Teacher's+Lounge

//This page is a swap shop for experienced teachers.// //The most current entry appears at the top of the page.// **Do you want to participate in our discussions? Just click the discussion tab at the top of this page!**

I just posted a musical chairs activity that can be used for grammar or vocabuser:mllegibbs

I just posted a document under vocab games for playing spoons to practice verbs. Feel free to use it and change it as you need to! Instructions for the game are there in case you don't know how to play!user:mllegibbs

I just posted a great speaking assessment using a cool internet tool on the "internet based activities" and again under Spanish Internet Based Lessons. It was a lot of fun! user:cartierm


 * La Misma Luna**- Don't know if people went out to see the movie La Misma Luna or Under the Same Moon. It is a great movie about immigration that is PG-13 (You can pick it up at target for about $22.00)and suitable for middle school and above. I'm showing my students the movie (after getting parents permission of course) and made up a series of handouts to go along with it. Feel free to change/edit or take from it what you will. Shoot me an email if you have any questions about the film.[[file:La Misma Luna.doc]] user:sherm118


 * ¿de dónde eres? Where are you from?**- To present this, I used a giant world map, and because we already knew "I am" I showed the kids the map, pointed to Michigan, and said "I am from Mi" in the TL. And then explained what it meant, although most had a solid guess of what I was saying. Then, pick a region of countries and have the students pick a country in that region and write it on a note card. Then they went around the room and asked each other where they are from. From there, I asked the students, where are you from? and then started with he/she from?, when that became easy, Then, I had the students graph the number of students from each country, this way I snuck in nationalities. In the TL, say "raise your hand if you are from..." and then we graphed the total number of students. Then we graphed the number of men, and the number of women. This was a concrete easy way for students to see the difference in masculine and feminine, (although talking about singular nouns is necessary still) From here... I am introducing adjective agreement and the verb "to be". I really liked this because it helped us practice numbers, greetings and nationalities and leads us into our SER discussion.user:cartierm

So I've been going through my professional development (as if I am not already professional enough) for my school, Liberty High School in Frisco Texas for the past week and out of the 500 new teachers to the district this year, my roommate (lisa powers) and I are the only lovely college of ed spartans. Well today, I was proud to be one of the few who get to call themselves that. As i was presenting myself in front of the all of the world language teachers in the district and telling them about my previous teaching experience (you know, that looooooong year that just past) the coordinators to the program asked if it was a Michigan requirement to do a year long student teaching. Of course I said no, it's a requirement for MSU. That opened the floodgates. They could not stop raving about how amazing our program is and how it is the best in the country (remember this is in Texas...). They were saying how they think all colleges should model thier program off of ours and how it's a shame that their colleges can't live up to MSU. Then they went on to tell me how lucky the district was to have an MSU grad teaching in the district (yes, this is in front of the district's entire foreign language department) and what a wonderful and prepared teacher I must be. And (among other things) that just made me think to myself, you know what, all that stuff last year, yeah.. that was worth it. GO GREEN!! user:srtabainbridge
 * PROUD TO BE A SPARTAN!!!** (proof that what we did last year WAS worth it)


 * Professional Readings- Cherice I'm not sure if there would be a better place for these articles on the wiki, but I will post them here for now.user:mllegibbs

** - This one is an interesting look on how we use multiple intelligences in the classroom. - This is an interesting article that talks about what it means to understand. [|Educational Jargon, Occupational Hazard?] [|Educational Jargon Generator]- Good for a laugh!


 * MYSTERY SCRAP:** Like a lot of you, I've been subbing a lot since the internship ended. Because I live in a small district, I frequently get called to substitute at our 2 elementary schools. It's funny how much you can learn about classroom management from elementary teachers. Seating charts, classroom set up, paper distribution, policies... It's all there in 1st grade. Anyway, here is one of my favorite things, courtesy of a 4th grade teacher in Grosse Ile. It's called Mystery Scrap.
 * You know after a day at school or a craft project...the floor is littered with tiny little scrap pieces of paper... It's annoying!
 * Tell the kids that you have selected 3 (or just 1) "mystery scrap" and that you will be watching to see who picks them up. The people who pick them up get a prize! (candy!!!)
 * Of course, you really haven't picked a scrap, but you just watch while they scramble around like crazy trying to pick up every last thing on the floor. I'd give the candy to the 3 hardest workers, pointing out to the rest of the class that they've been "lucky" enough to find the mystery scraps.
 * Really good for a laugh! :-)


 * Just a comment on this one.. I tried this while I was substituting in a Kindergarden room and it almost turned to chaos! I told them the whole deal and said that the one who picked up the secret scrap would get a sticker. Oh man, when I chose 3 students to give stickers too, I thought the rest were going to cry! Be careful!

Song lyrics activity to the Ser vs Estar page. user:decortem

A cool new website I found for Spanish online, posted on the internet sites page. Grammar, vocabulary, games, fun useful, well organized! user:cartierm

Although this is not an activity, I really found this book helpful. It's a survivors guide of the first year. It has TONS of useful information, worksheets and ideas. It is geared towards all teachers, it's not language specific, but it has lots of ideas to motivate, help students study, and participation guides, rubrics etc. It's not a bad deal for $30... it's a pretty thick book! [|First Year Survival] user:cartierm

This one is excellent, too. My mentor teacher recommended it to me and I have used it more than a dozen times... and haven't even started my internship year yet! You can find it on eBay for a pretty good price, as well. [|The First Days of School] user:litwins5

[|Here]'s a good description of "phases" of the first-year teacher's experience. The description of disillusionment was probably the most thought-provoking. The rejuvination stage is what I like the best; I'm pretty sure. user:ErinMB

See also: Intern Level Methods, Senior Level Methods

Back to: Home

media type="custom" key="1740439"

I'm sitting in a technology conference right now. We came here to learn about google doc's. Since I learned how to use the wiki with Cherice I was bored out of my mind with the pace and information being discussed here. I was wishing that I was with my classes right now instead of this conference. Then I remembered I could come here and search for new ideas on how to teach. MSU teacher's I take my hat off to you for the work you do and how you have added to this wiki.