5 Ways to Make the Most of the TpT Back to School Sale

It's the most wonderful time of the year . . . time to prepare for another school year! I love the excitement, anticipation, and energy this time of year! And I'm super-excited to team up with some amazing 6-12 English teachers to highlight a host of ideas, resources, tips, and strategies throughout the year that will help make 2015-16 one of your best year's yet!

Over the past 3 months, I've had the opportunity to meet several of The Literary League teachers in person. They are the cream-of-the-crop . . . master teachers, knowledgeable about relevant education trends, passionate about their craft, and genuinely good people!

Awesome Bonus: The 6-12 English resources these teacher-authors are creating are the best resources on the market, and several of these resources will be highlighted here throughout the upcoming year -- starting this week, with the annual sitewide sale at Teachers Pay Teachers!

That's right, it's time to take advantage of the the annual TpT Back-to-School Sale as you prepare for the exciting year ahead! Getting ready for a new school year can be expensive . . . let us help you with some top-notch resources at great back-to-school prices! The sale is Monday and Tuesday, August 3 and 4. Save up to 28% with the sale code: BTS15.

Here are some ways to take full advantage of the sitewide sale:

-Log in to your Teachers Pay Teachers account.

-Go to your 'My Purchases' page and make sure you've left feedback on all past purchases. Doing so builds credits that you can use toward your sale purchases, stretching your hard-earned dollars even further!

-Buy bundles! Many sellers reduce already-discounted bundles during site-wide sales. For instance, all the money-saving bundles in my store are reduced an additional 28% during sales . . . bringing your total savings to nearly 50%! Look for bundles to get even more bang for your buck!

-See if your favorite TpT Teacher-Authors have a "Buy My Entire Store" option. These super-mega-bundles usually save you big bucks. Save even more by picking them up during sitewide sales!

-Check your Wishlist! Sitewide sales are a great time to purge resources you're no longer interested in and nab those you still want!

-Finally, don't forget to enter your sales code before you checkout! Your code for this sale is BTS15. Use it and enjoy the back-to-school love!

Speaking of love, The Literary League puts a lot of love into their resources . . . and they're sharing the back-to-school love with you during this back-to-school sale! Don't forget to check out these amazing TpT shops . . . you'll discover a lot of resources you can't live without, and you may find a few new favorite TpT sellers in the process. It doesn't get better than that!

Literary Sherri
Danielle Knight (Study All Knight)
Darlene Anne- ELA Buffet
Mrs. Spangler in the Middle
Created by MrHughes
The Classroom Sparrow
The Daring English Teacher
ELA Everyday
Juggling ELA
Nouvelle
Making Meaning with Melissa
2 Peas and a Dog
Secondary Solutions-Simply Novel
Addie Williams
Linda Jennifer
Fisher Reyna Education
The Creative Classroom
Stacey Lloyd
Room 213
Brynn Allison
Open Classroom
Perfetto Writing Room
Secondary Sara
Tracee Orman
James Whitaker
The Superhero Teacher
Created for Learning
Brain Waves Instruction


Happy Back-to-School Shopping!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

I've taken a bit of a blogging hiatus to care for some other priorities, and I can't think of a better time to re-focus on blogging than Teacher Appreciation Week!

To celebrate YOU, I am offering my End-of-Year Awards: Idioms free for 24 hours. These figurative language awards print 4-per-page, making them more appealing to middle school and high school students. One teacher who purchased this resource said, "These are great! I can't wait for the students to nominate each other in each of the categories! The learning lasts all the way to the awards assembly!" Click either of the images below to take advantage of this 24-hour freebie. Enjoy!

 

 

The Teacher-Authors who make top-notch resources available on Teachers Pay Teachers also want to celebrate you and thank you for ALL you do with a 28% discount on TpT purchases! Here's some Super Secondary Sellers who think you rock 'n roll:

Check out these stores to get all shook up about some superb savings on superb resources for 6-12 Teachers with the promo code: ThankYou

The Classroom Sparrow

Room 213

Darlene Anne’s ELA Buffet

Danielle Knight (Study All Knight)

Michele Luck's Social Studies

Teaching FSL

Juggling ELA

The SuperHERO Teacher

James Whitaker's SophistThoughts

Created by MrHughes

Lessons With Coffee

Leah Cleary

Addie Williams

Linda Jennifer

MissMathDork

Kristin Lee

Lindsay Perro

All Things Algebra

Mrs. Brosseau's Binder

Tracee Orman

4mulafun

Teaching High School Math

Pamela Kranz

FisherReyna Education

Getting Nerdy with Mel and Gerdy

Lovin Lit

ELA Everyday

Teaching Math by Hart

The Creative Classroom

For the Love of Teaching Math

Kesler Science

Live Love Math

To the Square Inch- Kate Bing Coners

A Space to Create

Science and Math with Mrs Lau

Brain Waves Instruction

Created for Learning

2 Peas and a Dog

Making Meaning with Melissa

Literary Sherri

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

St. Patrick's Day Writing Prompts and a Bit o' Luck!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

On March 17, everybody is Irish! If you're looking to luck out with a last-minute resource for students in grades 7-9, give these writing task cards a try! The 25 prompts on these Writing Task Cards commemorate and celebrate all things Irish, including the luck o' the Irish, Irish Blessings, the Blarney Stone, and St. Patrick's Day! Each task card provides a choice of two writing prompts, each with a wee bit o' history or trivia.

 

Here's one of the fun writing prompts in this set:

 

According to Irish legend, leprechauns hide all their gold in a pot at the end of the rainbow. Imagine you had a pot o’ gold that you were free to spend on anything other than yourself. Write a month-long series of journal entries explaining how you spent your gold.

 

Use St. Patrick's Day Writing Task Cards as Warm-Up Work, Bell Ringers, Class Enders, or for Writer’s Workshop! All cards are provided in full color and black-and-white. Here's a sample:

 

Click here to grab this resource for your students!

 

Speaking of lucky, here's a bit of fortune for you: My TpT shop currently has 961 followers. If I reach 1,001 followers by the end of the week, I'll make my most popular poetry resource free for 24 hours! Here's the unit . . . click here to see more:

 

 

 

If you're interested in high-quality print-and-go resources for busy ELA teachers, hop on over and follow my shop, then watch here for a link to this 24-hour-freebie!

 

May the luck o' the Irish be with you!

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

Literary Sherri is Coming Out of the Deep Freeze!

’Tis the season . . . cold and flu season, that is! The holly jolly days are over, the bills have arrived, the temperatures have dropped well below freezing, and all manner of colds, flus, and viruses are making their rounds. January is the month we’d all like to crawl back under warm covers for a long winter’s nap . . . which also makes it the perfect month to pull a great resource out of the deep freeze and add some sizzle to our lessons! 180 Review Games and Brain Breaks can help: 



This is one of those go-to resources when you have 5 minutes to fill or 20 minutes to review! Review academic content, take a quick brain break, get students moving, do a quick informal assessment, and energize your lessons with the games and activities on these 74 task cards!

For example, you could play "Pass the Chicken":
Students stand about an arm’s length apart in a circle, with one person standing in the center.

Give the person in the center a task (each student can receive a new category). Their goal is to respond to the task before the students in the circle pass a rubber chicken (or beach ball, beanbag, or other soft object) around the circle three times.
Repeat until each student has been in the circle.

Tasks:               
Name 10 vegetables found in a salad              
Name 10 team sports
Name 10 words containing the word “sun”   
Name 10 countries
Name 10 ice cream flavors                               
Name 10 Greek gods
Name 10 nouns
Name 10 multiples of 8

Over 100 variations gives you more than 180 games . . . plenty of games and activities to add some sizzle in January and every other day of the school year!

Thanks to ELA Buffet and Desktop Learning Adventures for hosting this Secondary Smorgasbord! Look below for other fabulous resources that secondary sellers are bringing out of the deep freeze!

An InLinkz Link-up

Writing Prompts: 15 Super Reasons Every Teacher Should Be Using This Super-Strategy!

I start every ELA class with a short writing prompt that students complete for bell work while I care for housekeeping items, such attendance, lunch orders, checking homework, skimming notes from parents, etc. (I have a few minutes to check in with students while they are actively engaged in a productive learning activity. It's a win-win!)

In my class, we call this a Quick Write. Quick Writes are a super-strategy used to develop writing fluency, build the habit of reflection into learning, and informally assess student thinking! Here's a few other reasons Quick Writes should be used in every class every day (a literacy teacher's dream!):

Quick Writes:
-Help students become fluent, organized, confident, skilled  thinkers and writers!
-Activate prior knowledge
-Help students make personal connections
-Promote reflection
-Foster critical thinking
-Prepare students for discussion
-Increase background knowledge and broaden worldview (when shared)
-Reinforce vocabulary and language development
-Informally assess student knowledge about a given topic
-Increase engagement in Think-Pair-Share activities
-Help students brainstorm their thoughts
-I frequently tell my students that the most important ideas are often the most difficult to articulate. I Especially love Quick -Writes because they help students learn to articulate their thoughts in a safe environment, knowing the content of their writing is not going to be criticized! (See why I call this a Super-Strategy?!?)

Here's how I use Quick Writes:

• When students enter my classroom, the Writing Task Card of the day is displayed on a Whiteboard. Students go directly to their seats, open their writing journals, choose one of the prompts, and start writing. (I always have instrumental music playing in the background. The students think I'm just plain awesome -- or plain corny, depending on the music genre of the day -- they don't realize I'm just using the music to help them focus and concentrate!)
• I provide two to three prompts each day so students always have a choice, which is developmentally appropriate for tweens and teens and results in more pencils-to-the-paper and less "I can't think of anything to write!"
• Sometimes my students beg me to let them write about the other prompt, too, and inside my heart is doing flip-flops because real live students are actually begging to write! (This is the stuff this ELA teacher's dreams are made of!)
• If I finish my housekeeping chores with time on the clock to write, I write in my own journal. Students love it when I join them on a Quick Write!
• Students who do not have their writing journals are still responsible to complete their Quick Writes on a blank sheet of paper from a basket I keep in the back of the room. They are responsible to attach these papers to their journal at their convenience (meaning: they come to my room when it's convenient for me -- usually during their breakfast or lunch -- to tape, staple, or glue their Quick Write into their journal . . . or to rewrite it if it's mysteriously lost).
• Any of the prompts can be expanded, edited, revised, and turned in for an actual grade . . . a lifesaver on days when there is a substitute teacher in the class!

I have done Quick Writes with my students for years and I believe it is one of the most important activities on our agenda! I learn so much about my students that I would never know if I did not invite them to share their writing with the class. This helps me get to know students on a more personal level, builds rapport, and fosters a nurturing and caring classroom environment. I'm not exaggerating when I say Quick Writes frequently prompt my students to laugh together, cry together, and offer support to one another with hugs, fist-bumps, or high-fives.

 

I know that some of you are thinking you can't possibly come up with 2-3 high-interest prompts a day every day . . . the great news is, over 23 years of teaching, I've developed hundreds of interesting and engaging writing prompts that I'm compiling into resources in my TpT shop!

 

Here's one example:

 

Click here for a freebie from this set of writing prompts! 

 

 

Stay tuned for one free set of writing prompts each month!

 

Happy Writing!https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/February-Writing-Prompts-Task-Cards-Grades-7-8-9-1679192

Literary Sherri is Getting Nerdy: Nerd Year Resolution

Here's hoping everyone had a terrific first-week-back-at-school after a long winter's nap holiday break!

I always love January because it's the perfect time to push a re-set button with classroom routines and procedures, re-energize the class with some new, engaging resources, and remind students that they are closer to (next grade level) so it's time to really buckle down and be sure they are prepared to succeed the next year! I find (most) students ready and willing to get serious about their studies in January!

It's Saturday morning, and that means a nerd-lib, Mel and Gerdy style, so without further ado, here it is . . .

 

The truth is, I'd LOVE to take a quilting class, but this is just not the right time -- so on to the bucket list it goes. I think I could still bite my nails with my elbows taped together, so I better rely on the soothing powers of that hot cocoa instead! I don't own a library and sadly, my musical abilities are limited to playing iTunes -- not instruments! I'm not likely to ever perform at The Kennedy Center, although I would LOVE to attend a performance there one day! I better get busy making 2015 amazing in other ways!

 

One of my top goals for 2015 is to add 50 new resources to my TpT shop by December 31 . . . so I better go get really busy!

 

Leave me a comment and let me know how you are going to make 2015 amazing!

 

 

Literary Sherri is Giving Back on December 14

One of the many reasons I love selling my teaching resources on Teachers Pay Teachers is the super-fabulous people I meet through TpT . . . the teacher-authors who sell their resources on TpT are passionate about education, committed to excellence, and some of the most genuinely caring and giving people you'll ever meet!

For example, several sellers are working together to donate a percentage of their sales this Sunday, December 14, to their favorite causes and charities. I'll be donating 50% of my sales to KIVA, a non-profit organization that strives to use the power of the internet to connect people who are in need with those who want to help. You make small loans – starting at just $25 – to people around the world (including right here in America, by the way!) who are working diligently to provide for their families or to pursue higher education. The recipients pay the money back so it can be re-gifted to someone else in need — continuing the circle of compassion, kindness, and empathy– all the big lessons and life-skills we hope to teach in our classrooms!

KIVA is not a charity, as the recipients of the loans pay the money back. In fact, KIVA has a 98% repayment rate and one of the best aspects of the program is this: When your loan amount is repaid, you can choose to cash your money out and use it in other ways, or you can re-gift the money to someone else in need!

Please visit Literary Sherri on TpT this Sunday, December 14, to support KIVA! While your shopping for resources for your classroom, check out these teacher-authors, too . . . all these sellers will be donating a portion of this Sunday's sales to their favorite causes:

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Giving!

Thank You . . . and a Dedication

I’d like to dedicate this blog to my family and friends who have believed in me and supported me on every step of my journey as an educator, a business owner, and now a writer! I am truly grateful for your words of encouragement, inspiration, and affirmation! Few people in this world are as fortunate as I am to be surrounded every day with love and support, and I thank you!

 

I’d also like to dedicate this blog to the many teachers who care so deeply about their students and work so diligently to set them up for success, now and in the future. As rewarding and fulfilling as it is, teaching is truly one of the most difficult, challenging, and misunderstood jobs a person can have. Absolutely no one can understand all you do and all you deal with unless they have been a classroom teacher themselves. I applaud you, I appreciate you, I honor you, and I dedicate this blog to you. May the ideas, tips, and strategies you find here brighten your day, encourage your heart, and save you a bit of extra time to spend nurturing yourself and your relationships with your own family and friends! Thank you for the countless ways you make our world a better place every day by being a teacher!

I'd also like to thank Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) for providing me with a top-notch open marketplace where I can make  my Middle School English Language Arts and Classroom Management resources available to other teachers! I'm over-the-moon grateful for the many opportunities being a TpT Seller has brought into my life . . . blogging being one!

So, without further ado . . . here we go!