A Teacher's Daze

Peeking out from under tons of student papers and notes from here and there to do this and that, I can identify, completely, with this picture! I laughed out loud when I saw this pic on Pinterest.  Give the guy a little more hair, a feminine characteristic or two, and it's a perfect picture of what I feel like when I'm overwhelmed with paper-work.    Whenever I see teachers leaving at 3:30, I look at them in a sort of awe-struck stare.  After twenty-three years, it would seem I could develop some type of system to help me avoid days like this, but alas, I haven't reached that level of expertise, and quite frankly, given my personality and my extended history, it's not likely that I will ever receive a medal for ever really "catching up."  So, I've decided that "catching up" is highly over-rated.  If I "catch-up," what in the world would I do? I suspect if I ever got to that point, I would inadvertently make-up more things t...

Using quizlet in the classroom is one of the most effective tools that I have used.  It works for any subject and on any grade level.  The picture below shows my students acting out their vocabulary list for the week.  After uploading the pictures to the site. the students could go to a computer or smartphone to study their weekly vocabulary test.  Using the students' ideas to act out the words made learning their vocabulary a cinch!   It's super easy to get started.  It literally takes minutes to post an entire list of words for students to access.  You don't have to use pictures, but if you want to, but don't have any of your own, quizlet has a variety of ones to choose.   If you haven't tried this, this is a MUST TRY!!! I've used it for two years, now, with both a senior English class and a middle school class.  It really works!!! Check it out!