Science of the Olympics and Football Freebie

I am trying to link up more frequently with Charity Preston's "Manic Monday" which is a huge resource of K-12 free resources.

I want to share with you some of the small things that I'm doing in my classroom.

This week we had a lot of state testing, and I needed something to "fill" at a time when kids were finishing, but some kids were absent.

I created this "Science of the Olympics and Football." Kids loved it!  Mine is focused on life science, but it could easily be modified for a different class.

The activity could also be given for homework or extra credit, and is very timely right now.

It is based on this resource from NBC.

Also, it is a great common core connection.  The videos have transcripts, if you want students to be able to read the transcript.  Text does not have to be only written text in a book.  This is another great tool to build in relevancy, and text analysis skills.

Get This Valuable Exit Ticket 4-Pack Free

Two sources of freebies for you!   1)  Here is a freebie of a few exit tickets. I am working on a product with a much greater selection of exit tickets, but in the meantime here is a freebie, with four exit tickets.  They are set to print four to a page.  Here is the link.  Enjoy!  

Facebook Free-For-All  Lots of Freebies for All Grade Levels.  Only through tomorrow. 

Teaching with Poverty in Mind Chapter 2

If you would like to read my second chapter journal entry, it is available at this link https://www.dropbox.com/s/ho5u8wgtbt8af2g/journal2.pdf

The second chapter got much more in depth about how a student's brain is affected by poverty, and specifically their behavior and emotional responses. We had a great discussion at my school after reading this chapter. 

Some of the most striking discussions, to me, were about how behavior and emotional responses are learned, and how our role as teachers, even high school level content teachers, is to help teach those emotional and behavioral responses. 

In addition, we discussed how many students come with emotional baggage, and part of our job, in order to make them successful, is to help build up their emotional 'bank account.'  We can do this through building relationships. 

This is a very very short reflection and summary on the second chapter. The second chapter can be seen at the same link that the first chapter was available (see previous post). 

I'd love to hear specific strategies that you use to teach problem solving and to build up emotional responses and teach behaviors, particularly in a high school setting. I think, as high school teachers, we don't do as much of this as elementary teachers do, but it's still important. 

The school culture makes a huge difference, but we as individual teachers can change the climate within our classrooms, and can play a role in the overall school climate.