A Special Time to Reflect on Goal Setting

Today is a special day. Not only is it the last day of August, it's a "blue moon" day! Today's full moon is the second full moon of the month, and that happens only once every few years.  

Classroom Goal Setting was my first ebook, and I still believe that goal setting is one of the most important things we can teach our students. Teaching your students how to set goals and action plans is an opportunity for you to have a major positive impact on the rest of their lives.

Another reason this is a special time is that you're entering new school year. It's a perfect time to set goals for yourself and to teach your students how to set goals for themselves, too and help motivate them to get started.

Goal Setting Made Easy
Because it’s a special day, I'm making it super easy for you to get a complete set of resources to help you teach your students about goals and action plans.

• Free Goal Tracker packet
• Classroom Goal Setting eBook
• Free Motivational Goal Quotes

Goal Tracker Packet
To get started, click the link to download the free Goal Tracker packet, a set of materials to help you teach goal setting. It includes three printables that can be folded and stapled to create a goal tracking booklet. On the inside cover of My Goal Tracker, you'll find a place to list four goals to accomplish this month. The booklet also includes a page for each week with questions that ask you to reflect on what you've done during the past week to help you meet your goals, and what you plan to do in the coming week. On the back cover of the booklet, you'll find a scroll that lists the six secrets of goal setting.

Classroom Goal Setting and Data Binders

Many schools now require students to keep "data binders" with documentation to track their progress throughout the school year. If your students will be creating data binders this year, you may be interested in a more thorough approach to goal setting that includes how to setting goals, creating action plan, and record measurable data on charts and graphs. Classroom Goal Setting includes all that and more! Click the cover to preview the entire ebook from this page.

Motivational Goal Quotes
It’s also important to get your kids moving forward with their goal setting and tracking. To help motivate them, I’m also providing this collection of motivational goal quote images in a PowerPoint show to use with your students. This free item is available to all new and existing Candler’s Classroom Connections subscribers.  You can visit the Motivational Goal Quotes page to find out how to download your free copy.

Once in a Blue Moon
Remember how I said that today was a special day? Blue moons only occur every few years, and I love the fact that this one happened right at the beginning of a brand new school year. There couldn’t be a better time to get started teaching your students how to set goals, create action plans, and track their progress!

Once in a Blue Moon

You've undoubtedly heard the term, "once in a blue moon," but do you know what a blue moon is? I found out that tomorrow, August 31, 2012 will be a blue moon, and that we haven't had one since March 31, 2010.

I did a little research and discovered that there are actually two different definitions for the term blue moon. According to Wikipedia.org, the traditional meaning is the third full moon in a season with four full moons. However, the explanation of why there would be a special name for that event is a bit complicated and not one you would want to explain to your students.

Fortunately, the more widely-accepted meaning is that a blue moon is the 2nd full moon in a calendar month with two full moons. It's a fairly rare event that happens only once every few years. No one knows exactly how the phrase "once in a blue moon" came into existence, but it makes sense because blue moons are so infrequent.

Blue Moon Writing
Since a blue moon will occur tomorrow, I thought you might enjoy teaching your students about blue moons and having them explore the topic in writing. I created this Blue Moon Writing printable for you to use in conjunction with that lesson.

When you teach the lesson tomorrow, I would suggest starting with an announcement that today is a special day that happens "once in a blue moon." Then share some basic information about blue moons and discuss the meaning of the phrase, "once in a blue moon." Ask them if they've heard this phrase before and how it was used. Then brainstorm ideas for things that might happen "once in a blue moon" in their personal lives, such as staying up past midnight or traveling to a theme park. The writing topic is presented as a sort of "free write" expository assignment that can be used as a part of a science, social studies, or writing lesson. You can download this freebie from the Writing file cabinet page on Teaching Resources. I hope you enjoy it!

Inspire with Free Motivational Goal Quotes

Teach Kids How to Achieve Their Dreams

One of the most important lessons we can teach our students is how to set goals and create action plans to achieve their dreams. When I started teaching my students about goal setting, I began sharing inspirational quotes with them and using those quotes to spark discussion.

When I wrote my ebook, Classroom Goal Setting, I included a page of quotes to make it easy for teachers to discuss the ideas with their students. Now I'm excited to share a PowerPoint I created with each motivational goal quote displayed on its own beautiful nature photo. Having all of the goal quotes together in one presentation will make it even easier to motivate and inspire your students! In addition to the PowerPoint, you'll receive 10 individual JPG image files similar to the ones shown here.

How can you receive this beautiful collection of images? The Motivational Goal Quote collection is available to Candler's Classroom Connections subscribers, and it's easy to sign up. Visit the Motivational Goal Quotes page on Teaching Resources to find out how.

Already a subscriber? Of course you want your copy, too! Just find a recent edition of Candler's Classroom Connections newsletter in your email inbox and look for the link to the newsletter freebies page. You can download both the PowerPoint show and the set of images from that page.

I loved working on this project because it was a fun collaborative family effort. About half the photos were taken by me, and the others were taken by my sister, Sheila Colby. The quotes were overlaid onto the images using Photoshop by my daughter, Amy Candler.

We hope you are inspired by both the words and images!

Fun Countdown Timers for the Classroom

Time management was one of the most difficult aspects of classroom management for me. I loved having my students actively engaged in a hands-on lesson, but those types of lessons are very time-consuming. A quick 30-minute activity would often evolve into an hour-long lesson! A big part of the problem was my lack of time management skills. I would give my students a simple task, intending to allow 5 minutes before moving on to the next step, and the next thing I knew, 20 minutes had passed.

Luckily, my time management skills improved after I had an interactive whiteboard installed in my classroom. I discovered that the built-in Smartboard timer app was a great help, and before long I also discovered a wonderful FREE website with a variety of creative and fun timers. Online Stopwatch has over a dozen timers for counting up and counting down, including the countdown timers shown here. I would assign a task, set the timer to count down, and turn my attention back to my students. Even if I was caught up in an activity and didn't notice the time passing, the online timer would let us know when time was up.

I love these timers because they're fun as well as effective for classroom management, no matter the age of your students. After you set the total time and click the start button, an action occurs on each timer to show the passing time. For example, in the clock timer at the top, the hand on the clock moves and the clock changes from yellow to black. In the bomb timer, the fuse becomes shorter and shorter as it slowly burns towards the bomb. The candle slowly melts as the wick burns, the fuse burns to the bottle rocket, and the sand trickles down through the egg timer. In each case, when the time's up, the timer sounds off dramatically. The only problem with these timers is that they are so exciting that they might actually be distracting! Fortunately, Online Stopwatch does have a few plain timers, too. You can even create your own custom countdown timer by choosing a timer, the ending sound, and other features. I suggest visiting the Classroom Timers page on their site to see the full selection of timers. If you're interested in more classroom and time management strategies, visit the Classroom Management page on Teaching Resources.

Which online timer is your favorite? How do you use timers in your classroom?

Power Reading Workshop and The Daily 5

"How does your Power Reading Workshop program fit with the Daily 5 model?" 

I've been asked that question several times recently, so I decided to tackle it in a blog post. I feel fortunate to have been a part of a summer book study that examined The Daily 5, an outstanding resource for teachers written by "the sisters," Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. After participating in that book study, I feel more confident about exploring the similarities and differences between Power Reading Workshop and The Daily 5. Both programs empower students to become better readers by allowing them to select and read books of their own choosing. In both programs, reading instruction takes place through mini-lessons, independent conferences, and small guided reading group lessons.

My response is a bit lengthy, but this question is important and it deserves an in-depth answer. As a part of my response, I’ll also dig into the two follow-up texts, the sisters’ CAFÉ Book and my own Graphic Organizers for Reading: Teaching Tools Aligned with the Common Core.

Discovering the The Daily 5
I first read The Daily 5 shortly after it came out in 2006, and I was impressed by the sisters' inspirational writing style and by the program itself. Their book outlines the five components that make up their literacy program, describing a learning environment in which students are responsible for their own growth as readers. Their methods surpass the basic reading workshop approach described in many other books. However, I experienced two big stumbling blocks when it came to implementing the Daily 5 model. First, as a 5th grade teacher, I didn't have two or three hours to devote to literacy instruction, and I wasn't convinced that my students needed all five components. The other problem was that the examples in the book were from primary classrooms, and the strategy descriptions did not include enough detail for me to understand how to implement the program in an upper elementary classroom.

Step-by-Step with Power Reading Workshop
As much as I enjoyed the book, I didn't feel comfortable implementing reading workshop that year. However, I did continue to search for more information on the topic. I was inspired by two more books, The Book Whisperer and Igniting a Passion for Reading, but what I really wanted was a set of step-by-step directions telling me how to get started.

Eventually, I jumped in and started implementing the reading workshop model in my classroom. I tweaked some of the strategies I had been reading, and I developed some of my own, creating the program I now call Power Reading Workshop. Within just a few weeks, it became obvious that these methods were working extremely well and that my 5th graders were starting to love reading. After the first quarterly benchmark test, it was obvious that they were becoming better readers, too! It was at that point that I started writing down everything I was doing and compiling it to share with others. It took several years of working with the program and getting feedback from others teachers, but eventually I published Power Reading Workshop: A Step-by-Step Guide, the first reading workshop guide with easy, step-by-step directions.

Comparing and Contrasting Approaches

Let's look at the Power Reading Workshop (PRW) and The Daily 5 (D5) programs in more detail.

• Both PRW and the D5 are based on students selecting and reading their own books, and both programs provide large blocks of time in the schedule for independent reading.
• Both programs deliver instruction through mini-lessons, individual conferences, and targeted reading lessons in small guided reading groups.
• PRW was designed for students in grades 2 through 6 who are already minimally proficient in reading. The D5 program can be modified for use with these age groups, too, but the examples given in the D5 book are from primary grade classrooms. 
• PRW is a simple, streamlined, step-by-step approach for starting a reading workshop and adapting it to meet the needs of your students. PRW does include many components of the D5, such as reading to self, listening to reading, and reading to someone. However, word work and spelling are not a part of the PRW model because writing and spelling are often taught separately in upper elementary and middle school classrooms. Since PRW only focuses on the reading components of literacy instruction, it can easily be implemented in an hour a day. The D5 program includes five different components of literacy instruction, including word work and spelling, and it requires several hours a day to implement.  

Exploring the CAFE Menu System
The CAFE Book is the follow up to The Daily 5. Apparently, the sisters received so many requests for more detailed information that they ended up writing The CAFE Book. It's interesting to note that while they were writing this book, I was developing Power Reading Workshop to address the same need for step-by-step instructions! I just read The CAFE Book last month, and I LOVE it! To my amazement, this book has many of the missing pieces that I was looking for in The Daily 5. The CAFE Book outlines a literacy menu of reading strategies for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanded Vocabulary. I was particularly impressed with the detailed information about how to conduct individual conferences and guided reading groups, as well as their huge appendix of specific information about how to teach reading strategies. I highly recommend this book as a supplement to Power Reading Workshop, because the CAFE menu approach can easily be integrated into the basic Power Reading Workshop model after the first 10 days of instruction.

Graphic Organizers Aligned with the Common Core
The final piece of the puzzle can be found in Graphic Organizers for Reading: Teaching Tools Aligned with the Common Core. I've always loved using graphic organizers in my teaching, and when I began implementing reading workshop, I realized how easy it was to create mini lessons from graphic organizers. The book was first intended as supplement to Power Reading Workshop, but then I began learning about the new Common Core State Standards, and realized it could be much more. It occurred to me that all of the reading standards could be taught by using a graphic organizer to frame each lesson! I organized the chapters in the book to align with Common Core State Standards, so the mini-lessons provide an easy way to make sure you are meeting the standards for your grade level.

Complementary Reading Workshop Models
The way I see it, Power Reading Workshop and The Daily 5 have many similarities. Both programs are designed to empower students with a love of reading and to provide them with the tools to become better readers. The components of each program can be integrated together and adapted to meet the needs of your class. I encourage you to learn more about both Power Reading Workshop and The Daily 5 because both programs include strategies that will enrich your reading instruction. I also invite you to visit the Reading Workshop page on Teaching Resources where you can find these books and other resources to guide you on your reading workshop journey.

Laura Candler, Teaching Resources

Pinning on the Go

I've been using Pinterest for awhile now, and I love the way it allows me to organize my teaching resources. However, my biggest frustration has been not being able to pin and repin from my iPad. Until recently, Pinterest only had an iPhone app, and you couldn't use it for browsing and pinning directly from the web. I tried a few other apps, but none of them worked very well. That all changed this week when Pinterest came out with a brand new (FREE!) app for the iPad! I also heard that they have a new app for the Android, but I don't know if it works the same as the iPad app.

What I love about this new app is that it lets me do everything on my iPad that I can do on my computer. I can view all of my Pinterest Boards and pins in one place. I can see my Pinterest feed and repin directly from there. I can even browse the web from within the Pinterest app and pin new content to any of my boards. I love it! Now I can indulge my Pinterest addiction on the go!

I've organized my blog posts and teaching materials from many sources on Pinterest by category or theme. I even created a visual archive for Corkboard Connections on Pinterest so you could see everything at a glance! In addition, I contribute to a number of wonderful collaborative Pinterest boards.


Here are just a few of my Pinterest boards that you might want to follow:

• Seasonal 
• Math 
• Science
• Literacy 
• Reading Workshop
• Cooperative Learning 
• Active Engagement
• Laura Candler's TpT Freebies
• Classroom Management 
• Fifth Grade Flock 

By the way, you can follow these boards individually, or just follow all my boards! If you do that, you'll be added to any new board I create! Happy pinning!

Teaching with Dry Erase Boards

Free Tips and Strategies plus a Giveaway!

Monday, August 21st News Flash! The contest described in this blog post is now over and the winner is JoAnn Johnson of Pembroke, NC! The good news for everyone else is that you can still download your free copy of Teaching with Dry Erase Boards!
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Today is my birthday, but instead of asking for a gift, I'm going to GIVE a gift! I love teaching with dry erase boards, so I'm teaming up with Julia Rhodes, the founder of Kleenslate Concepts, to give away a classroom set of boards, markers, and erasers! Julia and I are each donating a dozen sets, and the winner will be able to choose the round paddles or the rectangular ones. I love Julia's boards because they are 2-sided and can be customized with different surfaces. You can choose between an unlined surface, handwriting lines, graph paper, a music staff, or a blank Venn diagram.  Julia was a classroom teacher who loved using dry erase boards with her students. However, like many teachers, she was frustrated with all the issues surrounding the use of dry erase boards and markers. So Julia set out to invent something better! If you've tried her boards, you'll know she succeeded in her quest!

After Julia developed the perfect dry erase marker and board combination, she created the Kleenslate Concepts website to get the word out to educators. In addition to the boards and markers, the Kleenslate site offers free helpful tips and information for teachers in the Teachers Room. You can find lessons that feature real kids like this enthusiastic young man!

I'm definitely a fan of dry erase boards, too, and I even wrote a three-part article last year on TeachHUB.com with strategies for using them in the classroom. Since only one person can win the dry erase board set, I decided to create a freebie from the the information in those articles. It's called Teaching with Dry Erase Boards: Interactive and Effective Strategies for Instruction, and you can download it here or from Teaching Resources. In this booklet, you'll find strategies for using dry erase boards in a whole group setting, in small groups, or in centers.

You'll also find lots of management tips in the packet, too. My students loved using boys' black socks for erasers, and we stored the erasers and markers in a zippered pouch for each team. If you purchase Julia's boards, the markers and erasers snap right onto the paddles so you don't need to worry about storing those items.

To enter the contest, simply complete the form below and submit your information. This contest is only open to teachers in the US and Canada since it involves a physical product that needs to be shipped. The contest will end Monday, August 20th, at 10 p.m. EST at which time I will use a random number generator to determine the winner. The dry erase board set will be shipped directly to the winner's school, but it will be noted that the set belongs to the winner for his or her classroom use and does not become the property of the school. If you would like a class set of these boards for yourself, you have several options. You may be able to obtain a set by writing a grant proposal through DonorsChoose.org, or you can place an order directly with Kleenslate Concepts using the discount code Code LC15 to get 15% off your total order! Best of luck to those who enter the contest!

Note: Please enter the contest only once. Submitting more than one entry will disqualify you from winning.

Graphing Oral Fluency Freebie

A few years ago I developed a partner activity for my 5th graders that could serve as an informal oral fluency assessment. My students completed these tasks with a partner in a literacy center, but you could easily have a teacher assistant or parent volunteer administer this assessment to students one-on-one. The Graphing Oral Fluency freebie includes student directions, the Oral Fluency Chart, the Fluency Rate Line Graph, and a set of labels to use when assembling the materials for a literacy center.

This activity involves students reading a leveled text for one minute and then charting the words per minute they read correctly. We discussed the fact that being fluent doesn't mean speeding through the text with no errors; good readers also read with expression and enthusiasm, adjusting their reading rate and volume according to the meaning of the text. The Oral Fluency Chart includes a self-assessment rubric for "Expressive Fluency" to help students become more aware of the importance of this aspect of fluency. After students complete the chart, they plot their oral fluency rate on a line graph. You might have them complete this activity once each month so they can look for trends in their fluency data.

The Oral Fluency Chart and the Fluency Rate Line Graph would make great additions to student portfolios or "data binders." If you are implementing the program outlined in Classroom Goal Setting, you'll find oral fluency to be another area where students can set goals, create action plans, and track their progress.

You can download the Graphing Oral Fluency freebie and the Classroom Goal Setting ebook from my store on TeachersPayTeachers. Both items are also available from my Teaching Resources website; use the search feature on the site to find them. Follow me on TeachersPayTeachers and sign up for my free newsletter to be sure you are notified when I add new freebies and teaching materials to my site or store. I hope these materials help your school year get off to a great start!

Make Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Work for You!

I remember mid-August being the time of year when I had finally stopped thinking about my previous class, and I was ready to look ahead to the incoming crop of students. What would my new students be like? Would we bond and have a great year?

I sometimes heard teachers joke, "I had a great class last year, so I guess this is my year to have the class from you know where." Everyone laughed, but I often wondered how those subconscious beliefs might have affect that teacher's actions . . . and maybe their entire school year?

Each year when we are given our new rosters, we quickly scan them to see who's in our class. We see names that we recognize, and we frantically try to remember what we've heard about these students. "Oh no . . . Johnny's the one who was always clowning around in Mr. C's class" or "Tameka is that nice quiet girl who helps Mrs. D after school." We've already begun to make judgments about students we haven't even met!

What if statements like these are no more than self-fulfilling prophecies? If that's true, then perhaps we have far more impact on the type of class we get than we ever imagined!

Every year I said the same thing on the first day, "Class, I have to tell you that I had a really awesome group last year, and I'll miss them. But the amazing thing is that every year, my new class is even better than the one before! I don't know how it's possible, but it's true. I can't even begin to imagine how amazing this class is going to be! I know we are going to have a great year together!" I say this with absolute sincerity because it's true! Maybe I just keep getting more effective as a teacher, or maybe this statement makes them want to be the best class ever, but it works!

My friend and colleague Pat Calfee used to say something similar to her students every year. Her statement was something to the effect that she's not sure how it happens, but every year the principal seems to put the smartest and best students in her class. Of course they sit a little taller when they hear this . . . and they act like the smartest and best kids in the school!

What do you think about your new students when you see their names on your roster? What do you tell your class on the first day of school? What subtle messages do you convey about their worth and their future success in your classroom?

When you scan your roster, be encouraged by the thought that another teacher's "problem child" may turn out to be one whom you cherish the most!  That quirky sense of humor or that restless, inquisitive spirit is finally appreciated and the student just blossoms under your attention.

If the self-fulfilling prophecy is really at work in the universe, let's make sure it's working in our favor! Tell your students that you know they are going to be the most amazing class ever, and that's exactly what they'll become!

Back to School 25% Off Sale!

When it's time to head back to school, teachers spend a ridiculous amount of their personal money on materials for their classrooms. In what other profession do people buy materials for their job before they even get their first paycheck? As my way of helping out, I'm offering 25% off on all of my Power Packs and Mini Packs! As you may know, I sell my items from my own Teaching Resources website and also on TeachersPayTeachers.com. So I figured that it's only fair to offer a sale on both sites. Enter discount code BTS12 on either site to receive the full discount.

The Back to School sale on my own site starts today, Saturday, August 11th, in conjunction with the Back to School Cyber Search event. The sale on TeachersPayTeachers.com starts Sunday, August 12th. Both sales end at the end of the day on Monday.

Best of luck to you during the coming school year!

Digital Classroom Clipart

Lately the Pinterest boards have been flooded with adorable teacher products that are both colorful and attractive. As a writer myself, I know the importance of finding just the right clipart to bring an item to life. That's why I'm fortunate to have a talented artist in the family! Over the last few years, my daughter Wendy has created clipart for me when I needed something in particular, like these ice cream scoops and sundae patterns that she created for my book, Mastering Math Facts. She also designed the cover for Mastering Math Facts as well as the other Power Pack covers that have a similar look.

For over a year I've been trying to get Wendy to open a clipart store on TeachersPayTeachers, and she finally listened to her mom and did just that. I think I'm more excited than she is! Her store is called Digital Classroom Clipart where she now has one free item and two products. She is now selling the ice cream scoops and sundae patterns shown above for you to use when creating your own motivational programs. Her collection of School Supply Clipart is perfect for adding a touch of color and class to your back to school communication with parents.

Wendy's free Crayon Clipart package is a small sample of the quality of her work. She creates transparent PNG files that can be added to documents, blogs, and web pages. You can click on any of the images displayed on the right to find them in her TpT store. If you like her artwork, be sure to follow her on TpT to be notified when she adds new items! You can find her page easily by remembering her store name, www.digitalclassroomclipart.com.

By the way, Wendy is 22 years old and is a mechanical engineering student at NC State University. She has one more semester and will graduate in December. She's one of those rare people who has a math/science brain and who is also very artistic, so I can't wait to see where those talents will take her in life. Since she's not a teacher, she's not sure what clipart teachers want her to add. Please leave a comment here to share your suggestions for future clipart collections. Thanks!

Laura Candler, Teaching Resources

Your Wishes Can Come True!

Back to School Pack and a Freebie!

For the past few weeks I've been working on project, and I'm excited that it's finally ready to share with others! Back to School Super Start Pack is a mega pack of strategies, printables, and activities to help you get your school year off with a bang! After 30 years of teaching, I tweaked my "back to school" routine until it worked perfectly. I learned the importance of teaching a variety of lessons to create a caring classroom while at the same time establishing the rules and procedures needed for effective instruction. I discovered that starting the year with these lessons virtually guaranteed that the rest of the year would be terrific! I also learned how to reach out to parents using strategies such as the Wish Upon a Star freebie shown here.

Wish Upon a Star Display
As you set up your classroom this year, I'm sure you'll find yourself wishing for many things to make your room more inviting or productive. It's not always the big things like the iPads and the Smartboards. Sometimes it's the little things like tennis balls to make "chair socks" so you don't have to hear the constant scraping of chairs all day. Or having extra pillows or a beanbag chair to make a cozy reading corner.

What you need is a way to let your parents know what you want for your classroom. The Wish Upon a Star display shown here is similar to the Angel Tree concept you've seen at Christmas. I post the title on a board and surround it with stars displaying the individual items I'm requesting. During Open House or on the first day of school, I invite parents to take a star and return it attached to the item. I'm always sure to include a variety of items on the stars, from inexpensive items like tennis balls and extra tissue to larger items like folding chairs, bean bags, or gift cards to a local book store. Many years I've received everything I wished for!

Wish Upon a Star is a part of my Back to School Super Start Pack, but you can also download it as a free sample of what's inside. I hope that you and your students have a super start to the 2012-2013 school year! What items do you plan to include on the wishing stars on your board?




Laura Candler, Teaching Resources

Back 2 School Cyber Search Giveaway

Note: The Cyber Search Giveaway described in this blog post is now over, but you'll find other helpful teaching resources here if you look around. Thanks for visiting!

I'm excited to announce a very special back-to-school event that is taking place on Saturday, August 11th! On that day, twelve of your favorite grade 3 -6  bloggers are collaborating in a Back 2 School Cyber Search Giveaway! We're each donating one product that you'll be able to download absolutely free on that day. The total package is worth over $40, and you won't have to enter any drawings or wait to see who wins, because everyone will be a winner!

Since it's a back-to-school giveaway, we decided to give you teaching materials that you can use during the first few weeks back to school. Visit each blog below now to find out about the free gifts being offered. Then on Saturday, return to this blog post to begin your search for over $40 in teaching resources!

My Gift: Go for Green Stoplight Management System
I've decided to give away one of my newest products, the Go For Green Stoplight Management System shown below.This 22-page eBook describes a complete classroom management system that worked like a charm for me for many years. I created all the printables and patterns you need to make it work for you, too.

Click the image below to visit the Cyber Search page on Teaching Resources 

where you can download your free copy.

Please help us spread the word about this special event. Pin this blog post on your favorite Pinterest boards, and email a link to this page to your friends. Most of all don't forget to sign up for my newsletter and to return to this page on Saturday to begin your search for your free gifts!

Pinterest: The Price Tag Dilemma

Whether you're a Pinterest newbie or a Pinterest junkie, you probably follow someone who pins products to their boards. When you see an item with a price banner in the upper left corner, you can click through to a page where you can purchase that item. Perfect! Maybe you assumed that items without price tags were free, but I'll bet it only took a few minutes of clicking through on unlabeled pins to find out that not all products are marked with price tags. So what's the deal?

Pinterest is a fairly new social network, and it's a work in progress just like other social networks. When I first started, the accepted Pinterest etiquette was to put a price tag on an item if your pin linked to a product page. I also learned that it's not polite to use Pinterest as a huge online advertising billboard for your products, but that you should pin lots of free content, too. I've religiously tried to follow both of those Pinterest guidelines, and maybe that's why I have accumulated over 10,000 followers in less than a year. All of my boards are school-themed, so if you like to see teacher materials in your Pinterest feed, feel free to check out my Pinterest boards!

The Dilemma
However, as much as followers like price tags, Pinterest users have recently begun to realize that putting price tags on pins is a flawed system. Why? Well, when someone repins that item to their own board, the price tag is permanent while the actual price of the item may change. Imagine that next month I revise one of my ebooks, add a lot of new content, and raise the price. But the 200 people who already repinned that item to their own board are going to see the old price, and they might be disappointed when they click through later and realize it now costs more.

Because of this problem, I'm adopting a new policy regarding how I let my followers know that one of my items has a price. Instead of adding the exact price to the description which automatically generates a price banner, I'm just going to put a plain $ sign in the description to let you know that it's not free. No, I'm not trying to be tricky! However, I don't want you to be disappointed later if my prices change.

One thing I will not be changing, though, is that I'll still be posting a lot of free content from my website and blog on my boards, and I'll be repinning other great free content from teachers I follow on Pinterest. If you don't already follow my boards, click this link to get started! What are your thoughts on the price tag dilemma?

How to Earn 7000 Scholastic Bonus Points

Newly-Updated Freebie for You!

Who loves Scholastic Book Clubs? I do! I do! I love how every month they send a new order form that's packed with great reading selections. I also love how they reward teachers with bonus points for their classroom. A few years ago they started offering a fabulous deal at the beginning of the school year where you could get thousands of bonus points with your first order.

Of course there was a catch - back then, your order had to be $200 or more. With an order that size, you could get 4,000 bonus points. Wow! I couldn't even begin to imagine what I could do with that many points! But I also wondered, "How in the world am I going to get an order that large? Lately I haven't even gotten many $20 orders!" Yet I couldn't walk away from a deal that sweet, so I decided to give it a try. I explained the program to my students and put the challenge out to them. I told them that I would be able to use those bonus points to buy books and materials for our classroom, and I sent a letter to parents explaining our goal. Amazingly, we not only met that goal but we surpassed it by about $30! I was thrilled, and I loved spending those bonus points on books throughout the year.

Over the years I tweaked my system and turned it into a complete goal-setting program. I actually used the program as a way of teaching my class how to set goals and create action plans. Every year it worked better and better, and I began to tell other teachers about it.They system worked for them, too! Eventually I typed up detailed directions, complete with a customizable letter to parents, a star-themed poster for tracking our progress, and coupons.

Fast forward to 2012.... This year's deal has a much higher minimum, but it also has greater potential rewards. With an order of $250 you can get 5000 points, and if you can reach a $350 order, you can get 7,000 Bonus Points! The system is basically the same, but it will take a little more persistence to reach the top goal. Just this week I updated my packet based on the new flyers that just came out from Scholastic Book Clubs, so if you were using my system from last year, please download the new version. Even if you don't think you can reach a goal of $350, any size order will generate loads of additional points, so why not give it a try?  You can download this freebie from the Seasonal page on Teaching Resources or from my TeachersPayTeachers.com store. If you download it from TpT, I would really appreciate you taking a moment to rate it and leave a comment. Thanks!

By the way, if you used my system last year, I'd love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below to let others know how it worked. Every year I am excited to read the success stories that teachers share with me.

A Book Review - or Two!

I just wanted to write a quick note here on Corkboard Connections to thank Erin Klein of Kleinspiration for writing a beautiful review of my two most recent books. Earlier in the year I had sent her a copy of Power Reading Workshop: A Step-by-Step Guide and of Graphic Organizers for Reading: Teaching Tools Aligned with the Common Core. However,  I had no idea that she would write such a dynamite and very thorough review! Or is it two reviews?! Either way, it was a beautiful write-up! I can't tell you how touched I was at the depth of what she wrote and the time she took to include photographs of the covers and printables.

Erin is the technology queen of educational bloggers, and she's always doing something a little techy in her blog posts! True to form, she created a cool Amazon.com widget to go along with the recommended read alouds for Power Reading Workshop! You can seen an image of it on the right. This widget that has all 20 books that I use in the lessons in Power Reading Workshop! You can click on each book title or on the navigation arrow at the bottom to browse through the books, see the reviews, and order what you need. Awesome! Be sure to look for it in her blog post.

Finally, I wanted to let you know that you can get 20% off on the cost of these two books with the discount code in Erin's review when you buy them from Teaching Resources. Tip: When you purchase from my site instead of from Amazon.com, you'll get the digital version for free when you purchase one or both of the print books! Same price but more value!

Thanks again to Erin for taking time to share her thoughts about these two books with her fans. I'm thrilled to be able to pass her words on to you via her blog, Kleinspiration, where you'll definitely find inspiration and ideas for your classroom!