P20 Conference 2018: Looking Forward to Another Awesome Experience!

Along with my awesome coworkers, I accepted the Rilla Award this month.

Another P20 Educator Conference is almost here, and I'm excited to be presening Faith and the Public School Teacher twice! My first session is July 10 at 11:10 a.m., and my second is on the 11th at 1:30. I'm psyched to update my presentation using some of my newly-acquired tech skills and bring encouragement to a new group of teachers this year. Yes, you can hold to a personal faith and teach in the public school! The only trouble is, there are so many other great sessions going on at the same time. I will just have to get the notes! P20 is such a great conference and the keynotes are awesome every year. If you're in the Twin Falls, Idaho, area, sign up!

After taking a year off blogging, there's lots to catch up on. Here are some of the highlights of my teaching life and God's work in my personal walk of faith heading into summer.

• Reading the book of James with my kids
• Seeing some of my freelance writing efforts come to fruition
• Attending a writing conference from the Idaho Writers Guild
• Revising unit plans to fit the Understanding By Design (UBD) template (webinar here)
• Taking "Behavior is Language" class
• Accepting the Rilla award from Silverback Learning Solutions with my school
• Gearing up for the P20 conference at the College of Southern Idaho (see above!)
• Adding fun products to my TPT store
• Gathering engaging resources from around the Web to use in my classroom this year
• Creating and sending a summer survey to my students using Google Forms
• Catching up on reading great books (find me on Goodreads!)

I also have to share that it was a great blessing to lead my first-ever prayer walk before school started last fall. Another teacher and I spent half an hour or so walking around the school campus and praying both silently and out loud for the year ahead. It was wonderful to know that a sister in Christ was praying with me, sharing the burden of seeking grace for our students, staff, and community. It was a year of successes in so many ways, and I love that "two or three" of us (okay, it was two) gathered in His name (Matthew 18:20) to ask God for that at the beginning. Let me encourage you to start something similar at your campus. Remember that it's legal, and it can be a great blessing. Check with your administrators if you have questions.

It's so good to be posting again! 

Blessings on you,

Amy

More Reading:

Conference Fatigue? Six Strategies to Avoid Burnout at Education Conferences

Learning Through Writing: Choose Your Own Adventure

• Want the slideshow? It's yours! Go to https://goo.gl/c49wS5.

Revising a Unit

10 Ways to Be a Teacher-Leader

Shoveling a Path Through the Snowdrifts for New Teachers

I'm taking a year off blogging, but couldn't resist popping back in to post a link. My flash fiction story "The Ghosts of the Composers" is live in the current issue of Penultimate Peanut! The story has a Magical Realism flavor, which I hope you'll enjoy.

Blessings,

Amy

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!

How I Use Famous Shakespeare Quotes to Teach Literary Elements

Visit Brevity on TPT!

Just a few more hours to scoop up savings at Brevity and other stores on Teachers Pay Teachers at the Back to School sale! I've already found lots of great resources to help inject some Core-aligned energy into my lesson planning.

Me and Will Shakespeare

One of the units I teach every year in 9th, 10th, and 12th grade English is Shakespeare. They say "Necessity is the mother of invention," and necessity certainly inspired some of the Shakespeare unit resources I've created. I wanted a memorable way to teach literary elements and introduce students to the plays they would be reading before they ever got to the prologue.

Romeo and Juliet: Wall Docs

I also wanted a way to build character through quotes from the play and the discussions the quotes would ignite.

The wall docs I created for Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar help make connections for students, which is always a good thing. They build understanding of terms students will work with throughout the Shakespeare unit, and they help students remember what they learn.

How I Use Literary Elements in Famous Quotes Wall Docs in My Classroom

At the beginning of the semester, I hand out the full list of quotes and their corresponding literary elements, such as metaphor, symbol, or rhyming couplets. I explain that students will not be expected to memorize the quotes, but that they will need to be able to match the literary element to the quote that demonstrates it.

I then post the first quote doc on the wall and ask the class to read the quote aloud with me, either from the wall doc or from the handout. We then discuss the quote, the literary element, and how the language of the quote exemplifies the literary element. That's it for Day One. 

Macbeth quotes on my classroom wall

Each day, we repeat the reading and discussion for one week. On Monday of the next week, I introduce a new quote. Periodically, we review previous quotes and the terms that match them.

I assess students on terms and quotes as I see fit. This resource allows the teacher to use informal assessment daily without imposing an extra quiz on stressed-out students.

The beauty of working with specific famous quotes in a targeted way is that before students even read a line of the play, they become familiar with some of the famous lines and plot elements. Then, when we read the play and come across these quotes, light bulbs go on all around the room. Students see the quotes in context, understand the richness of the language, and remember the mechanics behind the poetry of Shakespeare. As an added plus, my students often tell me, "I was watching Sponge Bob and they quoted Shakespeare!" I love it when kids recognize literary allusions in the world around them. It's all about making connections!

Purchasing Shakespeare wall docs and other teacher resources from Brevity helps keep me blogging and helps keep ads on ChristianTeacherPublicSchool to a minimum. To take advantage of the Back to School Sale, just enter code BTS2017 at checkout! Thanks for your support!