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My humorous thoughts about life.

"My Humorous and Helpful Thoughts About Teaching / Educational Resources for Your Classroom / Music and Random Fun"

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Dollar Deals, Writing Blog Post, and Fun Freebie!


store post

Since your class just let out (or you're still teaching 😫), you may not feel like school shopping, but honestly, summer is the time to get great deals!

For three days (June 20th - 22nd), you can find fun resources for $1.00 each through our hashtag sale #sunnyjoy on TpT!

Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions Worksheets Print and Digital Resource
$3.57
Public Speaking Curriculum Lesson Plan in PowerPoint
$3.25

This is a great opportunity to purchase useful activities at a low price.

Furthermore, check out my blog post on teaching writing to help you become the best writing teacher you can be!


Thanks for reading!
Joyce

Monday, June 17, 2024

Develop Your Craft To Become a Great Writing Instructor

Many teachers complain their kids don't want to write, so I ask, do you enjoy writing? I've found a teacher's love of a subject matter is contagious. 

In the 1990s, I purchased a few writing lesson books and gave my students fill-in-the-blank lessons. The author started the story and would stop to have students add details. Students used three sentences to describe a person or place. It looked interesting, so I wrote along with my kids.

Before long, I discovered I loved this activity and would share my work with students. I applied each writing lesson to my craft, and guess what? I was writing novels. I've written five manuscripts for fun and multiple reading passages on TpT. I downloaded one middle-grade novel about bullying on TpT as well.

It occurred to me, how does one who doesn't write him or herself teach writing? How do you critique a kid's work if you don't know how to improve it: This is why I recommend writing teachers spend this summer working on YOUR craft. Writing is a critical thinking activity that ignites your creative juices, plus it's fun!

Here is a quick prompt to get you going:

The kids were not the only ones waiting for summer vacation. This past summer, we drove to the beach. When we arrived, we spotted an unusual animal. (Your turn: Write three sentences describing what you saw). 

As our son approached the creature, I said, "Stop!" After all, we didn't know what it was or what it would do to him. Being a curious fellow, his face told us we were in trouble. (Your turn: Describe the boy in three sentences.)

I tried to grab our child, but it was too late. Just like Spider Man's spider bite gave the cartoon hero amazing abilities, our kid became __________________.

If you enjoy writing, you can create something that will make you proud. My students beamed after strong writing, especially when they continually won our city-wide competitions!

I have multiple writing lessons with tips on how to improve writing. Each lesson is a specific skill. However, the trick which helps the most is to eliminate "be verbs."

For example: A kid will write: The dog was big.

First, many adjectives relate to size, so why use this first-grade verb?

More importantly, think about how much power the writer can achieve by removing the "was" and using what follows as the adjective before the noun. Next, find a strong action verb to get the dog to do something that brings talk of its size to another level.

The enormous dog lunged and showed its gunk-filled teeth as slobber dripped down its quivering jaw.

I enjoyed writing that sentence, so I suggest you have fun this summer using writing lessons on your own craft. This will develop a love of writing which can be passed to your kids this fall! Best of luck!

Joyce

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