Classroom Bulletin Boards: A Sneak Peek

What do you do when all of your colleagues are in a meeting? You secretly film their classrooms for your YouTube Channel. In this video you will see samples of bulletin boards and classroom setup ideas. Enjoy!

My Classroom: After the Magic Happens

As promised, my completed classroom tour for the new school year has just gone LIVE on Youtube. Click the link below to check it out. Thank you for continued love and support. Be sure to "Like" and "Subscribe."

See My Room Before the Razzle Dazzle!

Hello Beautiful People! 

I started a youtube channel and I just posted my first video. It's a tour of my classroom before all of the decorating is done. I will post an "After" video in a couple of days. Please show your love and support by watching and the video. Be sure to give it a BIG thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe.

Now Showing at NC's Middle School Conference

I am so ready for the conference! I have all of my notes and my presentation is complete. I can't wait to meet and network with other educators from around the state. My session is from 11:30-12:30 in the Heritage Room of the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro. I will be sharing "The Time Traveler's Guide to Making Content Connections", a presentation I have crafted to share some of the things I learned at the Library of Congress last summer. I don't want to leave any one out of this experience, so I am linking my presentation below. Let me know what you think. Leave your comments, questions, and suggestions in the space provided.

The Time Traveler's Guide to Making Content Connections

2015-2016 Cumberland County Model Classroom

Brand-Spanking Newbies, this is for you! Click the link below to view my Emaze.com presentation. Also, be sure to create an Edmodo.com account so you will be able access some free resources for your classroom. The Model Classroom group code is: xyed2j

The DIY Classroom

Library of Congress: "Primary Sources" Summer Teacher Institute

Recently, I was accepted to the Library of Congress's Teacher Institute geared toward teaching educators how to incorporate primary sources into their classrooms. I was so excited when I received the press release announcing this honor. It read:

Screenshot borrowed from:
 http://ccs.k12.nc.us/2015/06/11/local-teacher-receives-national-honor/

I learned so much from this institute and I encourage all teachers who are interested in primary sources to go online and apply at www.loc.gov.

Here are some photos from my trip. I will upload some of the strategies I learned later, but for now I'll just share the fun stuff.

Visiting the Main Reading Room featured
in one of favorite movies, National Treasure

Walking around DC Self-Guided Tour

Some of the other participants- My new friends!

Super exclusive tour of the Main Reading
Room and a behind the scenes tour of the
card catalog and book stacks

Teaching the Holocaust

The Holocaust is such a touchy subject. I have always approached this topic with caution. I first begin by establishing ground rules and building background knowledge. With every year I add to my teaching experience, I find that my students are even further removed from the horrors that took place in Europe in 1930s and 1940s.

When my students enter my class on the first day of this unit, they walk in to find a display of related literature.

All around the room, the students see fiction and nonfiction books connected to the time period that we are about to delve into. This, right away sets something off in their brains. They know that we are about to create a experience.

On this day, we begin discussing what we THINK we know about the Holocaust. I like to have this discussion with the students before reading any materials because I like to see where their thinking is. It also allows them an opportunity to hear what their peers have to say and eventually it will lead to self assessment. I say eventually because during and after reading, students are either confirming, adjusting, or correcting what they originally thought and/or said. 

I like for my students to generate questions during this lesson. They first put them them on sticky notes. I then collect and tally them. The most common ones go to the class "Question Corner." This is a place in my room where the students can respond to a classmate's question. All they have to do is write their response on a sticky and stick it next to the question they are answering. I DO NOT ANSWER THE QUESTIONS ON THIS BOARD. The students must find these themselves. Either they do the research or maybe it comes up in the materials that we are reading in class.

These are just two strategies that I utilize in my classroom. Below are some online resources that I have found very useful when teaching the Holocaust. 

from the Holocaust Museum: Resources for Educators

A Narrated PowerPoint: The Holocaust

WWII Project Idea:  Compare and Contrast Novels