Teacher Appreciation Giveaway

Teacher Appreciation Day is celebrated across the globe. In the U.S., the recognition day -- celebrated in large part because of Eleanor Roosevelt's efforts to recognize and honor teachers -- is always the Tuesday of the first full week of May. Evidently, there was some confusion this year as May 1 was a Monday. My 2017 wall calendar -- made by a popular company that sells hundreds of thousands of calendars a year -- labeled Tuesday, May 2, as Teacher Appreciation Day, but a quick Google search says it is Tuesday, May 9. So, I guess it depends on one's interpretation of the "first full week" -- does that start on a Sunday or a Monday? (Fun fact: Did you know in many countries, including most European countries, Monday really IS the first day of the week and Sunday is the last day?! Our "English calendars" are as confusing to most of the world as our measurement of weight in ounces and pounds and distance in inches and miles. But I digress.) At least one local school district in my neck of the woods is recognizing their teachers on Tuesday, May 16 . . . and I think all the confusion is a great reason to celebrate teachers all month long because the truth is E.VER.Y.DAY should be Teacher Appreciation Day! So, whether you were celebrated last week, this week, or next week, please soak it all in and know you really deserve to be recognized and appreciated every week!

Thank you, Teachers, for caring about your students, cheering them on to success, and helping each student learn the way she or he best learns by constantly refining, revising, modifying, evaluating, expanding, adjusting, clarifying, scaffolding, reteaching, and adapting every lesson, all day long, in thirty-two different ways . . . while simultaneously preparing students for standardized tests, reminding them the test does not define them as a person or as a learner, getting band-aids for their mishaps, helping them mend broken hearts, asking about their weekends and connecting with them over their favorite performers, books, or sports teams, laughing with those students who are having the best day of their lives today and crying with those who are having the worst day ever, encouraging students to keep doing their best with hugs, high-fives, pats on the back, thumbs-up, and fist-bumps -- and knowing exactly who prefers each -- and making mental notes of who needs shoelaces, mittens, lunch money, a new composition notebook, or a supplemental activity to help them better understand the lesson and when pay day is so you can care for each of their needs. Kudos to you, Teachers, for all the ways you strive every day to be and give and do what each individual student needs in order to grow into knowledgeable, informed, inspired, compassionate, empathetic, motivated, engaged life-long learners!

I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted thinking about all you do! I wish I could treat every single one of you to a well-deserved cup of steaming hot coffee, soul-warming vanilla chai, creamy macchiato, fruity iced tea, or frozen frappuccino . . . and a donut, because donuts make everyone feel celebrated!

Instead, I have teamed up with the fabulous Selma Dawani to give ten teachers a $5 Dunkin' Donuts giftcard. Enter the rafflecoptor below for six chances to win . . . we'll announce winners on Wednesday, May 10. 

. . . and because we wanted to give ALL the teachers a treat, we created a fun set of note cards and bookmarks for you to print and give to your colleagues, your students, or your own sweet kiddos. Click here to download your free note cards and bookmarks today . . . and know that you are appreciated today and every day for all you do. Donut ever forget that you truly are our heroes! Thank you, Teachers!

Enter for 6 chances to win a $5 Dunkin' Donuts gift card!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
P.S. Because we r-e-a-l-l-y want you to feel valued and appreciated, don't forget about the Teachers Pay Teachers sale on May 9 and 10 . . . every resource in our stores will be 28% off! Stock up on these end-of-year goodies that will help you sail through the rest of May and June . . . or these back-to-school resources that will set you and your students up for success all year long!

Literary Sherri Celebrates Kindness

Once upon a time in American society, a certain sense of decorum was the norm. Regardless of what was said behind the relative safety and closed doors of one’s home, people generally treated one another with a certain amount of courtesy and civility in public. In recent years – and especially recent months – we have seen a sharp rise in bullying, violence, hate-based harassment, vandalism, marginalization, and “othering.” If television shows mirror society, just compare and contrast the social norms portrayed in Leave It to Beaver or The Brady Bunch with Pretty Little Liars or The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I call our current social climate a “reality-show climate.” Those who feed on a steady diet of Big Brother, Dance Moms, 16 and Pregnant, or most other reality shows regularly see bad behavior rewarded, morals compromised for fifteen minutes of perceived fame and fortune, and meanness not only glorified, but celebrated. The grittiness and rawness of inappropriate and salacious entertainment behavior is lauded for being “real” and “uncensored” . . . and many watchers, believing the behavior they see on tv is the social norm, don’t hesitate to drop their own filters in public and behave just as outrageously.

Of course, all behavior is caused and causes are always multiple. I’m not suggesting that societal norms have changed because of reality tv shows. I am saying: Whether we’re witnessing life imitating art or art imitating is life, one thing is certain – hostility, violence, bullying, and harassment is not only on the rise, it is fast becoming perceived by many as the social norm, and the divisive political environment in our country is exacerbating this. Adults in our country are deeply divided over immigration, security, religion, racial discrimination, marriage equality, and Roe v. Wade, and our students are feeling the effects of this division. Some students are feeling emboldened to mimic the hate-based actions they see portrayed in the media. Others are feeling fearful, sad, and anxious. Students are grappling with the meaning of new vocabulary words such as misogyny, xenophobia, fascism, bigotry, and resurgence.

Drawing on more than two decades of teaching experience, this is what I know for sure: We cannot ignore these issues in our classrooms. No matter our political affiliation, no matter who we voted for or why, we need to respect and honor our students by talking about these issues truthfully and frankly. Our students deserve the truth and the truth is: We all have work to do to make things better.

Teachers need to actively and proactively address bullying and meanness. This type of behavior leaves deep emotional scars that affects our students' sense of safety and self-worth for years, if not decades. Students need tools in their toolbox to be prepared to deal with mean behavior when it does happen – and they need tools to help prevent such behavior in the first place. 

One way we can address this is by teaching our students how to deal with bullies and meanness:

We can also help students by teaching them coping strategies. If students are feeling anxious, listen to them. Honor their feelings. Make sure they know your classroom is a safe haven for them to talk about their emotions, concerns, worries, and fears. Remind them they are strong, resilient, compassionate, and caring. And remind them that the sun will come up tomorrow, we will all go to school and to our jobs, and we will all be okay.

Finally – and perhaps most importantly – we can help our students by teaching them to be kind, compassionate, accepting, and empathetic community members. If the only thing we teach our students is academics, we’ve only done half our job. The other half of our job is teaching students to be good people. Create a culture of kindness in your classroom and teach students not just about “random acts of kindness” but intentional acts of kindness. Because no matter our political affiliations, worldviews, or feelings about our elected officials, we can all agree that our students – ALL our students – deserve to be treated as beautiful humans worthy of dignity, respect, courtesy, civility, and kindness.

I want to help, and many of my amazing colleagues on Teachers Pay Teachers also want to help! Together, we have created free resources – resources we have committed to keeping free forever – that you can print today and use tomorrow. I created a 30 Days of Kindness Challenge that includes 30 tangible and intentional acts of kindness, along with reflection sheets and writing activities. 

Other free resources can be found by going to Teachers Pay Teachers and searching the hashtags: #kindnessnation and #weholdthesetruths . . . or you can hop through the blogs below to find resources for 6-12 teachers that focus either on kindness or civics . . .

Thank you to Rachel Lynette of Minds in Bloom for originating the idea for #kindnessnation and #weholdthesetruths resources. Thanks, also, to Pam of Desktop Learning Adventures and Darlene of ELA Buffet for hosting the Secondary Smorgasbord blog hop . . .

An InLinkz Link-up

Free eBooks for Middle School and High School Teachers!

It’s February – love is in the air! -- and I’m in love with these free eBooks for Middle School and High School teachers!

I'm over-the-moon excited to be working with Brain Waves Instruction, Getting Nerdy with Mel and Gerdy, and Lindsay Perro to bring you another round of four FREE secondary eBooks filled with tips and resources from 30 top-notch teachers! Each teacher has one “get-to-know-a-bit-about-me” page that will keep you smiling – or outright laughing – as you discover ways to connect with each contributor.

The best thing about these books?!? Each teacher also gives you a one-page print-and-go resource right in the eBook! That’s 30 resources you can use in your classroom tomorrow . . . times 4 eBooks . . . 120 free resources in all! You also get links to over 100 high-quality resources in each book! Amazing, right?!?

Thank you to the organizing team who made this project possible, all the contributors who made these eBooks such a super resource for teachers, and to Jackie from Room 213 for designing the beautiful cover pages!

The eBooks are categorized into ELA, Math, Science, and Humanities (Social Studies, Foreign Language, Arts, and even more ELA). Take a look . . . maybe you’ll fall in love with a few new resources, too!

Missed the first series of free eBooks? Grab them here:



                   

An InLinkz Link-up

Catching Up!

Time flies when you’re . . . well, it always flies! I took a bit of a digital break to re-connect with family I hadn’t seen in many years. This was only the second time in a decade I’ve seen my brother and my sister, and the first time all three of us have been together since Christmas of 1994 . . . so I felt our days together warranted some technology-free time!

 

 

Our time together was beautiful – filled with laughter, tears, joy, and countless hours of talking, talking, and more talking . . . in fact, my entire trip had only two glitches: My drive out took me through Cincinnati at the exact time that the Bengals were playing the Cleveland Browns – which I definitely would not recommend! We drove exactly 4 miles in 90 minutes! And supporting the local VFW in my brother’s town included a bit of adventurous eating – which I also would not recommend! (Let me clarify -- I wholeheartedly recommend supporting your local VFW! It's the main entree of this meal that I don't recommend!) Can anyone identify this?

 

In the midst of all the busyness of trip-planning and travelling, I was honored to accept an invitation from The Teaching 2-Step Bloggers to contribute to their collaborative blog. This is a group of 10 terrific Teacher-Authors working together to bring you the best ideas, strategies, and resources out there! Find my first post here:

 

I also posted a freebie in my TpT shop . . . 12 thoughtful, creative, and FUN writing prompts that commemorate winter holidays around the world, including:
Hanukkah
St. Nicholas Day
Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Winter Solstice
Festivus
Christmas
Boxing Day
Kwanzaa
Ramadan
Omisoka
New Year's Eve

Grab it here:

I hope you're thoroughly enjoying your autumn! I'm off to create more holiday resources . . .

Happy November!

Back to School Sales and Savings!

My summer trips and travels come to an end this weekend; I look forward to being back home and blogging with more regularity! Meanwhile, I wanted to pop on and let you know about a few ways to save big on Back-to-School Products!

 

First, Teachers Pay Teachers is hosting a one-day Back-to-School Boost sale -- today only! Everything in my store is 28% off, including already-discounted bundles! Many other stores are also on sale!

 

Next, don't miss out on the Free Back-to-School ELA and Humanities eBook, found in Tracee Orman's TpT store. Kudos and a million thanks to Tracee for compiling 80 pages of tips and links to free and paid resources to help  you start you off to a fabulous 2014-15!!

 

 

Finally, check out passionforsavings.com for updated information each week on Back-to-School sales and savings:

 

 

 

 

Happy Back-to-School!

3 Ways to Save During the Last 3 Days of July!

I've been thoroughly enjoying a bit of a summer hiatus! I hope you  have, too!

I originally intended to take off the entire month of July and not to blog again until August 1 . . . but I'm a few days early because I don't want you to miss out on some fabulous deals! Although I still have a few end-of-summer activities to enjoy yet (blueberry picking, anyone?!?), I can't think of a better way to start gearing up for back-to-school than with a few bargains!

First . . . you know my last blog post? The June 30th post titled, "What Are You Doing This Summer?" . . . well, I had so much fun creating that list that I decided to modify it into a back-to-school product for students!  Of course, the most exciting thing about coming back to school (for students!) is catching up with friends and talking about your summer -- this gives students an opportunity to do just that while squeezing in a little academic review, too! The challenge is to use unique verbs and nouns for each item on the list! The engaging part is creating word art to make the product pop, making this a fun and engaging back-to-school activity that sneaks in some academic review and really let's students' strengths shine through! Best of all -- it's FREE!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beginning-of-Year-Activity-What-Did-You-Do-This-Summer-1341579

Second . . . one of my best-selling products, Don't Write About Your Writing, is available for free in a giveaway being hosted by One Teacher's Adventures:

http://oneteachersadventures.blogspot.ca/2014/07/200-tpt-follower-giveaway.html


Third . . . for the first time ever, I'm participating in "Two for Tuesday" . . . so TWO of my products are on sale today only for 50% off! These two gems can be used all school year to add some pizzazz to your classes! Get 'em while they're hot -- in 24 hours, they go back to full price! 


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Review-Games-Common-Core-Aligned-849523



http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jokes-of-the-Day-405-School-Appropriate-JokesCommon-Core-Aligned-585814

Happy Bargain-Hunting!

Don't Miss the Freebies!

It's been 11 weeks since I started this blog . . . I know that because I have 11 freebies posted on my 'Extras' page!

 

If you haven't checked out that page, don't miss out . . . I post one freebie every Friday from a variety of TpT sellers! I try to feature ELA-related products or products that will help you create your own projects, such as digital papers, clipart, frames, and borders.

 

This week features a sweet Fourth of July Treat Box from Carol Martinez -- one of my favorite TpT colleagues! Go to the 'Extras' page and click on Carol's product for a perfect star-spangled project for the kiddos!



Click on the 'Extras' page for a freebie every Friday!





Happy (almost!) Fourth of July!