Black History Month Bulletin Board Giveaway!

Happy First Day of Black History Month!! In celebration, today I'm bringing you the deets on my cutie cute new Black History Month Trivia Bulletin Board, AND I'm giving one away! WOO!

If you've been here before, you know that I'm not in the schools anymore. I'm rocking the SAHM life and so grateful for that opportunity. But sometimes I miss being in the schools! Lucky for me, my bestie still works at a local elementary school and she "lets" me do her bulletin boards for her! I say "lets" because I LOOOVE it and it's totally not her thing, plus she has all the - you know - TEACHING to do, so really it's a win for both of us.

Every time I dig into our history of slavery and the Civil Rights movement, I'm awed and honored all over again. The things these people endured are INCREDIBLE. Did you know that at age SIXTEEN, Booker T. Washington walked over 500 miles to college? When he arrived, the understandably apprehensive headmaster asked him to sweep the floors. He did such an incredible job sweeping, mopping, dusting, and washing the walls (all several times), that she admitted him to the school and allowed him to work through college as a janitor. I do not know a single teenager with that much drive.

So! I see it as a big responsibility and incredible privilege to share pieces of our history with our students! While this board is FAR from comprehensive, it is a perfect little peek at simple interesting bits of information that will hopefully pique the interest of our young minds!

I wanted to have a few different types of questions, so I decided on three approaches:

1. "I Statements" in first person, describing an overall descriptive fact about each of my ten historical figures: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Thurgood Marshall, Harriett Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ruby Bridges, Frederick Douglass, and Jackie Robinson. In the packet, the question and answer cards are on the same page for simplicity's sake.

2. Quotes from each individual. These quotes are actually pretty tricky, but some make a lot of sense once you think about them. They are great topics for discussion. Several really got me thinking.

3. Word Scramble. While unscrambling words is not necessarily specific to the individual historical figures of the board, I just couldn't continue to pass over these words during my reading without plugging them into this activity. The question cards have a scrambled word + the definition. The answer cards restate the definition and use it in context, specifically referring to one of our displayed historical figures. Fancy pants!

Finally, of course, the set includes the extra little tid bits you'll need to bring the board together: The title letters, the "black history month trivia" poster, and the Melonheadz "headshots" of each historical figure!

What do you think? Are you ready to win your own?? Simply enter the Rafflecopter below as many times as you'd like. The winner will be announced Saturday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out more great ideas for Black History Month with my friends below! Feel free to link up your blog post and/or giveaway. [No product posts please.]

An InLinkz Link-up

Using Exit Tickets to Meet Student Needs

At the end of a lesson, how do you know what your students have learned? Do you give an assignment for every lesson? Do you ask each student a question individually? Do you have group discussions? Do you ever bother to ask your students what THEY thought of a lesson? 

Once you've evaluated, what do you do with the information you've gathered? Do you just jot down a grade based on how well the students kept up? Do you modify the next lesson based on how far your students have come? Do you ask yourself if your approach is effective and consider making minor changes to the next days' plans? Hopefully your answer is "ABSOLUTELY!" But if it's not, don't be alarmed, you're not alone!

I think a lot of teachers get in a habit of making a plan (and an awesome one at that!), and plugging through those plans, hoping their kiddos get the concept by the end of the lesson or unit. But are we really meeting student needs?

Exit tickets are one simple way to evaluate an individual lesson. They are low-pressure for the student and allow them to give honest feedback on the classroom experience they just had. You can ensure that your students feel free to be honest by not requiring a name. This way, they can tell you candidly if they have no clue what just happened, if they thought the lesson was only worth 2 stars, etc.

Once you have this information, you can tweak your next lesson accordingly. Did 70% of your students totally miss the point? Did MOST of your students decide they were confident and ready to move on? Use the information to guide your planning. Review a particular point in the next lesson, change your approach, pull small groups for extra help, etc. 

Another great thing about exit tickets is they are quick and easy! They'll take a few minutes at the end of class. Your students can hand them to you or drop them in a basket as their ticket out the door. They are simple to fill out, but provide a plethora of information.

Here are some other tips for using Exit Tickets in the Classroom.

Exit tickets are super easy to make. You don't even need anything fancy! You can just jot a question on the board & let your students scribble their answers on a corner of notebook paper. VOILA!

Or you can grab my Exit Ticket Pack for only $1 in my store! This pack includes exit tickets with six different questions, plus a blank ticket to add your own questions! It also includes the How To pages you see above. 

Let me know what you think!

Denise Hill, #TeacherMom

Social Sunday: Labor Day Journal Writing Packet

Happy Sunday, friends!

I hope you all are resting & relaxing and enjoying some family time today. I had a fabulous and relaxing morning with my family and am now catching up on the bloggersphere! Today I'm linking up with Everything Ed for Social Sunday. This is a great little linky for collecting materials for your Social Studies classroom!

I was so pumped when I read Everything Ed's post this morning on great ways to assess your students outside of tests! We're totally on the same page with his awesome list. Check it out here.

The very first idea he lists is Journal Writing Prompts. YES! YES YES. What I love about journal writing is it allows students to express their level of understanding and relay their thought processes without worrying (as much) about composure, structure, and the other various stressors of formal writing.

Last year, I started assembling packs specificially designed to practice reading and comprehending informational texts, and responding in journal writing form. You can check them out here. The packs are in need of expanding, and facelifts, so this week I finally got a chance to get started, just in time for Labor Day!

This pack includes A Non-Fiction reading passage , 6 journal writing prompts, 6 vocabulary cards & two vocabulary exersice pages. 

Check it out! And make sure you follow me on Facebook, Instagram, & BlogLovin' to keep up with new materials & product facelifts throughout the year! :)

Don't forget to stop back by TOMORROW for some great Teacher Tools, a brand new freebie, and a fun giveaway!!