I have received a complimentary map to review from Round World Products.

 The opinions here are 100% mine!

It gives me great pleasure to be able to bring you one of my favorite classroom products especially as we approach Back to School and you all begin planning for a new year.

My classroom is a place where maps are used and created on a regular basis; there is just something about them that make my students and I happy.  We create them and use for novels we are reading like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby.  We also use them on a daily basis in my social studies classes for bell ringer activities.

As a result of this love of maps, when I heard about Scrunch Maps, I had to find out more.  Now, I hate folding maps in my car and can never get them back the way they first were in the package.  Scrunch Map solves that problem.

I let my seven-year-old put it away.  She thought it was great fun to smoosh it into the little bag.

These maps are available in world and United States versions.  Because I am so in love with this product, I created a little game to go with it.

This game is currently free on my Teachers Pay Teachers store, so be sure to stop and grab it.  I used the Scrunch Map and some glass stones from the craft store.

I believe that to be productive members of society, students should have some basic knowledge of their nation, and this game helps build that knowledge.

Here is what the map looked like after one round with the girls.

Use the links above or the picture below to get your own free copy, and don't forget to leave some love!

from Round World.

Scrunch Map

“This review is based strictly on my opinion. Others may have a different opinion or  experience with the product listed above. I was provided the sample free of charge by the  company or PR agency and I provided my honest opinion. No other type of compensation  was received for this review.”

I have been adding some new products to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store, and everything will be 20% off until the 26th.

1) Women's Studies (first semester) and 

AP English and English 11 (Honors or not) all begin the same way: Boot Camp and Literary Terms.  My Boot Camp post goes into detail about how I set up my first two weeks and why I set it up that way.

Both of my AP classes take a base-line full-length test the first week of school, but I really try to do it on day 3 or 4.  This still gives then enough time to switch out (this happens more than I would like), but gets a score early enough in the year to mark their starting point.

In psychology I start with Personality Puzzles.  They are a good get-to-know each other activity and introduce students to some basic psychology ideas.

To be honest I have no idea how to start women's studies or journalism.  I created these classes, and have to write them from scratch.  Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Stopping the Summer Slide

My belief about summer is that is should be a time for rest, recharging, and relaxation; however, if we don't do anything cerebral for 90 days, I also believe our brains will get "mushy." SO LET'S DO SOMETHING!

My top 5 ways to stop the summer slide

1) Read Something Every Day

2) Visit New Places

3) Have Conversations with your Kids

4) Solve Real-Life Issues

5) Play learning Games

Number 1 is pretty self explanatory, and I can't help you much with #2 unless you live in Michigan.  I can, however, do something about 3, 4, and 5.

A Summer Slide Product

Any summer project that is fun and creates conversations with parents about real-life issues is a winner in my book.  I hope that you will check it out yourself:  the preview.

Stopping the Summer Slide Freebie

I just created a new game for my girls (ages 7 and 14) to play this summer.  You will need to find or print a US Map.  I used a map that was in my school stuff.  Click the image below to get my limited-time freebie.

This US Map Game has a cute set of cards to print and cut out (this is good practice for the little one).  The cards cover thirty-two (32) major physical and political features of our country.  Directions are also included.

The girls will be playing this game later today, and I will be sure to share some pictures when they are on the floor with everything spread out.

Download my limited-time freebie, leave some feedback, and email me your Teachers Pay Teachers name at kovescenceofthemind@gmail.com to be entered to win a copy of my Budget Unit.

 I have received a complimentary product to review from Oriental Trading Company.

 The opinions here are 100% mine!

This a series of posts with ideas for the psychology classroom.  I received a box of products from Oriental Trading Company for this series of posts.  Each post will showcase an item from Oriental Trading Company and a lesson that applies that item to the psychology classroom.

This first product and activity could easily be adapted to any classroom for the start of the year.  I really don't like spending the first day of school reading a syllabus and going over rules; it is boring and insults the intelligence of my students (I save this for later in the week and break it up into chunks).  My classes start the year with a hands on activity that gets students moving and helps me get to know them.

The first product I am using is Blank Dry Erase Puzzles.  These puzzles come in a package of 24 for $6.70.  I chose to not use these as dry erase, but I gave my students permanent markers to illustrate on them.  I would highly recommend this item for any teacher doing a bulletin board about his or her students.

I pair these puzzle pieces with the personality unit for psychology.  This can be paired as an introductory or review project.  I personally (no pun intended) use it as introductory to the unit and begin on the first day of school in September.  I call the assignment the Personality Puzzle.  You can grab a copy on the assignment at rubric on my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

The assignment version I use has students label each part of the piece that sticks out with a different interpretation of their own personality.  This way students are being introduced (or reviewing) the major approaches to personality while telling me a little about themselves.

I even make my own.  Mine is done for this coming school year, so I am ready to share on the first day and model the assignment for my students.  In addition to the written part I ask them to add an illustration for each approach as it relates to their own personality.

When everyone is done, we hot glue them into a big puzzle on the wall in my room.  They are made to fit together nicely.  I also had no problems with them staying up on the cinder block walls, which is important if you have ever had a class with these walls.

My one tip is to have 1/2 your students write hot dog style and the other 1/2 write hamburger style.  I did not do this and 1/2 my students' pieces ended up sideways.  I will definitely be using this tip myself in the fall.

Stay tuned for more great ways to use Oriental Trading Company products in the classroom.

How could you use these great puzzle pieces in your classroom?

“This review is based strictly on my opinion. Others may have a different opinion or  experience with the product listed above. I was provided the sample free of charge by the  company or PR agency and I provided my honest opinion. No other type of compensation  was received for this review.”

This past year I used ISNs for the first time.  I piloted this in my Civics/Economics class as I hadn't taught this class since 2004, and I thought it would be easier to try ISNs with a class I didn't have an established routine in.  (I will be rolling them out in all four of my classes this year).   However, I will be calling them Smash Books thanks to Eat Write Teach.

Well, my two Civics classes were plugging away, and after the first two weeks, I decided I had better collect them and check them, so I grabbed my grade sheets for those classes and sat down one Sunday afternoon...six hours later I was able to leave the school.  I knew something had to change because while I loved what the notebooks were doing for my students, I could NOT do this every two weeks to stay on top of grading.

I could not opt out of grading the notebooks because there were basically all the homework/daily work that the students had, but I also wanted to be conscious of not giving them a lot of points for just copying items off the board (input side).  I needed something to speed up the process and hopefully help students clearly understand their grades.

I saw this Pinterest Pin (click image for pin) from I Love My Classroom and knew I was headed in the right direction to simplify my life.

The next trip to town resulted in two packages of mailing labels.  I bought packages with 30 on a sheet since that worked out to just about how many notebooks I received on any given collection day.

It took a little while to get the formatting correct, to get it all to fit on one label (sometimes I have to get creative with the headings), and to get them to print on the labels right (I am pretty sure that was my school printer and not me).  The result was the best thing to ever happen to my grading.

I simply put the items they need to have; Table of Contents is ALWAYS the first item.  Next to each item I list the points they could earn for that item, and in a box on the right, I put the total points.  Anything I don't have to write out saves me precious minutes.

You can see what I mean about the printing issue on this one.  I did mine in Word on my work computer.  Word has a wonderful feature that allows you to pick the label you bought, type in one label, and fill the rest of them with the click of a button.

When I collected notebooks, I would grab my rubric sheet, grab the first notebook, start at the beginning and flip through to check everything.  I should also mention that I gave every student a bright post-it to mark where I put the last rubric before then turned their notebook in, so I could quickly flip to the starting point.

All I have to do is circle the number of points for each item and total.

These little gems saved me hours and hours of time over the course of the year.  I went from needing 6 hours to grade notebooks to less than 2 (if every student turned them in).

Our district uses 6+1 for our writing rubric.  I thought I would create a set for that, and I want you to have them for free.  They use Avery 8161 or any 1x4 inch label.  You can print it on plain paper and use tape too. 

 You  can download them from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Be sure to check out all my Notebook posts.

How could you use these little beauties in your class?

Today will be my first Sunday Scoop link-up of summer, and summer is half over...WHAT!

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