Just keep teaching, just keep teaching, teaching....

Anybody else find Dory's quote from Finding Nemo a little too relatable these days?

 Luckily, my classes have just enough left of their novels to read; & there are plenty of end-of-the year events occurring to keep us all occupied until the last day. This past week, we were busy editing & publishing the 8th issue of The Hornets' Nest; a school newspaper my students created & have done an excellent job on all yaer! The Hornets Nest allows students to brainstorm, survey, write & edit their own articles about school events for the student body to enjoy!

Speaking of end of the year activities, we had our Faculty Banquet this week, which was OUR time to get recognition for our hard work this school year! Below is a picture of a few colleagues & myself  from the banquet. This group of ladies are not only my co-workers, but they were my  collegiate classmates all four years in the Education Dept. So not only do we work for the best, we learned from the best, too!

As the end of the school year for my students is fast approaching; my quarter in graduate school is coming to a close, too. For a final project this week, we focused on Oral History. Oral History is the concept of students focusing on a topic, conducting various interviews with interviewees relevant to that topic, analyzing the data, and presenting it in an interesting way. I attached a link to my Prezi presentation to give you teacher-istas a better understanding of this new strategy. I definitely recommend adding "Studying Oral History" to your summer teaching to-do list!

Hang in there, we are only DAYS away from sleeping in & wearing flip-flops...

MAY my "FANTASY" come true? I need a vacation to cure my Spring Fever blues...

Its only May 3rd? WE'RE ONLY 3 DAYS INTO MAY??

 I know I do not stand a lone when I say that I need May 23rd (or whenever your last day may be..)

 to get here faster than!


Speaking of end of the year, how are you other Teacher-istas surviving? This is the time of year I miss teaching science and math; where creative, hands-on, lessons & projects have the power to keep the kiddos eager to learn. However, to make up for the lack of teaching those subjects, I am blessed with students who have a very advanced reading level. Therefore we are able to conduct enjoyable (for me, duh!) novel studies. We're really focused on the Fantasy Genre (hence, the post title). My 4th graders are reading the Percy Jackson series to take a deeper look at Mythology(the books really do help make a real world connection to the complex concept!) Meanwhile, my 5th graders are transforming the classroom into Hogwarts by diving into the Harry Potter series.  Both of these books are extremely engaging and entertaining for students and teachers alike; and also provide a good opportunity for students to broaden their vocabulary and cultural knowledge. Not to mention, they will make for AWESOME movie days during the last week of school (which will consist of compare & contrast strategies of course..)

Both fictional series have an abundant amount of resources that will save you lesson planning time. Click here to visit a Harry Potter website that provides FREE worksheets, lesson plans with objectives, book project ideas, and neat craft/recipe ideas. It is the perfect resource for educators who want to role play Dumbledore for a few weeks! :)

One more thing: my old college roommate (now one of my closest friends & colleague that is literally across the hall) decided to hop on the blogging bandwagon! I helped her establish her blog for her history classes (as a part of a grad school assignment) but she quickly grew to love the networking windows blogging opens for educators. I must say, for a short tutorial she caught on to the concept quickly, and her blog is looking pretty spiffy! Please go check out her blog, History vs. HER-STORY, and show her some love!

Enjoy your weekend & may the force be with you for the next few weeks!