Happy Halloween

Enjoy all that candy and hijinks that may happen throughout the day. At night, please drive slow and watch out for munchkins who may be in the road all excited about trick or treating. Have a Happy Halloween!

Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and subject area to make it easier to use.

Levels:  E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G: General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers

Subject Areas: LA: Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S: Science; Health; SS: Social Studies, Current Events; FA: Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL: Foreign Language; PE: Physical Ed; C: Career; A: All

The Great Thanksgiving Listen – “The Great Thanksgiving Listen is a national education project that empowers high school students to create an oral history of the contemporary United States by recording an interview with an elder over Thanksgiving weekend using the StoryCorps App.

Interviews are entered into the StoryCorps archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and on StoryCorps.me where they become an invaluable resource for future historians and provide families with a priceless piece of personal history.

In its pilot year of 2015, thousands of high schools from all 50 states participated and preserved over 50,500 individual recordings at the Library of Congress. In 2016, StoryCorps will continue to work with educators around the country to preserve the voices and stories of an entire generation of Americans over a single holiday weekend.”  (L:T; SA:SS)

Pizza Fractions 1 – a free iPad app: “Pizza Fractions offers a simple, visually-based introduction to fractions for elementary school kids.” (L:E,; SA:M)

Zap Zap Fractions – helping elementary school students understand fractions (L:E,; SA:M)

Conceptua Math Tool Library – “These interactive, visual tools are ideal for teacher-facilitated, whole-class instruction, "Number Talks" and for parents supporting their students at home. Each math tool is supported by Common Core State Standards alignment, key vocabulary, and IEP goals.” (L:T; SA:M)

Harvest of History - The Harvest of History curriculum consists of 16 interdisciplinary activities in four sequential modules designed for the fourth-grade classroom. Some projects are short-term, while others span the gardening season. Most build on the concepts and skills developed in previous modules to deepen and enhance student learning. Some investigations will be structured with an explicit set of questions to guide research. Others will consist of less structured, research-based questions to trigger problem-solving. (L:E; SA:SS)

Original photo by Pat Hensley

Under Rose-Tainted Skies – Book Review

I recently read Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall. I am not being paid for this review.

I thought this was a great book! The story is about a high school age girl, Norah who suffers from agoraphobia and OCD. It really gives you a great look at what is going on when someone suffers from this. I also think it helps others learn what not to say to someone who suffers from this and what things you can say that may be helpful. Rather than ostracizing someone who suffers from this because you feel so helpless, this book actually helps let you know the best way to interact with someone with this illness. I never realized how hard it is and what someone might be feeling when they have this illness. I also think it was great to see that just because Norah suffered from this, she was able to have a relationship with someone and that her future was not bleak and lonely.

I would highly recommend this for a high school library. There is some profanity but I think high school age students could handle it. I think this would be a great book for students to read because they may actually know someone who may suffer from this illness. It would give them great insight on what someone might be going through and how they can have a relationship with them. There may be a someone who is going through this illness and may read this book and realize that they are not alone.