Learn Create Inspire

Sharing successes and challenges through teaching while becoming a (hopefully) published author.

Self Talk Art: 54 Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers
Core Competenices, SEL, Art, Literacy, Class Community Melissa Salter Core Competenices, SEL, Art, Literacy, Class Community Melissa Salter

Self Talk Art: 54 Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers

Positive self talk art inspired by 54 Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers. This blog post is about our class discussion of ‘should-ing’ on yourself and the positive self talk art we made after the discussion. It was a community building activity that has become a powerful display of the good our classmates see in us—and the good we see in ourselves!

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Self Talk & Emotions: Three activities to explore 54 Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers
Literacy, Core Competencies, SEL, Read Aloud, Class Community Melissa Salter Literacy, Core Competencies, SEL, Read Aloud, Class Community Melissa Salter

Self Talk & Emotions: Three activities to explore 54 Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers

Using literature to unpack self talk and build class community is powerful. Three more activities to do with 54 Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers. I also share a few ideas for how I design lessons linked to books I am reading. Making a novel do double or triple duty in the intermediate classroom makes engagement with the text even deeper.

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Gender Stereotypes and Pink Shirt Day

Gender Stereotypes and Pink Shirt Day

Today was Pink Shirt Day. In my class, we used it as a day to explore gender stereotypes and bullying. My short lesson went astray and became an entire morning of powerful discussions and deep learning. This post outlines the lesson and can be used as a template to have a discussion about gender stereotypes with students. It is filled with student quotes and reflections…and adorable accidental posters.

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Refugee Crisis + Math Lesson = Compassion and Understanding

Refugee Crisis + Math Lesson = Compassion and Understanding

This outlines a cross curricular refugee crisis math/social studies lesson I did today. It includes graphing, counting collections, and the refugee crisis. It is hands-on and each class I worked with loved it. It is our job to help kids unpack and make sense of hard topics.

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