Increase your students' vocabulary while helping end hunger!

Do you have students who absolutely love words and are always trying to increase their vocabularies? Perhaps you have students who aren't too fond of spelling or word usage but have a very competitive nature? Then encourage them to check out FreeRice.com!

Here's how it works: A word is displayed in bold and four words or phrases are listed beneath. Pick the word or phrase that defines or is synonymous with the bolded word. The more you get right, the harder each vocab word gets! It's that simple. If you get a question wrong, it may reappear a while later to let you have another chance to get it right. For each correct answer, ten grains of rice are donated through the United Nations World Food Program to help abolish world hunger!

If you have extra time during class, project the website on a white screen and make it a group effort! Have students raise their hands to give the best answer. Perhaps use each bolded word in a sentence and pick one at the end of the day to be the "word of the day" or "word of the week." Let students who use the word correctly in everyday speech pick something from a goodie bag, or just let that word be a bonus word for a spelling test!

Free Rice recently branched out to include other subjects besides just vocabulary, including Art, Chemistry, English, Geography, Language Arts, and Math! Once your students are familiar with how the "game" works, branch out to other subjects. The English Grammar section is great for reaffirming punctuation rules and word usage.

What better way to increase your students' vocabulary than with a healthy dose of philanthropy and fun in the mix? To find out more about this great cause and learning opportunity, check out Free Rice's Facts and Questions page.

Twitter and publishing

Check out this great list of publishing professionals who use Twitter from Highspot. You can find publishers, trade associations, publications, and reviewers. Now that's something to tweet about!

Free e-books

E-Books Directory offers nearly 2,000 free e-books in about 400 different categories, including children's books, biographies, history, science, writing, and more. Browse by category, popularity, title, and author, or just check out what's new.

Keep the arts in public schools

Show your support and add your voice to the cause by joining this group on Facebook.

Teaching Graphic Novels blog

Check out the new Teaching Graphic Novels blog for information on the forthcoming book by Katie Monnin, tips on using graphic novels to promote literacy in your classroom, and more!

Interview with Brett Dillingham and Nile Stanley

Read this interview with the authors of Performance Literacy through Storytelling from Education News!

Resource round-up: Get thinking!

Think about current events. Each week, Education World presents a news story for teachers to share and discuss with their students. Stories are chosen based on their timeliness and interest to students. Click here to view past and current events.

Train your brain into shape with mental exercises from Lumosity.com.

Get animated with BrainPOP, an interactive site with lessons and short, animated videos that help explain difficult concepts. Content is subscription based, but with tools for educators and teachers--all aligned to state standards--this site is worth checking out.

Give your brain a rest by bookmarking your favorite K-12 educational resources on the Web at Schoonoodle. You can share, find, and rate resources, all in one spot! The highest-rated content rises to the top of the page.

Last-day and summer activities from NCTE

NCTE's Inbox e-newsletter (May 12, 2009) offers some great ideas for end-of-the-year and summer activities for students:

Last-Day and Summer Activities
School is winding down across the United States. As students and teachers prepare for some well-deserved time out of the classroom, these activities provide useful options for last-day discussions and projects.

The Voices from the Middle article "Application & Transfer: Powerful Ideas for Ending the School Year" (G) offers a few ideas to explore students' interests, support summer retention of learning, and enhance 21st century literacy skills. The ideas can be easily adapted to any teaching level.

Encourage students to reflect on their school year using the ReadWriteThink.org lesson Writing and Assessing an Autobiographical Incident. Though the lesson recommends the activity as a beginning of school event, its value as a reflective writing assignment is just as clear.

The Language Arts article "Summer Reading: A Reflection" (E) recounts the author's family's summer reading and how she used it as an opportunity to talk with her children about books and, ultimately, about life. On the last day of school, why not invite students to discuss what they plan to read during the summer months?

Looking for books to recommend for summer reading? The ReadWriteThink.org podcast series Chatting about Books (E) and Text Messages (M-S) suggest engaging, quality titles in children's and young adult literature.

"Sharing Ideas for the Tools of Our Trade" (M) from Voices from the Middle includes ideas from several teachers who offer "their best ideas for teaching vocabulary . . . ideas that work even on the last day of school."

Use the ReadWriteThink.org lesson Graphic Life Map (M) to help students reflect on their school year by brainstorming important memories, choosing graphics to represent these memories and constructing a "life map" for the past several months.

Looking for a way to send students off with pride in their work? Check out the fortune cookie idea explained in the College English article "Editor's Choice: The Cookies of Fortune" (G). This activity can be used at any grade level.

Use the last days of class to ask students to ponder their future with the ReadWriteThink.org lesson A Poem of Possibilities: Thinking about the Future. Inspired by John Updike's poem "Ex-Basketball Player," students write poems or prose poems intended for a real audience -- themselves, five years in the future.

How can you apply your summer interactions with readers and writers when you return to the classroom? The English Journal article "What Is Right with This Picture?" (S) describes how one teacher plans to apply lessons learned from a one-week voluntary summer course to his classroom in the fall.

Teachers need to think about their own summer activities as well. In the English Journal article "What Do You Do during Summer Vacation to Help You Reenter the Classroom Refreshed in the Fall?" (G), five teachers share their own stories of rest, reading, exploring, and reinvigorating.

For out-of-school activities for families and community literacy groups, check out the Summer Activities section of ReadWriteThink.org!

IRA 2009 Conference

Maupin House had the pleasure last week of exhibiting at the 54th Annual International Reading Association's 2009 Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Several of Maupin House's distinguished authors, including Brod Bagert, Nile Stanley, Brett Dillingham, and Margriet Ruurs, presented at sessions, signed at the Maupin House booth, and hosted special events.

Margriet Ruurs happily co-emceed the Poetry Olio at the conference. Individuals and groups performed original poetry to an audience of about 150.

Nile Stanley, sporting his Nile Crocodile the Reading Reptile t-shirt, performs during Poetry Olio!

Customers were excited to have their books signed by the authors who attended. Brod Bagert signed copies of Hormone Jungle and Rainbows, Head Lice, and Pea-Green Tile; Nile Stanley and Brett Dillingham signed copies of their new book, Performance Literacy through Storytelling; Nile signed copies of his book, Creating Readers With Poetry; and Margriet Ruurs signed Virtual Maniac and Power of Poems.

Check out Maupin House's Facebook page to see more photos from the event!

Resource round-up: Teacher news from Google

Applications are now open for the next Google Teacher Academy, which will take place in their Boulder, Colorado office on August 5th, 2009. For those unfamiliar with it, the Google Teacher Academy is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region. The GTA is open to teachers all over the world, but participants must pay for their own travel and lodging, if necessary.

For more information on the GTA, please go to: http://www.google.com/educators/gta.html. Please check out the application and apply by MIDNIGHT, July 3rd, 2009: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cmNxOEpoMi1pM1hiWnl2ZW52cWNERnc6MA.

As a tool for teachers, Google is excited to share news about a comprehensive new digital media education program from one of their partners, Common Sense Media, a leading non-partisan, non-profit resource that helps families and educators teach kids how to be safe and smart in today’s media driven world. Their new program, Common Sense Schools, provides materials to engage parents and teachers in an interactive dialogue about the media kids consume and create. The program takes a balanced approach by addressing both the opportunities and challenges of new media for parents and kids. It’s available for free online and is designed to give you the flexibility to target the media-related issues, like social networking or cyberbullying, that matter most to your community. For free access to videos and downloadable presentations, tip sheets, and discussion materials that will give you all the tools your school needs to build a school-community partnership around media and technology issues, check out: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/schools.

One last link! Check out http://www.google.com/a/edu for info on the National Education Computing Conference (NECC).

Motivating students to read

Some children naturally love to read and don't need much coaxing to do so. Others might need an incentive, and nothing motivates quite like the good old-fashioned green stuff: money.

Encourage your students and children to read during the summer through TD Bank's annual Summer Reading Program! Kids who read 10 books over the break will get $10 deposited into their young savers account. It's a great opportunity to promote literacy and the enjoyment of reading, while slipping in a few life lessons about being good stewards of money. There's no time like the present to educate our young ones about the economy, and what better way to do it than through reading?

Check out the TD Bank website for more information about this exciting program. Perhaps provide a list of must-read kids books for students to check out. Try to get the word out to your students' parents before the school year ends!

National Teacher Appreciation Week

National Teacher Day was May 5, but we all still have time to thank the men and women who so deeply impact our children at school each day -- Teacher Appreciation Week extends through May 9! If you don't get to it this week, don't hesitate to do it any time.

Consider coordinating a group effort. Have all the students in your child's class (and their parents) get in on the fun. Perhaps create a homemade gift from everyone or a series of creative gifts from each individual. Remember to include a note of thanks!

Education is a reciprocal activity. When teachers know they are appreciated it enriches their lives and our kids' lives.

Check out this website for great ideas on how to let the teachers in your life know they are special and appreciated!