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Endangered Species Project Rubric
This rubric specifies the criteria used to evaluate a project on endangered species. The document also includes focus questions and research sources. Although it is designed to fit A Beka Biology, download it and modify it to meet your class needs even if you use a different text. Here is a project example.
Bursts of Teaching Ideas
Photo by Ikhsan Sugiarto on UnsplashSympathy Ice
A sobbing child shows the teacher a bump on his arm. Another little person extends her hand, “See this cut here? It hurts.” Marie complains, “When I go like this, it hurts!” as she pushes her hands together in a very unnatural manner!
Sometimes the children just need some attention, someone to look at that minute scratch or little bump, someone to care that this doesn’t feel good. I look at these injuries, comment, give some attention, a pat on the shoulder, and tell them what to do. Often, they need to be able to take some action and that satisfies the need. For “My belly hurts,” I tell them to go to the bathroom and get a drink. For “My head hurts,” advise them to take a drink. Letting them know that soon it will be lunchtime, or “Recess is coming soon and you can get some fresh air” also helps. A teacher I once worked with would sometimes get the ice pack and let the child have some “sympathy ice” as he called it. He knew the child really didn’t need ice but did need someone to care and show some sympathy, and that ice pack worked wonders.
Edible Punctuation Marks
We made learning about periods, commas, question marks, and exclamation marks exciting by making edible punctuation marks. We used red hots for periods, elbow macaroni for commas, and stick pretzels with red hot dots for the exclamation marks. We made a question mark by curving a piece of string licorice and adding a red hot dot. Other round items such as gum drops, round crackers, mini-marshmallows, or cereal would also work for the periods and dots.
Take Note of Good Books
Our Book Week theme this year was “Take Note of Good Books,” combining reading with a musical theme. We followed the theme in decorations as we hung musical notes and symbols, displayed art projects with a musical theme, and had a table display of a hymnal, Bible, and decorated 45 rpm records. A collection of creatively designed musical notes flowed up the side of the doorway and across the top in a fascinating display. (The students had turned musical notes into animals or other objects.) A banner of the theme hung across the front entrance and inflatable musical instruments hung from the library ceiling.
Each class set a goal for how many books they would read in the week and as students read books, they put musical notes on the large staff outside their door. (The staffs were made with a chalk-holder which held black Sharpies and were drawn with some waves across a long piece of paper.) Each class had a staff for their notes and made the notes by putting a fingerprint note on a line or space and drawing on the note’s stem. Classes who met their goal were rewarded with drumsticks (the ice cream kind!) After chapel, the elementary students enjoyed a program that combined books and music as they sang through several books (On Top of Spaghetti, Teddy Bears’ Picnic, The Wheels on the Bus, This Little Light of Mine).
Wrinkled Hearts
I really like this little poem:
Before you act,Think and be smart.
It's hard to fix
A wrinkled heart.
I typed it up and displayed it in the center of a bulletin board. I cut out six large hearts and wrinkled them up then spaced them around the poem. Every few days I place a smooth, unwrinkled heart on a wrinkled heart. The smooth heart has a verse or saying that would help to encourage a wrinkled heart. To go along with this, I read the book Chrysanthemum to my class and each time the children in the story spoke unkind things I made a big wrinkle in a large paper heart. We talked then about how we want to be careful what we say and do and how we treat people. We tried to smooth out the wrinkles, but could not get them to go away. We compared this to the hearts of people and how we might hurt someone’s heart (feelings).
(Chrysanthemum is by Kevin Henkes. I do not know who wrote the poem. I tried to find that info, but could not. This idea is not totally my idea, but I’ve adapted it from some ideas I found online.)
Grooming a Story
Why are some stories powerful, while others fall flat? Jim encourages us to tell stories with economy, empathy, universality, and tension--and offers plenty of example stories. This excerpt was taken from a longer talk, Stories that Teach presented at Western Fellowship Teachers' Institute 2019.
Study Guide for Works of Literature
This study guide outlines steps in the process of studying and reporting on a work of literature, particularly a novel. Page 2 provides a selection of titles with which such a study guide might be used.
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The Giant Killer, or The Battle Which All Must Fight with Study Guide
This 1868 novel by Charlotte Maria Tucker (ALOE) begins the Robyn family series. In this book, the Roby children struggle with sins that mirror the struggles of a knight named Fides in an allegorical book their parents reads to them and the Probyn twins. In that story, Fides has to battle and overcome giants that include Sloth, Selfishness, and Untruth. From this story the Roby children and the Probyns learn how to defeat their own giants.
Teaching is Bigger Than I Am: Facing Inadequacy and Maintaining Vision
Steve
I taught for about 16 years. Arlene's been a key part of the school. She taught...
Arlene
One full year and several parts. Different callings are different, I don't know that it has to be a team effort. Every husband needs prayer support.
Steve
But Arlene and I have shared a lot of the load in that. I mean, in practical was she brings to the classroom the art, the creativity, the bulletin boards, these kinds of things.
Arlene
I do all the decorating. Like charts, like the hundreds, you know, I'll figure that out, I'll usually come up with his story books for the year, organizing, just the organizing the classroom and trying to make it run smoothly.
Steve
I am more of a relational person and a people-oriented person. Organization is something for someone else. And she brings order to what I do.
But beyond that, she grew up in a learning environment, where education is valued. And I count it a huge gift that I can talk about my work at home. I have support and aid and wisdom and that's great.
Arlene
I think he's amazing. Some guys would probably get territorial or... He welcomes as much input as I want to put into the classroom. I've never sensed any insecurities or you know, "This is my job or my space, or..."
Steve
We've done things over the years like when I was in high school, more, she would do things like Christian ethics class, there would be girls' conversations and then I would have guys' conversations and it was great to build those relationships together and do the mentoring sort of side by side in a way where she knew where the girls were and she was able to get into questions that were not so much for me, you know? Still, it was valuable to be able to speak into their lives.
But one of the other questions we talked about was "How do you deal with inadequacy as a teacher?" And it's kind of a strong statement: we ought to embrace that inadequacy or we ought to welcome it because it's teaching school. Mentoring children, bringing up the next generation, is... I'm inadequate for it. It's bigger than I am. And as I enter into that mission, that call that God has on my life, I have no space to be territorial about it. It's all hands on deck, it's way bigger than I am.
I sort of withdraw sometimes into my books or into my things that I'm going to do. And just downtime. And I have a basement office and, leave me alone for a while. In the bigger picture, I am blessed to be part of an accountability group at church where there's several men that meet together regularly, and more than once, I've had to blow quite a bit of steam in those conversations and other men speak life to me and engage and remind me of the big picture, and call me to what God has to say to it.
Arlene
What I need from him sometimes when we just get bogged down in just the dailiness and you know, the late hours... I need him to keep verbalizing his vision. You know, the long-term picture. You know, we're raising these adults, you know, not just training children. Providing that vision out loud, because I think he lives with it, but I forget it sometimes.
Steve
Raise the awareness of the vision. Raise the awareness of why it's worth the sacrifices. And is that a God thing? I'm not sure; is that something that we pray for and the Lord opens our hearts to the amazingness of the call to be a teacher? It's a privilege to be there with other people's children and share information, yes, but life more. Verbalize the blessing that it is to be allowed to teach grammar and history and math to these children. To shape their lives for the future.
In regard to a young teacher feeling inadequate, I would say a word to administrators and board members. You need to be paying attention; that the teacher who really is struggling isn't going to verbalize it very quickly sometimes. You'll get a certain amount of verbalizing, but then sometimes you won't get, depending on personality types. But the board needs to be vigilant, administrators need to vigilant in figuring out where people are at. Press into it and reassign.
But as a person, I go back to the notion that we are inadequate. Embrace it. The Lord has a purpose for you, he even used, you know... the Old Testament, the Scriptures are full of inadequate people doing God's work, doing big work. And we are treasures in earthen vessels, that's what we are. We're fallen, we're broken. We have big work to do. Praise the Lord, we don't have to do it in our own ability and strength. We have greater strength than our own.
Mushroom Bulletin Board Resources
Anya shares facts and photos for an interesting, informational bulletin board about the fungus that might be among us.
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