Florida Teachers Chatboard

"I'm One of the Worst Teachers in My State"

In "I'm One of the Worst Teachers in My State" award-winning teacher Simone Ryals writes:

In the past decade, I have been greatly moved and honored to win numerous awards and been nominated for more still. My curriculum night presentations are always standing room only, because I’m the funny teacher who is going to make that half hour co...See More

Mar 13, 2014

How to teach less helplessness, more independence

by Kathleen

Mar 12, 2014

Today's article for educators:

Dealing with Learned Helplessness by Barbara Blackburn and Dr. Bradley Witzel

Learned helplessness is a process of conditioning where student seek help from others even when they have mastered information. Are your practices inadvertently fostering helplessness in students? What can teachers do to t...See More

How the Red Hot Chili Peppers helped a teacher-leader

In the teacher-feature "Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now!" Sharon Thomas says:

Thanks to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and their brief appearance at the Super Bowl for finally giving me a title to play with and thus helping to pull the pieces together. ... Giving up my old ideas about what constituted teacher-leadership helps me fo...See More

Mar 10, 2014

Jim Wayne's writing prompts for the week now posted!

Writing prompts for the coming week are posted online! (Note: Gazette pages might sometimes be unavailable for a few minutes at a time while the webmaster tends to some technical issues. If that happens, just check back a little later.)

Here's just one of many writing prompts for specific days in March that will entertain and motivate stud...See More

Mar 9, 2014

Hangman (Parts of Speech Style)

by Vinny

Mar 9, 2014

Here's a fun way to play hangman with 3-6th grades. It gives the students the option of using different parts of speech to use as the missing word (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions).

9 Strategies to Use Current Events in the Classroom

Mar 2, 2014

With so much "heavy" news being reported this week, this is a great article offering interesting tips for using current events in the classroom. Please pass it on!

Writing prompts for March 1-9 by Jim Wayne are posted!

Why did the US Government buy a herd of camels? What did Dennis the Menace and Albert Einstein have in common? Whose brain set a record for the smallest brain ever measured for an adult man with a normal head?

All of those intriguing questions and many more will be answered during March in Jim Wayne's very popular Writing Prompts! The firs...See More

Mar 1, 2014

This week's writing prompts by Jim Wayne now posted!

This week's writing prompts by Jim Wayne are posted at the link below!

Here's a sample from the writing prompts for Feb. 28:

Most of the people of Curiepe, Venezuela, make their living fishing for sardines. Every year on this day, they have a funeral for the sardines they have caught during the previous year. The funeral serves to...See More

Feb 24, 2014

Writing prompts for this week now posted!

Feb 16, 2014

This week's prompts are now posted! Here's a sample from the dozens available!

In 1930, the first cow flew on an airplane. The cow was even milked while on the airplane. What kind of problems do you think there would be trying to fly a cow or other large animal on an airplane?