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Wonderful Free Teaching Resources

All Treats & No Tricks!

Every time October rolls around (which it seems to do annually, what’s up with that?) I feel like I’m drowning. Suffocating under the weight of papers, forms, emails, and meetings. I read somewhere that a two hour meeting is exactly as productive as a single, well-written email.

It’s true. Maybe it’s just true for me because I’m a visual learner. But I don’t think so.

When  Pam from Desktop Learning Adventure and I were toying with topic ideas for our October Secondary Smorgasbord blog hop, it occurred to us that everybody is completely fired fried (see how fried I am?), and a little treat is in order. What teachers need right now is a single, well-written email instead of a meeting.

Since we can’t give you THAT, we will go with the next best thing. An assortment of wonderful free resources for your viewing and teaching pleasure.

My contribution is a useful freebie for teachers of all subjects. Before you look at it, let me ask you something. Have your students ever written something like this: “The book told me…” or “The article said…” or “I’m going to show you…” If they haven’t used those phrases, this is not for you. Move on. You and your entire school system should move to Finland, the Land of Educational Excellence. You deserve it. Bravo.

Some of us aren’t so lucky. My students insisted that books say things to them, and they have to announce their topic in a formal manner, like they are introducing Her Majesty, the Queen of England.

I now give you…
Her Royal Highness, the Argumentative Essay I Wrote that will tell you all about School Uniforms…

But when I went over these evidence based terminology handouts, all of that nonsense stopped. Like magic. The suggestions are funny, so kids remember them, and they are colorful, so kids don’t mind looking at them. I blew these babies up as posters, and I gave the kids copies for their notebooks, so they can use the information in all of their classes.

 Evidence Based Terminology

No more excuses.

I know that because this blog post told me so. Or was it a single, well-written email?