A Paying Opportunity for Writing About Teaching

For those of you who are writers in addition to being teachers, check out this paid writing opportunity from Chicken Soup for the Soul. Just scroll down to the "Stories about teachers and teaching" section header. If you're new to freelance writing but have always wanted to give it a try, be sure to visit the Story Guidelines page before getting started. Follow directions precisely for best chances of success. Because the editorial process takes time, you might wait up to 60 days to hear that you've been accepted. Writers learn to be patient while waiting. This particular market will not inform you if they have rejected your work. And remember, it's highly competitive, so rejection does happen. Keep your head up and try again!

Deadline for this collection: June 30
Word count: under 1200 words
Pay: $200 one month after publication

Let's Write in David French

I've been shamelessly urging people to read everything by David French, a writer for National Review. Now Bill Krystal over at the Weekly Standard says French would make a better president than anyone currently running. What's all this election business got to do with education? Just ask any school administrator who recently received guidance from the Obama administration on how to keep receiving Federal funds. Or look no further than the Supreme Court. We need a third-party candidate of high moral caliber, and we need one now.

Planboard, a Really Good Free Online Planner

The 2015/2016 school year, now blissfully over for my district, was the first year I used an online teacher planner exclusively. Planboard by Chalk.com has been user-friendly and efficient. (See my comparo to Commoncurriculum here). After a full year of Planboard lesson planning, I'm still a believer. A plus I'm appreciating today is the easy migration of one year's plans to a new year. Allowing that I'll be tweaking those plans here and there, adding standards, etc., my plans for the whole of next school year are ready to go.

The only major negative with Planboard is that it (still) does not allow you to print or share unit plans. Today I emailed their IT about the matter, and Planboard's people promptly got back to me: They're (still) working on it.

Unit plan sharing aside, Planboard is free and has lots of bells and whistles, while remaining intuitive.

This year I plan to use the Sticky Note feature to paste a Bible verse at the top of my plan for each day. It'll take a little time, but that word of encouragement for my teaching day will be worth it. What favorite verses should I add to my planner? Please share!

ESV Single Column Journaling Bible, Summer Garden

Teaching Literary Elements with Famous Shakespearean Quotes

Famous quotes from Julius Caesar

Before I introduce a Shakespeare play to any of my classes, I familiarize students with some of the famous quotes from the play. In addition to giving them a glimpse of what's ahead and building anticipation, it's an opportunity to teach literary elements. I start as much as a semester before reading the play in class.

Famous quotes from Macbeth

Students enjoy memorizing short, easy quotes, especially since many Shakespearean quotes are already familiar from movies and cartoons. As a bonus, when you later read the play, the quotes appear in context. It's like meeting up with an old friend.

Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store, Brevity, to purchase the wall docs for quotes from Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar.