Holiday Plays

At the end of this week, I was feeling like I was so borrrriiinng as a teacher so in my attempt to mix it up a bit, I presented the idea of each of my classes reading and producing a holiday play. The students really liked the idea!
So, the sixth graders are going to read and produce a puppet show of the play "Baker's Dozen". The seventh graders will read and produce "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" because the ARE the Herdmans! And the eighths graders will read and produce "The Christmas Truce".
The performances will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 22nd in Room 711.`

Ad. Lit. Contest

Check out this incredibly interesting contest sponsored by Ad Lit and others. I am going to have all my MALC students enter each month. How about you?

http://www.adlit.org/fun/writing_contests/exquisite_prompt_challenge#prompts

A very cool idea!

Read the following article and let me know what you think about getting a dog! Comments on the blog please.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/10/22/dogs.irpt/index.html?iref=newssearch

Journal Assignment

I wanted to share with you my experience with journal writing in the grades 6-7-8 MALC Reading/Language Arts classes. Most days I write a journal prompt on the board for students to respond to. We started the year with requiring 3 sentences and have worked up to six sentences. The writing has improved dramatically. So much so that the kids can even hear the difference.
I purchased a book of prompts titled, "Write What You Think" at Barnes & Noble. It has 350creative writing prompts. If you would like to take a look at it let me know.
Please share your successes, frustrations, etc. with us on this blog. It will be helpful to everyone.

RJEMS LA Department Meeting

Hello everyone! This is a reminder of our meeting scheduled for this afternoon, 3:15-4:00 pm. We will be discussing the following items:
1-budget and instructional needs
2-staff development opportunities
3-literacy blog
4-professional learning community ideas
5-introduction to/review of cyber-sources
6-anything else?

We will begin on time and end on time, if not early. Thanks.
Geri

Website of the Week

Check this one out! It has incredibly creative lesson plans. Quite engaging and representative to Best Practices.

www.readwritethink.org

Please post what you think!

NEAToday Article

I would like to recommend that you don't automatically recycle your most recent issue of NEAToday. On page 24 is a very thought-provoking article titled, "Turning the Page Students Live in a Digital World. Are Schools Ready to Join Them?" I encourage you to read it and then please post thoughts/opinions/etc. on this blog for the rest of us to respond to. Thanks.