ELA The Miss M Way

Picture this: your child is excited to learn and is focused on completing a project. Does this seem impossible?   Are you saying, “No way, not my child”? Excitement-filled learning is possible.   Incorporating the activity called Genius Hour results in educational benefits, including having an excited learner. Genius Hour is an educational concept that fosters creativity and independent thinking.   A child selects his or her own topic to research for a project.   He or she then spends one hour each week working on this activity to become a “genius” in that content-area. According to an educational website called teachthought.com, Genius Hour is a form of learning that allows students to be “guided by their own interests, background knowledge, and curiosity.”   It is considered “‘open-ended’ learning characterized by student self-direction, passion-based learning, inquiry, and autonomy.” Working on a passion project is about breaking away from typical, ...

With schools back to in-person learning, you will absolutely have students come to your classroom after school for extra help.   Sure, sometimes the extra help is a requirement for certain students as per an administrator.   While other times, learners will seek your help on their own – major props to the students who self-advocate.   In either case, you must be prepared with resources to help your students succeed.   Note: this list is tailored to the subject of English language arts, though many of these items can be used in a variety of subjects.   Five must-have resources for an effective extra help session   Colored pencils/markers/highlighters Index Cards Worksheets Scrabble Mad Libs Colored pencils/markers/highlighters   Having writing instruments that can color-code content is helpful for all students.   These items can be especially useful to students who are finding certain course work to be a challenge....

As teachers, we have a million and one things one our plate on any given day -or at least it feels that way.   Using a planner is the way that I stay organized and prioritize items on my to-do list.   Your planner can be a physical book (if you are "old school" like me) or a digital document (if you prefer to use tech).   You can use the planner to think ahead and even loosely map out lesson plans, grading, deadlines, the end of each marking period, teacher observations, school events, holidays, etc. Using planners to keep you on track   I also like using a planner for my personal life to hold myself accountable for activities such as exercise and laundry, as well as to remind myself about appointments, bills, events, and plans with family and friends.  My planner also includes handwritten daily affirmations and positive messages to keep myself grounded and internally balanced 😊   One of my reasons for using physical planner books i...

To circle back to the makeshift whiteboards created using the plastic sheet protectors and the construction paper, the next piece of invaluable supplies is dry erase markers. Be sure to get these markers in an array of every color imaginable 😊   Having a variety of colors allows you to write on the classroom's whiteboard in a visually appealing manner.   Plus, having numerous colors allows you to color-code those notes and diagrams to aid in clarity and understanding.   It also grants your students with the near-guarantee that they will have marker colors that will be visible on their "construction paper whiteboards." The excitement of dry erase markers   To change things up for your students’ Do Now activity, these colorful dry erase markers will come in handy.   Have a question posted on the whiteboard and invite your students to write their responses on the board as well.   Students tend to jump at the chance to write on the board – for...

All that talk about plastic sheet protectors in the previous post connects to the multiple uses of construction paper.   Keep in mind, construction paper isn’t just for elementary school classrooms.   Regardless of what grade you teach, you will want to have this colorful paper in your classroom.   Of course, construction paper can be used for art projects, decorations, bulletin boards, and signs throughout your classroom, as well as for those makeshift whiteboards mentioned in the previous post.   The whiteboards will be explored further in a moment. Uses of construction paper beyond just arts and crafts   Sticking with the topic of whiteboards, let's say you split your students into six groups for a review game or a random trivia game.  Each group will be provided with a different color “whiteboard”.   How is this accomplished?   Simply put six pieces of construction paper, each of a different color, each into a plastic sheet prot...

This next item is a multipurpose resource.   That resource is a pack of plastic sheet protectors.   I like to keep binders to store my lesson plans and handouts to reference in the future, so I put these papers in plastic sheet protectors.  Even though I have digital versions of everything, I find it convenient, though old-school, to have a physical archive to revisit and flip through.   The sheet protectors help to maintain the condition of the papers and aid in the prevention of tearing, hence surviving for years - well, until I give those lesson plans the boot 😊 Plastic sheet protectors can also serve the role of makeshift lamination of papers.  One example, which I have done, is to "laminate" instructions at learning stations that (ideally) needed to remain durable for several days.   These plastic sleeves do the trick of preserving the instructions, at least the directions remain legible enough for all classes to complete the stations....