Classroom Hacks

The little joys of teaching

Hello Mrs. T --

When I worked at a Hallmark store in Los Angeles, we got in these adorable mugs. They said "The Little Joys of Teaching are Without Number".  It featured early Sandra Boynton's art.  I wonder if you could ask her if you could put it on the blog?  Or if someone has a picture that would be fun too.

Thanks,
Mrs. Lee
Los Angeles School District

Hi Mrs. Lee!  What a great idea!  I remember that well. I'll ask her permission for the artwork but until then here's a pic of a pin someone sent me a few months back:

We all have days like that, I'm sure.  Or maybe it's just me.  Here are some more fun quotes about teaching you can use for your classroom.  Or breakroom:

"If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure."

— Bill Gates

"As long as teachers give tests, there will always be prayer in schools."

— Unknown

"The 2 rules of Judo training: 1) the teacher is always right and 2) when you think the teacher is wrong, refer to rule one."

— Unknown

Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.
- Anonymous

Teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change. Learning is more than absorbing facts, it is acquiring understanding.
- William Arthur Ward

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
- Gail Godwin

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.
- William Arthur Ward

Come forth into the light of things; Let nature be your Teacher.
- William Wordsworth

For every person who wants to teach there are approximately thirty people who don’t want to learn much.
- W. C. Sellar

Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
- Winston Churchill

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
- Anatole France

Precise knowledge is the only true knowledge, and he who does not teach exactly, does not teach at all.
- Henry Ward Beecher

I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.
- Edith Ann

Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.
- Jacques Martin Barzun

Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer; into a selflessness which links us with all humanity.
- Lady Nancy Astor

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.
- Clay P. Bedford

Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires
-William Arthur Ward

A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others.

"A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary."
 -Thomas Carruthers

"Pushing skills before children are biologically ready sets them up to fail."
M. Baker, M.D. - Executive Director - Gesell Institute of Human Development

"Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire."
William Butler Yeats

"The teacher, when she begins work in our schools, must have a kind of faith that the child will reveal himself through work. She must free herself from all preconceived ideas concerning the levels at which the children may be."
- The Absorbent Mind

“What makes the difference between wishing and realizing our wishes? Lots of things, and it may take months or years for wish to come true, but it's far more likely to happen when you care so much about a wish that you'll do all you can to make it happen.”
-Fred Rogers

“Propel, propel, propel your craft softly down liquid solution. Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, existence is simply illusion.”
-Fred Rogers

“Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people.”
-Fred Rogers

“How sad it is that we give up on people who are just like us.”
-Fred Rogers

Parents are like shuttles on a loom. They join the threads of the past with threads of the future and leave their own bright patterns as they go.
Fred Rogers

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.
Fred Rogers

“Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.”
- Richard L. Evans

“I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.”
-Dr. Haim Ginott

“If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.”
-Abigail Van Buren

Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.
-Erma Bombeck

It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.
-Erma Bombeck

When humor goes, there goes civilization.
Erma Bombeck

Great teacher tools

If you have some spendable monies around, and are looking for the most bang for the buck, here is the greatest deal I've found.  This little beauty will make your school year VERY fun.  This little 'flip' digital camera is worth every penny.  They go for about 100-160 on Amazon.  You take the movie, and can directly load it on to your camera.  It has a little USB plug that flips out (thus the name Flip).  I use it to create films of anything interesting we're doing during the year.  At the end of the school year, I put them together and create a DVD for each student as an end of year gift.  I add in the digital pictures, some music, and this film and it's amazing.  You can even use it to play back on your television during Back to School or Open House.

Looking for an inexpensive iPod?  Apple sells refurbished ones for a fraction of the cost.  I purchased one for my youngest daughters. I downloaded free stories from StoryNory and burned some books on CD's from the library for them.  You could hook them up to your speakers in your classroom's tape or CD player and have great music and stories at your fingertips. At the time of this writing, there were Nano's for 99.00 and Shuffles for 39.00.  It changes daily so keep an eye on what they have in stock.  The also offer free shipping and free engraving.  Super cool!

For all teachers!

Our middle daughter's Kindergarten teacher read this poem to the parents at the 'promotion'.  It was so sweet and of course we were all weepy.  It's a great beginning of the year, end of the year poem for any grade level.

Or just print it out and put it on your desk to inspire you.  We all have those moments!  If you want to purchase Robert Fulghum's books click here

All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

- by Robert Fulghum

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned:

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life.
• Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder.
• Remember the little seed in the plastic cup.  The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup - they all die.
• So do we.
• And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK .
• Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
• The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Have any more great ideas for teachers?  Post them here or send them to classroomhacker@gmail.com

Presidental Election 2008

What a great idea!  Allison send in this gem:

I ordered them for my third grade class.  I'm going to use them on a bulletin board.  I will laminate them and let each 'student of the day' dress them for the day.  Next to that, the electoral vote graphs. Have the board look like a road race they are on, with the White House at the end  What fun for election year in the classroom!   

Here's a foldable 3-D White House you can also staple to a wall, or print enough for each student to have one.

White House Facts:

The White House, the official residence of the US President, is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. The 132-room Neoclassical mansion was built (1793-1801) from the designs of James Hoban (1762-1831), who also supervised its reconstruction (1814-29) after it was destroyed by the British in 1814. Major restoration work was carried out in 1948-52 after the building was discovered to be in danger of collapse.

White House Official Site

Have any more great ideas for teaching about the election?  Post them here or send them to classroomhacker@gmail.com

Block Posters

Take a picture of your class, the school, or a coloring page you find online, use this neat little free utility, and it will create wall sized posters! If you use coloring pages, your students each get a page to color. This is a great first day activity! Then put them together for a mosaic of your class.



http://www.blockposters.com

Have more great poster ideas? Post them here or send them to classroomhacker@gmail.com