The Big Read!

The Big Read is run by the National Endowment for the Arts. Its role is to encourage connections to literature in new ways.

It's a really fabulous website that has a TON of great information.

http://www.neabigread.org/

Math math math!

After attending SMI training, I was motivated to find some Math specific resources!

iXL Math has some awesome lessons and activities for Common Core Math!  This link will take you right to the high school section!

The Math Assessment Project has ALL KINDS of information. Seriously, I could spend hours on this website! There are also a lot of formative and summative assessment ideas!

Mathbits has all kinds of resources, including lessons, activities, computer-based ideas and the like!

CollaborizeClassroom has some great ideas about how to get students collaborating in math!

Our Math department is amazing! Keep up the good work!

Info OVERLOAD

Mrs. Hanson and Mrs. Roberts attended a CTA conference today with a TON of fabulous information! See below for a million great things!

Brokers of Expertise is an amazing resource of best practices and strategies. There are videos and units, and a lot of information geared specifically to ELD students!

As teachers of English Language Learners, we should ALL be paying close attention to the ELD standards! They are not officially adopted yet, but check out this website for the draft (which is likely to be adopted this summer).

We also have a lot of websites and fun ideas to post over the next few weeks, so keep checking this link! Thanks!

NatGeo!

Lots of big companies are getting involved in Common Core, and creating lesson ideas and unit plans in order to include real-life content.

National Geographic is one of those companies!!

CLICK HERE to check it out!

The specific link takes you to 9-12th grade science lessons, but they also have lessons for Math, Health, ELA, Social Science, even Art!

What a great tool!

Shmoop!

Doesn't that just sound silly? I love it!

This website is kind of like Sparknotes to the 10th power. It has all kinds of resources about ALL the subjects! There are videos, lesson ideas, learning guides, and so much more!

Give yourself time to review it because there is just a wealth of information!

Check out SHMOOP here!

Happy planning!

And we're back!

I hope everyone had a restful and relaxing Holiday break! Now that it's officially 2014, it's time that we make Common Core our everyday reality!

Here is a FABULOUS site for articles about all kinds of topics! There is even a SPANISH section!!

Tween Tribune

The articles here are short, so they are perfect for practicing those close reading skills! Let's hear you ROAR, Wildcats!

Check out our Awesome Math Department!!

The Algebra 2 teachers have taken real-life applications HEAD ON into their instruction and found an awesome project to demonstrate quadratic functions!

Here is the project they are doing!

What an awesome way to build connections to games that our students enjoy! All the while, discussing Math!!

We should be incredibly proud of all the great work our departments are doing to integrate Common Core. I know that at times, it can feel very difficult, but the passion and dedication of this staff is truly inspiring!

Great work, Math!

Calling All English Teachers!

Today, I found a really cool site for English teachers. It is full of pre-made worksheets and activities that were created by an English teacher. They cover all types of aspects from English, including point of view, purpose, modes, and all kinds of other stuff!

Check it out!

Some are a little redundant, but I think for occasional usage, they're pretty great!

A Foreign Language Resource!

While I was googling today, I stumbled across a great resource for Foreign Language Teachers!

I have already posted a LiveBinder for the English department, and now I have one for Foreign Language. A quick recap--a Livebinder is a collection of websites and handouts on one website, similar to a binder in real life.

This one is full of great information for Foreign Language teachers.

Here it is!

NMS.org

I have been trying to keep an eye out for Math and Science resources because I know that they are hard to keep track of. Today, I found a great one!

The National Math and Science Initiative has a TON of great information! You should really check it out!

If you click "Resources," you can select a page for Free Lessons! They are really professional and in-depth! You can also check out some forums and open resources that people are adding to.

Happy planning!

Newsela Non Fiction and Current Events

Looking to work in more non-fiction? Not sure where to find the material, or if they students will be able to understand it?

Enter Newsela NonFicition and Current Events

Mrs. Morales sent this on over, and it's amazing! The articles are really currently applicable. Plus, if you click the article, you can change the reading level!

What an amazing differentiation and ELD tool! The same material, only at various reading levels!

Check it out--you will be glad you did!

Great Math Resources!

I've said it before and I'll say it again--there are incredible resources out there, just WAITING for us to seize them! Here are two fabulous math resources.

Common Core Math Teachers has a ton of great goodies, from sample performance tasks to assessments, to lessons! If you click around, you will find some great info on Algebra 1!

This website has information about the standards, as well as downloadable lessons and worksheets for you!

October is already half over! How are YOU feeling about Common Core?!

Critical Thinking!

One of the major elements of the Common Core, and of the district/Wilson's vision is CRITICAL THINKING!

However, let's face it--it's hard!

This website, CriticalThinking.org, has a lot of wonderful information on how to build critical thinking in your classroom.

Check it out!

Math!

Here is a great website that really relates math to Real life concepts.

However, I do want to assume that there is NO RISK to eating bacon sandwiches. Because...yum.

There is also a fabulous section on cross curriculars! 

Click the link!

Free courses for your educational benefit!

If you are looking to become more educated on the Common Core, there are some free "courses" available for you to take and learn from!

Here is one ran by Stanford Online. The description reads: "This short course looks closely at student-to-student discourse and addresses how to facilitate student engagement in the types of interactions required by the new standards. It organizes a massive collaboration of educators who wish to support students, particularly English Language Learners, to co-create and build upon each other’s ideas as they interact with the content."

It has a 7 week duration and is completely free! 

More Video Resources

I know many of us learn really well by watching, and the Teacher Channel video website has a ton of great ideas, lesson plans and resources available through VIDEO.

Check it out!

The lessons on perseverance are especially interesting, considering one shift we ALL have to make is allowing our students a little more "struggle time."

TED Talks

Many of us have heard of the TED website--a website based on sharing videos that exemplify "ideas worth spreading."

While they aren't all focused or even related to Common Core, there are a lot of awesome videos related to education on the site.

Need a little inspiration today? Click here!

And remember that we are making a difference every single day!

Achieve the Core!

In case you haven't noticed, there are SO MANY resources out in the intrawebs that we can use to implement Common Core. In fact, there are too many to properly share! But we are trying our best to bring you as many as we can!

Achieve the Core is another fabulous website full of complete and comprehensive lesson plans/guides for teachers to use for FREE.

Simply specify your position and grade level, and Achieve the core will lead you to a ton of great information.

For instance, I just downloaded a 22-page unit on close reading a piece by Frederick Douglass. It goes step by step, and shows me exactly what to do over a series of days within my classroom. It's awesome!

The PTA Is on board, too!

Have you been wondering where parents stand on Common Core? Well, the national PTA is on board and doing all they can to help support teachers and the education world as we shift our standards.

CLICK HERE for some comprehensive resources on Common core, including literature and information that parents themselves need to know!

Way to go, PTA!

Edutopia

Edutopia is an awesome website ran by The George Lucas Educational Foundation (I mean, does it get any cooler than that?!)

Here is a link to Edutopia.

It is a wealth of educationally related resources, videos, blogs, and exemplary schools. It even has resources on SEL curriculum, Project-based learning and technology integration!

Right below the main header, you can click Common Core Resources and it will direct you to solely common core stuff. 

Just playing around for a few minutes, I found a link to 21 common core aligned Math apps!