Ms. K
Does the NEA Have Your Best Interests in Mind?
Below, I have quoted the NEA’s mission and vision statements. Their statements read that they ” are the voice of education professionals” and that they are to “advocate for education professionals.” I am confused by these statements. The NEA favorably represents liberal democratic candidates in all of their publications and doesn’t provide a balanced view to represent the “voice of education professionals.” Conservative voices and ideas are openly squelched. Educational professionals who belong to this professional organization may not be aware that their money is supporting a political agenda.
- “We, the members of the National Education Association of the United States, are the voice of education professionals. Our work is fundamental to the nation, and we accept the profound trust placed in us.
- Our vision is a great public school for every student.
- Our mission is to advocate for education professionals and to unite our members and the nation to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world.”
If you are an educator who only belongs to this organization for the liability insurance you are provided and you are not interested in supporting a political agenda, you may purchase liability insurance from an independent provider at a much lower rate than the dues to your local chapter of the NEA. If you are wanting to withdraw your membership from the teacher’s union, I can only speak for how to get out of the union from my state of Arkansas. I am not sure if it is the same in all states. There is only a certain window of time within the summer months of June or July that you may withdraw your membership, and this is certainly not publicized. You must withdraw with a written request letter during these months.
How Can Cooperative Groups Make Your Workload Lighter?
Set up your classroom in cooperative groups to make your workload easier. If each group of four students has one captain, then that captain can manage the team. Set up materials in your room in a central location. I have found this works best if you set the materials in plastic drawers which you can buy in the office supply section of Wal-Mart. In each drawer place enough supplies for that team. For an elementary classroom, I recommend having six drawers full of crayons, six drawers full of markers, six drawers full of colored pencils, and six drawers full of four sets of scissors and glue sticks. Beside the supplies also have paper trays for each subject. Direct your team captains to pick up and return the needed supplies and papers for each activity. Give each student in a team a number 1-4. To give students equal opportunities at being team captain, change the team captain number on the board each day. Reward teams who are quick to follow directions. You can keep a running tally and reward teams with the most points for appropriate behavior. Below is an example of how you might label your team captain numbers so that the numbers rotate in a circle.
| 1 | 2 |
| 4 | 3 |
Free Printable Math Resource Sheets
Van de Walle is the author of several math lesson books including Teaching Student Centered Mathematics. His lessons extend student thinking, target misconceptions, and provide many hands on lesson activities. Kindly enough, Van de Walle has made the blackline master printables available for free at the link below.
http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_vandewalle_math_5/0%2C7959%2C796754-%2C00.html
http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_vandewalle_math_6/0%2C12312%2C3547876-%2C00.html
You will find ten frame cards, printable polygons, area and perimeter shapes to measure, grid paper, dot paper, protractors, fraction and pattern lesson activities etc.
Make Pounds and Ounces Comprehensible to Your Students
- To help students make reasonable estimates with any type of measurement including weight, students must have experiences measuring items that are common to them. For example, when teaching students how heavy a pound or ounce is, allow them to hold a small bag of sugar for a pound and a square of baking chocolate for an ounce. Have students predict how many baking chocolate squares (ounces) it will take to make a bag of sugar (pound). Then place one ounce on the scale at a time for students to see. When you are halfway to a pound stop and ask the students if they wish to change their predictions.
- Notes: When students only hold the standard metal measurements that come with balance beam scales, they tend to have a skewed view of how heavy a pound or ounce is since the metal is so dense. When you are looking for a pound of sugar in the baking aisle, the normal granulated sugar isn’t typically sold in a one pound bag. However, you can buy a small pound of sugar in a box to represent one pound. These are the only items in the grocery store that I have found to weigh exactly one pound and one ounce. If you have found others, please comment.
How Can You Teach Angles with Effective Manipulatives?
AngLegs Plus, a fabulous new math manipulative, I discovered last year when looking for a way to teach angles. These take the place of the teacher made card board pieces with brads. AngLegs Plus are colored plastic pieces that snap together and extend or retract. Where the pieces meet together common angle measures are labeled in small print such as 45, 90, and 120 degrees. Not only can students build angles, but they can also build regular and irregular polygons. What makes these manipulatives so impressive is that students can maneuver the sliding pieces to see the relationship between the length of sides and the angle measures. If you teach angles and polygons and you have the money in your budget, definitely buy AngLegs Plus. You will not be disappointed.
Has Your State Adopted the National Common Core Standards?
The common core standards were not developed by the federal government but by states contrary to popular belief. These national standards were developed from the most rigorous state standards to help students compete in the global economy. Having national standards will help states share curriculum, professional development, lessons, tests, and the like. Most states have already adopted these standards to gain a share of the 3.4 billion that the Obama administration offered to states that signed up by August 2nd, 2010. Although many states have adopted the national common core standards, they will not be immediately implemented. The core standards will be implemented in transition. The only states not to have adopted the common core standards yet are Alaska, Texas, Virginia, Maine, Nebraska, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington. For more information on the commom core standards visit: http://corestandards.org/frequently-asked-questions and http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/education/21standards.html?_r=1.
Which Pencils Are the Best Value?
Upon sharpening many types of pencils in the classroom and having the sharpener gnaw them down to the stature of a small golf pencil, I have discovered the pencils with the worst and best value.
First, I will describe pencils not worth investing in. Pencils from a dollar store and holiday pencils etc. are hardly worth buying because the sharpener wears itself down on the plastic coating and cheap wood surrounding the lead. The lead is too soft to show up well on notebook paper, and the wood splinters too easily on these types of pencils.
I have tried Dixon pencils, Oxford pencils, Office Depot pencils and a number of others of which I don’t recall the names, and these do a fair job. However, they don’t produce consistent sharpening results in which one does not have to resharpen due to breakage, splintering, or the lead not being centered.
Pull out your wallet for Ticonderoga and Papermate. Ticonderoga pencils have soft, non smeary erasers, sharpen perfectly without breakage and splintering, and write darkly. Papermate rivals Ticonderoga in that Papermate pencils have dark lead and they are made of quality wood, which eliminates splintering breakage. In contrast, Papermate erasers are hard compared to Ticonderoga and sometimes cause smears. Papermate pencils sell for much less than Ticonderoga and with the savings, you could buy cap erasers. Most often before a school year begins, Papermate pencils are on sale for a substantial savings over Ticonderoga. In my opinion, Papermate pencils are the best value pencils.
How Can You Make Extra Money Without an Extra Job?
Teachers can take a step off of the pay scale and into the free marketplace when they find Teachers Pay Teachers, a website community for all teachers to sell their resources. On the website http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/, teachers are rewarded by selling quality materials they produce for their students . Finally, teachers can be paid for their resourcefulness through the products they create within the classroom. Teachers able to sell their digitally created items as well as used classroom materials. When an item sells, teachers are immediately notified through email. The website does, however, take a hefty 40% commission off of the teacher created materials one sells plus a flat fee of 30 cents per transaction. Teachers receive their earnings quarterly through PayPal.
