

# Classroom Success Through Creativity

By

Lee Gabor, M. Ed.

Published by Aquarian Age Incorporated at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 by Lee Gabor and Aquarian Age Incorporated

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is free for the first three months of publication (June through August, 2012). Even though free, it is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person during the first three months, please direct them to Smashwords so he or she can download his or her own copy. If you are a school administrator and interested in providing a copy to your teachers, please contact Mark Coker at Smashwords regarding the download. After the three months expire, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not download it free or purchase it or it was not purchased for your use only, please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover Layout by Lee Gabor

Also by Lee Gabor and Published at Smashwords:

Cowboy Jesse and the College Girl, a contemporary romance novel of 103,000+ words

Pig Tales: Volume 1 - The Stinky, Skinny Wolf, an educational children's book of 5000+ words

Love Never Dies, a Christian-based romance novel of 180,000+ words

Chicamauga: The Battle of The Blue and The Gray, a poem with Civil War battle details

Southern Cooking: Recipes for Fried Foods I'll NEVER Prepare or Eat

Southern Cooking: Recipes for My Favorite Fried Foods

Astrology Fun Sun Sign Song Parodies with Birthdays of Famous People \- lyrics to old tunes

Free ebook - A Tribute to the PIGs Club of Madison, Wisconsin and Houston, Texas

Free ebook - A Tribute to The Cellar Door Piano Bar on Stella Link, Houston, Texas

Thank you for downloading my ebook. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Your comments are welcome. My goal is to provide you with an excellent reading experience. Your support and respect for this property is greatly appreciated.

This book is a guidebook and is non-fiction. Other than the author's personal experiences, persons, living or dead are not named in this book. The locale named is Dallas, Texas, which is a large city.

To find out more about me and see other titles I've published, please visit <http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/LeeGabor>

# Please Review This Book

Dear Readers, please take a moment to return to the site where you downloaded this book and leave your opinion. Your thoughts will help other readers decide whether to obtain a book. Authors, including myself, appreciate your support.

*****

# Table of Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Objectives, Essential Questions, Rubrics, Grade Logs

Chapter 2 - First Day of School

Chapter 3 - Diversity in the Classroom

Chapter 4 - Elaine the Brain's Thinking and Learning

Chapter 5 - Classroom Management and Behavior

Chapter 6 - Using an Agenda

Chapter 7 - Teaching State Curriculum

Chapter 8 - Characters for Teaching Critical Thinking Skills

Chapter 9 - Reading

Chapter 10 - Characters for Reading and Language Arts

Chapter 11 - Math

Chapter 12 - Science

Chapter 13 - Social Studies

Chapter 14 - Test Taking Strategies

Chapter 15 - Technology

Chapter 16 - Other Ideas and Social Networking

How This Book Came About

A Future Book

About Me

*****

# Dedication

This ebook is especially dedicated to my students at Silberstein Elementary School in Dallas Independent School District (ISD), Dallas, Texas. They were 6th graders in classes 02-03 and 03-04 and 5th graders in classes 04-05 and 05-06. I am so proud of all of you, especially for sticking in there to earn those high school diplomas and moving on to college or to the workplace. Your good citizenship is appreciated. You all are the future of our country.

It also is dedicated to the wonderful teachers, staff, and administrators with whom I worked in public education during my four years in the classroom at Silberstein and two years as a school-wide Academic Coordinator, at Silberstein and Henry B. Gonzalez Elementary School.

And, the book would not exist without the efforts of Suzanna Brown, my dear friend, who is a great asset to Planet Earth. It was Suzanna who encouraged me to accept the teaching position and who attended the Field Day activities with me that spring I was hired.

*****

### Introduction

My formal school picture

In the Classroom

Before adding my reason for writing this ebook, I wanted to comment on why it is free for the first three months of publication (June through August, 2012). I do have to make a living and I am hoping that readers who enjoy this as a free resource will purchase one (or more, of course) of the novels I've written or the Children's educational series, Pig Tales. Those ebooks are priced very reasonably and your purchase can help me financially. There is no obligation, of course.

It seemed the right thing to do to offer this book free for an introductory period because I believe children need a print rich and fun classroom in which to succeed. This is especially true in elementary school and can make a great impact on second language learners. What better way for me to emphasize that than to try to ensure each elementary teacher has access to the ideas in this book? It is my belief that among all the text and photos, every elementary school teacher may find at least one that can help his or her students to better grasp and comprehend and REMEMBER a lesson. This is my contribution to making the world better through education.

Last night, May 29, 2012, we had our First Annual Silberstein Student-Teacher Get-Together and I had the wonderful experience of seeing students who are now grown. It was so dear to me to listen to them talk about how the characters you will meet in this book helped them in and after they left 5th or 6th grade. They could remember the characters and the lessons that accompanied the stuffed animals or robot toys, etc. If it worked for my students, I know it can work for yours.

Please let me make it clear, when I taught school, my own children were grown and I was single and not in a relationship. Therefore, I had lots of time to devote to teaching and I also could use all my spare money to buy items for the classroom. Most teachers are not in the same situation.

However, even a few items purchased for $1 at a dollar type store or a garage sale can add a lot of fun to a classroom. I hope teachers can find a little cash to make the environment more inviting to students. Even most adults don't enjoy a sterile environment. We add art and plants and decorative items to our homes to make statements about who we are.

Students typically will become excited about bring their own characters to help with teaching. Technology is especially important.

This ebook includes techniques, ideas, and tools I used as a 5th and 6th grade classroom teacher in Dallas. Rather than any interest about me and how this came about, you may prefer to skip the rest of the Introduction and go right to the meat of this book. That's fine. I simply wanted to explain the evolution of my move from the business world to education and, more specifically, to show my apparent failure at the beginning of my classroom experience and how adding fun items made such a difference.

Together, students and I created the fun environment that led to success for students' learning. The remainder of this Introduction offers that explanation.

I didn't anticipate being a public school teacher, but had closed the talent agency and academy I owned and operated. I was on a listserv (Moonlady) in Dallas and one day in May of 2002, I noticed a request from Mrs. Hester for items that could be used in an elementary classroom.

Since I had placed many business items in storage, I contacted her and learned she taught at Silberstein Elementary School. The school had been rated by the Texas Education Agency as "Academically Unacceptable" and Dallas ISD had brought in Principal Bob Fonseca to redirect the focus and improve the rating. Mrs. Hester and I discussed what I could contribute. During the conversation, she stated what the school really needed was a 6th grade teacher for the fall of 2002.

I laughed and told her I had gotten a degree in elementary education many years before and explained to her that the college at which I finished did not have a journalism degree, which was actually my goal when I had attended three years of college before that. I had taken heavy loads of hours each semester in order to earn the education degree and finish my final year of college in two semesters.

She asked to call me back in a moment and I agreed. When she called, she offered the news she had made an appointment for me with Principal Bob Fonseca of the school. So that I wouldn't embarrass her, I decided to keep the appointment. The next day my friend Suzanna Brown drove me to the school and encouraged me to consider teaching. She believed it would be a good experience for me and, more importantly, that I could offer students an excellent learning environment.

Within just a few minutes of the start of the interview, somehow (and I believe it was God-directed), I had agreed to teach the next school year, 2002-2003. My thinking was that I would try it for just one year.

I was nervous and wanted to get a feel for the campus, so Suzanna and I visited the school a week later during the annual Field Day activities. I had the opportunity to meet the 6th grade teacher who was leaving and tour the portable classroom in which I would teach in the fall as well as tour the remainder of the campus.

During the months before the fall term started, I did research on the Internet regarding the campus and learned a lot about the problems that had been prevalent prior to Mr. Fonseca's taking over. He had been in the business world before returning to college to study educational administrative and become eligible to take the Principal's certification exam. His business experience gave me confidence in his decisions. I thought we both knew what skills students needed in order to make it "out" in the world and his decisions would not simply be theoretical. My thinking proved to be accurate.

Since I had been in the business world for a quarter of a century, I knew I was ill-prepared for the assignment, but I also knew I'd do everything I could to learn how to be a good teacher. Fortunately, Dallas County Schools, Dallas ISD, and Texas Education Agency's Region 10 (which includes Dallas) offered many, many, many staff development courses and, since I love learning, I decided right away to take all the classes I could work into my schedule.

The school had over 1000 students and was deemed Title 1, meaning a good segment of the population of students were from "economically disadvantaged" homes. Our student population was about 97% Hispanic, 2% African American, and 1% Anglo.

During my six years with Dallas ISD (four years in the classroom and two years as campus-wide Academic Coordinator), I was required to take 21 clock hours of staff development per year, which would have been 126 hours over the six years. My staff development total was over 600 clock hours. I learned much about the core subjects I would be teaching as well as about modern technology for education.

In addition, I took a course offered by Fort Worth ISD to gain certification as a Master Technology Teacher so that I could be sure my kids were being adequately prepared for their futures and I earned a Master Degree from the University of Texas-Arlington in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

The hardest part of teaching for me was classroom management. I was clueless at first, but checked out from Dallas County Schools the six videos by Dr. Harry Wong on the subject. Seeing techniques on video made more of an impact on me than simply reading the book (a gift from Dallas ISD for new teachers the year I began) or listening to free lectures I attended that were offered by the local teacher's union.

Anytime technology was mentioned or technological advanced items were offered, I was gung ho. In two courses, I was able to earn equipment for my classroom. Route 66 provided a desktop computer, monitor, scanner, color printer, and a large television and cart. The Intel Thinking program also provided a computer and monitor.

I remember the course I took in DISD provided by people from SMART Technologies. When I saw what could be done in the classroom with these interactive items, I immediately went home and checked EBay. Our campus did not have a SMART Board® and I couldn't afford the $2000 for a new one. However, I found another brand of interactive board, InterWrite® from eInstruction, Inc., and purchased two of those, one large (which had to be sent from Alaska and that cost more than the board) and one small, shipped from a much closer locale. Together, the two boards and shipping cost me about $600. As soon as they came in, I placed them in the classroom and the students loved working with them.

Another technological advance I studied was CPS or Classroom Performance System®, also from eInstruction. The kids loved, and I mean, loved using these handheld remotes for testing so much that they asked to have tests. Each student was assigned a remote and from my computer I would bring up the test questions (I already had written them) and they would appear on the drop-down screen. Students would then press a button to give their answer and the computer program would show the results. Students really enjoyed seeing the cumulative averaging that appeared after each question and, from that, they learned to figure cumulative averaging themselves. As results would appear, students would say to each other, "We've got to get the cumulative up! Come on!" When the test was completed, the program provided the records for each student. It was a fabulous piece of technology to use.

The school had received a CPS system for various grade levels and with it came a small hand-held wireless board, like the larger interactive boards. Since most teachers weren't interested in the technology, we got to keep a set in our classroom all the time. Therefore, we had the small wireless interactive board to use. We passed it around the classroom for a student to work a math problem and all the work would appear on the drop-down screen at the front of the room. Other students could comment on the work.

I remember in science class one day when we were learning about underwater volcanoes, I did a drawing of the buildup of lava in the Pacific Ocean that eventually became the Hawaiian Islands and how the first greenery was lichen. Even I was overwhelmed at that knowledge and how Life provides us with so much and how wonderful it was to stand at the back of the class, behind all the students, and create a drawing that they could see at the front of the room on the screen.

Fortunately, teachers throughout the country had created various lessons for the interactive boards and the CPS testing program and these could be downloaded free from the Internet and synchronized with the classroom computer. Many teachers are very generous with their knowledge.

By the way, I also bought a Mimeo System that could be attached to the marker board at the front of the classroom and it behaved in a similar way to the much larger InterWrite® boards.

The students loved the technology, but what they seemed to enjoy just as much were the stuffed animals and robot toys who taught the lessons. In fact, at last night's dinner, these are what the students were talking about.

How did we decide to use such toys?

My first week of teaching, I was standing in front of the chalk board in our portable, writing on the board, and lecturing. This method was how I was taught and it was all I knew. One of my students raised his hand to ask a question. When I called on him he began with a very loud, "Ms. Ga-boring" (and yes, I remember precisely who did that and I've always been grateful that he drew my attention to my failure in educating well).

All the kids laughed heartily. I knew then, these children would not be learning much with a lecturing method and I couldn't be the teacher they needed. Immediately, I took action in order to improve. First, I began searching the Internet for tips and didn't find anything I thought would help. Second, I requested a mentor from the district and they sent me the fabulous Renee Hauntz, who was with the district's New Teachers Initiative. She was a great help. Third, Mr. Fonseca assigned me a mentor on campus, the very successful teacher , Silvia Cerda. Fourth, I sought help from other teachers on campus, especially those in the 6th grade, Michelle Neely, Fannie Jones, and Jerry Easley. Our new librarian, Dawn Kraayvanger had been a math teacher and was an enormous help all the years I worked with her. Lee Ulloa (our LPAC or second language expert) and Lucy Ford provided me with lots of ideas and kept the encouragement coming. And Josie Mendoza, our CRC (kept records) made sure I always knew was I was supposed to be doing in that area. Teachers and staff (teachers' assistants) from throughout the campus were always available to offer suggestions and help in any way needed.

Fifth, I tried to think with my right brain lobe on what could make the classroom more interesting. The more I concentrated on the problem, the more I realized that I needed other "teachers" in our classroom, especially since they would be non-threatening or non-intimidating to second language students who were struggling with English. And so, we brought in a variety of "teachers."

Before explaining that, let me add that the students were very lucky to have on campus Margarita Ruiz, who worked in the office. It was her idea for the school to have a 6th grade prom and graduation and she asked me to sponsor it. I was happy to do so and students loved it. We couldn't call it graduation - students received Certificates of Accomplishment, but it was an important celebration for them and Mrs. Ruiz did so much for the kiddos to have a great time. Other teachers and staff signed up to help and to be chaperones and each event was very successful!

At the dinner May 29, 2012, students talked about their prom. I told them, I still have in my computer files the "masters" for the programs we printed. In fact, I still have saved in a file everything I did as an educator. It was such an important part of my life.

Back to our "teachers." We began with Catface, Pretty Flora, and Rat. I had found Catface and Pretty Flora at a garage sale. They were doorstoppers. Rat was a white hand puppet I bought at a teacher's store. They taught Literary Elements - Plots!

Each day when we entered the classroom, the first thing that happened was a discussion of what these "teachers" had done in the classroom overnight. Students and I made up fun stories of their exploits. Through this, the students understood plots.

Next came Freddy Frog and other frogs who taught "character," another Literary Element. Sandy Sun (a sun-shaped magnet on which I glued eyes) taught "setting" (since the sun sets and students easily knew that term).

Students so easily grasped the three Literary Elements that I knew we were onto a great method for their education.

When RoboKid, a battery-operated robotic toy, came to the classroom (I paid $6 for him at a dollar-type store), we had so much fun making up stories about his exploits. He had a small red tray and, at first, would move up and down the lanes between desks to collect homework papers.

You'll be meeting all of these "teachers" later in this book.

What I haven't mentioned is that all but two of my students were second-language and some truly struggled with English. The "toys" were easy for them to talk about.

Also, the focus in my classroom was that students were safe in school. Life wasn't easy for some of the children and my heart broke when I learned some of their histories.

In order to better understand the plight of economically disadvantaged students, I found an extremely enlightening book, Ruby Payne's A Framework for Understanding Poverty. This helped me greatly to grasp the concept of what some of my students might be going through and I believe EVERY teacher, even those in the wealthier areas, should read this. Later, as Academic Coordinator, I took a course through DISD on identifying children who have suffered emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. It made me sick to think any child has to go through such treatment and no wonder some of them can't seem to pay attention in school. Some children live in such fear and neglect and school is the only safe place they know. Therefore, it is vital that teachers provide them with feeling of safety.

I wasn't perfect as a teacher. In fact, the first weeks I was terrible and frustrated and, every day felt like walking off campus to never return. To reward myself for getting through the day, I would stop by the grocery store and buy ice cream. Of course I gained weight, but I stayed on the job.

I certainly wasn't the smartest teacher on campus. However, I probably was one of the most interactive, in that I listened to my students and, with all my business experience in documenting and keeping records, I easily gauged how well they were learning and could quickly determine when the student needed additional help.

I also became possibly the angriest teacher on campus. District people made it clear during my first few weeks in the classroom that about 50% of my kids would never graduate from high school and I was livid at what I thought were educators giving up on these kids. I told this to my students and said it would not be happening to them. I could never accept such data as applying to "my" kids. They deserved better as did the taxpayers who were funding their education.

Therefore, over time I developed a consumer math homework program for them that I believed would help them understand why education is so important.

I should mention I had started off the year teaching social studies and science with students switching to other teachers for math and for Language Arts. Within a week, I didn't want to continue this. I wanted to be self-contained so 1) I alone could be responsible for trying to keep my students in school through graduation and 2) I could relate lessons in one subject to something we were studying in another subject. The other teachers agreed to this and, as a result, the principal agreed. Therefore, by time Catface and the other "characters" came into the classroom, we were self-contained.

I was teaching their math in class each day and could develop the math homework program that was targeted toward their knowing consumer math and how education could help them gain higher-paying jobs so they could better manage the financial area of their lives. Following is how that homework project worked:

Each student pulled from a bowl a slip of paper on which had been written the title of a job position along with the standard annual salary for that job (per government data). These ranged from working at a fast-food restaurant for minimum wage to owning a manufacturing company and earning over a million dollars a year. In between were car mechanics, lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, etc. Higher paid careers required high school diplomas and, for most, at least some technical school or associate's degree or full four-year degree, and perhaps even additional education (doctors and lawyers).

Students pulled the slips of paper by sheer luck and learned from the outset that without education, one's earning potential could be extremely limited.

Of course, we discussed the "career" of being a drug dealer. I am a realist and I had students with brothers and/or dads in gangs. We agreed that drug dealers can make lots of money. We agreed they also could die very young and had to watch their backs every minute of every day, which is not a pleasant way to live and certainly not a good environment into which to bring a spouse and children. Therefore, our concentration was on what students could do legally in order to have a safe and pleasant life.

Once students had their annual incomes in mind, each threw large foam dice to see how many marriages they had and how many children. I wanted them to grasp the idea that living too emotionally could lead to situations in which they were financially drained and, once at that point, diving into drugs, alcoholism, gangs, violence, etc., was an easy next step. It was important for students to think about relationships as financial responsibilities and not just act on emotions.

Nobody is perfect at Life Management, but understanding finances and how to read contracts can certainly help one to successfully handle whatever comes his or her way.

Elaine the Brain (you will meet her later in this ebook) helped students recognize the difference in step-by-step rational thinking versus emotional thinking and that the lower brain rules survival activities and the upper brain adds morals and ethics to our life. By knowing this, students could at any moment gauge their own behavior and determine if they needed a change.

With their math homework project's "family structure" designed, students were required to go through the want ads of the newspaper (Dallas Morning News gave us free newspapers every day for our classroom) and find a house to buy. We learned all about making an offer on a home, reading the contract, having the home inspected, attending a closing and the costs involved, insuring a home, maintenance, and how to compare home ownership with renting an apartment or leasing a condo (usually with monthly dues) or house with utilities to pay. Mowing the lawn, roof leaks, all the required aspects of home ownership were discussed, including each month putting aside special savings to handle maintenance and appliance replacements.

We did the same type of activity regarding buying cars. It was extremely important that students understood that just buying a car isn't the true expense. One has license tags, inspections, insurance, repairs, tire replacements, and gas and oil to pay for.

During the first semester, students had to create a budget to include all normal expenses. We emphasized the importance of saving a minimum of 10% of gross income each week.

When students returned from the winter break (Christmas break), each drew a piece of paper from the bowl describing the emergency he or she faced. These were experiences like the car motor blew and a new motor was required, someone in the family required major surgery and recuperation, the refrigerator stopped working, etc.

Students learned something very important. While each had been required to save 10% of gross income, the students without much education who worked low paying jobs didn't have enough money to handle the emergency. The students with higher-paying jobs could more easily manage emergency expenses.

Enjoying a higher paying job meant getting all the education they could and the students now understand why they were on campus.

As I told the children, "As much as you love your mom, should her washing machine break down, if you have a good income, you can buy her a new washing machine. In fact, you can even buy her a house!"

The other emphasis in the project was that life isn't JUST about money, but excellent money management can make most of the other areas of life more enjoyable. Family vacations can be taken and they can provide wonderful memories. Buying Christmas gifts doesn't have to mean a stressful January when the credit card bills come due.

And, yes, students learned about credit cards and interest accumulation as well as using debit cards to have data of expenses.

In fact, one thing that happened in our classroom my first year of teaching has been brought to my attention by all my students from that year.

Prior to working for the district, I had been involved with the international children's charity, Children United. The wonderful founder of that non-profit, Belinda Ruggeri, was very supportive and encouraging of my becoming a teacher. In November that first year, she called me to let me know she had arranged for each of my students to receive a $100 shopping spree at Wal-Mart. One of the Dallas Cowboy players would be on hand to sign autographs and after shopping, McDonalds was giving each student lunch plus coupons for additional meals.

I was so happy about this because it is rare for many child to have so much money to buy something he or she wants.

Parents wanted to accompany the students to Wal-Mart. They traveled in cars, although we arranged for busses to transport the students. Wal-Mart provided a volunteer shopper for each child so they could find items quickly.

And I had one rule - no parents shopping with the children. I understood how it felt to be poor and I knew the parents would want to use the money for food or for all the children in the family. However, it was very important to relate this activity to our consumer math, so the students would know the feeling of having cash. Therefore, I would not let parents have any input into purchases. As you can imagine, some were very upset with me, but it was important to the students to experience something that could help them target better-paying careers and to understand the importance of education in finding good jobs.

It was a special day and amazing to me that out of everything we did, it was THE most memorable for many of my 6th graders. Unfortunately, we were not able to duplicate that event my other three years, but at least one group of students enjoyed that benefit.

I used the consumer math technique each of my four years in the classroom and, as it has turned out, to my knowledge at this time (most of my students are my Facebook friends) only one of all my students quit high school before graduating and he is planning to get his GED.

We talked a lot about colleges, both community colleges and how they can help one keep down costs during the first two years, then transferring to a full four-year university. Dallas has many good colleges and universities and we looked at photos of the campuses.

Another important project, which we did as class work, was each student's keeping his or her own grade book. I provided forms and student learned how to enter a grade (homework and its percentage, class work and its percentage, and test and percentage) and then figure the cumulative average.

I wanted students to be responsible for themselves and to think about their individual lives and determine goals, then make plans for reaching goals. I'm so very proud of the students.

They seemed to really enjoy creating PowerPoint® presentations to teach the class a topic. We also set up a microphone and sound system they used for reading to the class. This helped students develop the courage to stand in front of the class and make a presentation. As hard as it was initially for some students, the activity built confidence and our classroom became one of teamwork, not criticism.

One day, when students were going to the podium to read to the class from the wonderful Louis Sachar novel Holes, our area superintendent, Dr. Izquierdo, accompanied our principal, Mr. Fonseca, into our classroom. Both were extremely impressed with how well students, again most were second language learners, were reading using the microphone. There was so much life to the reading. Not one student read in a dull monotone.

Dr. Izquierdo told us his daughters loved Holes and said he was sending our classroom the DVD. And he did that. Students loved watching the Disney movie made from the book. In the late spring that year, some of the teachers sponsored a trip to the local theater so students could see the movie on the big screen.

One thing that impressed me tremendously was that students brought in stuffed animals and toys to use in the classroom. The kids had decided on topics their toys could teach.

I borrowed all the computers I could so we had lots of technology in our classroom. For me, tech is the future and I simply didn't think a computer class once a week for 45 minutes was enough, especially since our computer teacher had other assignments and often had to cancel classes in order to fulfill those campus-wide tasks.

In other words, we all became teachers and students and after that first week, I never again heard anyone call me Ms. Ga-boring.

As a result of the various innovations in our classroom, I received three awards in 2006. The U.S. Department of Education named me an American Star of Teaching, making me one of 51 teachers in the country to receive the affirmation. I represented Texas.

This was a total shock and I will always remember the morning in the fall of 2006, as Academic Coordinator, I was in my office and was asked to come to the school auditorium. I entered and, to my surprise, the room was full. My calendar (and I did the campus calendar) didn't show anything planned for that day.

I was told to go to the first row of seats and when I sat down and looked to my left, I saw my son and daughter-in-law sitting there with various of my teacher friends. I was extremely confused.

Then Ms. Darla Marberger, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, presented the award. She had flown to Dallas from Washington, D.C. to award the plaque at the ceremony at the school.

How much I appreciated that my Area 1 Superintendent Ivonne Durant attended the ceremony. Current principal Rudy Mendoza was on hand, but I also wished that Bob Fonseca could have been there. He was the principal who had hired me to teach and told me I would be fine. By 2006, the district had asked Mr. Fonseca to transfer to a new school that was opening (Henry B. Gonzalez), so he wasn't at Silberstein for the award ceremony.

I had a difficult time holding back tears and remember thinking how the award really should go to the students. I had learned from them how to be a better teacher.

The Texas Computer Education Association had named me a finalist for their annual award for "Texas Classroom Teacher of the Year 2006." My son and daughter-in-law traveled to Austin with me on February 7, 2007 for the presentation and had a wonderful time. The hotel provided a beautiful chocolate treat for us.

I was one of two runners-up for the award, but so appreciated just being considered. And we had such a great time in Austin. It truly is a beautiful city. One of our technology teachers at Silberstein, Ms. Regina Parker, was also attending the conference and took photos for me. I've always appreciated her kindness.

The third award came from the Rotary Club of Dallas and was presented at a luncheon in late spring 2006 in Dallas. Our acting Principal Enid Rosenfeldt accompanied me (Mr. Fonseca had already moved to Gonzalez to prepare it for the fall and Mr. Mendoza had not yet been hired to replace Mr. Fonseca at Silberstein; Mrs. Rosenfeldt had retired and was available when the district needed her).

I was one of two runners-up for "Service Above Self 2005-2006 - Elementary School Division." Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of that award presentation but do have a photo of the award itself:

The district named me one of 16 teachers to participate in a special program through the University of Texas-Arlington to earn a Master of Education degree in Leadership and Policy Studies along with Principal Certification. It was a joy to be in Cohort 5 at UTA for the 2006-2007 school year. The quality of the other teachers in the program overwhelmed me. During that year, I served as Academic Coordinator for the entire elementary school in which I had been a teacher.

At UTA, College of Education, I was named "University Scholar 2007" and named to the Dean's Honor Roll 2006-2007.

UTA and Dallas ISD invited to be a member of the 16-member national cohort, Leaders for Teacher Preparing Schools (National Network for Educational Renewal) for the 2006-2007 year. We met in Denver, Colorado and Seattle, Washington and I learned a lot through the program and from other members of the Cohort.

During the six years I was involved in public education, I wanted to learn all I could about teaching in elementary, middle, and high school. Therefore, I studied for and took tests to earn other certifications. Certification I currently hold through the Texas Education Agency are: Principal, Master Technology Teacher, Tech Applications K-12, English as a Second Language EC-12, Early Childhood PK-KG, Early Childhood Education - Handicapped PK-6, Elementary Self-Contained 1-8, History 8-12, Journalism 8-12, Social Studies 8-12, and Speech 8-12.

It was gratifying to be invited to join the National Speakers Association and to be included in Who's Who in America as well as to be named 1st place winner for a short story I wrote ("Zigzags") and submitted to an online fiction contest sponsored by The Writer's Notebook. This latter event is what encouraged me to write fiction.

It wouldn't be right for me to not mention we used music in the classroom to teach social studies and science. A teacher doesn't have to be a great musician to add melody and appropriate text for subjects. Students also contributed songs and we made up dances to help us better understand certain curricula.

I was asked to do presentations in two conferences: "Best Practices in Engaging Students" for the convention of National Education Equity and Texas Magnet Schools associations, October, 2006, Corpus Christi, Texas, and "Parents Are Educators, Too!" for the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association, Summer Conference, June, 2007, Austin, Texas.

Dallas ISD District presentations included: our school's Campus Improvement Plan" for our Dallas ISD Area Superintendent Conference. Campus presentations included: "Governor's Grant for Excellence in Teaching," "Accessing Data on Classroom Effectiveness Indices," "Curriculum Design for Increasing TAKS Scores – Overview of a Visit to Lackland Elementary School, Lackland AFB, San Antonio, TX," "Using Principles of Learning in the Classroom," "Effective Response to Intervention (RTI) Strategies," "Commitment to Excellence" to parents of students 2006, Weekly New Teacher Initiatives Training, including using "The Effective Teacher" videos by Dr. Harry Wong, "Question Stems in the Classroom Using Margaret Kilgo Strategies," "How Songs and Hand-Made Items Can Help Students Learn Difficult Content, " "Learning Metrics with the Metric Family," "A Hula Hoop Teaches Refraction," "The Continental Drift Dance," "Understanding AEIS and AYP," "Higher Order Thinking and Bloom's," "Differentiated Instruction," "Using Rubrics in the Classroom," and others.

Educational instruction papers written and newsletters included: "Dyslexia Identification – A Form for Efficient and Effective Assessment," "Stu-Sys (Dallas ISD) How to Input Grades," "Online Student Evaluation – Instructions for Using My Data Portal," "Technology Resources Available through Dallas County School System," "Using Campus Halls for Instruction and Learning," a weekly newsletter for faculty and staff at the school in which I was Academic Coordinator in 2006-2007, monthly Instructional Calendars at both school in which I served as Academic Coordinator, Writing Plan for the School Year at both schools - 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, "Increasing Writing Proficiency Using Thinking Maps" at both schools, "Analyzing Benchmark Test Results," "Disaggregating Data," "TAKS Test Procedures and Rules," "Spanish-English Cognates," "Latin Prefixes and Roots," "Using Bloom's Verbs, Actions, and Questions in the Classroom" (with wall signs), "Effective Learning Strategies," "Best Practices for Teacher Development," "Dallas ISD Acronyms and Glossaries," "Title 1 Parent Involvement," "Using Intel Thinking Tools and Assessments in the Classroom," "Clarifying Lessons with Objective of the Day Posters," "Self-Assessment – Am I an Effective Teacher?" and others. A goal is to eventually have all of these papers available in PDF format free for downloading on my website at http://LeeGabor.com. At some point, I may produce a CD with Microsoft PowerPoint® presentations I used as an educator.

In addition to participating in one's career, I believe it is important to belong to various associations and to read the magazines and newsletters provided. Many excellent teaching tips can be found in these publications. Among the memberships I held during my six years as an educator were: American Association of School Administrators (AASA) Aspiring Division, Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association (TEPSA) Aspiring Division, Kappa Delta Pi Educational Honor Society, National Educational Equity Association (NEEA), Magnet Schools of Texas (MST), Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA), Association for Curriculum and Supervision Development (ACSD), International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and others.

I also participated in various district committees: Dallas ISD Curriculum Advisory Council, Language Proficiency Advisory Committee (LPAC), Dyslexia Identification and Intervention, Principal Selection (interview prospective new principals), Testing Coordinators, Principles of Learning (Dr. Lauren Resnick & University of Pittsburg Learning Community Training), Monthly Area-Wide Administrator Development Committees, and campus committees including: weekly Administrative Team meetings as Academic Coordinator (for data analysis, tiering students, interventions for differentiations), weekly Administrative and Faculty Grade Level meetings (for data analysis, tiering students, interventions for differentiations), Campus Instructional Leadership Team (CILT), Site-Based Decision Making (SBDM), Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC), Student Support Team (SST), Language Proficiency Advisory Committee (LPAC), Grade Placement, Counselor Advisory, Dual-Language (Gomez Brothers), Dyslexia Identification and Intervention, Chairperson, Grant Writing, Talented and Gifted (TAG), Technology Acquisitions and Training (teaching faculty members to use computers and other pieces of technology), Awards Assembly, 6th Grade Prom & Graduation, Committee Chairman; Annual Trip to 6 Flags, Arts Partners, 21st Century After-School Program and Summer Camp (I focused on the production of video of campers (all elementary grade levels) learning six pillars of Character Counts), Backyard Habitat, Texas Culture Day, Heritage Committees, various years: African American, Hispanic, Native American, One Great Day of Reading, Math Fair, Science Fair, and others, Thankful Thursdays (monthly covered-dish lunch for faculty and staff), Supper Club (established monthly dinner out for faculty and staff), PTA each year.

Since my career life began when I was a newspaper reporter, writing is easy for me. Therefore, in education, I chose to participate in grant-writing: Governor's Education Excellence Award ($120,000.00 for our campus for teacher rewards for excellent educational success), Half-Price Books – books for classrooms, and others. I also had written various grants while working with Children United, a 501-C3 children's advocacy and educational association prior to employment with Dallas ISD.

Before ending the Introduction, let me again emphasize, I had nobody at home to report to or take care of. Therefore, all of my time and energies could be targeted on educating students and helping teachers. I'm very proud of the after-school classes I did to help teachers learn to use computers. Fortunately, I had enough computers in my classroom so we could hold the classes there. Dallas ISD was providing laptops to teachers but only after we passed a proficiency exam. It was important to me to help teachers get the laptops and, in fact, today I'm writing this on one of those laptops. After a few years, we could buy the units for $1 each and have them for our personal as well as school use.

I don't think people should compare themselves to each other. Instead, I think it is more effective for us to compare who we are and what we accomplish today to the person we were yesterday.

I know most teachers have many responsibilities outside of their careers and don't have a lot of time for staff development and putting together creative items for the classroom. But, again, even one or two things purchased at a dollar type store or a garage sale can make a classroom more fun. And students love to help, to bring in objects they can suggest be used for specific subjects. Perhaps this ebook will offer suggestions that can provide you with an idea or two.

To me, there isn't any excuse to school being dull and boring. After all, it is a ONE TIME opportunity for students that will affect every day of the rest of their lives.

*****

# Chapter 1 - Objectives, Essential Questions, Rubrics, Grade Logs

OBJECTIVES:

For new teachers to realize: 1) the more fun we have in the classroom, the more easily students want to and can learn, 2) the dollar type retail stores have lots of goodies that can be modified to teach in the classroom, 3) students in the "twitch speeders" generation need technology, 4) when students are under stress, input doesn't move to the higher thinking areas of the brain; instead, behavior comes from the survival needs (medulla oblongata) and emotional area (mid-brain).

Those are the objectives for this book.

In a classroom, the overarching main objective for the teacher is to engage the students. I can't stress enough FIRST YOU MUST ENGAGE.

The key to teaching students in a way that they "get" the content is first getting their attention. Today's students have many distractions. Our goal is for them to comprehend the lesson, be able to use the knowledge, and develop the capacity to connect that content with something else (synthesis).

It is vital to understand that boys and girls learn differently. Most boys need more activity while most girls can sit for long periods of time to read or study or write. Therefore, one must plan to provide both types of environments. Boys who don't get enough action will often misbehave. Girls who don't get enough attention often misbehave. Therefore, it is very important that we are attentive to the needs of both genders of students. We all know generalizations don't apply to every child, but there is data to support that boys and girls learn differently and have different needs in the classroom.

Anytime we can, if we get students up and moving around, they will grab the lesson and make it their own. As you look at the various activities we participated in during my 5th and 6th grade teaching experiences, you will see that we got up from our seats and moved.

In addition, kids are different and for me, if a child did better sitting on the floor studying, that was fine. Whatever needed to happen for students to "get" the lessons was the most important thing happening in our classroom as long as behavior was acceptable.

As the teacher gets to know his or her students, we learn more about the child's interests. It could be art, music, mechanics, science, or whatever. Sometimes, we are able to translate a lesson into the "language" of that interest. For example, if boys love soccer or baseball or football, math can be taught using examples of scores from those sports. Most boys don't intend to have a lemonade stand and if that is the example of a math lesson, typically boys will shut it out of their heads.

It takes a bit more time to consider how to use examples, but it is well worth it when students actually LISTEN and COMPREHEND the lesson.

As lessons are presented, each should include objectives so that students know precisely what they are expected to comprehend and to retain.

Many children are asked at the dinner table each night, "What did you learn today?" Those who have had objectives specified before lessons typically have an easier time stating what they studied.

Adults who set goals for the day or have a to-do list for each day will more often accomplish deeds than people who drift through life and can barely tell you what they've done in the past or what they desire to do in the future.

Creating expectations provides a structure for both children and adults. When students learn to use expectations in school, they can carry this skill forward to their adulthood.

Objectives are sentences that state precisely what a student should learn from a lesson. If the teacher's edition of a textbook doesn't include them, a teacher can write them or begin the lesson, talk a bit about what the lesson is about, then ask students to write them. That is a way to combine expectations with engaging students and it works. The more we involve students in the learning, the better they learn.

Objectives are not questions. We cover Essential Questions next.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

Once students have studied a lesson, we ask questions. These questions are targeted to the contents to the lesson and cover the most important parts of it.

Another aspect that is often added to essential questions is "Enduring Understandings." These are larger concepts that one would understand along one's lifeline. For example, an enduring understanding in the subject of Geography could be: geography influences what people need, their opportunities, interests, and choices, their culture, and skills.

Essential questions that go with that understanding could be: What makes a place different and unique? How do natural resources affect the way people live and eat and work? What can we learn about people by observing where they live on a map? How would people living near a river engage in different activities from people living in the desert?

As is obvious from the examples, essential questions help a student to think and to synthesize or connect facts learned as well as observations to the topic of the lesson.

Essential questions can be written on tagboard sentence strips and posted in the classroom for the lesson. As students are taught to glance at the questions during the lesson, they can often better grasp the meaning of the lesson as well as remember the lesson's contents.

Another way of using these sentence strips is to emphasize the lesson title and write it on the back of the strips, then save the strips and place them with others from previous lessons. A game can be made in which students are divided into teams and a strip is held up by one team so the other students can see it. The students then try to remember the name or content of the lesson and, if successful, they receive a point.

We did something similar in my classes when I taught math. Each math lesson had a title, for example, "Adding mixed numbers." Students would write the title on a sentence strip and cut off the extra space (not needed for words). Then we tacked the title to the wall and left it. After we covered all the math topics for the 6 week session, I would take down a title and have a couple of students go to the board and each write a problem to go with the title, then the students in the class had to solve the problems. Once students could show they had mastered this topic, we placed the tagboard sentence strip into our "Math Mastery Box" and I felt assured the students could solve those particular types of problems.

Our state math tests included only word problems. My students seemed to have an easier time quickly identifying the type of math that would be used to solve that word problem because their brains had honed in on a few words that titled the type of math problem. It is very important with students that we use a triangle type of teaching - one word, for example math, then a couple of words, for example either operation of "we're increasing" or "we're decreasing" then three words such as "increasing by adding" or "increasing by multiplying" or "decreasing by subtracting" or "decreasing by dividing." From there, more explanation can be used and these explanations could include our sentence strip titles, like "adding improper fractions."

This helps students to target goals and to very quickly discover the point of an activity.

RUBRICS:

I taught students that I wanted them to have choices and to never place themselves into a box with only one way out. Using rubrics reinforced this concept.

Hopefully, teachers are allowed by their principals to remain at the same grade level so that skills of teaching children those subjects can be honed. Teaching the same subjects at the same grade level does, over time, allow the teacher to make rubric sheets for lessons (as well as create and purchase lots of interesting items to use for lessons). Some teachers post rubric sheets on the Internet.

Rubrics give students the choice of to what extent they want to put in effort to grasp a lesson. Some kids will want to do every task on the rubric in order to make an A. Others will choose to do the minimum required in order to have a C. And some may want the A and start those tasks, but never quite finish them.

Students know up front what they have to do for their grades.

GRADE LOGS:

Since I mentioned grades, I think for 5th and 6th grade students it is best for them to receive a form in which they can write or log the lesson title or test date and then record the grade received. This makes them more responsible for their own grades rather than their being totally oblivious until the end of the 6 weeks.

A simple task like this can create a neuron pathway in the brain that will help them, as adults, to keep better track of finances, birthdays, etc.

*****

## Chapter 2 - First Day of School

How we introduce ourselves to students can make or break the school year. I always stood outside the door and welcomed each child into the classroom. On the desks were activities for kids to get started with - just fun type crosswords or word finds, nothing too heavy for the first morning.

Also, I had a looping PowerPoint running that gave students a bit of information about the classroom, such as my name, when lunch would be, what subjects we would be studying, etc.

Another activity for me was taking photos of students so that I could connect names to faces over the next couple of days.

I allowed students (5th and 6th graders) to find their own desks for the first few days. When there was too much talking, we changed to A-Z order. Student behavior against expectations resulted in consequences and students learned that from the beginning of our class.

*****

## Chapter 3 - Diversity in the Classroom

It is very important in the classroom for each student to feel comfortable and at home. In our classroom we celebrate differences. We even had a graphic for our classroom to emphasize this.

Pictured is a set of dolls I purchased for our classroom.

We placed the dolls on a counter and every month a few of the students would discuss diversity with the class.

In my first year of teaching, I had an autistic child in my 6th grade class. His work level was 1st grade. His Special Ed teacher, parents, and I agreed he should be held back from the Middle School so I had him again the next year. I was very proud of how sweet the students were to him, both in our classroom and when they went to middle school and on to high school. We never discussed his ableness, but by focusing on the more physical differences (as seen in the dolls above), students understood we all work at our own timing - nobody is better than another, we all are simply different and work to our best abilities. The same was true in other years of teaching when we had alternatively abled students in our classroom.

Of course lesson plans included what ALL of my students would be learning. I made it a point to find computer educational programs and games at the grade level of my special ed students so they could learn at their level. One of my kids was great at art illustrating and I bought various art supplies for him to use to illustrate the lessons. This was his way of contributing to the learning of all the students in the classroom.

Each student has skills and talents and the more we can determine what they are, the better chance we have of letting them use those talents to have a special place in the class.

This set of alternatively abled characters is available from various online resources. I can't remember where I bought this set. It might have been the Oriental Trading party decoration and teacher supplies store in Farmers Branch (suburb of Dallas). You can try searching for "set of disabled dolls" on the internet. An alternative would be to purchase dolls at the dollar store and make your own items for them (crutches, a t-shirt with sign language alphabet for one doll, tiny sunglasses, an eye patch, a little chair you add wheels to). Students might truly enjoy working on this project during the first day of class. The kids can be divided into groups and provided with materials. Each group then produces one doll and students from the group present the doll to the class and explain, to the best of their abilities, how life and class participation may be altered by a specific physical limitation. Hopefully, this helps to establish a sense of teamwork in students and empathy for limitations each student might have.

If the project is implemented, it would be important to have a student bring up the topic of having a broken arm or broken leg, which is a temporary situation, but does create a limiting factor and makes one alternatively-abled in class. Another point one can bring up is that throughout our lifetimes, each of us may be alternatively-abled for a period of time and it doesn't stop us from learning or feeling or wanting to be happy and succeed.

I had my students do a presentation using a doll to explain how we could make a student with that alternative-ability feel more welcome in our classroom.

*****

## Chapter 4 - Elaine The Brain's Thinking and Learning

Pictured is "Elaine The Brain," who sat on a counter in the classroom. We often discussed the brain, thinking, and learning.

I purchased the brain model at a teacher supply store, then added the hat and sunglasses. A large T-pin held her sunglasses in place. The pin was pressed into the area between the two brain lobes.

We also had two Bloom's Taxonomy signs on the walls and graphics for those appear a little later in this book.

For me, one of the most important topics we teach is how the brain allows us to learn and how competent we become depends on our individual timing.

Elaine taught students how to identify with and use their brains to achieve learning and goal mastery, now and for the future. The three major areas she taught were: The Alligator Behavior Brain (medulla oblongata); The Mid-Brain and the Frontal Cortex.

She also taught about the effects of stress in the classroom and how stress can hinder our learning and thinking. In fact, one of the most important facts we educators can learn is that stress stops higher rain functioning. Therefore, it is vital that we create a classroom that is stress free. If students are having fun, they don't feel pressure to learn. They comprehend lessons without even realizing there is a lesson.

This is a graphic I created that shows what I labeled the Stress Ceiling to teach students that when we feel stress, our data input doesn't move to the upper brain for our best learning. Instead, we get stuck with emotional thinking in the Mammalian Brain.

We have two hemispheres of the brain and both are important. Our left brain hemisphere is more of a step-by-step logic machine. Our right hemisphere is more of a random and a "find something that interests me" machine. As educators, we can use both hemispheres to ensure students understand the lesson today and can carry that information with them to later reach logical conclusions.

The HOT (Higher Order Thinking in the frontal cortex) is where more advanced thinking takes place as well as where we deal with morals and ethics.

There are more areas that could be specified, but for elementary students, we need only work with these, again, survival Alligator Brain, emotional Mid-Brain, and HOT area.

Elaine's first question to 5th and 6th graders is "How many of you have a brain? Raise your hand if you have one." Of course they all raise their hand. "All of our brains work in the same way. They are simply on different time schedules."

When asked, "Does everybody in the school go to lunch at the same time?" the children would immediately answer, "No!" I would explain our personal time schedule is like that. We may go for years and not be interested in something, then one day we develop a fascination.

It was emphasized that if our brains work the same way, but each is on a different time schedule for learning, then we compete with ourselves and not with each other. Also, a student could recognize he or she had the ability to learn, but mastering some topics may require more input of time than is required for other subjects.

Students were taught to Self-Reflect prior to falling asleep each night by asking ourselves questions such as Did I do math better today than I did yesterday? Did I use the scissors or crayons better today? Do I know more of my multiplication tables today than I knew yesterday?

By doing this self-reflection, children built self-esteem. They know they are accomplishing in a variety of ways.

SENSES ARE THE DOORS TO LEARNING

Students were taught that what we learn at school, at home, etc. comes to us through our five senses of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. As we take in information, we automatically build brain neuron pathways. Therefore it is very important that we are careful regarding what information we take in.

When students understand the basic areas of the brain, they have a better chance of controlling their behavior.

ALLIGATOR BRAIN

We humans have a part of our big brain that is similar to the alligator's entire brain. The Alligator brain controls breathing, eating, drinking, sleeping, and basic human needs. When our basic human needs are NOT met, the Alligator brain becomes very active and goes into survival mode. We want to use the other parts of our brain to plan well so that we don't go into survival mode.

Elaine explained that a good breakfast is necessary so that Alligator Brain doesn't keep us from learning in the morning. She also made sure students realized that when they felt threatened in any way, often the Alligator Brain and the Mid-Brain would come to the forefront and misbehavior would ensue.

LEARNING IS EASY WHEN WE USE THE TWINS

We also have two large parts of our brain that let us work with content, such as math, reading, science, and social studies, PE, fine arts, etc. (right and left brain lobes)

Elaine was big into learning styles and taught students that, while one style may be more pronounced or easier for each of us, we all can learn through all styles. It may simply take more time to learn with the less-pronounced style. Styles are: Visual (example: Vita Math, which was a computer program we accessed on the computer and projected onto the big wall screen), Auditory (songs and stories), and Tactile and Manipulative (MUST be used for Math and Science).

Elaine explained that these pathways may be small and insignificant the first time we take in the information. By repeating the lesson and working with the knowledge in different ways, the neuron pathway is reinforced.

The example Elaine used was a multiplication fact (the specific fact was very easy and modified for the grade level; for example 5x5).

When first learning 5x5, it seemed very difficult for almost all of us. Now we can reply within a second when asked for the answer. Multiplication facts should be learned so well that the answer comes within a second.

Elaine would reinforce multiplication by having students write answers on their individual white boards using dry erase markers, participate in multiplication contests, and think of multiplication facts silently while standing in lines, for example waiting to enter the lunchroom (Elaine never liked wasted time during school hours).

HOT OR HIGHER ORDER THINKING BRAIN

The frontal cortex is where we work with higher order thinking. We make connections between the content brain areas (synthesis). We work with judgment and evaluation.

In the Technology chapter, we mention Intel's Thinking Tools. Every teacher should consider using these to help student better develop advanced thinking skills.

BLOOM'S AND HIGHER ORDER THINKING INFO

These are the wall signs I created to help students understand Bloom's. The signs are available for download (free) on my website.

This colorful sign with flowers mixes left brain steps with right brain art. It appealed to the students who were more right brain (artistic, colorful, interesting). The triangle sign was the preference of left-brain dominant children (step-by-step logic that always moves to a conclusion). We posted both on our wall.

Once a week, if not more often, one of the students would be called on to "direct" the class in Bloom's. The leader student would call on other students to each list one of the categories and explain what that meant. Sometimes, students also had to give an example.

IS THIS THE SMART, EMOTIONAL, OR SURVIVAL THING TO DO?

Students are in their physical bodies and very emotional. The goal of using Elaine was for them to ask themselves, "Is this the smart thing to do?" OR "Is this emotional behavior?" or "Am I in survival mode?" By asking such questions, students could better made decisions about behavior.

AM I DOING THE RIGHT THING AT THE RIGHT TIME IN THE RIGHT WAY AND FOR THE RIGHT REASON?

When students learn to ask themselves this question, they are adding a level of ethical or moral behavior and, while we don't discuss religions in our elementary classroom, students can learn character traits that are acceptable to the community. In DISD we had a program called Character Counts that promoted six pillars: Caring, Citizenship, Fairness, Respect, Responsibility, and Trustworthiness.

Mrs. Lucy Ford was our 21st Century Liaison at Silberstein and organized summer camp each year for students (as well as rounded up funds for us and did so much for our school). During one of the summers I participated and we had a Character Counts class complete with video. Students were divided into groups by age and given a color as their team labels. Teachers and Students wrote songs and worked out skits and dances and we video taped the children (we got released signed by parents, of course).

At the end of camp, Mr. Juan Amaya took the video footage and edited it so that we could create a Character Counts DVD for each child to take home. We wanted the kids to have something they could keep forever that emphasized living lives based upon acceptable behavior.

Multi-media is a very popular method for learning.

ROTE LEARNING

I know that "rote" is considered wrong in many school districts now, but I happen to believe repetition is an important facet of thinking and learning in some specific areas, in particular for multiplication tables.

BUILDING NEURON PATHWAYS

I created a PowerPoint featuring Elaine the Brain and titled "How We Learn." The kids loved the PPT because they realized that learning is about timing and repetition more than just one's natal ability.

In other words, when learning, we can't expect to pick up every fact or piece of information the first time we are exposed to it.

In Slide 1, there was a lovely field of green grass that looked as though nobody had walked across it.

In Slide 2, someone had walked across the field but you couldn't tell it. The grass had rebounded.

Slide 3, a few people had walked across and you could see where the grass showed foot imprints (grass pushed down where feet had trod).

In Slide 4, the grass had given way to a dirt path as more people had walked across the field.

In Slides 5 through 8, the dirt path became a one-lane road, then a two-lane road, then paved, and finally reaching the size of Interstate 30, which was near our school.

The children learned that the neuron pathways in our brains are like the roads – the more a path is traveled, the faster the trip. In other words, the more one repeats their multiplication tables, the sooner they are learned. The more one studies for a test, the better one will do, etc.

Repetition alters timing.

The children also learned from this that behaving in a certain way one time opens the door to repeated behavior. Therefore, don't smoke that first cigarette, don't use those drugs, don't steal from the store down the street, etc. Be a guard and protect one's brain's neuron pathways.

In addition to the PowerPoint, we posted photos on the wall to remind students to study at home and to not expect to catch on to everything the first time they heard or observed it. The photos were:

1) new content:

2) repeat it a few times, even in different ways (a song, art, reading, etc.) and a small path is created:

3) continue repeating and the road (neuron pathway) is stronger and we can travel faster:

4) continue studying, repeating, etc., and eventually we have a neuron pathway that works as well as an interstate highway; in other words, a teacher can say 6x8 and immediately a student replies 48 - the neuron pathway lets thoughts move quickly, efficiently, effectively, and accurately.

LEARNING STRATEGIES

We all get bored if exposed to the same thing to much or we don't have enough stimulation. By including a lot of learning strategies, the classroom never becomes dull and boring.

This is a list of Learning Strategies which I used in the classroom. When I became Academic Coordinator and did "walk-throughs" with the Principal, these are the types of activities I looked for. I'm including it in case you don't have a list and this list is in alpha order (it also is available as a PDF download at my website):

Active participation

Activity Centers (also listed as Centers)

Audiotapes

Bloom's Taxonomy

Call outs of student names to answer questions (using cards or sticks)

Centers

Checking for understanding

Choral

Classroom management with rules and consequences

Cooperative Learning

DVDs

Differentiated Instruction (opposite of Whole Group Instruction)

Displaying student work

Graphic Organizers done by students (Inspiration is a great computer software program for creating these)

Guided Practice

Hands-On (manipulatives are not quite the same, since hands-on can mean making things from scratch)

Higher Level Thinking questions

Independent Practice

Instructional Path

Know-Want to Know-Learned

Listening Activities

Manipulatives (not quite the same as hands-on since manipulatives are typically connecting or rearranging items that are presented to us)

Mentoring

Modeling

Monitoring and Adjusting

Note taking

Objectives posted

Oral reading

Order (which information is missing in the empty box)

Open with comprehension question, modeling, move to Differentiated as necessary, then closure, summarizing, and review

Pair-Share

Partner Reading

Peer Instruction

Pneumonic devices

Portfolios

Praising students

Predictions by students

Probing questions

Profiling Students

Projects

Print Rich Environments

QAR – Question and Response

Questioning strategies

Quiet Time/Rest time

Reciprocal teaching

Refocus students' attention

Round Robin Reading

Rubrics (not used much in many classes)

SDAIE (Specifically Designed Academic Instruction in English)

SSR (Sustained Silent Reading)

Scaffolding – Teacher asks comprehension question and students answer, using think aloud strategy

Setting High Expectations

Shadowing

Small Group Instruction

Student demonstrations in class

Student projects

Student asks Comprehension question and students answer.

Students using planners and outlines

Student worksheets that require thinking (not just busy time sheets)

Summary Box

Summary/Closure

Teacher asks comprehension question and teacher answers the question in order to model his/her thought process and discussing what he/she is doing during the modeling

Timed reading

Timelines

Transition

Venn Diagrams (Compare and Contrast)

Video Tapes

Visuals (overhead projector, easel pads, white board, projections onto wall screens)

Volunteer vs. non-volunteers

Web Mapping

Whole Group Instruction (opposite from Differentiated Instruction)

Word Walls for content areas (vocabulary)

Writing Activities

*****

## Chapter 5 - Classroom Management & Behavior

Life begins with classroom management. If the teacher can't control and manage what is going on in the room, most of the kids are losing opportunities to learn. It always is important for students to know what to expect. Using an agenda (later chapter), posting rules and expectations, and using routines can help with management.

As I mentioned in the Introduction, Dr. Harry Wong's company prepared a series of videos that cover every aspect of classroom management. I read his book on this topic but really found the videos to be a better resources (for me, I'm a visual person). Also, there are free videos on the Internet one can watch on classroom management.

JOBS AND RESPONSIBILTIES - CHORES

On our cabinet doors, we had graphics of jobs with student's names. I'm including examples of the signs we used. The students always knew their assigned jobs and the day for it to be completed. Also, obviously, we didn't have a shark in our fish tank, but the kids like this graphic better than that of a goldfish. As mentioned in the Introduction, I always listened to my students. After all, our classroom was a mutual learning environment.

I used Microsoft PhotoDraw for all the artwork and bought a CD with 4000 clipart graphics ($9.99 at Office Depot). The graphics were copyright free and colors could easily be changed.

Students selected chores every two weeks so that all the kiddos would have opportunities to be responsible for different tasks.

The top graphic was a reminder to feed the fish in the aquarium. Second was a reminder for students to water our plants. Third reminded the students in charge of turning lights off and the bottom art represented a small wave machine we had to relax the students, especially during the six-week period in which the state achievement test would be taken (TAKS). However, we did use the machine daily. One student took care of that.

It was important for students to learn to think of others, so an important job each day was for one student to be sure chairs were placed on top of desks to make cleaning the floor much easier for the cleaning crew. This is that sign:

When we moved into the new building (from the carpeted floor portable) we had a white tile floor that seemed much cleaner and made the room brighter. Our new chairs and desks were creating black marks on the tile, se we made felt covers for the legs of the desks and chairs. We used this as a math lesson, since students cut out the cardboard circles as templates for cutting the felt. Large thick rubber bands were used to hold the felt caps to the legs.

On Fridays, we made sure the aquarium was cleaned (and any other items that needed a weekly cleaning, although the graphic doesn't show others). Because I was self-contained, we had science projects each week and made sure to include those in the jobs.

RULES AND CONSEQUENCES

We had our list of rules for the classroom and students created that list. We also had tiers of consequences, the first mis-step having the lightest consequence.

I learned right away that students could take charge of their own misbehavior. I created a log and when a student caught himself or herself breaking a rule, that student would get up from the desk and walk to the log and write the infraction (with date, time, etc.) plus designate a consequence. The log we used is available in PDF format for free download at my website.

Most behavior problems were minor. We did have a few more serious ones and I had three ways of handling those.

My students reminded me of that on May 29, 2012 when we enjoyed our First Annual Silberstein Student-Teacher Get-Together.

Many of my students were children of adults who worked for cash and if the parent missed work that day, there was no income.

I wore my cell phone around my neck and when a student created such a problem that classroom instruction stopped, I would pull out my phone from its holder and threaten to call the parent and ask him or her to come and sit with the student in the classroom. Students and I knew parents would be very angry at missing pay for the day and that method worked very well.

A second method was harsher and some might totally disagree with this, but I wanted my students to appreciate the benefits we have because we live in America.

I often told them millions of people have died to preserve this country.

One day, a student was misbehaving badly and, since I had a computer in my classroom with access to the Internet and a large wall screen, I did a search for photos of children in Africa who are starving to death and are skin and bones. At the time, the estimate was that 10,000 children a day died in Africa from starvation.

I told my students that I thought any one of those children who would die that day would be very happy to exchange places with any one of my students (by the time I'm writing this in 2012, the number is 20,000 deaths a day).

I explained if those children came to school in America, they would have free breakfast and free lunch, and if there were no food in the house for nighttime, they probably would receive food to take home (many schools have this volunteer-sponsored program).

Further, I said I thought those kids would behave perfectly and learn everything they could in order to have the privilege of an American education.

I very sternly told my students that, if I were in charge of the world, I would make students who misbehaved exchange places with a child who wanted to behave in order to have a chance to live.

Also, I asked my students who paid for their education. They said it was free because that was their thought.

I went to the windows and pointed to the houses around the school and explained how property taxes are collected by school districts to pay for their education. Therefore, the people in those homes and owners of nearby apartment buildings were limiting their fun money in order to pay what was required. I don't believe anything is really free - that someone pays in some way for what appears to be free and I wanted students to recognize there is a responsibility with every benefit.

The third method I used was brought out only if the first two didn't work. The third method involved a very long form a student had to complete regarding his or her future. I think I've made the PDF of the document available for free download on my website. It was a major chore for a kiddo to complete every page, so it was easier to simply behave.

As it turned out, behavior techniques worked.

RULES IN THE CLASSROOM

Kids don't like rules. Neither do most adults or there would be no need for speed limit signs on the highways. To make the rules fun, we had different characters in the classroom.

One item the children loved was RoboKid, a little robot toy I bought at a Dollar Store for $6. Since RoboKid thought he was a real kid, he had his own robot, who was named Tornado Toes Tucker. In the picture, RoboKid holds Tornado in his (Robo's) right hand.

Tornado Toes Tucker taught the boys to, "Get those shirt tails and that jewelry tucked in." (We had a dress code.)

To the girls he would say "Don't you look pretty!"

The voice was mine, just making a crazy little voice with all words at the same level, so I sounded like a robot.

RoboKid's movement was straight and back and his arms would move up and down. A little red tray came with the toy and could be placed on his hands so that he could carry items. Sometimes, he picked up homework by going up and down the lanes between desks.

Tornado Toes Tucker moved in circles.

The other little robot toy also moved forward and back. Her name was Trudy and she taught Truth and Consequences. The students learned to admit when they broke a rule and to write it in the log we kept. Specific consequences were spelled out in the log, so the kids always knew what to expect when they misbehaved. They were responsible for taking care of the consequence and marking that in the log. As they discovered, we don't always have someone looking over our shoulders to keep track of our responsibilities. Instead, it is up to us to self-monitor.

To save batteries, I paid attention to keeping the robots turned off when not in use and also took the batteries out of the toys when we were on week-long breaks.

FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS

Routines are important in the classroom and from day one students need to know exactly what is expected of them. These expectations can come from fun "teachers."

Lenny Lion was very popular in our classroom.

He taught the kids to "lion (line) up straight." and to "roar in their heads." The latter meant we used those moments we waited in line (to get into the cafeteria, music class, etc.) to practice multiplication tables or other information silently. Some subject matter must be taught by rote practice and the multiplication tables are among those subjects.

I chose to not let my students waste one minute of their time on campus.

Various toys in the classroom taught rules and the kids would remind each other of our regulations by using the name of the toy. It was never, "Ms. Gabor said," and I seldom had to remind them.

*****

## Chapter 6 - Using an Agenda

This isn't a photo of the actual agenda I used in class. I do have parts of it in my office. I'm producing a graphic to show you about how our agenda looked. Making and keeping the daily agenda is a task the students can do. It teaches higher order thinking skills in that the students organize to communicate.

By having an agenda of the day's schedule, we help students better apply time management as well as take responsibility for what is happening in the class.

Specific times can be added and the class can have a person to remind everyone of activities. This helps students to automatically line up at the appropriate time. The more the students self-manage, the more they will accomplish. Accomplishment builds self-esteem.

If you use an agenda, it doesn't have to be this extensive. To create the agenda I used in class, I laminated a rectangle of colored butcher paper. Graphics were cut out and laminated. I applied squares of Velcro to the background and to the back of each graphic. By doing that, we could easily change the order, if necessary.

Reminder: During TAKS or STARR or any other state testing, we take down or cover EVERYTHING in the room.

*****

## Chapter 7 - Teaching State Curriculum

It is vital for students to understand what they are supposed to learn. In Texas, our curriculum as designed by the Texas Education Agency is labeled "Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills" (TEKS). Each year, students would be tested on content. When I was an educator, those exams were labeled "Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills" (TAKS). They now are called the STARR tests. I wanted students to always find out what expectations were at play in assignments – not just for their school years but for their entire life.

Since most of the kids love Bart Simpson, I used a computer program called "Huge" to blow up a graphic of him (Huge can blow up anything to a max of 20 feet by 20 feet - I found it as a download on the Internet and it wasn't very expensive; I'm sure there are other programs available now).

We hung Bart above a window and placed on each side a sign for each of our four content areas (math, reading, social studies, and science).

Hanging from each sign was a list of all the TEKS we would learn for the year for our grade level. A red clothespin would be placed next to the TEKS on which we were working during a specific lesson.

I always told the kids that I was VERY glad we didn't have Bart Simpson in our classroom. He would need ALL the attention and that wouldn't be fair to them.

"However," I would say, "Bart is very smart and understands the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS - or whatever your own state standards are). Since it is important that we know our objective for each lesson, Bart keeps track of them for us. We are smarter than Bart and we can use the TEKS (your state standard) to help us learn."

The kids love Bart because he is so rebellious. We don't want to reinforce rebellion, but we do want to let the kids know that we love them and they don't have to be perfectly behaved to be loved. I stressed it was their behavior that was inappropriate sometimes, never the child.

To help them realize that we all have different personas we use for various tasks, I would ask, "If you are taking a test, which of the Simpson children would you rather have next to you?" Of course, all answered, "Lisa."

"If you were going to Six Flags, which one?" Of course, all answered, "Bart."

The lesson for the children is: we use different personalities at different times (this is actually related to the brain lobes, left and right, as mentioned earlier in this book). We have a fun personality and a learning personality and an assessment personality. We can build brain neurons that help us 1) know the difference and 2) use the right personality for the right time. By differentiating, we also help students build classification skills.

When this photo was being taken, we were in a Social Studies lesson. That is why you see the red clothes pins designating those TEKS.

Regardless of how you present this information to students, they need to know the Student Expectation (SE) and TEKS (your expectations) for the lesson. We always start with an objective. Next comes the lesson. We should always end with restating our objective and deciding how much of it we think we got. This teaches goal setting, implementing, and analysis. It is important for children to realize that we don't learn everything the first time we are exposed to content. With every additional exposure, we add more to our "repertoire. This takes pressure off the children (and off ourselves). We are all works in progress. (Note in previous chapter the way we reinforce brain neuron pathways by repetition as shown with photos of the grass, then footpath, then road, then interstate.)

Of course, as teachers, we use various methods of assessment to determine for ourselves how much of the lesson the child comprehended, can apply, etc.

I didn't "teach to the test." I believe if students learn the lessons throughout the year, they will do fine on the state tests with the one exception area: second language students do struggle with vocabulary on some of the questions. However, they should have enough vocabulary mastery to do well. We'll talk about vocabulary later, but I did use a method to help the second language learners with English.

*****

## Chapter 8 - Characters for Critical Thinking Skills

ORGANIZE, VISUALIZE, FANTASIZE - The Eisenpurses \- no photo anymore.

Students must learn to organize, visualize, and fantasize. Since each word ended with the letters ize, like eyes, I took old purses and hot-glued eyes to them.

Teaching organization is simple. A clear plastic box with dividers can be bought for $1 at the dollar type store and can be provided to students along with a bunch of items like paper clips, beads of various colors and other small items. Students who don't grasp organizing can be allowed to separate the items and place the like ones into the small box areas of the larger container.

From this step, they can work on organizing books in the bookcase or organizing other items in the classroom. The goal is for them to organize their time and work and the agenda, already mentioned can help with time.

Having students take everything from their backpacks and making sure all items are well-organized (or organizing their lockers if they have them) is another possibility. Once in awhile, I would have students pull items from our cabinets and better organize them.

Some students already know how to organize by time they reach upper grades and other tasks can be assigned to them.

For visualizing, I used lots of graphic organizers as well as the software program Inspiration so that students could better visualize their thoughts. Intel's Thinking Tools is a wonderful resource to use with students. The main page for their resources for teachers is at  http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/education/education-online-resources-for-educators.html?cid=sem116p12077.

I had student create their own graphic organizers and show them to the class. In addition, in reading, we used a large paper on the wall for students to write answers. I remember when Anna Reeves and Cindy Jackson came to our school to teach us how to better teaching reading. They provided excellent resources for us to use.

Since I wanted students to be creative and to fantasize in order to write creatively, students could write on small slips of paper crazy ideas and fantasies and we would keep them in the Fantasize purse. They could be taken out anytime to use as writing prompts.

DEDUCTIVE AND INDUCTIVE REASONING

Meet D. Duck and N. Duck

We didn't do too much with inductive and deductive reasoning, but students were expected to know it. We never were tested on it, although the concept was in our TEKS.

The sign that hangs with the ducks lists the order: our school, block, community, city, county, state, country, planet, solar system, universe. N. Duck begins at the bottom with the smallest part and can climb to the top. D. Duck starts with the big expanse and moves to the bottom.

The ducks are tied to opposite ends of a thick string so students would recognize these two types of thinking begin at opposite places. Also, the ducks could move as the string was pulled. When D. Duck came down, N. Duck moved up. This was the best way I could think of for teaching this concept.

Again N. Duck is at the bottom and moves upward and D Duck at the top and moves downward.

*****

## Chapter 9 - Reading

To me, learning to read well is vitally important as a Life Management skill. Learning to read should become fun and not a chore.

Teachers who provide lots of interesting reading can make this subject more fun.

This photo is me in a polar bear outfit reading a book about a polar bear. This was during our "One Great Day of Reading" event at the school and various teachers and staff dressed up in costume to make reading more fun for the children.

With reading, and my students learned to read contracts, I emphasized that the tiny print can often be the most important. I told them the story of a man I knew who had bought a beautiful ring for the girl he wanted to marry. Both were seniors in college. He had learned to read, but had never made himself develop the patience or the skill to read a contract thoroughly, especially reading the small print.

He had two years to pay off the ring. Interest was added to the purchase price. When the young man got down to the last two months, he was laid off from his job and struggled to pay his bills. Therefore, he became late paying for the ring. He shortly learned from the Jewelry Company, PER THE CONTRACT, that if he didn't pay his last payment on time, the amount of interest on the ENTIRE SALE would be added to the final payment. This meant he paid a high percentage of interest TWO TIMES.

As he later said to me, "If I had read the contract and realized that penalty, I would have shopped at a different store. I learned my lesson and I really wish my teachers in school had taught me how to read contracts."

As mentioned in the Introduction, I set up a sound system, podium, and microphone so that students could do our group reading by standing at the podium and using the microphone. It wasn't easy at first for some of the more shy students, but in no time they had grown accustomed to the task. Students have told me it built self-esteem in them and, in no time, they were used to being in front of the group.

VOCABULARY

I can't emphasize enough the need for a teacher to have adequate high frequency word walls and content specific word walls which should exist for each subject taught. Since I was self-contained some years, our classroom walls were covered with items. But the word walls were important and couldn't be overlooked or neglected.

GREEK AND LATIN PREFIXES AND ROOT WORDS

In elementary school, our students took a state test in reading from 3rd grade on. Because our kiddos were almost all second language, English vocabulary was somewhat difficult for them.

To combat this, I created lists of prefixes and emphasized that their Spanish language came from the same roots as many of our English words. Students received lists and also, each morning as class was starting, we would go over a few of the words. On my website at http://LeeGabor.com I made the lists available in PDF format for free download. One list shows the English word compared to the Spanish word.

COGNATES

These are words that are almost identical in two languages. I created a list of English and Spanish Cognates for students to use and it is available on my website.

*****

## Chapter 10 - Characters for Reading and Language Arts

This sis a long chapter since it includes almost all the characters we used in our reading and language arts class work.

As an ESL teacher, I wanted to find ways to help my students better comprehend the many labels required to know in Reading and Language Arts. From dollar type retail stores, I bought lots of little Characters and they taught the class.

Of course they don't really talk. I would tell the students that the characters come to life after school when nobody was there but them and me. They would give me their lesson plan for the next day and I am presenting the lesson they wanted to teach. Naturally, I'd have the character(s) next to me during the lesson. Also, students would participate and sometimes they would come up with a lesson and share it with the class. Students also created lessons using PowerPoint® presentations and shared them with the class.

The kids loved the characters. Of course, they knew the truth, but it makes our classroom lots of fun.

Following are photos of most of our Characters. I'm not including TEKS since they apply only to Texas curriculum. Typically, 5th and 6th grade students are taught these topics.

PARTS OF SPEECH – Party Patty

Party Patty is an octopus with her eight legs. She was a natural for teaching the eight Parts of Speech. We hung a label on each of her legs.

Occasionally, a student would use Party Patty to teach about one of the Parts of Speech

Patty was used to teach synthesis in Bloom's Taxonomy. I never told the students the Blooms' list of which I was thinking. Instead, I provided characters and let the students figure out Bloom's themselves. I would put the character up for a few days and then one day we ask a student to describe him or her. With Patty, they figured out she has 8 legs. We talked about the eight Parts of Speech. When I asked, "Why do you think we chose Party Patty the Octopus to teach Parts of Speech?" one of the kids quickly answered that the 8 represented the 8 Parts of Speech. By using an octopus, it was easier for kids to remember there are eight parts.

Someone else would add that by calling her Party Patty we were connecting the letters p, a, r, t, to the word Part in Parts of Speech.

Another of the students would then either comment on which Bloom's thinking we had just done (synthesis) or ask, if it seemed a little difficult. Having the Bloom's signs on the wall reminded students to be aware of the types of thinking they were doing.

Patty always hung in the classroom and, therefore, was always there to remind students of the names of the parts.

I bought Patty for $1 at a dollar type store.

Please note, in my ebooks, Pig Tales: The Adventures of Patty, Prissy, and Pablo, I changed the name for the Parts of Speech teacher to Penelope, the Octopus, since Patty is one of the three pigs who run the University of Piggsburg.

NOUNS – Soccer Boy

Students quickly understood why the soccer player was chosen to teach nouns. Soccer Boy is a person, a soccer field is a place, and a soccer ball is a thing.

He hung from the ceiling.

I bought this doll for $1 at The Dollar Store.

VERBS - by Action Figure (no photo available)

Action Figure taught Verbs, both action verbs and "to be" verbs like is, are, etc.

ADJECTIVES - The Three Witches

The kids love the poem about Adjectives. At our first annual Student-Teacher Get-Together May 29, 2012, students mentioned the poem and that the witches really helped them to remember adjectives.

These were three identical Halloween witches bought for $1 each at the Dollar Tree. I made the 3-legged stool out of cardboard and Popsicle sticks.

This is the poem I wrote to help students learn adjectives by focusing on the word "which":

Three ugly witches sitting on a stool,

Only one will go to school.

Meet Madge Modifier and Evil Nose,

and Wicked Wanda, in her picture pose.

Madge, a teacher, the best in town,

loves to describe each favorite noun.

WHICH car crashed? WHICH bell is rung?

Adjectives answer in every tongue!

Blue car crashed. School bell's late!

Ad-jec-tives are really great.

So Madge will tell us if we heard

an adjective – descriptive word.

Now the question we must ask,

Who will help us with this task?

"Which witch is Madge?" is my itch!

Which witch? Which witch? Which witch?

The witches hung in a specific place in the classroom. We didn't move characters from place to place. Instead, each had a permanent home. The reason for this? When TAKS test time came, if the word "adjective," for example, were used, students could look at a spot in the classroom and remember the witches. This technique was especially important with Big Bear. You will meet him in a moment.

OTHER PARTS OF SPEECH

Nouns, verbs, and adjectives were the three most important parts of speech. To teach the other five, student teams created PowerPoint® presentations and each team taught one.

ANTONYMS - The Ants

Antoinette (left) and Anthony (right) taught Antonyms. They existed only in the sign.

There were opposites. Antoinette was a line drawing with no coloring inside her and Anthony was colored black inside. Of course the first three letters of their names helped the students remember Antonyms.

This is a close-up of the drawing of Antoinette one of the students created and we added to our sign. I loved the high heels.

I preferred for students to do the drawings whenever possible. They didn't seem to care about the quality of my artwork. They just enjoyed the ideas. Therefore, to teachers, especially new ones, please don't hesitate to try drawing. We can only improve as we do so. Whenever possible, let students do the work.

Also, by letting students participate in the lesson, they seemed to better grasp content. They became more involved in their learning.

SYNONYMS - Sammy Salmon

Synonyms are words that sound the same and Sammy Salmon taught this topic.

Again, this was a great way to teach synthesis. I asked students why the teacher's name was Sammy. They answered immediately that Sam's Sam's name has the same first three letters as the word "same" has. Also, Salmon (according to people in Seattle, Washington, where salmon fishing is a way of life,) pronounce the word salmon without the "l" sound so it sounds like samon.

ALLITERATION – Lizzie Lizard

I didn't buy all the toys and characters in the classroom. I started the trend, but the kids also brought in "teachers." One of the boys, Oscar Arias, brought Lizzie Lizard to teach alliteration. The kids would make up long sentences with most of the words beginning with the letter L and featuring Lizzie Lizard.

Recently, Oscar called me and asked how Lizzie is doing. By making the classroom THEIR permanent home for a year, they took ownership of the lessons.

I think the kids also created a PowerPoint® for an alliteration lesson. If so, and if I do a CD of the presentations, it will be there.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE - The Foods and a Car

In Texas, figurative language relates to word usage as taught to students.

Students seemed to get the concept of "literal language" very easily. Of course, literal language is simply a sentence in which the words express exactly what is meant. However, figurative language was a big more difficult. We used stuffed foods that hung on the wall with signs.

On the wall were signs with sentences along with the stuffed foods and a matchbox car that hung from the ceiling (you can't see the car in the photo). These included:

Simile – Her hair is as yellow as corn (simile uses words as or like).

Metaphor – She's a real tomato.

Hyperbole – I could eat 20 watermelons today.

Personification – My car? She's a beauty!

plus symbols like $, %, etc.

MAIN IDEA AND DETAILS - Dinah Sauer and the Little Sauers

This is Dinah Saur and the Little Saurs. They teach Main Idea (Dinah) and Details. The kids figured out that the tails on the dinosaurs represent details in the stories. Just before taking the Reading TAKS test, the class discussed where the characters were in the room. Students knew when they came to a main idea and detail question, to look at the wall where Dinah lived (place hints was true for all of our character teachers and all the objects in the room were taken down for the test). By remembering placement, they could better remember the meaning.

These items were bought at the dollar store. Dinah was $1 and the Little Saurs came in a package for $1.

As you can see in the photo, the Little Saurs were tied to Dinah.

You will meet Marco Marker in the Test Taking chapter, but it is important to mention him here. He was responsible to making sure the kids underlined, starred, or otherwise marked Main Idea and Details in a story or in Math, Science, or Social Studies lessons. Since students couldn't mark in the books, I tried to do a PowerPoint® presentation for every lesson. We would use the textbook, then look at the facts on the PPT. Students would tell me where to mark (change the font color) for the important facts.

RETELL - Polly Parrot

I no longer have a photo of Polly but she taught students to read a story and then be able to tell us the important details of the fiction or non-fiction work.

SUMMARIZATION - Miss Squiggles

This is Miss Squiggles. She started out as scrubbers. When the thread was pulled, she ended up being quite long. She taught Summarizing.

When students summarized narrative or fiction, we use Character, Problem, and Solution (CPS). When the text is expository or non-fiction, we use Beginning, Middle, and End (BME). The sign on Miss Squiggles explains this.

Students learned sequencing, which is having a proper Beginning, Middle, and End (BME)

When reading or writing non-fiction, we looked for facts. We checked our Title and our Topics or paragraph titles. At the end should be a summary type paragraph that ties to the Title.

When we worked with fiction, Miss Squiggles taught that we should have a Title that fits the story. There must be characters, setting, and plot. The end should have a resolution.

She said that summarizing is telling what has just happened in the story and that we can summarize after each paragraph or for longer sections of text. It is best to summarize using one main idea plus important details.

Miss Squiggles was a long character and her body made it easier for students to see there should be a beginning at the head, middle as the body, and end as the tail.

I bought two orange net balls (used for scrubbing) at the Dollar Store. One was left as it was bought and used for her head. The other was taken apart to make a long body. It was stretched out.

Eyes and a mouth were glued to the "head" and Miss Squiggles hung above the door. She taught, "Don't try to squirm out of a complete story! Be sure there is a Beginning, Middle, and End!"

LITERARY ELEMENTS - Character, Setting, Plot

CHARACTER – The Frogs

After my first year of teaching, more Frogs came along to teach various lessons about Character in a story. Freddy Frog (left front) was brought to class in my first year. He taught Character in general. He got used so often that part of his mouth is missing.

The Frog to the left rear is Fiona Frog, who taught Character Traits, such as hair color, gender, etc.

Lily Frog is right front. She taught Character Motivation.

There is another small frog behind Lily, but he is a Science Frog. He told the students he just liked being with the other frogs.

I brought Freddy to the classroom and all the other frogs were brought by the students.

As mentioned, we started with Freddie. His mouth is broken due to a fight one night between Catface and Rat. There is a Microsoft PowerPoint® about Freddie and because he is quite a character, he would hop into other PowerPoint® presentations that had nothing to do with him. Perhaps when I have time I will make the presentations available on CD.

SETTING - Sandy Sun

Setting also is one of the Literary Elements. Sandy Sun taught Setting, since suns set.

Sandy was a small digital clock attached to a magnet. I hot-glued on the eye. I don't remember now where she came from – possibly a dollar type store.

During my first two years, her magnet held her to the overhead projector. When we moved into a new classroom with the large magnetic wall-board, she went there to teach 'Setting."

Sandy offered another opportunity for student's to better grasp synthesis. I asked why a sun would teach setting and, of course, the kids said, because a sun will set.

PLOT - Catface, Pretty Flora, and Rat

These are Rat, Pretty Flora, and Catface. They taught Plots or Problems and Solutions. Catface and Rat argued all of the time (problem) and Pretty Flora mediated (found solutions).

The children loved the stories about these characters. Many I made up during class. We had a story of how we got Catface. I bought the cats at a garage sale, I think for 50 cents each, and Rat was a few dollars, bought at a teacher's supply store. Rat is a hand puppet.

Since we were in a portable in windy Texas, there were times both the cats were used to hold doors open. Most of the time, however, they sat on the counter with Rat, especially after I found a rock that looked like it had a head and a body. I painted brown eyes and a red mouth on the rock and we named it "Rocky" after my son and he held one of our two doors open.

When kids came to school in the morning we would make up some wild story (plot) about what had gone on between Rat and Catface after school the day before and especially in the night in the classroom. They loved the stores, since Rat and Catface hated each other and Catface always was trying to get Rat thrown out of the classroom.

Pretty Flora was the mediator and would suggest we all be nice.

By students making up plots using the cats and the rat, their creativity was stimulated. It seemed by giving them a structure, they could more easily come up with ideas.

We also used the cats and rat to teach Plot Lines. Here is an example of a plot that we can show the rise and fall of the Plot Line for: Catface and Rat are talking and Rat reaches toward Catface's clock which sits on the table. Rat then picks it up and changes the time, sets it down, picks it up again and turns the face of the clock toward the wall, picks up the clock and spits on it, and then Catface grabs the clock from Rat and throws it in the trashcan. Students can be asked to suggest other conflicts and rising actions as well as climax and resolution.

LITERARY DEVICES - Theme, Repetition, Style, Tone, Mood, Dialogue

THEME - Uma Umbrella - no photo anymore

We had a lovely beige lace umbrella in the classroom with pretty pink ribbon around the handle. She helped students understand the over-arching theme of a story or what the story was about.

REPETITION - Repi Tito - no photo anymore

A bobble head doll was named Repi Tito since his head would bob back and forth in a repeating manner. He helped students understand that repeating the same information over and over to helps us "catch on" to it.

STYLE - Harriett the Head - no photo anymore

At the dollar type store I found a head of dark hair that could be used for hair styling. I think she was on sale after Christmas and was about $4 or $5. Of course the girls loved her.

Harriett taught us that Style is how the author uses words. For example: Are the sentences long? Do they contain a lot of hard words that we need to look up in the dictionary? Are there so many idioms used that we don't have a clue to what is happening? In other words, is the author's style very "intellectual?" Or is the writing fun and easy to read and comprehend (like the novel Holes we read by Louis Sachar). Is the story dull and boring or is it lively and interesting. Each author has a "style," just like people choose certain "styles" for their clothes (casual, dressy, uniforms, classic) and their hair.

TONE - Tony Theatre Mask - no photo anymore

Tony was a two-sided mask, one face showing happiness and the other sadness.

Tony taught us that Tone is how the author feels about the story and the reader. Does the story feel hopeful or "dark." The author's personality comes through. He or she is positive or negative or neutral about the people in the story. For example, Tony taught us that in Holes, we could tell Mr. Sachar liked Stanley because the tone was positive. Even though Stanley was in trouble, we could see hope for him in the future.

Tony also told us to think of music tones – high notes on the piano produce feelings that are light and hopeful. Low notes produce feelings that are dark and heavy. Stories are like this.

MOOD - Monica Moody - no photo anymore

Monica Moody was a crescent moon made with tagboard. Eyes were hot-glued to her and a red mouth colored onto the board.

She taught that Mood or "atmosphere" or "feeling" would be seen in the setting and that it is a description that sets the stage for emotions. A short story may have only one mood. A long book may have many moods. For example, let's think of the movie Titanic and the people in the lifeboats who were watching as the ship reared up out of the water, broke into two pieces and sank or plummeted to the ocean bottom. In this setting, there was a COLLECTIVE GASP (everyone gasps). The mood is horror. It is dark (happens at night). In the REAL Titanic situation, the mood is dark and sad and so is the tone – it is a major tragedy. In Holes, however, there could be moments of moods in which characters were angry, tired, etc., but the overall tone of the novel was hopeful and that all would be OK in the end.

DIALOGUE - taught by the Literary Elements teaching Character, the Frogs

We didn't have a character to specifically teach Dialogue. Instead, we used the Frog to work with this, since they represented characters in stories.

Dialogue is set off with quote marks to show that the characters are talking to each other. For example: "Hello," the 12-year-old student said as she answered the phone. "Is your father home?" the man asked. She quickly replied, "Dad, stop trying to fool me. I always recognize your voice." They both laughed.

When using punctuation, the final mark (period, comma, question mark, exclamation mark) goes inside the last quote, for example,

"Stop talking, Rat!" Freddie Frog said.

"Wait a minute, Flora," Fiona Frog yelled, "are you going to the new Hispanic Cultural Museum?"

TIME DEVICES - Timmy Time the Acrobat - no photo anymore

Timmy Time the Acrobat was a 12 sided soft object with a year of calendars on it. He taught all the time devices:

FLASHBACK takes us back in time. For instance, in Holes we read about Stanley's great grandfather and the pig/girlfriend story as though we're right there.

FORESHADOW gives a hint of what will happen in the future.

SYMBOLISM is using things for something else. For instance, a storm outside could be used as a symbol for a stormy relationship among people.

GENRE - Jean Francais - no photo anymore

Jean was a doll that looked like a sophisticated young man. He taught students various types of genres including:

FICTION: adventure, fables, fantasy, folklore, historical fiction, horror, mystery, myths, poetry, romance, science fiction, sports fiction; tall tales.

NON-FICTION: biography and auto-biography, editorials, essay, informational texts, journal entries, magazine articles, recipes, speech, and other.

DRAMA: can be based on fiction or non-fiction and uses dialogue to tell the story.

POETRY: usually, but not always, includes rhyme. A special form is limericks, which are 5-line poems that rhyme as this example:

There was an old man from Peru,

who dreamed he was eating his shoe.

He awoke in the night

and turned on the light

and found it was perfectly true.

DENOTATIVE AND CONNOTATIVE - Dennis Dictionary and Crazy Connie

From tagboard I made two figures. Dennis had a head, body, and arms and legs. He looked exactly like a person would look and was dressed in a suit and tie. Connie, the tagboard girl, on the other hand looked really crazy. She had lipstick in the wrong place, wild eye shadow, wild hair, her clothes didn't match, etc.

I wish I still had the characters or at least a photo of them.

Dennis taught that in denotative text, author means exactly what the dictionary meanings are. Since this is exact, it MAY be dull. Example of Denotative: Rat received many awards.

Connie taught in connotative text, the author has elaborated or extended or added feeling to the meaning. This usually makes it more interesting. Example of Connotative: Awards were showered on Rat. The word "showered" shows connotation. ("Showered" is like a rain shower.) The latter is more elaborate.

CAUSE AND EFFECT – Eddie Elephant and the Dominoes

Eddie Elephant was one of the students' favorite "teachers." As you can see from the photo, he was in pretty bad condition. I had this wooden elephant for years as a decorator piece and was going to trash it when it occurred to me we could use it for Cause and Effect.

You can see Eddie Elephant's leg is bandaged and he wears very thick glasses. He is missing his tusks and is scarred.

The Dominoes were a singing group that represent the idea that for every cause there is an effect.

Students would make up long stories about Eddie' Elephant's adventures around the school. When we were studying the states in Social Studies, Eddie Elephant actually went to San Francisco where he fell over the railing of the Golden Gate Bridge and had to hang there by his trunk until a ship went under the bridge and he could let go. He fell over the railing because he wasn't paying attention to the traffic.

Anytime we had an accident in the classroom, Eddie Elephant was mentioned. He also warned the students (actually they warned each other) to be careful crossing streets, to do their homework, to study, to not use drugs, and much more.

Eddie got into so much trouble. He would act, usually without thinking, and then there would be a reaction. He was trying to learn to make better decisions about his actions.

The kids loved setting up the Dominos and watching them fall in order.

I think I originally bought the elephant in a thrift shop. I had him for a long time. Glasses came from Michael's and were hot glued to him. His eyes were painted in and a bandage added to his leg. The dominoes came from a game.

CLARIFICATION – Clara Fly and Mud Pie

Clara Fly taught students that we sometimes need to clarify our thoughts. We can start with a draft and then improve. We become more specific instead of speaking or writing in generalizations.

I bought the plastic fly for $1 at the Dollar Store and purchased three identical Barbie type dress sets that had the boots in them. Each set was $1. The hat I found at Michael's Craft Store and I don't remember the exact cost, but probably no more than $1 if that.

I cut out the star (white felt) and hot-glued it to the hat, then hot-glued red felt lips and painted her big blue eyes with acrylic paint.

She hung from the ceiling on an elastic band, so she appeared to dangle or fly at times.

Clara Fly and Mud Pie (not in photo) make quite a team. Mud was made as a glob of PlayDough® and painted dark brown, then hot-glued onto a dish (sorry, I didn't take a photo of him). Together Mud and Clara showed us that ideas could be so dense we don't know what we're thinking. Clara comes to the rescue. She teaches us how that sometimes we need to clarify or say something in a different way so that we better comprehend.

IDIOMS - Idiot Boy

Idioms are crazy sayings in English (and other languages) that don't make sense. For example, in the sentence "She caught a cold," the term "caught a cold" is idiomatic. It isn't literal.

Perhaps "Idiot Boy" wasn't a "politically correct" name for this character, but the students had to learn about idioms and this seemed to be the best way.

We made this character from white board and hot-glued on the eyes, nose, and mouth as well as two stubs for arms. His hat says 'Pie in the Sky."

This photo was taken early in his use. The orange triangles contain written idioms. When someone in the classroom would say an idiom or we would find one in our reading, a student would write the idiom on a triangle and would staple it to "Idiot Boy" to form the arms and legs. We kept a supply of orange triangles (construction paper) near him.

Because the words idiom and idiot are different by only one letter, students were able to connect idiom to crazy sayings.

INFER – Big Bear

This tall bear was at my son's business when he bought it. Rocky didn't want to keep it and gave it to me to use in the classroom. Before getting Big Bear in the summer of 2003, I used fabric for the same concept.

The fabric was brown fake fur and I bought a yard of it at Wal-Mart. I wrote clues on pieces of paper, folded over the paper, and pinned them to the fabric. The students would look for the clues "in the fur." The clues and solution were easy. For example, the various pieces of paper might say:

"He was Governor of Texas."

"His wife was a school teacher and librarian."

"He lives in a large white house now."

"His father was President of the United States."

Teams of students would read the clues and write down their answer. All the teams got the correct answer of "President George W. Bush."

When Big Bear came to the classroom in the fall of 2003, we pinned clues "in fur." He always stood in the same spot. If "infer" came up on a test, students knew where to look to remind them of what the word 'infer' meant. I was very proud of how well that got this difficult concept.

Once in awhile in the middle of a math lesson, I would say, "What is this? – You go home after school and find groceries on the table. What can you infer?" or something similar. The students always got it!

They loved standing next to Big Bear, since he was larger than they were.

Pictured are a couple of my fifth graders from 05-06 studying clues.

This photo is of a couple of students with Big Bear covering up boards in the hall as they prepared for the state assessments (TAKS).

You can see the sign for the Homophone Twins attached to Big Bear. The kids could remember clues in fur meant you infer and homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings. Therefore, Big Bear seemed like the perfect place to hang the sign.

HOMOPHONES – Homie and Home E.

HOMOPHONES are taught by the Twin Phones. Students were asked to come up with examples: bear and bare, fair and fare, etc.

This was a sign I made using Microsoft PhotoDraw. I love this program. It is very easy to use and works extremely well with Word and the other Microsoft software.

READING FLUENCY - Fiesta Fish (no photo anymore)

Fiesta Fish was very colorful large stuffed fish one of the students brought to class. She taught that words should flow, just a fish look like they flow in a stream of water.

Also, some years we had an aquarium in the classroom and students would equate reading fluency with how fluid the fish were when the would swim. This helped them connect to fluency the act of being the ability to read smoothly.

TIMELINE – Simon the Snake

Timeline was one of our TEKS and Simon the Snake became quite a favorite of the students. Sometimes he hung doubled over as in the photo, but more often he hung vertically with his tail to the ceiling.

As you can see, Simon the Snake had lines across his body and these were used to illustrate timelines.

Simon the Snake came from the Dollar Store and kids still ask about him when they call me. They also often ask about Eddie Elephant and Big Bear. We always used the full names of our characters so there was never any confusion, especially since almost all of my students were second language learners.

Simon the Snake actually hangs vertically. He was folded over for the photo. He has stripes. The kids had an easy time understanding Timelines or Sequence (in 6th, they learn this as Progression of Ideas). A student would point to the lines, starting at the top or head and moving consecutively toward the tail. The class would think of sequences of events. For example: wake up, get dressed for school, eat breakfast, go to school, study, each lunch, etc. The Reading TAKS tests usually assessed this by showing four boxes. Three would contain text. The other box (usually in the 2nd or 3rd position) would be blank. Students read four passages and determine which one goes into that box. We taught strategies for figuring this out.

AUTHOR'S PURPOSE – Sylvia Spider

Sylvia Spider taught the four reasons an author would create a document. These were:

Inform (Sylvia's story: Dallas Has a New Latino Cultural Museum)

Persuade (Sylvia's story: Please Stop Talking)

Entertain (Sylvia's story: Martians Invade Silberstein to Steal the Goosebumps Books)

Explain (Sylvia's story: How to Bake a Cake and Why Would We Want To?)

One of the students brought Sylvia Spider to school. We added a microphone to one leg, a booklet and pencil to another, a laptop computer to another, and a pen to another. We also added earrings to her to emphasize her ears – that a story could be oral as well as written.

AUTHOR'S POINT OF VIEW - Pepe the Pirate and the Slantboards - no photo anymore

Pepe the Pirate had various glass eyes which students learned represented "perspective." Questions that could be asked included: What kind and how much information is the author giving us? Is the author stating facts or giving his/her opinion (slanting the story a certain way to influence how you think or feel)? Is the author using 1st or 3rd person in the writing? The narrator may be the main character (uses 1st person "I") or outside the story (uses 3rd person "he, she, etc.").

The Slantboards helped students recognize that an author could slant information a certain way. For example, an author who didn't like ice cream might have children eating cones and stating how awful the ice cream tasted versus how good potato chips would be.

COMPREHENSION – Sally Shoe

As you can see, Sally was a high heel shoe and the body of the shoe was all straps. There were silver sequins along the red straps and Sally was quite glamorous. I hot-glued eyes on the strap that went around the heel. The girls loved it

Sally Shoe related to Comprehension as follows; When we comprehend something, we understand it. Sally, being a shoe, stood under to represent understanding. Most of the time, she stood on a shelf in the classroom.

WRITING - Bucky Beaver and the Wooden Blocks

When we write, we build a story or informative piece. We all know beavers build their homes. Therefore, it seemed logical to use Bucky Beaver to teach writing. He used his wooden blocks to teach students how to build a great paper. The Steps of Writing:

1) Planning and Pre-Writing (brainstorm, list, map)

2) Drafting (write and don't erase and don't worry about punctuation, etc.)

3) Revising (focus on clarity, comprehension and content, delete what is no longer needed or add what you now need, reword, strengthen verbs, when possible, use dialogue to show rather than)

4) Share with others to gain ideas on how the paper can be improved

6) Edit and Proof to create a final product (use editor's marks, focus on "mechanics," which are grammar, spelling, punctuation, correct paragraphing, legal marks, copyright, if applicable, use CUPS – capitalize, usage, punctuate)

6) Publish

Bucky Beaver was brought by one of the students and I bought a bag of wooden blocks at the Dollar Store. The labels are hot-glued to the blocks.

WRITING - Major Problem and the Conflicts

Each story has at least one problem that the characters must solve. Some stories have one major problem as well as other more or less desperate ones. Example, in "Amaroq, the Wolf," Miyax is lost (major problem). She is starving to death (more desperate and immediate). Tests may ask, "What would you do if you were in that situation? How could that situation have been avoided? Name two ways the character could solve that problem.

We had only a sign for this, rather than characters. However, we discussed problems and solutions in every story we read.

GAMES

We tried to take a short break each day for students to play reinforcing games. A number of language arts games were purchased at teacher stores or on EBay. Students would select the game that could best help them in the area in which they were not as masterful as they needed to be.

From the task of putting the games away, students learned to be responsible for picking up every piece that might have fallen onto the floor.

*****

## Chapter 11 - Math

CALCULATORS

I made sure each student had their own calculator to use. We received these in my 4th year in the classroom. Prior to that, I had bought cheap calculators at the Dollar Store. I made sure students learned to do the math by hand and also could use a calculator in order to speed up the operations process.

PLACE VALUE AND MONEY

We had a very large place value chart I created to put on the floor in our classroom. Students would pull a piece of paper that gave them a single number, such as 3 billion. Students had to line up across the chart according to the number they pulled. This reinforced the place values for the kiddos.

Also, we used money whenever we were talking about any number to the right of the decimal point. They better understand that, since a dollar as 100 pennies, 10 dimes, etc.

We had quite a few boxes of play money for students to use during their short educational game time.

FRACTIONS

For fractions, we used a pizza game. It had a whole pizza and then the pizza divided into various sized pieces, for example 2 pieces, 4, 6, 8, etc. This helped them better understand fractions.

I purchased the game at the teacher's supply store.

PERIMETER - Perry the Bad, Glad, Mad, Sad Dog

Perry, the Bad, Mad, Sad dog taught one thing: Perimeter. The letters "per" in his name represented perimeter and the letters "ad" in the adjective part of his name represented the students to add, add, add.

The metric rulers formed the pen for Perry. He walked in straight lines and could stop and wag his tail. His eyes blinked.

Perry taught that regardless of the shape of the polygon, you measure each length and add them together.

MEASUREMENTS

I bought lots of extra rulers and we constantly measured in our classroom. As to Metrics, we studied that method in Science and the song and activity we created for metrics appears in the Science chapter.

*****

## Chapter 12 - Science

Science was the favorite subject for most students. We did lots of hands-on activities plus many songs and they appealed to the kiddos.

In the main hall downstairs, we had a very large aquarium and in our classroom we also had one, plus other little critters. Students were great at remembering to feed and care for the live things in our classroom. That included watering our plants.

CYCLES

This is a poster we did and put on the wall to illustrate very types of cycles. Students selected the photographs and explained the cycle that went with each. In 5th grade, students took a state science test and questions about at least one cycle would be on it.

SCIENCE TOOLS

Students also used computers to create graphics of science tools. The clip art let them add color and they enjoyed putting eyes and eyelashes and mouths on the tools.

Metrics

Although our Science TEKS required the students to work with the Metric System, in Math, they used the Conventional System. This made metrics more difficult for the students.

Learning the prefixes was necessary. In order to teach those, I wrote a song to the tune of "This Old Man." The title was "The Metrics Family." The words were typed into a PowerPoint® presentation and I used the Microsoft Agent to sing.

This is EWoman, one of the Microsoft Agents.

There are lots of them and they are really cute. I bought a software program from BellCraft that lets you write the dialogue for the Agent to speak and lets you give directions to the Agent so they can move around.

The website for that software is http://bellcraft.com. The software is titled MASH to stand for Microsoft Agent Script Helper. I used lots of the Agents in various PowerPoint® presentations and the kids really loved them. The Agents are free, but I needed software to be able to use them correctly.

Following is the song we sang:

The Metrics Family (tune is This Old Man)

Hector Hecto is a hundred years old. On a

centigrade thermometer he's hot, not cold.

He loves Kimmy Kilo, but she's too old for him,

A thousand pounds, she's fat not thin!

Delores Deka is their favorite child.

She's ten years old, very sweet and mild,

She says, "Hecto has two and Kilo has three.

I have just one, what's this mystery?" [Teacher asks, "WHAT IS SHE TALKING ABOUT?" Students answer, "ZEROS."]

One day Delores took her scissors of steel.

Her goal was a dozen avocados to peel.

But the blades slipped badly and fell into her Reeses.

Now her candy is in tiny pieces.

First she cut 10, Deci it is called,

1/10th of a thing, just watch those pieces fall!

Then each Deci separates into 10 more parts

Making Centi, like a hundredth of a heart.

Milli wears one-thousandth of a big pink hat.

Walking behind her is a tiny ugly rat!

What a family the Metrics are, all based on tens.

We love them, they're our measurement friends.

In this lesson, we used a tool I created using a 1-meter stick, a 1-liter bottle, and a 1-gram cube (photo following). Before we began the song, each child took his/her Metligram tool and one kiddo would explain these three objects. Students would discuss having more than 1 and less than 1. As we sang the song, they knew which verses represented more and which represented less.

In order to reinforce the prefixes and conversions from one metric measurement to another, we played Metric Bingo. I created the Bingo game using Excel then printed out the 28 cards and the questions. I ran all the cards through the laminator and then cut them apart. Game chips were purchased at the Teacher Store. This is a photo of one of the cards.

We had two signs on the wall to remind students of the metrics prefixed.

ELECTRONIC MODELS

I bought a rotating Solar System and students enjoyed turning it on and watching the planets revolve around the Sun.

DANCES

THE CONTINENTAL DRIFT

In Earth Science, we learned about Pangea and how the continents drifted. To help students grasp this concept, we created a dance.

We would all huddle together and some students would hold signs to represent the continents. The signs were made with cardboard cutouts that looked like the continents and attached to wooden paint stirrers from the hardware store.

In the huddle, we put our hands in front of us to meet in the middle and began to say "We do the drift" and then began our poem. As we chanted, we all began to back up in tiny steps, showing how continents pulled away. When we would reach the name of a continent in our chant, for example "I'm Asia," the student holding the sign for that continent would hold it up. We did this for all seven continents.

The Continental Drift (a dance for 5th Grade Earth Science)

Pangea, Pangea, is the name

All the land together, that's its fame.

Floating on the mantle and ready to split

See how the continents seem to fit!

We do the Drift, the Drift, the Continental Drift

We do the Drift, the Drift, the Continental Drift

We do the Drift, the Drift, the Continental Drift

Now we're seven places and we haven't quit!

We do the Drift, the Drift, the Continental Drift

We do the Drift, the Drift, the Continental Drift

We do the Drift, the Drift, the Continental Drift

Look at a map and see how we fit!

I'm Asia! I'm Africa, the largest you see!

I'm Australia! Antarctica, ice covers me!

I'm Europe! South America, happy to be!

And I'm North America, land of liberty!

Once we were together. Pangea was our name.

We were one huge land mass and that was our fame.

Then something happened, movement got a start.

Over millions of years we drifted apart, due to the

Drift, the Drift, the Continental Drift

We do the Drift, the Drift, the Continental Drift

We do the Drift, the Drift, the Continental Drift

Now we're seven places and we haven't quit!

We do the Drift, the Drift, the Continental Drift

We do the Drift, the Drift, the Continental Drift

We do the Drift, the Drift, the Continental Drift

Look at a map and see how we fit!

I'm Asia! I'm Africa, the largest you see!

I'm Australia! Antarctica, ice covers me!

I'm Europe! South America, happy to be!

And I'm North America, land of liberty!

REFRACTION

Students had a difficult time understanding refraction of light rays. Therefore, we created a dance. I took a large hula hoop and a clear plastic shower curtain. I cut the curtain to fit the top half of the hula hoop and taped it to the plastic hoop. Then I cut the clear plastic into strips from bottom to almost the top.

Two students would hold the refraction hoop so that other students could go through it. As the students moved, we chanted the following rhyme, repeating it constantly so that students could go bend over and go through the hoop the walk around the room and go through the hoop two or three more times. The objective was for them to get the words refract and bend.

Refract, Refract, Never bounce back

Take 2 steps forward, get ready for the bends.

Refract, Refract, Be a beam of light.

Bend your back and travel through the lens.

SONGS

One of the teachers gave me a keyboard to use with the students. We wrote and sand lots of songs. These are some examples.

Fifth 6-Weeks Curriculum (sung to tune of "The Old Gray Mare")

In this six week term, we actually had seven weeks, so we wrote the song for seven weeks. Each student also received a copy of the song to remind them of what we were studying each week.

The 5th 6 weeks we study what the earth is like, study what the earth is like, study what the earth is like,

The 5th 6 weeks we study what the earth is like, we call this Earth Science

The very 1st week we think about growing, then watch sugar dissolving, contemplate weathering,

We watch animation of a river flowing, and know that land erodes.

The second week we study trees' growth rings, the light and the dark rings are thin and thick rings,

We learn that rocks have a 3-step cycle: Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic.

The third full week we think about our resources, do we have enough to use and will we get some more of this.

We learn the terms of renewable, reusable, nonrenewable and inexhaustible.

The fourth full week we further talk of sediments and again we discuss weathering,

to see how earth is built and changed.

We know that earth is built up and destroyed by forces all around.

The fifth six weeks we learn about formation or making things we need to live like

coal and pretty minerals.

We know that oil and gas are our resources and Wow! It takes a long time to make some stuff!

The sixth six weeks we go into outer space, review the Solar System, remember Sun has gravity,

We go to moon and compare it to our Planet Earth. Our gravity keeps it close

The seventh six weeks we talk about our final, we will pass our final, then we will ace the TAKS test.

We are very smart and we are learning. We are Silberstein's BEST!

GOOD CONDUCTORS (sung to Mexican Hat Dance)

Such good conductors are we, you see.

Electrons flow through us so easily!

We are all metals, we're very shiny!

We are the bosses of E-LEC-TRI-CI-TY

I'M REFRACTION (tune is My Darling Clementine)

I'm Refraction! I'm refraction!

See the light move through the lens.

In clear water, see my magic give a

straw its breaks and bends.

In binoculars, in the microscope, in

your glasses see me act.

Even telescopes use my process and

that is a refraction fact.

REFLECTION (tune is Solamente Una Vez)

Light reflects from a thing

through my pupil to my retina.

Then it goes to my brain

and I give it a name.

I may see white, I may see black, I may see gray, or a million colors.

I may see square, I may see round, or maybe polygons abound when I see.

All I know is when I look, what I see are light rays,

They hit matter near me, showing different and same.

From the sun to the earth, to my state, to my town, to my classroom,

It's lights' REFLECTIONS, all bouncing, that help my friends matter to me.

I'M INSULATION (tune is La Cucuracha)

I'm insulation, I'm insulation,

I stop electrons' flow.

I'm insulation, I'm insulation,

I resist the task to go!

I'm insulation, I'm insulation,

Stop electricity!

I'm insulation, I'm insulation,

Nothing ever flows past me!

I may be glass or I might be plastic,

or maybe "rubber" describes me.

But whatever, we know I NEVER

allow the flow of E-LEC-TRI-CI-TY.

GRAVITY (tune is London Bridge Is Falling Down)

Gravity is pulling down, pulling down, pulling down.

Gravity is pulling down toward Earth's center.

Gravity is pulling down, pulling down, pulling down.

Gravity is pulling down toward Sun's center.

Measure gravity by weight, it's the weight, it's the weight

Less on Moon than on the Earth, data we enter!

STARS (to tune Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

I know what you really are:

Giant ball of glowing gas,

One of billions in a mass!

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

Oh, how big you really are!

Lights from a Satellite (tune is London Bridge is Falling Down)

Moon is Earth's satellite,

mirrorlike, reflecting light,

Shines on Earth when it is night,

Beautiful moonlight!

VIBRATIONS (tune of Amor)

Vibrations! Vibrations! Vibrations!

Now that I've found, what makes a sound

I know causation.

Vibrations! Vibrations! Vibrations!

When they are near, they pound my ear

with each pulsation.

It may be that bells ring or whistles may blow.

It may be a song I hear from old Mexico.

It may be the jets that fly so high overhead.

It may be the vocal cords creating what is said.

Vibrations! Vibrations! Vibrations!

The sound may stop or may go on

for a duration.

Vibrations! Vibrations! Vibrations!

Because I hear I'm full of cheer

and great elation.

Vibrations! Vibrations! Vibrations!

EXPERIMENTS

We did a lot of science experiences. Kids love to do hands on projects. Frilly is a toy that one of the teachers gave me. We had read the novel Holes and watched the movie. This type of lizard was featured in the movie and the kids talked about it often.

We decided to have Frilly be in charge of experiments. She sat on a counter and her sign was on the cabinet door above her head.

POSTERS

These are some more posters created by the students:

The two ecology posters were tacked to the wall side by side with the text underneath.

A balanced ecological environment has living beings and an unbalanced one doesn't.

HANDS-ON PROJECTS

There were three projects that students really liked. Sorry, I no long have photos of the first two projects mentioned.

We made a huge model of the DNA double helix and hung that in the classroom.

So that students could better understand reflection, each student made a reflection mirror and we hung them all from the ceiling. These were nothing more than circles made of tagboard sentence strips (about two inches wide, maybe ten inches long, placed into a circle and stapled). On one side, we added tin foil and left the other side open. We punched a hole in the tagboard near the open side and tied a piece of string about 14 inches long. The other end was tied around a large paper clip that was opened. The other end of the paper clip was used to hook to the ceiling.

Another hands on project was a terrarium each child made. We took a 1 liter plastic coke bottle. I did the cutting, making a cut almost all the way around the bottle about 1/3rd of the distance from the bottom. We pulled the top 2/3rds of the bottle away from the bottom 1/3rd. Kids added small pebbles, potting soil, and a tiny plant. The plant was watered. The top part came back down to meet the bottom and tape was added to hold the bottle closed. The water would evaporate, then condense keeping the plant environment moist. The plants grew very well.

At the end of the school year, students were able to take home their plants.

POWERPOINT® PRESENTATIONS

I've already mentioned the MASH software I used for PowerPoint presentations. You saw the image of EWoman who taught the song The Metrics Family. Here are a few others of the characters available to use.

This is Birdie, who taught renewable resources.

The kids loved Wartnose because he would fart. He taught non-renewable resources and was quite a personality with his temper tantrums and telling students to not use up what he was in charge of.

MATCHBOX CARS - no photo available

One of favorite science lessons of the boys was speed and direction. We used matchbox cars and ramps and went into the hall to do our experiment and chart our data.

At our dinner Tuesday night (May 29, 2012), one of the male students who loved that activity showed up and we discussed his wonderful mechanical ability, which he uses now in his job. When I mentioned the match car races, Nick's eyes lit up. He absolutely remembered the experiment.

*****

## Chapter 13 - Social Studies

There were three hands-on activities we did for this subject and I didn't take photos of these projects.

In 6th grade, we created a timeline of photographs attached to string and hung this from the ceiling around the classroom.

Also, one lesson was on petroleum in the Middle East and we made large cutouts of all the Middle Eastern countries and placed them on the floor. We developed a game to go with the countries so that students could memorize the name and geographical boundary of each country and be able to tell a bit about the resources and culture.

In 5th grade, we studied the states and capitals. Students made a cutout of each state and stabled it to a wooden paint stick so they could hold up the state for other students to identify. They also pinpointed the location and name of the capital city.

*****

## Chapter 14 - Test Taking Strategies

We used two characters to teach this topic. They were Marco Marker and Tilly Tally and you'll see photos of them in a moment.

As every teacher knows, the key to testing well is to comprehend the question, think about what is being asked, and find the best answer. Typically, in multiple choice tests, there are two good answers, but one is better than the other. There are, of course, two wrong answers. To help students take exams successfully, we used two techniques.

The first technique was to mark our test paper by underlining, drawing stars, circling words, highlighting with colors, etc. This helped bring out the most important facts.

MARKUPS - Marco Marker

The teacher for this first phase was named Marco Marker. I found a huge plastic crayon at the Dollar Store and hot-glued onto it two eyes. The eyes were purchased at Michael's Craft Store. I bought a package of large eyes and added them to quite a few of our "teachers."

By the way, the hot-glue gun was a $1 purchase and I bought extra glue sticks. This was used often in creating our "teachers," but I do advise everyone to use care since the tip can get quite hot. It is always wise to closely supervise students when they are using hot glue guns, scissors, etc.

The following photo is of Marco Marker.

 .

Marcos was the Over-Viewer. Students learn to MARK AS THEY LOOKED AT the Title, Sub-titles, photos, illustrations, graphic organizers, etc. The mark may be a check mark, underlining, circling, etc. Markers could be pencils, highlighters, colored markers, pens, etc.

TALLY MARKS - Tilly Tally

Tilly Tally taught the other way we would mark tests. This is called tally marking.

She was a large pencil Ms. Dvora Krause, a wonderful teacher with whom I worked, gave me to use for one of our characters. The dress and hat are from a Barbie type of fashion package from the dollar store. Eyes (package of miscellaneous sizes from Michael's) were hot-glued. Tilly hung in a certain place in the classroom.

Tally marks can be used in various ways. Typically we see them when counting. We mark four (4) vertical lines for four (4) items and then draw a diagonal line from the top of the last vertical line to the bottom of the first vertical line.

When reading a story or a math word problem (or a problem in any subject), we can count how many times a certain word or a certain number is used. This helps us determine the importance of that word or number as well as discover more specifically what we are being asked.

PROFESSOR PROOF (not pictured)

The stuffed doll that looked like a professor would say to students, "Don't you give me an answer unless you can prove it!"

*****

## Chapter 15 -Technology

Some of the activities we enjoyed regarding technology have already been mentioned. Please overlook that they are mentioned again in this chapter. I am duplicating the information since some teachers may decide to move directly to this chapter rather than reading previous ones.

Students created a lot of PowerPoint® presentations to teach lessons to other students. This was a very important activity since it meant students must learn a lesson well themselves. They had to brainstorm for ideas, plan, create the presentation, and then teach the class.

I borrowed as many old computers as I could find so that our classroom was full of computers. I wanted no more than 2 students to each computer. We networked our printers.

CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE SYSTEM FOR TESTING

Our school received a few Classroom Performance System sets and I used one all the time. I did almost all my testing with this technology. After installing the software, the teacher writes a test and designates the correct answer. The computer is connected to the projector so questions can be projected onto the wall screen.

Each student is assigned a CPS remote. These are hand-held units. Students read the question or teacher can read the question. Students then decide which letter to click (these are multiple choice). Kids immediately know how well they did.

The real advantage to using this was in teaching averages. After the data appeared (how the students answered), the average correct was shown. Also shown was the cumulative average so far in the test. Students did these tests enough to learn how to quickly average in their heads. I would hear them saying, "Look at that cumulative! We've got to get the cumulative up!"

In the following photo, three students in 5D '05-06 answer test questions using remotes.

INTERACTIVE BOARDS

After taking a staff development class on using SmartBoards in the classroom, I went home and got on EBay to see what was available. I bought two boards, a large one and a small one. The brand was InterWrite®, which is similar to SMART Boards®. They were cheap compared to the retail price of over $2000 each. The large one was $250 for the board plus $200 shipping from Alaska. The smaller was less than $200 and shipping was minimal.

The pic below is of the large one. The lesson (and lots of free lessons are available online) was on perimeter. The students use an electronic pen (comes with the board) and moved the dots around to create the shape, then used rules and meter sticks to measure. We constantly used the interactive boards for all four content areas.

If you don't have an interactive board, you can still use fun activities that are available on the website at http://theteachersguide.com (scroll down left side to "Technology" and click there, then click "Whiteboards"). Use with computer and projector. Students use mouse on the computer. Also, there are many brands of interactive boards available now.

SCHOOLPAD®

At our school, a wireless SchoolPad® came with each CPS set. The SchoolPad® was like a little hand-held interactive board like a SMART Board® or the Interwrite® brand I purchased. When teaching science and how islands, such as Hawaii, were built up from lava flowing from underwater volcanoes, I stood at the back of the room and drew on the board. The picture appeared on the wall screen. Also, I could hand the board to students and they would work out math problems. Their work appeared on the screen at the front of the room. The kids loved using the SchoolPad®. It was wireless and worked with the computer, which was connected to the projector.

MICROSOFT AGENTS

As mentioned earlier, we used the Microsoft Agents. Later in this chapter you will see a few more examples. You should be able to find all the characters free on the Internet and you may be able to make them speak and move by writing your own script. I chose to buy the MASH software program in order to add them effectively to our presentations. The kiddos liked Wartnose the best, but here are a few of their other favorites.

HOT DOTS

Following is the graphic of a test I made for my Resource child. The black dots are used for answers. One (the one by the 14 feet) is a "hot" dot and the other two are "cold" dots. When the hand-held is pressed against the dots, a sound is made. Blah flat sound is heard for cold dots and fanfare for hot dot.

The small boxes you see are pre-made cards that can be purchased. Hot-Dots readers can be purchased separately and also can be purchased with voice sounds.

ROBOTIC TOYS, SOUND SYSTEM, AND VIDEO CAMERA

This photograph shows RoboKid, Tornado Toes, and little Dinosaur robotic toys (each bought at the dollar type store).

In the photo, you can see the little red tray at the bottom right. This fit onto RoboKid's hands so he could carry items. He would roll up and down desk lanes to collect homework papers.

The large black box is a Karaoke machine sound system from Wal-Mart, about $50. On top of it is a wireless microphone set up I used. Research shows once kids are 12 feet from the speaker, they here only a small percentage of what is said. Therefore, to ensure each child could hear every lesson from anywhere in the classroom, we used the sound system.

We set up a podium with the sound system and students stood behind the podium on which was placed their book (we read Holes as our classroom novel).

Sometimes I played classical music and the students also recorded lessons, which we showed in the classroom.

ROLLING SIGN

This is a rolling sign with a little keyboard (the door is open showing the keyboard). I think I paid about $99 for it on EBay (plus shipping). When students walked into the classroom, the sign said Happy Birthday (name and date) if student had a birthday that day. Otherwise, it may say TEKS or homework assignment.

When I entered the classroom each morning, I turned it on so it was running when students came in.

EGGSPERT

Eggspert® I bought for about $49 from A Teachers Aid in Dallas. Kids would first hit one of the color tappers which caused the corresponding color light on the blue and white controller to turn on. Sound could be added. Up to 6 students (or teams) could play. I used the white tapper, when necessary. In addition to our using in our classroom, we used this school wide for the spelling test and kids loved it.

The following are items we used with photos to illustrate them. They may not be the exact items we had in the classroom.

Computers and Monitors

When I worked for Dallas ISD the district had program available in which teachers could pass a basic computer user exam and obtain a laptop. We were responsible for the laptop and could purchase replacement insurance for $89 per year. After three years, a teacher could buy the laptop from the district for $1.

Scanner

Handheld Computer, also called Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

Handsprings and Palm Pilots were the first PDAs. Now cell phones do many of the tasks that were available only on the PDAs. PDAs would sync with the computer (usually using special equipment) so files can be transferred back and forth.

Cell Phones

I'm not including cell phones, but many of the newer ones do a number of functions one finds on the PDA. Many cell phones will sync through the computer to download additional applications. However, some will let the user directly download apps wirelessly.

iPODs

IPODS are used to listen to music. Now teachers are doing Podcasts of lessons for students to listen to later (great for students who are absent).

Tape Recorders

Tape recorders can be used by students as they read to allow them to record themselves and then listen to their reading fluency. This encouraged them to better develop fluency.

Boom Box

Every teacher should have a boom box. The reading programs we used (Avenues and Open Court) both had audio cassette tapes so that students could listen to stories. It also is nice to play classical music at times, but nothing should interfere with students' ability to focus.

Television, VCR, DVD Player

Every classroom should have a TV with VCR or DVD. There are many excellent resources available to play on a VCR or DVD. The photo below is of the Classroom Jeopardy game being used with a TV.

This is a combination VCR and DVD player, but the units are available as separate items.

CDs and DVDs

These are for storage. Be sure you use the correct polarity, either plus or minus.

Classroom Jeopardy

Classroom Jeopardy is a wonderful resource we hade at Silberstein for teachers to use. When I was in education, there were modules for 3rd through 6th grade classes. This is just like the Jeopardy game we have watched on television. Mrs. Lucy Ford bought our setup using 21st Century grant funds and the children loved playing the game and it reinforced the learning tremendously.

If you haven't used Classroom Jeopardy, you should consider writing a grant and getting a set. We had a blast with this. You receive cartridges (and can buy extra ones) and write your own tests or use what they have available by grade level. I think this is expensive (a few hundred dollars).

Other Game Software available for purchase on Internet

Teachers can do a search for educational games. I purchased quite a few software programs that let us write our own questions (from our curricula) and students could play as individuals or as members of teams.

Memory Card

These are usually for cameras. The cars hold additional photos and a card reader can be connected to a computer's USB port read photos and allow them to be transferred to the computer. Some printers allow one to insert the card directly into a slot and to print photos from the card, thus bypassing the computer.

USB Extenders

These have a USB connector that goes into one port on the computer. It allows the computer user to add additional USB objects.

Electronic Dictionary

There also are electronic translators.

Flash Drive or Jump Drive

These fit into a computer's USB port and we can save files to this, thus transferring them among computers. They come in various size memories and, when the first were produced, they allowed one to save up to 256K in memory. Now they are available in multiples of gigs of memory.

Listening Center

These are usually available from the Media Specialist/Librarian.

Timers

Yacker Tracker

The Yacker Tracker was another item I bought in Dallas at the Teacher Store. I set the sound level. When turned on during regular student activity time, if students became too loud, the Yacker Tracker would buzz and the lights would change to red. Students knew if I heard the buzz too often, their communal classroom activity would stop and quiet time would begin.

LEAP FROG TYPE ITEMS

Remote Clicker for Presentations

These allowed teacher (or a speaker) to stand at the back of a classroom and move the presentation slides along. Some also have a laser pointer.

LCD Projector and Switch Boxes

Projectors can be placed on tables or ceiling mounted and allow a computer to be attached. The contents of the lesson or presentation can then projected onto the large wall screen, giving students everywhere in the classroom the opportunity to view what is presented.

Switch boxes allow one to attach a computer monitor as well as the projector to the computer. This means the teacher (or students) can switch between looking only at the computer screen or making the contents available on the wall screen.

Cameras

We used both still and video cameras. These included analog (the old type) and digital (the new type of photography that lets one upload the camera's contents to the computer for editing, printing, etc.

Within the first two days of school, I snapped photos of my students so I could more rapidly learn their names. Throughout the year we used the still camera.

We did a play on Martin Luther Kind to record on video.

It is vital to get releases for student participation in photos or videos. Our school obtained these with the package given to students the first day of school. However, I often had parents sign an additional release so they understood what photos we were taking in the classroom.

In the photo with the robots, there is an old video recorder (battery pack and separate recorder) to accompany an old video camera which was very large. Now, there are great deals on handheld digital video cameras.

Resources on the Internet

These are just a few resources. You can do an Internet search for free teaching resources and find lots of great ideas.

http://Baggetta.com is a place to go for a free English or Language Arts test that is offered each month. Mr. Baggetta also has classroom management and discipline tracking software available for purchase.

<http://www.Intel.com/Education>

http://TheTeachersGuide.com

http://www.Learning.com

http://www.PowerVideos.org

http://storylineonline.net

Texas Math and Science Diagnostic System at https://www.tmsds.org (Lucy Ford and I took classes in this program and the resource is excellent!)

http://pathoslearning.com

Social Studies – PBS had a great interactive Internet program students could participate in on surviving life in the 13 Colonies. It is available at <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/colonialhouse/history/index.html>

BECOMING TECHNOLOGY PROFICIENT

When I taught, Dallas ISD offered thousands of dollars worth of free classes in technology each year. If one wanted to get into a class, it was necessary to sign up early. (DISD has thousands of teachers.)

Master Technology Teacher is certification I received after studying through Texas Education Agency Region 11

*****

## Chapter 16 - Other Ideas and Social Networking

Overview

At the beginning of the year I created a multi-page document that was given to each student. It was an overview of everything we would be learning during the year. Each of the "teachers" (characters in our classroom) was listed with a brief explanation or example of their lessons.

Before tests, we would take out the Overview and review the pertinent areas. At the end of the school year, students took the document with them. I explained they could keep that through high school both as a reminder of the teachers in our classroom as well as to help them review for tests they would later have.

Letters to Students

In May of 2002 before I was to begin teaching in August, I obtained from our CRC (attendance and records person), Josie Mendoza, a list of students who would be in my 6A class. I then wrote a welcome letter to each student telling them how happy I was they would be in my class.

At our Silberstein Student-Teacher Get-Together on May 29, 2012 students mentioned these letters and how much they meant to them. And if you, the reader, didn't know about our event and you were a student, teacher, staff member, administrator, or parent at Silberstein, please find and friend me on Facebook, as mentioned at the very end of this document so we can include you for our events.

I tried each year to provide a welcome letter to students before they came to school for their first day. Most years I mailed the letters in the summer to the addresses we had on file. Of course, by the first day of school, sometimes the students were changed to other classes. But that was fine. At least students knew we were happy they would be at our school.

Facebook

My students are now grown. I would be very careful about contacting students online in any way before they are 18. My students did call me when they didn't understand assignments. I also put up a website for our classroom so I could keep homework listed for students.

Annual Get-together

As mentioned earlier, this was a fun event and it was wonderful to see my former students. All are grown now and I'm so proud of them.

Academic Coordinator

This book doesn't include anything about thsoe two years. It pertains only to my four years as a classroom teacher.

Information Not Included

I'm certain as soon as I publish this book I'll remember other topics and photos that should have been included. Perhaps there will be an update at some point and anyone who remembers our activities and can pinpoint something I should have included is welcome to email me at Lee@LeeGabor.com and tell me what I've missed. If I do an update, I'll try to include your information.

The End

*****

# How This Book Came About

In these years since I resigned from education, various teachers have asked me about the techniques I used in the classroom to help students learn. I would explain what I could and would add, "I need to write a book for you." My 2012 New Years Resolution has been to finish and publish all the items, both fiction and non-fiction, I've written or half-written. That activity is moving along and I'm very happy to finally get the creativity book published.

#  A Future Book

As soon as possible I want to publish the book _The Ultimate Teacher's Handbook_ and will make every attempt to get that done before the end of July, 2012.

# About Me

I grew up in a very conservative environment that was focused on education. My career goal was to be a newspaper reporter.

After marriage and the birth of my son, I was hired as a general reporter on a daily in Indiana. While there, I learned to write political news and wrote a weekly Business and Industry column as well as oversaw the weekly high school news page. While working for the newspaper, my daughter was born.

With one more year of college remaining, the children and I moved from Indiana to South Dakota where I accept grants and scholarships to obtain a degree. Since there was no journalism program at the college, I finished that year earning a BA degree in elementary education. I never planned to use that knowledge.

Nearing graduation date and since I was divorced and wanted to spend time with my two children, I decided to become an entertainer. We traveled throughout the U.S. to cities where I performed as a pianist and vocalist in piano bars.

Eventually we settled and I opened a talent agency to book other performers. I also continued to entertain, working solo as well as with various size groups of musicians.

At the end of 1995, I closed the talent agency and stopped entertaining.

Free-lance technical writing was my next career and it was quite enjoyable. For me, this was rather like a bridge between newspaper reporting and fiction writing.

In the spring of 2002, I was drafted (that's a story within itself) to teach with a local public school district and that was quite a crazy experience. I was told that 50% of my students would quit high school before graduating and that made me very angry. To stop that from happening to my 6th grade students, I developed a consumer math program for their nightly homework.

I taught 6th grade two years, then 5th grade two years and used the same type of program for all the students. As it has turned out, to my knowledge and as a result of the information I have right now (from the fact that most of my students are Facebook friends), only one student has quit school and he plans to return. All others finished high school and some are in college.

The best thing about teaching was getting to know and love the students as well as my teacher and staff friends. The worst thing was hearing people say teachers have it so easy, getting off work at 3 pm, off on the weekends, and off all summer. If only that were true! It isn't.

Teachers work late into the nights to grade papers, review for the next day's lessons, and make calls to parents. Weekends are usually spent reading all the teacher textbook lessons for the next week along with the curriculum requirements from the state and from the local district's curriculum departments (in elementary schools: math, science, language arts, social studies), then writing detailed lesson plans.

Summers are spent attending staff development sessions and gaining additional knowledge in one's subject(s).

Most of the teachers I met were wonderful at their jobs and loved helping the students. A few didn't belong anywhere near a school and, hopefully, over time, they will be weeded out.

During my 5th year in education, I served as an Academic Coordinator at my elementary school while earning a Master's Degree from University of Texas-Arlington. During that year I received various education awards, for which I'm extremely grateful. The acclaims reinforced that teaching my students a lot of technology, being creative in the classroom (using crazy characters, music, and dance to teach all subjects), and pushing my students was worthwhile.

The next school year, I transferred to another elementary school, where I served as Academic Coordinator. At the end of the year, I resigned from the district and moved to live near my son and his family.

My next venture was becoming a Master Gardener and a Master Composter. At the same time, I continued to lobby on political issues, as I have done for most of my life. I can't imagine I will ever see a day in which I'm not lobbying for some cause.

Through all these years after leaving the newspaper, writing was at the back of my mind and I knew I had to return to it. Since I was older now, I didn't feel I had the energy to return to being a newspaper reporter. To be good in that career, one must really hustle. Also, with grandchildren, I wanted more freedom for scheduling my life.

Therefore, after 2008, it seemed like the best time to try more creative writing and I intend to spend the remainder of my life writing both fiction and non-fiction. I'm very happy that ebooks exist, since publishing electronically is so much easier than hard-copy print publishing.

# Connect with Me Online

LEE GABOR

Author's Den: <http://www.authorsden.com/visit/author.asp?authorid=154146>

Blog: http://LeeGaborWriter.WordPress.com

Email: Lee@LeeGabor.com

Facebook: http://Facebook.com/LeeGaborWriter

LinkedIn: <http://www.linkedin.com/in/LeeGabor>

MySpace: http://MySpace.com/LeeGabor

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Twitter: http://Twitter.com/LeeGabor

Wattpad: http://www.Wattpad.com/user/LeeGabor

Website: http://LeeGabor.com

YouTube: <http://YouTube.com/user/LeeGaborTexas>

