Miss Teacher

Okay, guys. I need help. I’ve taken my certification test four times and have failed four times. I’ve purchased the book to study, I’ve taken notes, I’ve done online testing, and I’ve done more practice testing. However, I’m still shy 10 points. 

Not only is it a blow on my confidence as a future teacher, it’s draining my bank account (it’s cost $1,200 so far). I know, ultimately money doesn’t matter, but I’ve got student loans and other expenses to account for. Then, adding on how unintelligent I feel, with the question if I can even do this…well, I’m getting quite desperate. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. The fact that I can’t be because of a standardized test is breaking my heart. 

Any tips, ideas, or suggestions?

gjmueller:

The 10 Skills Modern Teachers Must Have

1. Build your PLN
   
2. Establish real relationships in your PLN
3. Understand where edtech fits in
4. Know how to find useful resources
5. Manage your online reputation
6. Blog
7. Slow down
8. Make social media work for you
9. Don’t be afraid to fail
10. Know when to disconnect

You can print this image, the PDF is available here.

(via positivelypersistentteach)

(Source: theyuniversity)

teachingliteracy:

world-shaker:

Here are three:

4) Teaching

This board is a real treasure trove of teaching resources . It includes lesson plans, classroom activities, common core lessons, iPad apps for teachers, games and many more.

5) Printable

As its name indicates this board provides great printable materials for teachers. Browse through the different categories it features and you will definitely find something to use with your students

6) Kid Blog Network Activities and Crafts

This is a collaborative board from amazing bloggers that focus on activities and crafts for kids. With the foundational belief that playing and crafting with children improves well-being, creative thinking, and strengthens relationships.

mothernaturenetwork:

High school students ditch makeup for Operation Beautiful

Three high school seniors launched a campaign to change what girls see when they look in the mirror.

(via positivelypersistentteach)

thelastrplord:

a massively extended version of ruthlesscalculus’ post

General Tips

• Joss Whedon’s Top 10 Writing Tips
• Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
• 34 Writing Tips that will make you a Better Writer
• 50 Free resources that will improve your writing skills
• 5 ways to get out of the comfort zone and become a stronger writer
• 10 ways to avoid Writing Insecurity
• The Writer’s Guide to Overcoming Insecurity
• The Difference Between Good Writers and Bad Writers
• You’re Not Hemingway - Developing Your Own Style
• 7 Ways to use Brain Science to Hook Readers and Reel them In
• 8 Short Story Tips from Kurt Vonnegut
• How to Show, Not Tell
• 5 Essential Story Ingredients
• How to Write Fiction that grabs your readers from page one
• Why research is important in writing
• Make Your Reader Root for Your Main Character
• Writing Ergonomics (Staying Comfortable Whilst Writing)
• The Importance of Body Language

Character Development

• 10 days of Character Building
• Name Generators
• Name Playground
• Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test
• Seven Common Character Types
• Handling a Cast of Thousands Part 1 - Getting To Know Your Characters
• Web Resources for Developing Characters
• Building Fictional Characters
• Fiction Writer’s Character Chart
• Character Building Workshop
• Tips for Characterization
• Character Chart for Fiction Writers
• Villains are people too but…
• How to Write a Character Bible
• Character Development Exercises
• All Your Characters Talk the Same - And They’re Not A Hivemind!
• Medieval Names Archive
• Sympathy Without Saintliness
• Family Echo (Family Tree Maker)
• Behind The Name
• 100 Character Development Questions for Writers
• Aether’s Character Development Worksheet
• The 12 Common Archetypes
• Six Types of Courageous Characters
• Kazza’s List of Character Secrets - Part 1, Part 2
• Creating Believable Characters With Personality
• Body Language Cheat Sheet
• Creating Fictional Characters Series
• Three Ways to Avoid Lazy Character Description
• 7 Rules for Picking Names for Fictional Characters
• Character Development Questionnaire
• How to Create Fictional Characters
• Character Name Resources
• Character Development Template
• Character Development Through Hobbies
• Character Flaws List
• 10 Questions for Creating Believable Characters
• Ari’s Archetype Series
• How to Craft Compelling Characters
• List of 200 Character Traits
• Writing Characters of the Opposite Sex
• Making Your Characters Likable
• Do you really know your characters?
• Character Development: Virtues
• Character Development: Vices
• Character Morality Alignment
• List of Negative Personality Traits
• List of Positive Personality Traits
• List of Emotions - Positive
• List of Emotions - Negative
• Loon’s Character Development Series - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
• Phobia List A-L (Part 1), M-Z (Part 2)
• 30 Day In Depth Character Development Meme
• Words for Emotions based on Severity
• Eight Bad Characters
• High Level Description of the Sixteen Personality Types

Female Characters

• How Not to Write Female Characters
• Writing Female Characters
• How to write empowering female characters
• Why I write strong female characters
• Red Flags for Female Characters Written by Men
• Writing strong female characters
• The Female Character Flowchart
• Eight Heroine Archetypes

Male Characters

• Eight Hero Archetypes

Tips for Specific Characters

• Writing A Vampire
• Writing Pansexual Characters
• Writing Characters on the Police Force
• Writing Drunk Characters
• Writing A Manipulative Character
• Writing A Friends With Benefits Relationship
• Writing A Natural Born Leader
• Writing A Flirtatious Character
• Writing A Nice Character
• Fiction Writing Exercises for Creating Villains
• Five Traits to Contribute to an Epic Villain
• Writing Villains that Rock
• Writing British Characters
• How To Write A Character With A Baby
• On Assassin Characters

Dialogue

• It’s Not What They Say…
• Top 8 Tips for Writing Dialogue
• Speaking of Dialogue
• The Great Said Debate
• He Said, She Said, Who Said What?
• How to Write Dialogue Unique to Your Characters
• Writing Dialogue: Go for Realistic, Not Real-Life

Point of View

• Establishing The Right Point of View
• How to Start Writing in the Third Person
• The I Problem

Plot, Conflict, Structure and Outline

• Writing A Novel Using the Snowflake Method
• Effectively Outlining Your Novel
• Conflict and Character Within Story Structure
• Outlining Your Plot
• Ideas, Plots and Using the Premise Sheets
• How To Write A Novel
• Creating Conflict and Sustaining Suspense
• Plunge Right In…Into Your Story, That Is
• Tips for Creating a Compelling Plot
• 36 (plus one) Dramatic Situations
• The Evil Overlord Devises A Plot: Excerpt from Stupid Plot Tricks
• Conflict Test
• What is Conflict?
• Monomyth
• The Hero’s Journey: Summary of Steps
• Outline Your Novel in Thirty Minutes
• Plotting Without Fears
• Novel Outlining 101
• Writing The Perfect Scene
• One-Page Plotting
• The Great Swampy Middle
• How Can You Know What Belongs In Your Book?
• Create A Plot Outline in 8 Easy Steps
• How to Organize and Develop Ideas for Your Novel
• Create Structure in your novel using index cards
• Choosing the best outline method for you
• Hatch’s Plot Bank

Setting & Worldbuilding

• Magical Word Builder’s Guide
• I Love The End Of The World
• World Building 101
• The Art of Description: Eight Tips to Help Bring Your Settings to Life
• Creating the Perfect Setting - Part 1
• Creating a Believable World
• Setting
• Character and Setting Interactions
• Maps Workshop - Developing the Fictional World Through Mapping
• World Builders Project
• How To Create Fantasy Worlds
• Creating Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds

Creativity Boosters* denotes prompts

• *Creative Writing Prompts
• *Ink Provoking
• *Story Starter
• *Story Spinner
• *Story Kitchen
• *Language is a Virus
• *The Dabbling Mum
• Quick Story Idea Generator
• Solve Your Problems By Simply Saying Them Out Loud
• Busting Your Writing Rut
• Creative Acceleration: 11 Tips To Engineer A Productive Flow
• Writing Inspiration, Or Sex on a Bicycle
• The Seven Major Beginner Mistakes
• Complete Your First Book with these 9 Simple Writing Habits
• Free Association, Active Imagination, Twilight Imaging
• Random Book Title Generator
• Finishing Your Novel
• Story Starters & Idea Generators
• Words to Use More Often

Revision & Grammar

• How To Rewrite
• Editing Recipe
• Cliche Finder
• Revising Your Novel: Read What You’ve Written
• Writing 101: Revising A Novel
• 20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes
• Synonyms for the Most Commonly Used Words of the English Language
• Grammar Urban Legends

Tools & Software

• Tip Of My Tongue - Find the word you’re looking for
• Write or Die - Stay motivated
• Stay Focused - Tool for Chrome, lock yourself out of distracting websites
• My Writing Nook - Online Text Editor, Free
• Bubbl.us - Online Mind Map Application, Free
• Family Echo - Online Family Tree Maker, Free
• Freemind - Mind Map Application; Free; Windows, Mac, Linux, Portable
• Xmind - Mind Map Application; Free; Windows, Mac, Linux, Portable
• Liquid Story Binder - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free trial, $45.95; Windows, Portable
• Scrivener - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free trial, $39.95; Mac
• SuperNotecard - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free trial, $29; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable
• yWriter - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free; Windows, Linux, portable
• JDarkRoom - Minimalist Text Editing Application; free; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable
• AutoRealm - Map Creation Application; free; Windows, Linux with Wine

Specific Help

• Fashion Terminology
• All About Kissing
• Genre Help: Romance
• 187 Mental Illnesses
• Types of Mental Illness
• Eye Color List
• Spectral Groupings

(via bookaddict24-7)

writeworld:

prompts-and-pointers:

And I just needed to share it with all of you.

It’s the Speech Accent Archive, and any accent you can possibly imagine, you’re like to find it there. It’s an amazing resource for myself as point of reference and I’m sure a great load of you would…

from-student-to-teacher:

“Discussion Tables” - Pick a passage from a book you are reading and glue it to the center of bulletin board paper and have the students write their thoughts about the passage.

(via adventuresinlearning)

(Source: from-student-to-teacher)

(Source: loganlerman-rpc, via fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment)

I just finished reading the following article…I’m a little concerned, to say the least. I wish people would understand that YAL is one of the most real texts available. True, several of the topics are disturbing, but it’s life. Adults aren’t the only ones that struggle with self-harm, depression, cancer, suicide, death of loved ones, etc. To take away these books from young adults is making their real struggles seem less than they are. These texts are a way for young adults to know they aren’t alone and to seek help if needed or to be able to connect with their peers going through similar struggles. I have so much to say on this topic; however, it’s getting late. Here is a brief segment of the article, you can click it to be directed to the link.

“The ‘sick-lit’ books aimed at children: It’s a disturbing phenomenon. Tales of teenage cancer, self-harm and suicide…”

As plots go, it’s mawkish at best, exploitative at worst.  Diagnosed with stage four thyroid cancer at the age of 13, Hazel spends most of her time tethered to an oxygen tank and is running out of hope.

When she is attracted to a fellow cancer sufferer, she has to weigh up if she has enough time to fall for him before she dies. Such is the storyline of The Fault In Our  Stars, one of last year’s most successful children’s paperbacks. It’s a scenario seen again in Never Eighteen, also published last year, in which leukaemia-stricken Austin, 17, is in a race against time to tell his best friend he loves her because he doesn’t expect to see his next birthday.

from-student-to-teacher:

I may have just found the best educational rap source ever!!!!!!!!!!! YES! YES! YES! YES! My students are going to love this!

Guys, I’m now Facebook friends with these gentlemen. I’m so excited!

This is my first interview. I think I may puke. Do any of you, Tumblr education tag, have interview tips/advice or typical questions they may ask me? Also, what materials should I bring with me (references, letters of recommendations, resume, etc)?

doree:

Very psyched about this list, featuring some of my favorite writers/think-y people on the best book they read this year. Such as! Katie Notopoulos, Emily Gould, Anna Holmes, Caterina Fake, Tavi Gevinson, Jenna Wortham, Natasha Vargas-Cooper, Edith Zimmerman, Willa Paskin, Mary H.K. Choi, Ana Marie Cox, Julieanne Smolinski, Sloane Crosley, Julie Klausner, Shani Hilton, Amy Rose Spiegel, Elizabeth Spiers, AND MANY MORE!

Also, P.S., if you are looking for a) a bookish holiday gift or b) a reading list for the next year (or two), this will be very useful.

(via hellogiggles)