Why EDUCATORS are so AWESOME!

View the Facebook posting I saw BELOW.....

We as educators have always known we play multiple roles in a student's life.  But here is where an educator was willing to ease a mom's wish to obtain her education when the babysitter did not show up.

As others have commented...We are proud of the mom for not making an excuse to not to go to school that day.

And we are also proud of the professor who encouraged this mom to stay in class when her baby began to cry.  He became the "babysitting lecturing professor" to show how important her education was to him and that "life is life".  

Sometimes "LIFE" gets in the way of our dreams, but sometimes there are "education angels" around to help motivated individuals along the way.

This professor is an AWESOME education angel!!
(This FB post may become visible slowly.)

So one of the students came with her kid, because she didn't have a babysitter. The kid starts to cry in the middle of the class, so his mom, all embarrassed gets up to leave, and the professor takes the kid from her, calmed him and continued teaching. #ashe #bravo #loveit
Skai Juice Facebook Post - 5/13/2015

Balanced Literacy Activity - (Story Elements) - Jeopardy Game

Your students will LOVE this game and learn at the same time.  

Download this presentation and OR play it directly from here.

Special Note:  Make sure you read the Teacher Directions on (Slide 2) to ensure maximum fun with the interactive capabilities.

Here is the link to the "Jeopardy Theme Song". 

You can visit my "Diary of an iPad Grant Team" for other iPad Friendly lessons or activities.

Jeopardy_[LanguageArts]_Version 2

More PowerPoint presentations from Reba Gordon Matthews

Helping Teachers Understand..What is Balanced Literacy?

At the beginning of the school year, my consulting focus was on
Balanced Literacy.  My tasks were to train and assist elementary teachers with their understanding the five components and organizing their classroom environment for effective literacy instruction.

Balanced Literacy PowerPoint

More presentations from aSGuest105467

Some beginning teachers and a few veteran teachers asked, 
"What is Balanced Literacy?" and ..................
"How is that different from what I am doing at this time in reading?"


I began my answer by saying...
 "For some of you, this will not be that different...........


1.  All of you are reading stories to your children.
--- That is the beginning of the Read Aloud component.

2.  Some of you are displaying/projecting the text you are reading on your whiteboard/smartboard.
--- That is the beginning action of the Shared Reading component.

3.  All of you are meeting with students in small homogeneous groups for reading instruction.
--- That is the perfect approach to begin the Guided and the Differentiated Reading components.

4.  All of you provide regular writing instruction in your whole and/or  small groups, then expand the writing opportunity within your literacy stations.
--- That is of the beginning of the Guided and Shared Writing component.

5.  All of you have your students select books from your classroom and/or school library to read alone at their desk for SSR or DEAR time for 15-20 min.
--- That is the beginning of the Independent Reading component.
Special Note:  This can be one of the most challenging components of this literacy model.

My answers launched a plethora of great questions and comments regarding their current work and what is needed to have a "balanced" reading implementation in their classroom.

THEN....."How do we need develop a "balanced" program?"


Now....the coaching door has been open.

I began introducing the "Balanced Literacy Model" with a comprehensive resource PowerPoint (above) I found on Authorstream by a student named, Emily Addleman at Ball State University.

This resource had great results in helping the teachers understand what to plan for within each of the literacy components.  See the presentation above....
I hope Emily received an "A" for her assignment.