discount the January prior to that school year. The year number will match the back to school year, and it’s a great way to start off with the right attitude. (I’ve also seen this work really well as a penny pinching tip for high school seniors. They can do this to have their graduation year theme supplies at the end of the year for a fraction of the cost.) For individual teachers, I think this would be a great idea for the end of the first day, after you have finished establishing discipline. Or, you could try it as a school wide event outside in the playground as the kids get off the bus.

 Scavenger hunt in the library.

This also comes from YesITeach.Org. The media person hosts a scavenger hunt in the library to find things like a particular fiction book, a multi media resource, etc. I thought this was a fabulous idea to review library skills and include a room that is often left out of these back to school welcome ideas for students. Larger classes might need to be broken down into small groups with slightly different scavenger hunt paths, but the idea is sound enough and can be used when each new class has their first library period.

 DIY school book covers.

They need to be done anyway, right? And this way you can work it in with that day one activity that always brings groans . . . the old erasing all of the pencil marks from the reissued text books trick. Now when you hand out books for mark erasing, you can incorporate DIY cover ideas or hand out an ideas list for some of the tougher ones to motivate the students to go the extra mile at home.

Personally, I recommend a combination of both. Do one or two throughout the day in class, and hand out the ideas list for them to get excited about covering their books from other classes or subjects. Some of the cooler ideas I found while surfing the web? A decoupage tie-dye style cover project from Kaboose.Com, a felted book cover from CraftBits.Com, instructions for embroidered book covers from Craft Stylish, and tip or two from Family Fun Magazine.

Other ideas I’d suggest would be paper collages, colored pencil sketches and modern designs and using multiple colors of duct tape to add waterproof striping over the top of plain paper shopping bag book cover. It’ll last all year, won’t harm the book and still provide room for individuality in the form of color choice and diagonal versus vertical or horizontal striping.

 Pimp those lockers, kids!

Once students start breaking into middle and high school, locker decoration and individualization come into play. One way to put a little fun into the first day or two of school and still be providing support for those kids who have trouble with organization and clutter is incorporate activities for decking out their lockers. If other teachers are game, you could even turn it into a grade level or school wide contest. A few ideas?

Construct a pen holder out of a small painted can or covered box with a magnet on the back. Those who like straight advertising and product packaging art will find this project from Not Martha exceptionally quick, as you won’t have to even decorate the tin if you don’t want to.

Make some magnets with the students to help them organize their notes, forms and book club orders. Plenty of things can be turned into locker door organizers by simple slapping a magnet on the back. Seashells, gem colored glass stones, fun rocks or even these photo and word magnet projects. Also, a magnetic mirror is a great multipurpose locker accessory. Students can check their hair or lip gloss and use it to hold notes and permission slips. Another cool online project find was this article on gemstone colored retro style magnets. Very groovy.

This article from Cosmo Girl has ideas for covering corrugated cardboard to line the walls of your locker and provide instant bulletin board space, as well as a supply list and instructions for installing removable extra shelving that won’t damage the locker’s interior. All Free Crafts has this project for making your own denim locker organizers, and Kaboose.Com has instructions for making a desk or locker organizer from a Pop Tart box.

Art gallery.

Personally, I find it extremely important to value their art work and set a higher standard for myself when it comes to how I display and incorporate it into their classroom environment and daily routine. This article from Scholastic suggests unifying thrift frames with spray paint for extra artsy “oomph”. Another way to cheap it out and still have lots of visual drama is to back the standard 8 ½ x 11 inch white paper art projects with larger pieces of dark blue or black construction paper. This is sort of a poor man’s matting job that looks great on a dime.

Larger art sized paper projects can be backed by cutting darker colored butcher paper to provide a three to five inch border around the piece. I’ve done this for things like buddy and self portraits in charcoal, larger pieces done in the style of particular famous artist and collage style projects.

The idea is to get this up and running on day one and have at least one wall dedicated to display rows and columns of the work. It’ll make open house night a breeze.

Related Readings: Other articles on LessonMag.Com you might find helpful at back to school time include Ten Tips for First Year Teachers, Six Strategies for an Inviting Classroom and Four Hot Tips for a Smooth Running Classroom.  Over on Wise Bread, you might want to check out my piece on DIY school gear and other savings ideas.

Photo Credit: McKay Savage