Teaching Tips
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Teaching Tip: Multi-Syllable Rhymes
Image via Wikipedia When people think of poets, they don’t often think of rappers, but Eminem gets a lot of attention for how he puts his words together. People who don’t even like rap, admire him for his skill. I know what you are thinking – Eminem in a Teaching Tip Tuesday post? – Has…
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Teaching Tip – Guided Reading
A good reading program is absolutely essential for your classroom. Without one, your students will not improve as readers. Having DEAR – Drop Everything And Read or SSR – Sustained Silent Reading where your students read quietly at their desks, does very little to help them become better readers. What you need is a guided…
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Teaching Tip – Visual Prompts
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I don’t expect my Grade 3 students to write a thousand words but I do want to see them writing. Perhaps with a little encouragement, they will write longer and more detailed compositions. This is one of the picture prompts I have used in my classroom…
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Teaching Tip – Get Them Writing
Image via Wikipedia Our students need to be writing every day. Unfortunately, some of my students don’t see a purpose behind their morning journal. I have students who simply won’t start writing anything. They will talk to their classmates, play in their desk, sharpen their pencils for the third time, or anything else they can…
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The What-if Activity
Image by Team Tanenbaum via Flickr “Ask your students this question: What would you do if someone gave you a hundred dollars? If you’re doing this with teenagers, make the amount a thousand dollars. Ask them to write down their answers so that you can discuss them. Here are some questions to guide that…
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4 Ways to Sustain Your Enthusiasm for Teaching (Guest Post)
It may be clichéd and trite, but it’s also true that teaching is one of the most satisfactory professions there is – you’re making a difference in the lives of ardent students, you’re providing them with knowledge and facilitating their desire to learn, and you’re a guiding force who makes a difference in their lives.…
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Teaching Tip – Take a Break
Image via Wikipedia Teaching can become an all-encompassing profession. It is so hard to fit everything we need to do into the small amount of time we have at school. Most teachers I know either come in early, stay late, or take work home with them. Many teachers actually do all three. I know that…
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5 Tips to Motivate Reluctant Students (Guest Post)
Every class is a mixed bag – some kids are naturally talented while others get to the top through hard work and effort; some are innately enthusiastic while the rest need a little nudge to get them going; and some are lazy even though they have brains, while others cannot be more than mediocre no…
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Teaching Tip Tuesdays – Great Websites
The Book Chook – This is an amazing blog run by Susan Stephenson. She is a teacher, a writer, editor, and reviewer. She has a passion for children’s literacy and literature. You can find lots of useful posts here that can inspire you in your classroom. Sean Banville – Search through the archives on how to…
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The Colourful Parking Lot
The yellow lines separate.A red car by a school.Black concrete,green cars blend in to the treesby a lonely, cold puddle. That poem was written by my class yesterday. I really love what we are able to accomplish in this guided writing activity. Our goal was to write a colour poem. I started off the lesson…