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This week's newsletter is sponsored by SchoolNotes.
 We all know how much it means for both kids and parents to feel they have a real stake in what’s going on in your classroom -- and the FREE SchoolNotes tool from SchoolNotes.com, an Education World company, is the perfect tool to help you establish that valuable, personal connection.
As educators, we also know that a strong bond between school and home is a key ingredient in boosting student achievement. What better way to build that bond and boost achievement than with your own SchoolNotes Web page? A SchoolNotes Web page enables you to communicate directly with your students and their parents as often as you wish. As an added bonus, SchoolNotes offers three customized entry points, or homepages -- one for you, one for your students, and one for their parents. Each of those pages provides daily content of special interest.
As a classroom teacher you need to have a FREE SchoolNotes account. Go to http://new.schoolnotes.com/ to learn more.
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Volume 11, Issue 26
July 1, 2009
Reading Fun
Are you looking for a special project that will excite your students about reading? You have come to the right place! We have gathered together dozens of Education World articles that offer unique lessons and ideas for teachers of reading at all levels. Make every week Book Week with these fun and "novel" reading lesson ideas.
Pretzels
This weekly activity teaches kids to handle and resolve conflict.
 Using Debates in the Classroom
Debates are a staple of middle and high school social studies classes. But have you ever thought about using debates at the lower grades -- or in math class? Education World offers five debate strategies and extra lessons for students of all ages. Included: Debate fairy tale ethics, use four corner and inner/outer circle strategies, more.
Timelines
All the timeline resources you'll need. Activities for all grades.
More Timely Lesson Ideas
 Writing Lessons
Make the “write impression” with lessons that involve students in interviewing, editing, building vocabulary…
Great Reading Ideas
Find 25 great ideas for motivating young readers.
ABC Books
Tips for using ABC books in grades K-12.
4th of July
Teaching Current Events
Brush Up Your Students’ Study Skills
Lesson Plan of the Day
Click the link above to see dozens of recent Lesson Plans of the Day, including the five lessons below that were posted last week.
 Round-Robin Story - Groups of five write a story. (Grades 3-12)
A Monument for the Big Cheese - Design a monument for the prez. (3-12)
Unique Art - One set of directions creates unique artworks. (K-12)
Design a Poet-T - Transform a white T-shirt into a “Poet-T.” (3-12)
Invent a Game - Given four items of equipment, invent a game to play. (K-12)
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/archives/dailylp.shtml
 Learning Game of the Week
Puzzle game promotes thinking skills and cooperation.
Friday Fun
Students interview school staff, create a bulletin board display.
Vicki Cobb’s Show-Biz Science
Use paper cups to improve your hearing.
Reader's Theater
Rapunzel's Rap
Queen Beetifah, the leader of a hive near Rapunzel's tower, raps about the princess with long, golden hair who was locked away, and then rescued by a music-loving prince.
From the Reading Machine
The Best Trampolini Game
In this simple language game, players examine three images above three forms of a root word with a suffix. (Grades K-2)
Total Reader
How Cool Is That!
 Writing Lessons
Heroes in History ABC Book
Create a Heroes in History ABC book. (Grades 3-12)
In Search of Wisdom: An Interview With an Elder
Interview an adult, write a narrative in his/her voice. (Grades 6-12)
Writing Bugs
A Special Day
Yesterday was a special day because…
A New Harry Potter Character
Create a character for a new Harry Potter book.
From the Math Corner
Wendy Petti's "Math Cats Math Chat"
Planning a Student-Led Math Family Fun Night
Take a peek as fourth-graders prepare for their school's first Math Family Fun Night.
Box Cars and One-Eyed Jacks Math Games With Joanne and Jane
This week: “Squeeze Play” teaches place value.
Go Figure
The Tall and Short of It
Can students figure out the names and heights of eleven students in a line?
Math Mnemonics
Spell Arithmetic
Explore Our
Printable
Work Sheet Library
In our Work Sheet Library you will find printables for every grade level and subject. Some of our work sheet collections are listed below. For a complete list of printable resources from our editors and our partners, visit the Work Sheet Library.
Animals A to Z
Backpack-tivities
Coloring Calendars
Every-Day Edits
Geography A to Z
It All Adds Up
Make Your Own Work Sheets
Name the Mystery State
Readers Theater Scripts
Vocab-u-lous!
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The Math Machine
Penguin Waiter
This game asks students to use percentages to determine the amount of money to give as a tip. (Grades 4-12)
 Early Childhood Teaching Resources
Summer Poem of the Week
The Beach
Early Childhood Teaching Theme
Let’s learn outdoors.
Favorite Anytime Activities
Volume 4.
More Lesson Ideas
Technology Lesson Plans
Every-Day Edits
News for Kids
 Teacher-Submitted Lesson Plans
Teacher Lesson #1
Students learn about and design roller coasters.
Teacher Lesson #2
Create a realistic interview with a world leader.
Teacher Lesson #3
Draw conclusions about the characters in Louis Sachar's Holes.
Teacher Lesson #4
"Meaty words" teach summarizing, note-taking.
5-Minute Fillers Volume 11.
Just for This Month! See our July Month of Fun, July Word Search, and July Coloring Calendar. PLUS! Create your own work sheets for Fourth of July.
Emma McDonald: The New Teacher Advisor
Ease Stress by Being Prepared
Preparation is the key to being a successful teacher. The more thought and effort you put into your lessons and your job, the better teacher you will be. You also will be less stressed throughout the year.
Dr. Fred Jones: Tools for Teaching
Thinking Like a Teacher
Meaning business is mental, emotional, and physical. The mental part of meaning business centers on a clear understanding of consistency. Effective teachers are consistent within the context of nurturance.
Brenda Dyck's Blog
Learning From the Masters
Times have changed since the days when we traveled to watch exemplary teachers in action. Accomplished teachers now come to us -- via the Internet.
Professor Joe Martin: The Educator Motivator
What Are You Paying Attention To?
I tell my friends when they question my ability to maintain a positive attitude about teaching, “I have a simple choice: I either can focus on whining about teaching or I can focus on winning as a teacher."
Cathy Puett Miller: The Reading Coach
Strategies for Teaching Editing
As author and editor Arthur Plotnik reminds us, is “We write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside. We edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
Bernie Poole
More on Excel
Lesson 5 of Essential Microsoft Office 2007 expands on the previous spreadsheet lesson, providing information on how to change and maintain existing spreadsheets.
Alma Row's Gadget of the Week
SketchUp
Use Google SketchUp to create, modify, and share 3D models.
Lorrie Jackson's Techtorial
Creating Timelines With Excel
Learn how to use Microsoft Excel to create simple timelines.
 The Principal Poet
Education World’s resident poet, Mr. Ivan, presents a poem that is sure to bring grins to school leaders everywhere. This week’s poem is “Taking Tests On Mondays.”
Taking tests on Mondays
Ought to be against the law
Because it forces me to think
Before my brain can thaw…
Read more…
 Partners for
Student Success
Lunch and Learning for Parents and Students
Lunch and Learn sessions familiarize parents with teaching techniques they can use at home. Parents are often critical of kids reading and spelling skills, said one teacher. “We encourage them to be positive and enjoy the journey along with their children.”
Wire Side Chat
 Ways to Teach Empathy Skills
Everyone has met people who are highly compassionate. But we would meet more of them if children were taught at an early age to be empathetic, according to author/teacher David A. Levine, who has created lessons and activities to teach empathy skills.
The Postcard Project
Barb Crew’s kindergartners receive postcards from the "edges" of Earth.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/teacher_feature/teacher_feature005.shtml
Featured Site Reviews
 Field Trip Earth
Environmental information has never been so lively.
Brains Rule
Parents and teachers of young kids should see this strong British site.
 Peter's Online Typing Course
Free, online typing lessons and exercises for beginning typists.
Be sure to explore our Site Review Archives for more great sites. You also can keep up with our latest reviews by signing up for our Site Review Newsletter. This free weekly newsletter brings you up to date by presenting links to all new reviews posted in our Site Review archive. Click here to sign up now!
Newsletters ’R Us
 Copy and paste this free content into your teacher or school newsletters.
The ABCs of Student
Success Helping students achieve from A to Z.
Caught on the Web Sites to share with parents.
Clipart Library Free art to liven up newsletters.
Fun Facts Fun and educational content.
Parent Newsletter Templates A different template for each month.
Math @ Home Math activities for parents and kids.
“QuotED” Educational quotes to inspire.
Parent Pointers Ponder these themed parenting tips.
Each week, we ask readers to cast their votes in The Weekly Survey. Cast your vote in this week's question of interest to all educators.
This Week’s Survey Question
How many of your students’ fathers have been in your school at least once in the past year?
Last Week’s Survey Results
Does your district offer teachers bonuses to teach specific subjects or to teach in low-performing schools?
 Shop the
Education World
MarketPlace
The Education World MarketPlace features products handpicked for educators.
This Week's Feature
 Fitness Equipment
Coaches and kids -- and everyone in between -- should visit the Education World MarketPlace for fitness supplies. From balls to the latest in Wii products, the MarketPlace offers everything to "fit" your school fitness needs.
Remember, by shopping the Education World MarketPlace (powered by S&S Worldwide) and our Education World/SchoolNotes bookstore (powered by Amazon) you help us maintain Education World as a free resource for educators.
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 Each week, Education World spotlights books of interest to educators. This week, read a brief summary of two more of our "top 50 books for educators."
Discipline in the Secondary Classroom
Many books on classroom management are aimed at K-8 or, more often, the early end of that range. So here is a "grown up" classroom management book that takes an approach and adopts a style more in keeping with the college-preparatory level (whether the kids are actually sitting down and getting enough work done to get into college is another question!). In particular, this book's appendices, including observation and analysis worksheets and a student satisfaction survey, are a good commbination of the practical tool often found for younger grades and the more "adult" methodology appropriate to high schoolers.
Click to learn more or to purchase this book.
Subjects Matter: Every Teacher's Guide to Content-Area Reading
A guide to developing ambitious thematic units, a "balance diet" reading list of 150 books of interest to teens, and special help tips for students who struggle with reading, all help make this book a strong candidate for becoming a core content-area-reading playbook for middle school and high school teachers.
 Click to learn more or to purchase this book.
Click the icon to the right to see more books and many other products that are available in the Education World MarketPlace.
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 The Best of the WRITING BUG
If you enjoy Education World's weekly WRITING BUG feature, you'll love this book! Education World and the National Education Association (NEA) have joined forces to create a handy, pocket-size booklet with 44 of the most popular Writing Bug story starters. Use these Writing Bug activities to engage your students in effective writing. Each writing prompt will spark students' imaginations, tickle their funny bones, and motivate their pencils.
Included: In this booklet you'll find these Writing Bug titles and many more:
- If I Could Interview Any U.S. President...
- The Best Lesson I Ever Learned
- I Got a Postcard from Another Planet
- The Best Invention Ever/The Worst Invention Ever
- Plus 39 more Writing Bug writing prompts!
The Best of WRITING BUG is part of the Teacher Treasure Series, an NEA Professional Library Publication.
http://store.nea.org/NEABookstore/control/productdetails?&item_id=0695X00
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For a modest $24.95 PER YEAR, upgrade to Personal Edition, "Super SchoolNotes," with thousands of resources linked to your state's standards.
Click here for more information.
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MORE FEATURES OF INTEREST
 Reader’s Theater More than two dozen scripts, perfect for the classroom.
Best Books for Teaching About… Booklists for 30 popular teaching themes.
Sign Up for Our Newsletters Ten free newsletters full of practical ideas.
Special Education Center Tools for the special education community.
Techtorials Tutorials take the terror out of tech.
Template Library Explore dozens of templates to meet your every need.
Wire Side Chats Ed World chats with experts from the "education world."
Printables Library 100s of printables!
Meet Our Columnists From across the "education world."
Early Childhood Themes From Sue LaBella.
Stress Kit Tools for catching your breath.
Classroom Management 101 Real tips from real teachers.
News for Kids World news with kids in mind.
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A Lesson in Organization: Part 2
One of my teaching colleagues was moaning about the fact that his classroom was a disaster -- especially his desk and files. He had put off organizing things, but Open House was just around the corner so the pressure was on. I got a call from him on the afternoon of Open House.
"I went to the bookstore and I bought a book on how to get organized," he explained. "I was all fired up, and decided to start with my desktop…"
This sounded like good progress to me, but I sensed a tone of frustration in his voice.
"I was feeling good about getting organized… Then, as I got to the bottom of one of the piles, what do you think I found?... Another copy of the same how-to book!"
Fairy Tale
While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I used to take my 4-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds. She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers, and wheelchairs. One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned and whispered, "The tooth fairy will never believe this!"
Morning Tantrums
Son: But I don't want to go to school!
Mother: But you have to go to school.
Son: But I don't want to. The teachers don't like me. The kids don't like me…
Mother: But you still have to go to school... You're the principal!
Do You Noah the Answer?
Bob: What kind of lighting did Noah use on the ark?
Patrick: Floodlights!
Little Johnny Strikes Again
Principal: Didn't you promise to behave?
Little Johnny: Yes, sir.
Principal: And didn't I promise to punish you if you didn't?
Little Johnny: Yes, sir, but since I broke my promise, I don't expect you to keep yours.
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