English & Language Arts Teacher BlogThis blog is for secondary English, ELA, and language arts teachers filled with lesson plans, humor, product recommendations, teaching ideas, tips, and tricks and much more! 4/30/24: Reminding students that writing is messy, virtual traveling for inspiration, & more!4/30/2024 Let’s get pumped and bring our A-game to the classroom because our kiddos deserve it! 🙌💯 Helpful Stuff It is incredibly important to remind students that writing is MESSY! And it’s beautifully “messy” because you can jump between all the stages as needed: planning, writing, revising, editing, sharing, and everything in between! With that in mind, I am excited to share this amazing writing advice (life advice, really) from Raymond Chandler: I am a writer, and there comes a time when that which I write has to belong to me, has to be written alone and in silence, with no one looking over my shoulder, with no one telling me a better way to write it. It doesn't have to be great writing, it doesn't even have to be terribly good. It just has to be mine. I plan on making this quote (and it’s single statements) into posters for my classroom and hope you so something similar to share with your kids! RecommendationsI’ve recently started using Google Earth to have students virtually travel anywhere in the world and then write about it. I’ve had students write about their dream vacations in Cancun. Others have explored castles in Transylvania for their horror fiction writing. Some have looked up their old houses to write autobiographies—the possibilities are endless! Here are some of the coolest places we have visited: Mt. Everest Tasmania Göbeklitepe (Turkey) Svalbard So get creative and you and your students will both have much more fun while reading and writing! Try it out and let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag us in your posts on Instagram as @shining_scholar_education and Facebook as Shining Scholar Education! A Little Inspiration Because our headspace matters when we are trying to show up as our best selves for our students, our loved ones, and ourselves! These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb. -Najwa Zebian This quote reminded me of how we should view our past struggles and not let them define us but to strengthen us and mark our path on the way to our goals! Make today count, and just because it’s crunch time doesn’t mean it can’t be a good time! 🤓 Sharing is caring—so please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love! The goal of these messages is to help ourselves improve—for our students, for our loved ones, and for ourselves. You can always reply to this message or message us on Facebook here! Keep changing the world! Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S.: Looking to monetize your educational content? Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here! Let’s get it! But First, A Chuckle!Helpful StufF You folks have to check out the podcast “Supernatural with Ashley Flowers”! It has great supernatural stories and information that is sure to pique your students’ curiosity that could spawn ideas for research projects, all sorts of essays, short stories, journal entries, discussions, and more! Of course, I recommend listening to the episode at least twice before listening to it in class, to ensure its appropriateness for Even though the show ended in 2022, its 102 episodes are broken down into 6 categories: Alien, Haunted, Mystical, The Unknown, Disappeared, & Conspiracy. My favorites are the alien and haunted ones! These are some of the best episodes I have listened to so far: Werewolves Conspiracy: Bob Lazar (UFOS/aliens) Sleep Paralysis The Fountain of Youth Sharing is caring—so please spread the love if you enjoy the show! RecommendationsI love, love, love reading …but I wish I had more time for it! Enter Blinkist. This amazing little app gives you concise & powerful summaries (in reading or audio format) on some of the best books out there. This amazing little app gives you concise & powerful summaries (in reading or audio format) on some of the best books out there. I personally use it to check out books before I buy the complete book on Audible. That way, I know if I am more likely to like it or not —without having to use those precious Audible credits to find out! Check it out the Blinkist app for yourself with this amazing coupon for 75% off an entire year! You get an entire year for literally the cost of a month at regular price! Try it out and let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag us in your posts on Instagram as @shining_scholar_education and Facebook as Shining Scholar Education! A Little Inspiration Because our headspace matters when we are trying to show up as our best selves for our students, our loved ones, and ourselves! The beginner chases the right answers. The master chases the right questions. -James Clear Sharing is caring—so please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love!
The goal of these messages is to help ourselves improve—for our students, for our loved ones, and for ourselves. You can always reply to this message or message us on Facebook here! Keep changing the world! Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S.: Looking to monetize your educational content? Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here! Keep on truckin’, my peeps! Helpful Stuff I don't know about you folks but I have been sweating bullets trying to complete the rest of my professional development hours. Then I realized that my professional organization for teachers also offered online professional development. When I completed the online videos and trainings, I received a PDF certificate which I uploaded to my district’s portal and I received teacher choice hour credits. I belong to ATPE so if you belong to any similar organizations, it’s definitely worth a look to check if they offer anything similar. Hope this helps! Recommendations
This helps maintain our personal integrity by preventing saying things that are not tre yet. For example, instead of saying: "I am wealthy.” Say instead: “I am committed to building wealth.” That way we are not lying to ourselves when we are focusing on our goals! 🙌💯 Try it out and let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag us in your posts on Instagram as @shining_scholar_education and Facebook as Shining Scholar Education! A Little Inspiration Because our headspace matters when we are trying to show up as our best selves for our students, our loved ones, and ourselves! As a huge fan of Aesop's fables I couldn't help but share this amazing tale. “The Fox Without a Tail” When a fox lost his tail to a trap, he tries to convince the other foxes that it would be best for them to lose their tails, too, claiming that they were inconvenient and put their lives at risk for hunters. Finally, an older fox arose and pointed out the fox’s attempt at trickery. Moral: Do not listen to the advice of him who seeks to lower you to his own level. Read the complete fable here! As always, please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love!
The goal of these messages is to help ourselves improve—for our students, for our loved ones, and for ourselves. You can always reply to this message or message us on Facebook here! Keep changing the world! Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S.: Looking to monetize your educational content? Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here! We’re about one-third of the way through April already?!?! Helpful Stuff Check out this awesome (and often hilarious 😂) website that translates modern English to Shakespearean English to help students find the humor and get creative with classic literature in writing! Recommendations
“Even being a three [out of 10] versus not doing them [The S.A.V.E.R.S.] at all in terms of how good I was at the end of that hour —I felt incredible.” Such a beautiful example of how to avoid “all or nothing” or “black and white” thinking, where it has to be done perfectly or not at all, rather even doing just a little bit better than yesterday still counts as a win! These are the S.A.V.E.R.S.: Silence Affirmation Visualization Exercise Reading Scribing I personally started off with visualization, a few minutes of exercise, and scribing and noticed a difference right away n my energy levels and approach to problems in the day. Remember: baby steps are OK! I cannot recommend this book enough! It is one of my top five self-help and self-improvement books of all time, it gives you practical actionable steps you can start doing right away to improve your life in big ways quickly or step-by-step, depending on how much time you can devote to it! As with everything I recommend, take what you can use and what is helpful and disregard the rest! Try it out and let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag us in your posts on Instagram as @shining_scholar_education and Facebook as Shining Scholar Education! Because through helping others, we all win! A Little Inspiration Because our headspace matters when we are trying to show up as our best selves for our students, our loved ones, and ourselves!  I keep this little sticky note on my computer monitor at work and it helps to remind me of my goals
Students also see it when I bring them up to my desk to discuss their progress. It’s a win-win! Hope this inspires you to do something that inspires motivates you! As always, please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love! The goal of these messages is to help ourselves improve—for our students, for our loved ones, and for ourselves. You can always reply to this message or message us on Facebook here! Keep changing the world! Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S.: Looking to monetize your educational content? Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here! Let’s keep on truckin’! Helpful Stuff
And remember, there is no such thing as a one-test-fits-all so all of our reading exams are customizable! Check it out here! Recommendations
A Little InspirationBecause our headspace matters when we are trying to show up as our best selves for our students, our loved ones, and ourselves! Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for. -Epicurus As always, please forward this to any teacher that could benefit from this message and help spread the love!
The goal of these messages is to help ourselves improve—for our students, for our loved ones, and for ourselves. You can always reply to this message or message us on Facebook here! Keep changing the world! Charlie with Shining Scholar Education P.S.: Looking to monetize your educational content? Consider joining our TPT Affiliate Program for 25% commissions here! Want to join our email list? Click below! MS ELAR teachers Click here! HS ELAR teachers Click here! And check out our TPT store here! |
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