Helping Each Other To Help Our Kiddos

As promised, for this Friday's Favorite Find post, we will be doing one of my favorite things!  Considering that "Testing Season" is either newly here or right around the corner for many of us, we all know that the pressure's on - for us and for our students.  If there are ways that we can making preparing for our assessments a little more enjoyable, and therein make taking the tests a bit less stressful, let's share the love!

To start lending a helping hand, I am making everything available in my TpT and TN stores for 20% off  - and making my Common ELA Vocabulary Review Game Pack FREE in my TpT Store from now through this Monday, April 1st (No April Fool's joking going on here...I swear. Lol)!

**What Customers Are Saying**

"Useful tool."

"Another homerun!  Thank you!  I've also subscribed to your blog!  Great stuff!!!"

"Thanks for creating these fun and educational materials!"

Grab it for free while you can!

Please be sure to look around, grab a FREEBIE or two - and share with your colleagues, too!

For the following linky, create a blog post that shares an idea or tip that you've used or found that can help with content review or test taking strategies.  Are there things that you or your school district do to remove anxiety and motivate kids to try their best?  How do you use technology in your classroom to help prepare? Have you created products that make preparing for state assessments more enjoyable - games, activites, strategies and suggestions for home?  A free product, to start, would be awesome...then feel free to add links to a paid product or two as well.  Anything you are ready and willing to share will be greatly appreciated!

This Favorite Find Linky will start a little later this afternoon and be available to link to through April 6th, 2013 - so be sure to come back with a post that shares lots of helpful resources.  Then, look around for some new ideas to take back to your classroom!

To Link-up:

-Grab my Middle School Matters Blog graphic below to place in your blog.

(Please be sure to then attach a link back to this blog post using the above image.)

-Link up your post! :)

I can't wait to see all of the Favorite Finds we can share!  Thank you for trying this out with me.  I would truly love any feedback or suggestions for this Linky in the comments below.

New Puzzle for Suffixes

A few weeks ago I wrote a post titled Puzzle Me This...Prefixes that had some great response.  Many people asked if I would be making any more 12 Square Puzzles, and in fact, I have!  I have now combined the prefix puzzle with one for suffixes (for a total of two separate puzzles) and have them available for free in both of Teachers Pay Teachers and Teacher's Notebook stores.

Click here to download:

TpT

OR

TN

Hoping you like them! :)

A Quote for Short Response Practice

There's no better time than now, as we approach the marathon that is the test taking season, to not only practice strategies for success, but to inspire success as well.

Share this quote, one of my favorites, and use it to empower your students.  Give them time to reflect and make them think about how it could apply to their own lives while practicing RACE - a tried and true "formula" for answering short response questions:

Click HERE to download and print a copy.  Project the quote and use the question sheet (which also includes the quote) for your students' responses.  Share answers and discuss how powerful a positive attitude can be!

I hope that both you and your students find this freebie helpful.  I'm linking this post to Classroom Freebies' Manic Monday for February 11th.  Be sure to click on the link and check out all of the great resources available to you!

Enjoy!

Friday Favorites, a Freebie AND a Big Sale? Good Times!

It's that time once again...Friday is here and there's much to celebrate!  (I'm hearing Kool and the Gang in my head right now..."Ce-le-brate good times, come on!")

First, I would love to share with you a couple of great finds that I made recently.  One of them is a video that was brought to my attention by a former student who thought it might be something "cool to share on my blog." (How much did I love that, by the why?  It made my day!)  He was so right, and I posted it to my Middle School Matters Blog FB page, not knowing who Kid President was but loving everything that he said in the short clip that is both inspirational and guaranteed to make you smile.  Wouldn't you know, I then saw Kid President was featured on the Today Show a few days after?  Social Media is amazing.  Who would've thought it possible that Matt Lauer would be taking cues from me? ;-)

In his "A Pep Talk from Kid President to You," this adorable 9 year old's  platform is simply that "it's everybody's duty to give the world a reason to dance."  It's one of the best pep talks I've heard, touching both my heart and my funny bone.  




In case, like me, this is the first you've heard of Kid President, there are other sweet video that your kiddos will love...even if they've seen them before.  They are great catalysts for discussion and/or writing prompts, for sure!

My second favorite I would like to share is a blog that I discovered through my first giveaway last week!


This is a great blog to visit to find TONS of creative ideas for your teaching and for your classroom.  Tina offers her own creations, but she also generously shares ideas she discovers from others so that her audience can easily find them, too.  Talk about "bloggy love!"  What better way to start February - the month of hearts, valentines and all things kind - then to bring your attention to a blog that shares the love all year round?!   Speaking of Valentine's Day, I also have a new FREEBIE that I would like to share.  The beginning of a new month means the introduction of a new theme for my Cooperative Learning Partners:

(Click on image for download)

This month, I decided to ignore the temptation to focus on the "lovey-dovey" theme that Valentine's Day brings immediately to mind and chose to focus on perfect pairings for food - a theme much more palatable for middle schoolers. :)  Be sure to click HERE to visit the first post about how I use Cooperative Learning Partners as a classroom management tool for cooperative learning.  By visiting my FREEBIES page, you'll be able to pick up previous months' themes as well. 

Lastly, I want to make sure that you are aware of two fantastic sales going on this weekend - as if the Super Bowl doesn't bring with it enough excitement!  Teachers Pay Teachers AND Teacher's Notebook are both offering amazing deals on their own...and I am also providing additional discounts at both of my stores.  MANY teacher sellers are taking part and making similar markdowns, so be sure to take time this weekend to visit all of your favorite stores and attack those wishlists!

Teacher's Notebook:  Sale Saturday and Sunday (February 2nd and 3rd) all products in my store will be will be 25% off!

Teachers Pay Teachers:  I will be running a sale for 20% off both Saturday and Sunday (February 2nd and 3rd) AND on Sunday, February 3rd, TpT will be contributing and ADDITIONAL 10% discount off my already discounted price! (That's 28% OFF! Sa-weet!)  Just enter promo code: SUPER at checkout on Sunday.

Check out the savings at all of your favorite stores.

Have a great weekend filled with  family, friends, football, fantastic food and FABULOUS SALES!

This Week's Friday Favorites - January 25, 2013

And another week has flown by!  Time for Friday Favorites, a moment that I like to take to share things I've found over the week that are inspiring and motivating.  It can be anything that can help enrich instruction in the classroom, touch the hearts of teachers and parents alike...or anything in between.

This week, before I show you some of my favorites, I would like to once again thank everyone who participated in last week's Favorite Finds Linky Party by either linking up a post, or taking the time to check out the great ideas and finds that were shared.  I plan on having another linky party with the same theme next month, so be on the lookout for some great ideas to share.  I can't wait to see what February will bring!

Now (cue drum roll), on to my shares:

First, I want to share something that, as a blogger, has already changed my life.  I was so lucky to come across a FB post by Krystal of Lessons from the Middle, which happens to me one of my favorite middle school blogs. (Click on the link and take a look if you haven't found her already.  Hey, I just shared a favorite without even trying! Lol)  Anyway, she shared a post from the blog Coffee Cups and Lesson Plans that shared a link to a FREE...I know, that's right...a FREE Blogging Planner for 2013 created by Confessions of a Homeschooler!  I clicked on the link and checked it out, downloaded the planner and had to check back a few times to make sure it really was for FREE.  First of all, these are b-e-a-utiful!  Then, even before I started printing the pages I knew this was just what I've been trying to create for myself, but still being kinda new to this whole thing, didn't really know how to best put it all together.  I've started using it already this week and, between this and figuring out HootSuite for scheduling posts on FB, I'm really starting to feel a little more organized and am starting to gain a bit more blogging confidence.  If any of you are also new to blogging, or thinking about starting a blog, click on the link for Confessions of a Homeschooler and take a look.  I just know you'll love it!  I know I really appreciate all the shares that led me to my "bloggy bliss," and I hope this may help you, too. :)

Secondly, I want to share a beautiful story that is sure to inspire.  I came across this via a FB friend (She also happens to be the beautiful wife of my cousin, mommy to 3 fantastic young children AND a brand new teacher to boot!) who posted this link to a news video clip from wltx.com.  It's a story about a beautiful young woman's true passion for teaching and determination to break through stereotypes to meet challenges and make her dreams come true.  This is perseverance at its best...and a love of learning that is contagious. It's my gift to you - to warm your heart on this cold winter day (at least here in the Catskills...brrr!).

Anything that has inspired you this week?  Feel free to share in the comments below! :)
Have a great weekend!