This weekend I finally decided on a place for my grandmother's bottle collection. For two years the bottles have been packed away and I have been waiting to finish remodeling or find the perfect piece of furniture to display them (having my 3 cats in the back of my mind too!). Saturday we picked up … Continue reading Museum Monday: Bottle Digging and Using Collections in the Classroom #sschat #museumed-#BLOG365 Day 130
Literacy
The Book is Always Better…-#BLOG365 Day 128
A Series of Unfortunate Events was the first read aloud in my classroom when I started teaching. I can't remember how many in the series we read that year in fifth grade, just that my students and I were smitten with the books. Years later I watched my son become smitten with the series as … Continue reading The Book is Always Better…-#BLOG365 Day 128
#Booknerd – #BLOG365 Day 127
Today I was talking with our librarian and she was so excited about the shipment of new books she was getting. I looked at her and said "we are such book nerds!" We had been discussing book options for a new historical fiction genre study. With every title I mentioned I was reminded of … Continue reading #Booknerd – #BLOG365 Day 127
A Problem Party – #BLOG365 Day 120
I have been reading The Unstoppable Writing Teacher by Colleen Cruz. In the first chapter she writes about anticipating and solving problems in the classroom. She suggests "that you celebrate once you find the problem you will attack first." Yes, it's true, problems are opportunities. Wallowing in them doesn't help us. Attacking them, studying them, … Continue reading A Problem Party – #BLOG365 Day 120
Museum Monday: Ephemera in the Classroom -#BLOG365 Day 117 #sschat #objectbasedlearning
I have been on an ephemera kick lately. I guess that happens when you are a teacher at heart and always on the lookout for teaching tools. Or maybe it is because my house is filling up with furniture and I have to start looking for smaller items to satisfy my antiquing addiction. Truthfully, I … Continue reading Museum Monday: Ephemera in the Classroom -#BLOG365 Day 117 #sschat #objectbasedlearning
Museum Monday: Student Curators -#BLOG365 Day 106
I've written a lot about student-created exhibitions on my blog. One of the most challenging components of a student-created exhibition is the process of writing labels. It's challenging for museum curators too. Getting the gist of an object or exhibition theme into 50-100 words is difficult. In a school setting label writing integrates literacy and critical … Continue reading Museum Monday: Student Curators -#BLOG365 Day 106
Writers Are Readers-#BLOG365 Day 104
On 100 Days of Blogging-#BLOG365 Day 100
Yesterday I was at a workshop for the Lucy Calkins Units of Study in Writing. We spent a lot of time discussing why writing instruction is so important. Obviously it was a lot of preaching to the choir for me. But, I found I was looking at writing through the lens of my blogging … Continue reading On 100 Days of Blogging-#BLOG365 Day 100
Words Are Not Just Words-#BLOG365 Day 95
I thought about this while I watched my son study definitions and names of places and people for his midterm exams. He couldn't tell me why he was studying any of them, except that he had an exam, and I thought about all the opportunities those words offered for connections and the building of … Continue reading Words Are Not Just Words-#BLOG365 Day 95
Do History!-#BLOG365 #sschat Day 91
I spent last week at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference and am still on a high from being with a bunch of proud history nerds. While I was in Washington, D.C. I went to the Florida House and I was talking to our host about Common Core. She was in graduate school for public … Continue reading Do History!-#BLOG365 #sschat Day 91
Jill Cross 