Pinterest Boards Full of Back to School Goodness for Teachers

If you're like me, you're already scouring your Pinterest boards for fresh teaching strategies for the new school year. It seems like I'm constantly digging for helpful articles on organization, classroom management, lesson planning, and content area resources. Then in the middle of the school year, I head to Pinterest for glimmers of inspiration to help me get through the tough stuff of school. Whether it's a promise from the Bible or a funny baby animal meme, there's something in my boards to put a smile on my face.

In case you're looking for some Back-to-School teacher goodness, here are links to some of my favorite boards! Enjoy!

Classroom/Content
Elementary
American Lit
Teaching HS (primarily ELA-focused)
Google Awesomeness
Writing Fiction
Teacher Supplies (Okay, I love this one!)
Classroom Decor
Classroom Management
Teaching Vocabulary
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

For the Teacher's Well-Being
Christian Teacher, Public School
Smart, Professional Clothes
Painting
Healing Garden (Take a walk in my garden! It's soothing!)
Healthy -Ish Snacks
Blessings (Can I get an "Amen"?)
Books to Read in My Nonexistent Reading Nook When It Rains
Teacher Gifts
The Florist Shop

I hope you enjoy these Pinterest boards. Have a favorite teacher-pinner? Share the boards you return to again and again!

Thinking Differently

Being the wife of a bookseller has its advantages. Books for my kids, books for my classroom, and of course, books for me all find their way into my house at little to no cost to me. When I help sort through giant bins of potential inventory, I often find books on theology, psychology, literature, travel, biography, and other subjects I'm currently interested in. My most recent treasure is a Ryrie Study Bible published by Moody.

Now that I've had my new/used Bible a few days, exploring its notes and cross-references a bit as I reread and meditated on I Timothy, I realized that even though this Bible is the same translation as my previous one, I am thinking in different ways about the words. Even though I've read them before, they seem fresh and new. They fairly jump off the page.

Is it the fresh typeface? Having fewer words per page and more white space? Perhaps the newer binding? (My old Bible was also a salvage treasure). It could be the Ryrie study notes, naturally. Or maybe I'm just falling in love with the Scriptures all over again. But I think it's the combination of all of those things. Having a new Bible is exciting! It's an example of how shuffling can rearrange thinking.

Teachers naturally capitalize on this phenomenon in the classroom. One day in my senior English class, I decided to change the seating chart. The students were suspicious, even defensive. "Are you moving us because we're so naughty?" one asked. Although a few members of the small class did tend to get chatty when seated near their friends, I opted for a more palatable and more accurate reason: "When you sit in a different place, you think in different ways."

The seniors were still skeptical.

"Look at you and [Laura]," I said to one girl. "You two are best friends. Sometimes you read each other's minds. More than once, you've turned in paragraphs that were practically identical. You didn't copy each other. You just think alike because you're so close. If we separate you, it'll allow you to expand your thinking."

The class agreed to the new seating arrangement, and sure enough, it created new discussion leaders and new perspectives immediately.

Sometimes all of us need to shuffle the deck and start fresh. What a refreshing thought for spring!

Online Teacher Planners

Who doesn't love the old-fashioned, spiral-bound teacher plan books? They are the ultimate school supply, with their promise of order and accomplishment, their neat boxes ready to be inked in. But this is 2015 already. It's time to store that glorious planner in the Cloud.

So which digital planner is best? There are several viable, free options out there, and I've test-driven two of the major contenders. (I've also paid for an online planner, but it was not worth the investment).

Commoncurriculum.com
Pros: Some aspects user-friendly; attentive tech service; collaboration features

Cons: Glitchy in Chrome; difficult to figure out how to roll classes over to a new year; difficulty sharing unit plans by email

Planboard.chalk.com
Pros: User-friendly to the extreme; speedy tech service answers; easy to attach state standards, including CCSS, to lesson plans; new features added frequently, such as easy collaboration and date-free planning; works great in Chrome

Cons: Few; won't print unit plans (just daily plans), but I think this feature will be available soon

Conclusion: I switched from Commoncurriculum to Planboard gradually as I became frustrated by the limitations of the former. Both companies offer quality technical assistance, but too often the answer from Commoncurriculum was "Sorry, we don't have that feature." The clincher came when I bought a Chromebook and found that my old planner was incompatible with my new browser. I've never regretted the switch, though I can't wait for the ability to print my unit plans.

This is the first year I've done my planning completely online. Yes, I can sympathize with my fellow teachers who still love their paper planners, but there is something wonderful about knowing my plans are at my fingertips whether I'm at my desk at school, on my couch at home, or on my phone in the car. My sub plans look amazing, my adminstrator likes seeing the standards on my lessons, and, not the least of its benefits, my planner loses nothing when the school server crashes. Twice. In one year.

Try a free digital planner for a week. You'll be hooked.

Sadie Robertson "Live Original" 18-Month Agenda