Teacher Writer Talks

It’s the first day of school and you’ve given your students the class summary writing assignment : “What I Did Over Summer Break.”

This has to be one of the most difficult assignments you can give some of your elementary students. For others, it might be the easiest.

Why? In this episode, we'll talk about why that might be so. We'll also talk about:

• How to Start Teaching Summary Writing at the Beginning of the School Year
• How Fast Can a Student Write a One Page Summary?
• Things to Include in a Summary
• What NOT to Include in a Summary
• Just the Facts, Friend! or JTFF
• Using a Template or Formula to Teach Summary Writing (great for younger learners)
• Transition Words for Writing Summaries in Elementary School
• Summary Tool in Google Docs (TM)

Yes, it’s true, you could spend two weeks or more to set up your classroom. But do you want to take that much time?

If you’re a first year teacher, congratulations! You may be surprised by what I just said. If you’re a veteran teacher, you know what I’m talking about, right?

It’s so fun to look at the super cute classroom pictures and videos on social media. They make it look so easy, and it can be…if you have a system. In this blog post, you’ll learn a system that will get your classroom set up fast. You really can get it done in three days or less.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode!

Blog posts mentioned in this podcast:

If you’ve been teaching for any time at all, you know that summer slide is real, and maybe you’re looking for some ideas for preventing summer slide in June and July with your own children. Perhaps you want to find some ideas to give to the parents of your students that are easy to implement.

In today's podcast, I share several ideas to slam on the brakes to stop summer slide with fun activities. All of these sneak in learning and skills practice while students are having a great summer break.

Sites I mentioned in the podcast today:

Are you looking for some new and unique end of year activities to do with your class? Are you hoping to find something that’s free and easy?

Hey, amazing teacher!  I’ve got some ideas for you!

I’ve picked 4 of my favorite end of year activities for you to do with your class. Best of all, they don’t cost a dime. They use things you already have in the classroom. You might notice that these are things you can do all year long, not just at the end of the school year. Keep these games in your teacher toolbox for any time your students need to get the wiggles out.

You can read these ideas on the TeacherWriter blog, too.

You’re in the countdown of the last few weeks of school. The students are excited and so are you. It takes some creativity, some innovation, and some extra movement to keep them focused and learning during May and early June. In today’s podcast, I’m going to give you three ideas for end of school year activities that are free and fun.

You can read these ideas on the TeacherWriter blog, too.