Catch My Words

Monday, August 5, 2019

TpT Sale for Back To School

Starting tomorrow,

August 6 & 7,

my store will be set at 20% off!

Add code BTS19 and save an extra 5% for a total of 25% off.

TpT Site-Wide Sales are the BEST TIME to buy BUNDLES

at a bargain price!

Catch My Products

Here are a few of my most popular bundles.

Wondering how to get your bright students involved with critical thinking skills?

Here is a bundle of brain teasers and logic puzzles to meet your students' needs year round!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Critical-Thinking-Activities-Year-Round-MEGA-Bundle-3269175

Are you tired of searching for fun activities throughout the year?

Here's a way to have it all in one purchase.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Brain-Teasers-Logic-Puzzles-Mega-Bundle-3060341

You have bright, young students in your class who finish everything early and need a brain teaser challenge, but nothing in the textbooks gives you what you need. Through this challenging Mega-Bundle you'll find SIX complete booklets with two solo samples for a total of thirty-four logic puzzles from the very beginner to the advanced beginner puzzle solver.

#tpt booklet of beginner challenges for school

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Brain-Teasers-Logic-Puzzles-for-Second-Grade-3069602

Do you have trouble getting your kids to use accountable talk or to respond to open ended questions during class discussions? If so, this bundle is made for you! With easy to use printable pages that will have your students excited about learning this resource will make accountable talk super easy.

eleven stories to get kids to add to class discussions

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Open-Response-Questions-with-Passages-2444189

Also, take a look at this new product!

Are you on the lookout for fun reading passages because your social studies book is not grabbing your students' interest? Find this bundle complete with everything you need to engage and challenge you kids. Your students will love these easy to print and go stories with questions and activities that will teach history in an exciting way.

Six reading passages that are historical

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reading-Passages-with-Comprehension-Questions-Social-Studies-4641839

Saturday, August 3, 2019

Win a pair of Tieks + $175 TpT Card + Amazon Gift Card

Happy Back to School,

Teachers ! It's that crazy, fun, hectic time of year again and our group of teacher-authors want to give one lucky teacher a chance to win some of the most colorful, comfy shoes around - a pair of Tieks!

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BONUS: The winner will also receive a $175 Teachers Pay Teachers gift card

AND

$175 Amazon gift card to use in their classroom!

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Click on the Rafflecopter link below to enter up to 66 times! The contest runs ‪from August 3rd-August 11th, 2019‬! The winner will be announced ‪on August 12th.‬ Best of luck!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d493897910/

https://mailchi.mp/b9a669919a4c/samplerpack

Saturday, July 20, 2019

My Teaching Days

I taught gifted and talented kids for thirty years, and in that time I had a lot of changes. My very first year of teaching was in a K-8 school. I taught the kids with learning disabilities for most of the time, but my last hour of the day involved model building and fun with a pair of bright eighth graders. After that tough year, I was asked to move full time into the gifted program.

The Gifted Program

My first few years, when young, I was teaching grades 1 - 4 at multiple schools. One year, I even had a different school every day. On Thursdays, I'd start at the elementary school and walk the grassy field to the middle school just before lunch. One day, my principal tells me to move out of my portable because a teacher from the middle school will be using it. I had to have everything out of the room before leaving the school. I darted around taking posters off the walls, boxing the little I had, and carrying it to my new classroom. Phew! I finished just in time and headed to the middle school where I was told that I'd be teaching out of a portable at the elementary school. I bet not many teachers can claim they moved out of a classroom for themself.

In the early years, we placed a lot of emphasis on teaching creativity and having fun. But, as the years progressed, the program evolved into academia. Eventually, the little ones were phased out with the end of our enrichment program, and I found myself enjoying third through sixth grade. However, with a full swing of the pendulum I eventually taught K - 5 with a repeated 9th grade sub job.

Math, Reading, & Historical Fiction

Depending upon the school, the subject emphasis varied. I've been at schools that tell me, "We need to up our math scores," while others want me to focus on reading. Social studies instruction through reading became important, too, since the testing did not involve social studies, so kids did not know about the past. So I wrote a lot of historical fiction stories. I've always loved writing and even have five unpublished novels. I've considered publishing one of my middle grade novel with questions on TpT. Although my novels aren't published, I have a plethora of historical fictions tales complete with vocabulary and comprehension questions. Reading Passages

Erica's Art, Art by Erica, Catch My Products

Teachers Pay Teachers

I recently attended the TpT conference, which was all about branding and finding a niche. With my experiences through the years, my store is like one big department store with an emphasis on challenge! I even have some of my daughter's clip art in my store.

Since schools focused on the gradual release teaching method, that looks a lot like TIMs from my early years, my PowerPoint lessons are fit for evaluations. Memphis did a lot of pop in evaluations, for everyone, during my final teaching years, so my lessons were always made ready for the unexpected.

I'm excited about my newest bundle because it fills a need for those, like I was, vested into an entire gifted program with multiple grade levels. It seems like getting a discount only applied to one level, but not anymore. In fact my huge bundle is 50% off for the rest of the day, so hurry!

logic puzzles of multiple levels in one package

Click HERE to find Logic Puzzles for the Gifted Program.

Ghost Tours

Now that I've put in my time teaching, I enjoy giving historical ghost tours for Historical Haunts in Memphis. I wear a Victorian dress and fix my hair as in the olden days. I feel like an actress as I deliver stories of murder and mayhem. If you are ever in Memphis, hop on my bus and join the tour!

Haunted Memphis Bus Tour