Blog - Inspired Together Teachers

5 Favorite Fall Picture Books

October 17, 2015 by Inspired Together Teachers 13 Comments

There are hundreds of fall themed children’s picture books available in libraries and bookstores. These five fall books remain our all-time favorite fall picture books– kid tested and great for sharing orally during classroom story time and at home snuggled up in a blanket with your children.

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams

This is a delightful book to share with kids. The little old lady who was not afraid of anything goes for a walk, and encounters some unusual clothing. Children will love participating as they “help” the reader by clomping shoes, clapping hands, wiggling, nodding their heads and shaking their arms. This is a great book for younger children who might have trouble sitting still. It is only a little bit scary.

The Hallo-wiener by Dav Pilkey

Oscar is a dachshund with a problem; he is constantly teased by others. He plans a great Halloween, but his mother surprises him with a bun costume, complete with mustard. Though his trick-or-treating doesn’t go as planned, Oscar turns into a hero by using his wits and saving the day. He earns the respect of the bullies and keeps us laughing all the while. If you love to change your voice for different characters, you will love this read aloud and children will love hearing it!

The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons

This is an informative and entertaining non-fiction picture book. As with all of her books, Gail Gibbons brings brightly colored illustrations and plenty of interesting information to help young children learn about the topic. The Pumpkin Book will easily help teachers achieve literacy standards for close reading of non-fiction text.

A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting

Mr. and Mrs. Moose are planning a Thanksgiving dinner for all of their friends. Mrs. Moose asks her husband to get her a turkey. Turkey hides in fear, complete with signs telling others to stay away. He is captured and marched to the dinner, where much to his surprise and delight, he is a guest, not the main dish. Children love the surprise ending and enjoy the colorful cast of characters including sheep, goats, a rabbit, and a porcupine.

How to Make an Apple Pie and See The World by Marjorie Priceman

Nothing says fall like fresh apple pie. In this lively and fun book, a young baker sets out to gather the ingredients to make an apple pie. It results in an around the world adventure as she travels the globe to gather ingredients including wheat from Italy, an egg from France, cinnamon from Sri Lanka and apples from Vermont. She makes a pie and invites her friends from around the world to join her. The book includes a recipe for making apple pie, which makes this a wonderful choice for an afternoon of reading and baking.

We hope you enjoy sharing these favorite fall picture books with the young people in your life.

Happy fall reading,

Great Education Advice From A Bunch of Old Dead Guys!

October 4, 2015 by Inspired Together Teachers Leave a Comment

When it comes to advice about education, the old Hebrew saying “there is nothing new under the sun” seems to be true. Take a look at this advice from some of these teacher peeps who have long gone on to to that great classroom in the sky. It may be old advice, but it is as true today as when it was first uttered in knowing voices by the wise and revered ones!

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think. Socrates

We think Socrates would approve of 21st Century skills. With today’s easy access to computers to look up facts, we know we need to focus on higher level thinking- -analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creative problem solving. When thinking happens, the learning takes care of itself.

When the mind is thinking, it is talking to itself. Plato

Today we call this metacognition. We know that we need to understand what we know and what we do not know. Verbalizing or writing down our thoughts helps us to understand. Using journals and notebooks as teaching tools helps students clarify thinking and increase learning. If you are talking to yourself, you’re not crazy, you’re learning!

Human beings are curious by nature. Aristotle

If you don’t think this is true, watch a toddler in action. They touch, look, smell and yes, even taste everything. Once they begin to talk they question everything. Why is the moon in the sky? How do the leaves get on the trees? Where do the birds go in winter? We need to remember to encourage curiosity, letting children ask questions and explore to find answers. Curious students are engaged and motivated to learn. Who doesn’t want more of that?

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle

Do you believe everything you read? Do you believe everything you hear someone say? Critical thinking is the ability to take in information and judge its value. You are then able to make informed decisions…about what you buy, who you will vote for and what you will believe. In this day and age of social media with its constant flow of information, this skill seems more important than ever. After all, as Abraham Lincoln famously said, “you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.”

It is better to learn late than never. Pubillius Syrus

There is no expiration date on learning. Some learn a concept quickly, others take awhile. Some children learn to read at four, some at seven or eight, and some not until adulthood. Some adults go to college at 18, some at 60. Sometimes we have to make a mistake over and over before we learn. It is the learning that matters, not how fast we learn, how much time it takes, or how old we are. The Divas are still learning all the time -not that we are old …

I learned most, not from those who taught me, but from those who talked with me. St. Augustine

Lev Vygotsky said the same thing a couple of thousand years later. Some people learn best by talking. Do you talk to students and give students a chance to talk with each other? Social learning can be a very powerful tool. Try it with strategies such as Think -Pair-Share or Book Buddies. This also speaks to the power of relationships. Children will learn more from someone they have a relationship with. Talking one-on-one with someone is a great way to learn. Hmm..permission to talk in school? Yay!

Your library is your paradise. Desiderius Erasmus

If a library is your paradise, you will never suffer from boredom. You can take a virtual vacation, visiting any time and place in the world. You can de-stress and unwind or get engaged and be invigorated. You can meet the greatest minds that ever lived, be inspired by incredible people, and learn from masters. Just go there already…and take some students with you!

Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Consider the students paper with a score of 2/10 correct. A huge red “F” on the top of the paper does not inspire further learning. A score of +2 with a note ” With more practice, you can improve this next time” does. Which grade would you rather have? Which one would make you try harder next time?

The secret of education is respecting the pupil. Ralph Waldo Emerson

We believe that all children deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. That means giving each child what he needs, delivered in a way he can understand it. It means dealing with behavioral issues in a timely and fair manner, without humiliation and shame. It is enacting the golden rule-do unto others as you would have done to you- a basic tenant in almost every culture and every religion in the world.

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats

Some people think the purpose of education is to cram your head full of factual knowledge. There is always a place for knowledge, but to inspire a student to love and seek understanding and truth is a much higher calling. We can never teach a student everything they will need to know, but if we can teach a student how to learn and ignite a love of learning, they will always be able to find what they need.

Does all this wisdom make you want to sport a toga and spout out some phrases for the ages? We’d love to hear your nuggets of wisdom or favorite educational quotes!

Go forth, seeketh wisdom and have a great week!

To The Young Teacher with Stars In Your Eyes

September 27, 2015 by Inspired Together Teachers 14 Comments

You are young and full of energy. You have worked hard to enter this profession. You are trained well and are full of ideas. You love your job, your students, and the thought that you can make a difference.

The school year is just a few weeks old. It starts with the excitement of all new things, as shiny and full of promise as a box of new crayons.

Sometime soon, reality will hit. The world is conspiring to beat you down.

You will feel the pressure for your students to perform well on standardized tests.

Parents who don’t know you or trust you will make unreasonable demands.

You will struggle to fill out all the paperwork and collect all the data.

You will read an article blaming teachers for being unable to help students succeed, though it won’t mention the poverty, violence and lack of medical attention many students live with.

Your one and only prep time is taken- again.

The students, no longer on their best behavior, are testing your limits.

Your friends won’t understand why you have to stay home and grade papers- on Saturday!

The voices in the teacher’s lounge have you questioning your judgment.

You start to question everything- your lessons, your philosophy and maybe even your choice of profession.

Don’t give up or give in.

Trust your instincts. Do what you think is best. When in doubt, choose what is best for the students.

Find your kindred spirits- there are colleagues who are upbeat and positive. You might have to look for them; they aren’t the ones complaining in the teacher’s room.

Find a trustworthy, experienced teacher who will give you good advice when you need it. It’s OK to ask for help.

Remember what brought you to this profession. You have a job to do. Though you may never know it, you will impact the lives of your students. You will help students learn, and you will help them to be better people. If you do your job right, you can’t help but make a difference.

If you have to, close the door and then teach your heart out. Know that you are not alone. In schools all over the country, teachers are quietly going about their day, working magic in a minefield of demoralization.

Don’t worry too much about messing up. What you lack in teaching skill and technique you will make up for in relationships. Kids will cut you some slack when they know you care about them.

When you are doing it right, you will get feedback in a hundred little ways. You’ll get notes from a student, an improved score, a better essay. You will feel the silence of a classroom engrossed, and the groans when you tell them it is time to stop. You’ll feel the energy when they are excited to learn. Pay attention, because that is your reward.

The great teacher Ralph Waldo Emerson said “nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” Smile. Throw yourself into the task at hand with everything you’ve got. Stay the course.

Because as long as you have stars in your eyes, you’re going to make it.

Keep shining,

Q and A Feature: What Does Math Education Look Like Today?

September 23, 2015 by Inspired Together Teachers 8 Comments

Math education looks different today than when you were a child. You’ve probably seen funny Facebook posts about the ridiculous math problems children today are given. Today’s post is inspired by this parent’s question to a teacher:

What is going on with math? My son had to answer a simple math fact 6×6=___. In my day, we had worksheets with math problems. We filled them out. We memorized the facts. There were right and wrong answers. Now my son gets a math fact like the one above. He works in a group and spends a half an hour drawing pictures and playing with Lego blocks. He says they have to prove that 36 is the answer. This seems inefficient to me. Why can’t they just memorize the facts and then move on to more difficult math?

This is a great question and we would like to share some insight about how math is being taught today in case you aren’t one of the teachers teaching this particular subject. This parent is correct in noting that math education today is not just about memorizing the facts. Though there is still a place for quick recall of basic facts, there is much more emphasis today on understanding mathematical principles and using those principles for problem solving.

The teacher in the above scenario is teaching for understanding. By having students work in groups, she is allowing children to explore the relationships between numbers. They will use mathematical language, clarify their thinking by speaking out loud, share, and even argue. They will be solidifying their knowledge of the underlying mathematical concepts.

For example, it is possible to memorize 6×6=36 and not have an understanding of what that means. These children use different ways to represent that understanding. They will draw pictures, perhaps showing six groups of six. They might use the Lego blocks as manipulatives in order to count the objects and build understanding of why the answer is 36. They may take those same 36 blocks and show other ways to get to 36 such 12 x 3 or 9×4. They might also discover that 5×6 does not add up to 36. In doing these activities, they understand what it means to multiply. They are learning to reason mathematically.

Did you struggle with story problems as child? Imagine a follow up assignment. The children work in groups to design a bird house. They have to draw a plan and evaluate the amount of wood they will need. The wood comes in 36 inch pieces. The children design their birdhouses, which are all different, building an understanding that there is more than one way to solve a problem. These children are able to perfectly identify how many pieces of wood they will need, how they will cut them, and how much they will have left over. Not bad for seven year olds.

In today’s world, with easy access to phones with built in calculators, computation skills are not enough. Memorizing math facts is not going to help students use those facts in different contexts. Children need to develop the skills to analyze, reason, and solve mathematical problems.

How did you learn math? Do you see a difference in the way kids learn math today? Are you teaching math? If so, what do you notice about the way math is currently taught? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Happy problem solving,

How Will Your Students Answer These 3 REVEALING Questions?

September 20, 2015 by Inspired Together Teachers 4 Comments

Imagine this familiar TV crime show scene:

An intense interview is conducted in a room with a two-way mirror.
From the other side of the mirror a person awaiting the response anxiously leans toward the mirror to listen with a mix of hope and dread. The listener knows what they want the interviewee to say but they are not confident the words will be spoken.
The interviewee answers and the listener…(insert emotional reaction here)

Now, imagine that your students are the people individually being interviewed while you secretly await their answers on the other side of the two-way mirror. They are asked these 3 difficult questions:

Do you think your teacher is a great teacher? Why or why not?
Do you think your teacher knows you as an individual and addresses your needs?
Do you think your teacher enjoys being a teacher and spending his/her days at school?

As you read through those questions, which caused you the greatest sense of hope in your students’ potential answers and which caused you the most unease? Would you want your students to answer all of these questions if they could reply without knowing you were listening?

In K-12 schools, teachers rarely get this type of honest feedback from students. At the college level, evaluations that include similar questions are asked and answered anonymously by students regularly. Why is it that we ask these crucial questions of college students, who spend 3 hours per week with their instructors for only 16 weeks of the year, yet don’t ask these same questions of students in the K-12 system who see their teachers daily for an entire year?

If you are confident you would be comfortable with the responses of your students if given a two-way mirror and these questions, congratulations, you have achieved a level of teaching that many strive for their entire career.

If one of these questions made you most uneasy about your students’ potential responses, find a way to make that a particular goal this year.

Here are points to consider to best use this assessment:

Create an anonymous way to ask your students these evaluation questions. These questions could be asked via paper/pencil, electronic survey (many free websites such as surveymonkey.com can do this), or ask a trusted colleague to interview a random sample of your students.
Consider having students expand on their answers for more specific information or add questions.
Use it as a self-assessment. You can ask yourself, periodically, how you think your students would respond to these questions. You may be able to predict their answers without asking the questions.
At the middle and end of the year, revisit the list of the 3 difficult questions and see if you are increasingly comfortable with the potential responses of your students.

This quick formative assessment can be the most telling assessment you give this year if you use the “results” to better your teaching and your classroom. You can become the investigator in your own classroom, even without a two-way mirror.

Happy investigating,

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