17 Secondary Teachers to Follow on Pinterest

Why 17?  Because it's a sweet number! Secondary teachers can often feel very isolated, but have so much to offer! These teachers below are so kind to share their ideas and resources through their blogs and Pinterest. Check it out!

Bio:  Hi!  I'm Adrianne from The Tutor House.  I love tutoring and creating engaging lessons for math in reading for grades 3-8!  If you've ever thought about starting your own tutoring business, you should come on over to The Tutor House!

Follow Adrianne of The Tutor House on Pinterest.

Bio: Welcome! I am Connie from Teach it Write. I am a retired English teacher and I’m thrilled to now write curriculum full time that I love to share on my site http://teachitwrite.blogspot.com. My book, The House of Comprehension, shows how the elements of literature form the structure of any fiction or non-fiction text. Check it out on my blog site or on www.teachitwrite.com.

Follow Connie of Teach it Write on Pinterest.

Bio:  Hi Everyone! It's Kristy from 2 Peas and a Dog. I am a Canadian middle school teacher who loves to pin and blog about things related to Grades 6 and up.

Follow Kristy of 2 Peas and a Dog on Pinterest.

Bio:  Hiya there!  I'm Jamie but you may know me as MissMathDork! I am a lover of all things mathematical!  Patterns, sequences, geometric shapes, if it's mathematical, I'll find a way to make it fun!  Want to see some of my ideas? Check out my ideas and pictures at www.missmathdork.com!  You won't be disappointed!

Follow Jaime of Miss Math Dork on Pinterest.

Bio:  Hello, there. I’m Charlene Tess from Simple Steps to Sentence Sense. Grammar is my specialty. I have always loved taking sentences apart and putting them back together, and I successfully taught my students using the simple steps method for over three decades. Visit my blog to get helpful tips on grammar, usage, and writing.

Follow Charlene of Simple Steps to Sentence Sense on Pinterest.

Tammy Manor!

Bio:  Hi my name is Tammy and I've been teaching high school English for 13 years now. I know that teaching can be very stressful. My school is constantly changing the book list and I've taught every grade 6-12 as well. As a result I have unit plans for a large variety of novels, plays and memoirs. Come check out my store on TpT for a variety of ELA materials. Follow my blog for teaching related posts.

Follow Tammy on Pinterest.  

Bio:  Meet Sabrina, author of A Space to Create.  Find teaching resources for art teachers and classroom teachers alike. My art lessons teach students the creative process enabling them to build confidence and have amazing results.  Come visit my blog A Space to Create! (K-12)

Follow Sabrina of A Space to Create on Pinterest.

Bio: Hi there!  I'm Gina from All Things Algebra.  I have taught Algebra and Pre-Algebra for seven years and have a passion for creating activites and games that engage my students.  If you are interested in finding ways to have more fun in math class, head on over and check out my blog!

Follow Gina of All Things Algebra on Pinterest.

Bio:  Hi there!  My name is Amy Brown and I write a blog called "Science Stuff."  I am a 29-year teaching veteran of biology, chemistry and AP biology.  I love science and I love kids, so I have the best job in the world!  Hopefully, I have passed my love of nature and the environment on to many students.  My blog has tips and tricks for teaching science as well as a lot of free science teaching materials.  I hope to see you there!

Follow Amy of Science Stuff on Pinterest.

Bio: Hi! I’m Krystina from Numbers Rule My World. I love incorporating hands-on activities and technology into the classroom for Math: grades 7-9. If you’re looking for great ideas about math then you should come on over and check it out at Numbers Rule My World!

Follow Krystina of Numbers Rule My World on Pinterest.

Bio:  Hello, my name is Jennifer Smith-Sloane. I am a Middle School Math and Special Education teacher. I have a strong passion for differentiated instruction to meet the needs of each learner in and out of my classroom. I love seeing the light in a student's eyes when something finally clicks and I do everything that I can to make that happen as often as it can.  Visit my blog 4mulaFun!

Follow Jennifer of 4mulaFun on Pinterest.

Bio:  Hey! I am Ann Marie from Innovative Connections. I enjoy blogging about various topics: Projects and lessons going on in my classroom, ideas I've learned or ideas I've thought of at the most random of moments (At 2 a.m. when I can't sleep, I can come up with some stellar ideas), teaching resources I find beneficial to fellow teachers and/or bloggers. Due to the wide range of grades I've had the pleasure of teaching, Innovative Connections caters mostly to language arts but loves to share and collaborate with teachers/bloggers of various grade levels.

Follow Ann Marie of Innovative Connections on Pinterest.

Bio:  This is Madame Aiello, author of Teaching FSL. Although I've taught other subjects as well, French as a Second Language has always been my passion. My focus is the higher grades, since I taught high school originally but teach grade 7 & 8 since six years ago. I share lots of resources, blog about second language teacher specific topics as well as those that apply to all teachers.

Follow Madame Aiello of Teaching FSL on Pinterest.

Bio:  Bonjour! Hola! I'm Liz from Liz's Lessons. Languages are one of my passions, and I love teaching with technology. I create fun lessons for teaching secondary French, and Spanish. I also make formative assessments and technology activities in English, that can be used in any secondary classroom. If you are looking for some engaging activities for your classes, be sure to stop by Liz's Lessons!

Follow Liz of Liz's Lessons on Pinterest.

Bio: I'm Andrea Kerr from For the Love of Teaching Math. It is my mission to change traditional math classrooms one game and activity at a time. If you like to incorporate hands-on, group activities and games into your classroom, check out For the Love of Teaching Math!

Follow Andrea of For the Love of Teaching Math on Pinterest.

Bio:
 I'm a middle / high-school teacher and I love to create ELA, Social Studies and Geography related resources.  I blog at Addie Education - Teacher Talk... come on by and see some of the fun things I do with my students.

Follow Addie Education on Pinterest.

Bio:  I'm a high school English teacher in a 1:1 school who loves books and fostering creativity. My blogs are Mrs. Orman's Classroom and Hunger Games Lessons. I share my teaching resources on TeachersPayTeachers.

Follow Tracee Orman on Pinterest.

Bio:  Hi! I'm Kim from Teaching Math by Hart. I am forever planning and thinking of new and innovative ways to teach math to my students. Why, you ask? Believe it or not, I think learning Math should be FUN and it should be REAL! If you are looking for some ideas to engage your students in math class, come check out Teaching Math by Hart - in the middle years classroom!

Are you a secondary teacher pinner, too? Leave your pinterest link in the comments so I can follow you, too!

Gone Fishin' with Polynomials!

Today, my students were taking a quiz on polynomials (including classifying and all operations). After we did a scavenger hunt to practice the skills, we played my favorite review game ever, "Gone Fishin". It's the perfect game when you are trying to review many concepts, because I organize them by color. Red fish are classifying polynomials, yellow fish are adding and subtracting polynomials, green fish are multiplying polynomials (FOIL), and blue fish are dividing polynomials by a monomial. The fish really swim around the screen, and students use a Koosh ball to aim for them.

Here are some pictures, and a short video that shows the game:

 

 

I gave them a worksheet that was also organized by color/type of problem. 

We did five of each problem to make sure they understood everything. 

Here is what one of my student's papers looked like when she was done:

We took the quiz after we finished.  I'm happy to say that they "got it" :)

Making Pre-Made Bingo Boards

Who doesn't love Bingo?  My students love anything Bingo, and it's a game that we play about once a month.  One thing I don't like about most Bingo games is having students make their boards by randomly writing the answers in the spaces.  I think it's a waste of time, they mess it up and ask for another one, and overall it just goes a whole lot better if I just make them ahead of time!  Since I do these so often, I have it down to a mad science.  Here's what you need:

1) Create a template with 30 5x5 boards.  Letter the first one in order (A-Y), then randomly scramble the rest of the boards with the letters.  I put a "Z" at the top that will eventually become my title to the game.  My template took me some time to create, mainly because I had to individually type in the letters, and I'm just super picky with making it look perfect!  Here is what my template looks like:

You can create your own, if you'd like to save some time, you can check out mine here!

2) Now, I am going to use my Pythagorean Theorem game example to show how I turned these letters into the answers.  Click "Replace" in the upper right corner.   In the "Find what" field, type in 'A', then type your answer to your first game question, for example the answer to my first question of my Pythagorean Theorem game is 8.9, so I typed 8.9 into the "Replace with" field.  Then click "Replace All"



Microsoft Word will tell you that it made 30 replacements.  So all A's are now 8.9.  Click Ok.

  

3)  Do the same process for B through Y. 

 4)  Now for the game title.  Just do the same process with the "Replace" function.  Replace "Z" with the name of your game, in my case "Pythagorean Theorem Bingo!"

Then you are done!  You now have 30 individual boards to play bingo! 

The final product will look like this:



Exponent Rules Koosh!

Now that my students know product, power and quotient rule, I introduced them to the negative exponent rule today.  It went over really well.  I have them follow the exact rules above to simplify everything, then move any variable with a negative exponent to the denominator at the end of the problem.  Once I was confident that they had that concept down, it was game time!!  I made this Koosh Ball game about 4 years ago and play it every year.  The kids LOVE it.

I pulled two desks to the front and played girls vs. boys today.  They always enjoy that! 

I've had this Koosh ball for years. You can find them at most any store.

Then, just throw the ball at the Smart Board!  (Or whatever interactive whiteboard you have.)

When it hits the board, it will link to that problem.



The circles disappear after they have been hit, so there are no repeats.

The students have a worksheet to write the problems down and simplify them.

I only let them throw the ball if they write down and show all their work. 
That works like a charm because they all want to throw the ball. 
Lots of fun, and lots of math.  A win-win!

I "Heart" Scavenger Hunts!

Today I taught power and quotient rule of exponents (I did product rule the other day).  I wasn't ready to introduce negative exponents just yet because I didn't want it to be information overload- so I'll be doing that on Thursday/Friday this week.  I'm on block schedule and always looking for activites that give them a chance to get out of their seats.  I do scavenger hunts about once in awhile and LOVE them.  I figured this would be a good topic for it.  Scavenger hunts are a great way  for students to cover many objectives and let students check their answers as they go.  I also hear a lot of math discussion between students and less "Mrs. Wilson how do I do this?"

I created 12 problems in which the answer to one problem leads to the next problem.  I put them on pink paper in honor of Valentine's Day this week!  I also made a worksheet for them to be able to write down and simplfy the expressions as they worked through the activity.

I posted the 12 problems throughout my room and in the hallway:

I love this trapezoid problem!

I put them in groups of 2-3 and assigned them each a place to start.  The entire activity took approximately 30 minutes and they all understood their exponent rules by the end.  Victory!  Here is a picture of one of my students' paper once she had finished:

I'll be covering negative exponents then reviewing all the rules next class with a Koosh Ball game.  We decided to rename this unit "Exponent Extravaganza!" :)



My First!

Horray for my first blog post!  I'm so excited to enter the blogging world and be able to share and connect with fellow teachers.  My plan is to write and reflect about lessons, ideas, and strategies that I use within my classroom. For my first post though, I thought I would introduce myself!

I am orginally from Orchard Park, NY, which just outside of Buffalo.  I grew up a HUGE Buffalo Bills fan, and I am proud to still be one today.  I went to Brockport State University (near Rochester, NY) and graduated in 2006 with a degree in Mathematics, Education, and Computer Science.  My college boyfriend moved to Virginia Beach, so I followed him down here as soon as I graduated.  We got married in August 2007, and now have two boys- Jacob (age 3) and Logan (age 1).

I have taught Algebra, Honors Algebra, and Pre-Algebra for the past seven years at Great Neck Middle School.  I absolutely love it!  We were lucky enough to move into a brand new school last January.  Here is a picture of my classroom:

We can't hang anything on the walls while the building is under warranty, so it looks a little plain.  Actually, the weekend we moved into our new building happened to be one week before my son was born.  So I really didn't do much with decorating at that time.  It is a bit more snazzed up now though!  Those desks are SO GREAT- I can group them into 2's, 3's, and 4's so easily.  I love the triangles!

That's all for now!