St Paddy's Day Goodies

Goodies!

I LOVE Saint Patrick's Day. I am probably more Irish than I am Mexican. I don't know much of my Irish roots, but I do love St Patrick's day. We're going 1-1 next year, and the tech team has been working ridiculously hard on getting everyone ready. As a result, I made these little "goodie bags" for the team, and a few other people who have made my first year at this school amazing.

Each of these lucky co-workers will get:

• A Green Martini Glass (you could substitute wine, or a normal drinking glass, but these just looked so pretty!)
• Green Easter Grass (used to fill Easter baskets)
• A St. Paddy themed pencil 
• DoubleMint Gum
• A Gold Chocolate Coin
• Andes Chocolate Mints
• A Gold Mini Reeses (for the ladies in ring form modeled in this picture) 
• A green accessory
• For the boys it is a green fake mustache
• For the ladies a green shamrock necklace

Different Colors!

These were easy and fun to make. Most of this was just separating different goodies into the green glasses. The rings were handmade and SUPER easy! I made a bunch of these so I could use them with my students as well. In the photo on the left I am showing off three different ones I made.

• The green are for St. Patrick's Day
• The yellow are as close as I found to gold (also St. Patrick's Day).
• The blue are because my school colors are blue and gold.

I don't think these are quite as cute as the rings I made with Hershey's kisses (seen on the right) but I like the taste of Reeses better anyways, and you can use the same method with either candy.

You have THREE different ways of making these rings:

1. With TWO pipe cleaners
   
• Cross the pipe cleaners on a flat service 
• Put the candy in the middle 
• Pull the pipe cleaners up and over the candy and cross the pipe cleaners again  
• Wrap the pipe cleaners around your finger and wrap the excess below the candy 
2. With ONE pipe cleaner cut in half


• Put the candy in the middle Cross the pipe cleaners on a flat service. Make one the cross asymmetrical so that two of the sides are shorter than the other two.  
• Pull the pipe cleaners up and over the candy and cross the pipe cleaners again. Make the shorter sides combine with the longer sides.   
• Wrap the pipe cleaners around your finger and wrap the excess around the other pipe cleaner 
3. With ONE pipe cleaner
• Put the candy in the middle of the pipe cleaner.
• Twist the sides together.
• Rotate the pipe-cleaner and flip to the other side.
• Twist the sides together
• Wrap the pipe cleaner around a finger/magic marker
• Secure the ends 

You don't work well with my descriptions? Don't worry, I am not offended. Check out the video below (only for the one pipe cleaner)!

So those rings, and my dollar store decor get my students festive.

How do you get in the Saint Patrick's Day spirit at your school? 

My Cat is getting into the St Patrick's Day Spirit

End of Semester Gifts for students

I posted before about presents I suggest students bring for their teachers. In all fairness this blog talks about gifts I can give my students. I've seen this done a lot of different ways and I'll go over five of my favorites.

To start, why do I try to give students presents? Usually after a semester I really feel that I have bonded with my students. They've grown, I've grown. We've all grown. I feel like together we helped make each other better. It may also make them like English a little better, which is helpful for the next teacher they have.

1. Have an auction. Some teachers use a points system for participation. Other teachers give out these points (stickers or play money) but they don't use them for a grade. At the end of the semester, they hold an auction and auction off goodies to the students. It is a great chance to practice English for the EFL classes, but all classes get competitive as they bid on silly items. Go to your local dollar store and pick up frames, glasses, silly straws etc. I also know teachers that simply take this time to clean out their office / house and gift old puzzles, toys and other items. Students love this!

A local cafe I can take small classes

2. Take them out. Due to costs I can only do this with small classes, but I like to take them off campus. We grab a coffee (my treat) and just talk. In the end I thank them all for their time and effort in class and give them each a thank you letter from me detailing what I enjoyed most about having them in my class and including my e-mail to keep in touch should they need me in the future. I know other teachers who have dinners at their house. If your district allows this and your students are of the age where it is appropriate, then great! If you can have a small pizza party and invite parents even better.

3. Give a punny note. Sometimes I have too many students to take out, or I don't have the time to write them each heartfelt letters. In that case, I embrace the inner cheeseball that I am and give each student a small note attached to a pencil, eraser, or candy. They all groan at my corniness, but I usually get a few chuckles out of them. This works well for me even though I teach older students, but that's because I often use these puns for teaching pronunciation. If you are interested in doing something like this using your favorite search engine (or pimterest) should turn up lots of fun ideas! Even easier, to get a free pdf sheet of owls (like above) simply share this page with a tweet and you'll be taken to the file.             

Sample pages

The cover
(names covered)

4. Make it personal! I don't mean that you make them something (though that is an option!). Take something they have made. For example, before my students work on The Walrus and the Carpenter I give them each a stanza and have them illustrate it. Then we go through and discuss words they didn't know and what they think the poem will be about. We read the poem together and discussed the differences and made note of what the new vocabulary meant in context. Then I collected their drawings and never mentioned them again. At the end of the year I give them each a little photocopied book of the Walrus and the Carpenter illustrated by them! If your students have written a book, or a poem and did it well framing it and giving it back to them at the end of the year is a nice gift.

5. Make it yummy! These days of dietary restrictions (gluten free, peanut allergy, etc.) can be hard, but if you cook something that is permitted on campus go ahead and bring in some brownies or cookies. Even better! Keep it related to English by giving them the recipe. Then they will remember you every time they start to make a batch of your famous treacle. If you can combine this with number three, it makes it an affordable goodbye they'll always remember.

What did I miss? What do you do for your students at the end of your time together?

Christmas Gifts for Teachers

Around this time of the year I see a lot of posts on Facebook. What should I get my child's teacher fro Christmas?

I've seen some posts telling you what NOT to get, and honestly, I disagree with most of them. Other than illegal items, most teachers appreciate ANYTHING!

Here are five different types of presents that can fit any budget and every teacher.

1. CARDS
Even if you don't have the time or money to get a gift, I always appreciate a card. The ones I like best aren't fancy; they are genuine. I just received one that was cut out of an old cereal box and said, "Than you so much for the classes you gave our son." Simple, sweet and it really meant a lot to me.

2. GIFT-CARDS
A lot of teachers jokes about the amount of gift cards that they receive. We get a lot of Barnes and Noble and Starbucks gift-cards. That's sweet too! Again, I appreciate them even more when there's a note, "Thanks for getting my child excited about reading. Please use this to buy more books to get another child excited." Any denomination is great! Some parents have expressed concern that a $5 gift certificate is too paltry. Not at all!
However, if you want to do something bigger contemplate teaming up with other parents. If you and 10 other parents each gave $5 you could get a $50 gift certificate to some place.

3. CORNY GIFTS
Pinterest is FULL of these! A six pack of soda with a note that says, "We're so-darn happy you are our kid's teacher." A basket with Graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate bars with a note that says, "We need s'more teachers like you" etc. etc.

4. PERSONAL GIFTS

My cat looking dapper in his tie

If you paid attention to your teachers notes or your child's assignments you probably know a few things about your teacher. For example, my students know that I have a cat. Often I'll get cat treats, a new collar, etc. My students also know that I eat when I grade, so sometimes I get a box of nuts or dried fruit encouraging me to snack and not fail anyone. These gifts mean a lot because it shows that our classes actually meant something!
This also includes making scrapbooks, collecting letters from students, having students sign a t-shirt, framing a class photo, etc. 


5. ANYTHING
Really :) I get a lot of handmade gifts and I appreciate every one of them. If you make jam, salsa, cookies, scarves, bracelets, frames, etc. I am sure your teacher would appreciate this. If you want to give each teacher a candle, a purse, or a package of pens. Amazing! The important thing is to spell the teacher's name right, and be sure you let us know you appreciate us...even just a little.

So those are probably the big five categories  to consider when gifting for your teacher! Thank you so much for being the type of person who cares enough to thank the teacher :-)

Not-a-Holiday Lessons

I am not sure I can pick a favorite holiday lesson, or type of lesson so I'll summarize it as such. I try not to do literal "holiday lessons." Partly, this is because I teach at a school where all of my students are mostly Mexican and are already familiar with American holidays. So, unlike in the past, I can't have them present on a holiday from their culture and share it with the class.

I have also taught in America where, in some cases, there are students whose families don{t want them to have holiday lessons. As a result what I do like to do is letting my lessons be influenced by the seasons and holidays.

Winter
I like to do things with snow.
After the horrible Sandy Hook shooting I encouraged my students to make snowflakes to send to the school. I love origami lessons so even with Sandy Hook having students teach one another to make different snowflakes, or practice their listening skills by following your directions is great!
With little ones I change my normal "Poor Joe" lesson into a "Poor Snow" lesson.
When teaching clothing I focus on wintery items Scarves, Hats, Earmuffs, etc.

Spring

For the Spring you can still do things with eggs and Easter related concepts without jumping into Easter directly.


Summer
Admitedly I don't usually teach in the Summer, but when I do talking about vacations and parties works better than a history lesson on the fourth of July (for me anyways).

Fall 
As Halloweeny as I get is my family of pumpkins song. Normally, I just select a slightly spooky story to read.
My poetry unit centers around, "Thank you Ma'm" by Langston Hughes. So it is easy to also talk about what we are thankful for and what changes we would like to make to the world to make others feel thankful. A reference to Thanksgiving of course. When I do this in the Spring we focus on Black History Month.

Oh No! Poor Snow!

Don't hate me! Maybe it is because we don't celebrate Thanksgiving down here, or the start of the red cups at Starbucks, but I am in the winter spirit! As an early gift to everyone here's a PowerPoint of a winter adaptation of one of my favorite activities for little ones!
The activity is usually called, "Poor Joe" but in this case I changed it to "Poor Snow!" we use the exact same chant except we practice on a snowman.

I encourage you to make your own snowman using body parts and clothing you want to review with your students, but this gives you an idea.

If you are planning on practicing winter clothing here's another activity you may like to try.
Happy Holidays!