I'm a special education teacher, but last month my principal asked me to go to a conference for gifted students. I was skeptical as to whether I would learn anything relating to my field, but I actually learned quite a bit. I made a couple of Power Points as a homework assignment (so I could get college credit for attending the conference.) One is about placement to share with all of my colleagues and the other is to share the information I learned with other special education teachers. Enjoy.

I made these posters to go along with Comprehension lessons. Feel free to download and use them as you like.

Comprehension Posters

I made these posters to go along with Comprehension lessons. Feel free to download and use them as you like.

Beginning, Middle, and End of a Story

Basic reading comprehension can be taught as early as Kindergarten (possibly younger). Use a wordless picture book with all narrative components. The attention getting device can be the book itself, but I also like to use an analogy of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The Beginning of the Story is like the top piece of bread. The middle is the peanut butter, jelly, and anything else you want to put in the middle. The middle could be long or short. The end of the story is the bottom piece of bread.
You can also talk about the characters, setting, and maybe even the plot.

Here's a visual you can print out and use.

Site Objective - a pool of ideas

How many times have you thought about a subject, like math, and wondered how you would make that even remotely interesting.

I have created this site to act as a pool of ideas and materials for spicing up every aspect of teaching, including attention getting devices for lesson plans. I've been teacher for about 6 years, so this is also a project to help me spice up my own lessons.

I will post be posting and allow access to graphics and posters, since, before I was a teacher I was majoring in graphic design.

This is just an intro for now. The designs and posters will be available for free. I want to make sure I copyright my designs before I post them, because there can be legal problems with artistic creations, and I don't want anyone to steal my designs and pass them off as their own. Stay tuned for more.


Anticipatory Sets: (Attention getting devices)

My first observation is that attention getting devices are more interesting when using a mix of visual, kinesthetic, tactile, or auditory materials.

The use of quality graphics are very important, and I've noticed that many posters created in Education break many design rules of readability.

Secondly, students respond and are more engaged when subjects being taught relate to them. Students are never too young to think about what they want to do for a career, and showing them different ways subject matter relates to a potential job they are or may be interested in can be successful in getting them interested.

For now that's all I have.