The Perfect Lesson Plan

Are you a new teacher--or a long-term teacher--who wants to keep up with the dizzying pace of educational shifts?   

The Perfect Lesson Plan—and your best observation lesson ever—will be easier with this extensive resource. The Perfect Lesson Plan includes checklists, charts, cheat-sheets, tips, class posters, lesson plans and lesson plan templates for K – 5.

It will help you navigate through the modern mini-lesson, and master every detail—from lesson planning to presentation. You’ll find expert advice on the learning target, small group work, differentiation, share strategies, behavior management, and using technology in a lesson.

Whether you’re a new teacher eager to put it all together or a seasoned pro looking to keep up with changing times, The Perfect Lesson Plan will guide you.  

Including:

• A One-Page Cheat-Sheet Lesson Plan that will help you get started
• How to write a lesson
• How to present a lesson most effectively
• How to prepare your students for an observation
• Pre-observation meeting
• Post-observation interview questions and how to best answer them
• Danielson demystified: the gold standard checklist for teacher evaluation
• Sample lesson plans in reading, writing, and math
• Editable lesson plan templates
• Editable Curriculum Map for a Unit of Lessons
• Educational buzzwords explained in plain language
• Job interview tips so you can present a mini- lesson and sound like a pro…

A detailed look at each part of a lesson:

• Learning target
• Teaching point
• Check for understanding
• Questioning techniques
• Follow-up questions
• Depth of knowledge
• Active engagement
• Accountable talk
• Turn and talk
• Small group work
• Differentiation
• Reading conference
• Writing conference
• Guided reading
• Multiple points of entry
• Next steps checklist
• Lesson sharing
• Brain breaks
• Exit slips
• Co-teaching
• Curriculum mapping
• Behavior management

The Perfect Lesson is a recipe, soup to nuts.

If you teach 5 lessons a day over 180 days of a school year, that’s 900 lessons—much less daunting once you have a plan and a routine!  Relax, absorb the material, and remember, awareness is the first step toward mastery.

I'm wishing you all the best!

Back to School Sale: Hello, Kindergarten Teachers!

It's a back to school sale!  It's a kindergarten teacher's dream...

My entire store is 20% off, plus the 10% bonus (EFFECTIVE 28% OFF) at checkout with this code:  BestYear

My best seller is this First Days of Kindergarten Teacher's Bundle for kindergarten teachers.  It features step-by-step instructions for setting up a kindergarten classroom, as well as moment-by-moment teacher scripts for the first day of school.  It's like I'm whispering in your ear, giving you expert advice at every turn. 

But I don't stop at the first day.  We go through the first week of school--including all the printables, posters, parent letters, and forms you'll need.  Then I point you in the right direction for the next few weeks of kindergarten.

This best seller includes the Teacher's Kit, combined with a School Rules and Bathroom Rules pack.  Each of those three can be purchased separately:

 

Even at regular prices they are each very generous kits, and they are priceless to anyone who wants that extra boost of confidence that comes with a thorough guide.

My new favorite is this Writer's Toolkit for Kindergarten.  It's an ABC chart, a Personal Word Wall, and a "Next Steps" checklist for kids to glue into their writing notebooks or folders.  Perfect for self-assessment and reference charts.  The kit comes with two MP3s, ABC Song and Writing Rubric in a Song.  So if you like your kids to sing and dance every so often, this kit might be a shoo-in for you.

Here's more kindergarten treasure: a How-to-tie-a-shoe photo tutorial for your learning center.  To quote one buyer: 

"It works! It really, really works! I'm never tying another shoe, except my own, once a day. I love this product!"  -FULL STOP-    

Please stop by my store and browse.  I think you'll find plenty of useful and creative items, at super-generous prices.  Meanwhile, I'll be sending you my best wishes for the start of your new school year! 

Three Tips For Deep Breathing

Three Tips For Deep Breathing...

That's all you need:

1)  Get a good guide.  A life-changing guide.  
The M.D. who informs you from experience that deep breathing might cure most anything-- 'cept a cloudy day.  Stress, high blood pressure, pain, athsma, copd, insomnia, fatigue, eating disorders, diabetes, even cancer are affected because the healing air finds a way into every cell.

The first time I heard Andrew Weil, healing guru, talk about the medicine angle, I was impressed.  When I did all 8 of his breathing exercises back-to-back I was transformed.

I love 'em all, but maybe my favorite of Dr. Weil's tricks is to lay down and be utterly passive.  Don't try to breathe.  Imagine a cosmic being gently breathing into you, and inflating you...in and out, slowly and deeply, over and over.  It's an instant, pervasive calm.

2)  Start young.  Teach kids how to breath deeply and properly.  Not by posturing or exaggerating, but with simple, full, deep breathing.  

I teach my students to let all the air out first.  Put their hands on their waist so they can see and feel it expand.  Then take a good, long, deep breath and hold it for a few seconds.  Repeat as necessary.  

It's a perfect brain break--quiet, calming and focusing.  ADHD kids love it.  You're not telling them to sit still and focus.  You're showing them how to do it.

3)  Don't forget to breathe!   It's OK, we all forget.  We become mesmerized by our computer, our dozens of to-do list items, or the stress of the day. 

So, kindly remind yourself.  Ask yourself every so often during the day...and ask your friends and family, and maybe even your enemies, too...

Did you remember to breathe?

Millionaire Teacher

Want be a millionaire teacher? 

It’s not pie in the sky.  It’s math.  I’ll show you.

It’s a time-honored tradition: teachers who’ve been around the block more than a few times will tell a tale—like the grizzled old Robert Shaw in Jaws—a somber tale of the monster maw that mistreats money.

We’ll say: save yourself.  Start saving early, even if it’s just a little.  We’ll talk in a hushed reverence about…Compound Interest.

It’s a little bit magical, but it’s real.   

Look here, if you save just $100 a month, let’s just say, and you start saving at age 25, every month for 40 years.  At age 65, at the average stock market rate of return of 8%, you’ll have a princely sum of $333.7K. 

Time is your best friend.  That’s because over time, the interest you earn on your money will itself earn interest.  

Contrast that with a shorter period of time.  Let's say you start saving at age 45.  $100 a month over just 20 years yields $59K.  Nice, but…more time yields far more money.

Let’s play money crunching.  My favorite website for a compound interest calculator is moneychimp.com  

Can you save $200 a month?  After 40 years you’ll have approximately $671K.

 But after 20 years it’s only $118.6K.

 

Want to be a millionaire?  Save 300 a month for 40 years, and do the math.

True, the stock market fluctuates, worlds collide and finances crash, but if you find a good, reliable investment and keep your money in over the long term, this is what you’re likely to see.

One of best investments is in a Roth IRA, because when you take the money out, it is tax-free.  Also, you may take out any funds you've put into your Roth at any time, which is good to know in case of an emergency.

"Yes," say young teachers, "but I don’t have a penny extra."  I know.  I’ve been there, said that, and it was true.

Still, older teachers who’ve been there will ask you to look closer.  Not at your needs, but at your wants.  I’m not saying to do without, simply to become a do-it-yer-selfer, and to find snazzy substitutes. 

What’s sweeter than a Louis Vuitton bag, a dazzling nail design, a jumbo mocha Frappuccino from the corner store, premium movie tix, and your 5 fav mags?  Two words:

Millionaire Teacher.

Mathphobic? Go Figure!

Are you a Mathphobic?

Go Figure with Scipi is a wonderful website, dedicated to “curing one mathphobic at a time.”

This month, Scipi (for Science-Pi, her nom de plume)  features ways to use dominoes to teach math concepts—not just adding the two sides but also multiplying, reading them as fractions, or laying them horizontally to read off the 2-digit number; or laying two dominoes side by side and reading off a 4-digit number, then rounding it off.  Fun!

Last month, Scipi wrote about the difference between drilling and practicing (a single math concept done thoroughly with tasks and experiences).  Yes, there’s a place for both—which is music to my ears, literally.    

My own “Rap Your Math” is a math drill in a song, which allows the teacher to change the verse daily according to the class needs.  My kids looove vamping to it—and yeah, sunglasses are optional, but...highly recommended.

Which brings me to the next point:

Scipi has a monthly feature on fellow teacher-preneurs.  She celebrates a teacher-seller from TeachersPayTeachers, revealing interesting facts about their personal and teaching life, and the resources they’ve created.

This month, I’m honored to be featured on the Go Figure website.  Take a look, and you’ll find out things I’ve not mentioned anywhere else.  

I’m thrilled to join Scipi in the cure against Mathphobics.  I hope you’ll join in the cure, too—and I'd love to see any positive observations or comments you might have at Go Figure with Scipi.   See you there!