Bulletin Board Idea: Dive Into...

    I was going through some of my old photos and found this bulletin board that I did last year.  It's not the best and the picture quality is horrible, but it was still a hit with my students.  It was relatively simple to put together. First I found a elephant on a diving board  and projected it onto a large sheet of butcher paper.  I then traced it and colored it in.  Next I found a new decorative font, Australian Sunset,  and created the words "Dive into History."  You could use any font, but I liked the fact that this one looked like waves.  Then I cut out a diving board and some "water" out of brown and blue bulletin board paper respectively.  Finally I let my students add words to the water that they felt were related to what we were studying.  

    This bulletin board could be adapted to meet any situation.  I plan to use this the last part of May (after state testing) and change it to "Dive into a Good Book."  My students are going to do book reviews/recommendations and I'm going to have them list their books in the water.  

Elephant on Diving Board

From Royalty Free Diving Board Clipart

Font: Australian Sunset

Downloaded from 1001 Free Fonts

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Blogging 101: Linking in a Comment

I've had a few different blogs over the past few years. One tool that I've utilized quite a bit is the link.  Many times I've wanted to leave my blog link or a link to some other website in a comment and didn't know how.  After a bit of research, I discovered that it was a very simple process using html tags.  In 11th grade I took an HTML programming class during a summer Governor's School program, but evidently the info just didn't stick.  I realize that many people probably know how to do this, but it is a very useful tidbit to know. So...

How to Leave a Link in a Comment (or other place using HTML tags)

<a href="http://www.yourlink.com"  >Whatever you want to appear in your link </a>                  

For instance if I wanted to leave a link to my blog:

<a href="http://teachinglivinghistory.blogspot.com">Teaching Living History Blog </a>

Your homework: Leave me a comment with a link to your blog or your favorite teacher resource :)

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All Roads Lead to Rome

My last post, When in Rome, gave you a small preview of the Roman project that we've undertaken in my seventh grade World History classroom. As mentioned in the previous post, it was the brainchild of my teacher intern.  The students really got into the project and we had some wonderful projects.  Some of the projects really surprised me.  My camera battery was dead so I had to resort to using my phone's camera.  I only was able to take a few pictures, but after Spring Break, I will post some more.

The Roman Aqueduct as envisioned by one of my students. 

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I appreciated this version of the Colosseum because she labeled the various parts of her "replica."

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Horrible picture, but this is one of my favorites. Ignore the chaos that is my desk, please.  This project combined the aqueduct and the Colosseum.  The girls add plastic tubing which allowed water to flow through the aqueduct and flood the Colosseum floor.  This was supposed to represent the fact that historians believe naval battles were fought in the Colosseum by a similar process.

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When in Rome...

As part of my teaching intern's 10 day unit, she assigned the student's to complete a Roman project. She gave them a variety of options to choose from and one of the options was to build a model of the Colosseum.  Today was our first presentation. The rest will be presented tomorrow, but one group wanted to go early because Spring Break is next week and one of the members is not going to be here tomorrow.

I am not sure they got it exactly, but I love the fact that they used gummy animals to represent the various animals that might have been found in the Colosseum.  Our 7th graders have really gotten into this project. It has truly engaged them in cross curricular activities and sparked an interest in Rome in general.  The project has a variety of requirements and a wonderful rubric.  I'll try to post them when I get the chance. My brain is already on Spring Break mode though :)

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DonorsChoose: Get What You Need for Your Classroom

Ever have a project or lesson that you'd love to do, but just don't have the resources, supplies, etc that you need? Well, I run into that all the time. Two years ago, as a newbie teacher, I came across donorschoose.org  Since then, I have had 22 projects funded. I've written projects for simple things like pencils, colored pencils, paper, ink, etc. I've also gotten some BIG ticket items such as an iPad 2, 4 iPod Touches, a laptop, and a printer.

It's fairly simple. You sign up for an account and add a picture.  Then you write a project for whatever you are needing/wanting.  You can even do a project for a speaker or a field trip.  Once your project is approved, anyone can donate to your project (as little as a $1).  When your project is funded your students will write thank you notes to the donors who meet the requirements. You will also need to upload photos of your students using your donated supplies.

Check it out! If you decide to write a project, let me know. I would love to help you work toward your project. If you are already on donorschoose, please feel free to post your link or offer any suggestions.

The First iPod Touch my classroom received.

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Meet the Teacher

The Basics:

My name is Joy and I'm a junior high Social Studies teacher in North Mississippi.  I've been teaching for two and 1/2 years. At first I just taught seventh grade World History, but this year I started teaching sixth grade Eastern Hemisphere (basically World History but focusing on North and South America) as well.  I became a Mrs. the summer after I graduated from Mississippi State University (GO DAWGS!) we've been married almost 3 years (together 6).  I'm currently working on my Master's Degree in History through an online program at Western Kentucky University.  I am also fortunate enough to have a wonderful teaching intern this semester.

I'm a VERY random person. I can not really say what you can expect from this blog, but I will post pictures of crafts (classroom and non classroom related), teacher ideas, and random musings.  If I get too off topic, I won't mind if you try to reign me in.  Like I tell my husband, "I'm a teacher. I can't help it."  Keep me on task :)

Life Outside of Teaching: 

Is there one? When I'm not in "teacher mode," I have a ton of interests. I'll probably leave some out but here are some of the main ones: photography, NASCAR (cars, racing, automobilia in general), Sports - more specifically SEC/MSU college sports, Crafts, Rocketry, History, Music, Movies (aka the "usual).  

October 2006 at Talladega Super Speedway