Many teachers receive a paltry sum to purchase needed classroom materials.  The dollar amount is usually around $100.  A hundred dollars!?  Pencils, crayons, copy paper and a few stickers are what you’ll probably be able to afford unless you dip into your own pockets to help purchase the necessary supplies.  Studies Weekly wants you to be able to purchase our curriculum without using your precious budgetary dollars!  Keep reading to find out how!

Get your incoming students’ parents to help you purchase the best curriculum money can buy for the 2012-2013 school year!  Go to the Studies Weekly website:  www.studiesweekly.com then use the scroll features on the “Products & Prices” box located on the right side of the screen to locate your state and grade level – click the “Search” button. The next screen will feature the products available to your state.  Look at the left side of the screen and see the “Downloads” section – click on the “Parent Letter”.  There you will have access to a beautifully written Word Document parent letter that you can customize to meet your unique situation.  Print the letter out, highlight the dollar amount you are requesting and place that letter on top of your Back to School Event information packet.

Don’t be like the Little Red Hen and hope that someone will help, be confident and bold – ask and tell parents you need this dollar contribution.  Be professional, be courteous, be an advocate for your students!  We want your students to have access to Studies Weekly – the BEST hard copy and 100% digital content available in the United States!  After all, doesn’t every child deserve the very best and doesn’t every parent want the very best for their child?

Take charge, Teacher and give your very best with Studies Weekly.  Teachers keep on teachin’! (Cue music Stevie Wonders’ “Higher Ground” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X00XdLhFLSg or if you prefer, the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s version:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gs2o5T7oN8 )

Thanks for reading!

Kim Mogilevsky

Boynton Beach, Florida

Case in point: Kony 2012 and if you haven’t heard about that, just highlight the phrase to “YouTube it,” “Facebook it” or “Google it” (our new verbs will probably be old relatively quickly, whether we perform them to look up info, be it propaganda or just plain research, or to spread our own messages to the universe). And so what about “Kony” or other issues that we now have the inconvenience of knowing about? Paine said, “Tyranny…is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph”.  Remind your students of that while thinking about how bombarded they are with information they’d be better off not knowing.

And the next time you think you’re about to pull your hair out over a political speech, candidate’s TV commercial or unsolicited message, stop and read or listen closely. What’s really being said/not said, despite the messenger? What’s the condition of our country and our world, based on the issues being communicated or propagandized? And what, as educators, can we do to open students’ minds to the resultant civic duties and basic citizenship issues that evolve (use Social Studies Weekly, to start!)?  Paine wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls”. Well, guess what? All times have tried teachers’ souls. Are today’s political messages really about radical times in our country? I think not. Revolutionary times? Not so much. (Okay, mini-movements in the U.S. like “Occupy____” abound, but, revolutions? No.) Are these responsible times for opening students’ minds to civic duty and American citizenship? Yes, totally. Yes! Yes, definitely! Paine lives on because he made ideas about the duties of citizenship accessible to the average person. We can afford our children no less. It’s not just propaganda. It’s common sense.

Thanks for reading,

Monica Sherwin

Ormond Beach

The Studies Weekly Mother’s Day Project is to create a flip book card using this two-page worksheet: Studies Weekly Mother\’s Day Project

Please view the YouTube “Studies Weekly Flip Book Tutorial”:   http://youtu.be/z-l0-XPPWCY

Please let me know how your Mother’s Day projects turn out.  Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mommies out there,too!  Here’s a sample of the finished product:

Front:                                             Inside:

Thanks for reading (and downloading),

Kim Mogilevsky

Boynton Beach, FL

• A birth certificate of a great-grandpa from Poland that was concealed for years to hide his heritage (original copy entrusted to a 4^th grader!)
• A first edition of Peter Rabbit, with a lovely inscription for a new generation
• A tattered gas rationing coupon from WW II (teachable moment!)
• A painting of two small sisters finished just days before the artist passed away
• A baby washcloth that was saved because it carries the scent of a grandma’s lotion, taken out to smell when the child misses her (grown-ups were crying at that point!)

Just today my son was asking about my ancestors. I told him and reminisced…

…about how my grandfather was sneaked in a crate onto a boat from Czechoslovakia as a toddler, because my great-grandparents couldn’t afford legitimate tickets for everyone to come to America to join the rest of the family.

…about the passenger manifest from their ship,  listing physical description, literacy level, amount of money in pockets and destinations of new arrivals to this country (incredible primary source!) Click on the link below to see the webpage listing my great-grandma.  Her name is Julia Mikus, registered on line 15, and heading to Leadville, Colorado!! My grandpa is John Mikus, the next name shown as Janos, age 3.

http://www.ellisisland.org/EIFile/popup_weif_5a.asp?src=%2Fcgi-bin%2Ftif2gif%2Eexe%3FT%3D%5C%5C%5C%5C192%2E168%2E100%2E11%5C%5CIMAGES%5C%5CT715-0923%5C%5CT715-09230656%2ETIF%26S%3D%2E5&pID=1020

Imagine being 24, traveling with small children across the ocean, not speaking the language, and going across a big, new country to find your family! Wow!

…about the time I went to visit Ellis Island and ended up buying a pencil in the gift shop so that I could make an etching of Grandpa’s name from the wall of immigrants- students don’t have experiences like these anymore! (Image of Wall of Honor can be seen at: http://www.wallofhonor.org/Img/DSC_0303comphireslarge.gif)

…about how some tourists at Ellis Island were sobbing at the memory, or the significance, of arriving to this land of freedom and opportunity, something far too many people take for granted.

We educators are responsible for helping students experience family histories. We need to keep the past alive, re-invent lost arts (needle/thread activities, letter-writing, setting tables for special dinners, even conversing), and remind children that the important things in life aren’t things. Children must become aware of their own story. Participate in keeping families strong and heritage vibrant! And take the time to rekindle memories with ancestors from time to time- something happy, something sad, and something warm…

Thanks for reading,

Monica Sherwin

Ormond Beach

Is it possible to make learning vocabulary words something students will look forward to each week?   The Studies Weekly team says, “Yes, we can!”  (Sorry, I had to borrow that line from Bob the Builder…)  Teachers need to keep domain-specific vocabulary acquisition for students  fresh, fun and innovative!  Check out Studies Weekly’s latest “How To” video here and see if this is something you can implement to make vocabulary building a “want to” instead of a “have to” for your students (click this link):  Studies Weekly: Using Words to Know

The Studies Weekly bloggers would love to know what you’d like for the month of May.  Please take our multiple choice survey (click this link):  Month of May Survey — it’s one question and completely anonymous!  The survey will be open until Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 3:00 pm EST.  Thanks in advance for viewing our video and taking the survey!

Kim Mogilevsky

Boynton Beach, Florida

Why You Should use Sunscreen; Peeps Invade Miami; Peeps in Chicago During St. Patrick’s Day; Mount Peepsmore; Peeps at the Aquarium; Oh, No!  Mr. Peeps!!!

Here’s all your students need to do:

1. Get Peeps (around $1 a pack at discount, dollar, grocery and drug stores).
2. Pose the Peeps in a photo or create a 3-D display/diorama at any imaginable geographic location.

   

If kids go on vacation or to an event this spring, tell them to take the Peeps along for photo ops. If they stay home, they can use their imaginations to create a Peeps display. Either way, it’s creative and hilarious. Kids will pose Peeps at the beach on blankets with sunglasses on. They’ll put the Peeps on Mars, wearing tiny paper spacesuits. They’ll take them to the playground to pose on the slide. They’ll place them in cardboard dioramas at the local police station (don’t ask how they got there). Peeps will be put in the foreground of the Cinderella Castle. You may even see Peeps on the patio grill. Oh, nooooo, Mr. Peep! No,not true, actually NO Peeps may be harmed during this activity!!

When you’re using a Studies Weekly unit to study a period in history or a particular theme, suggest that students put their Peeps in a place relative to that, for example, firefighter Peeps, pirate Peeps, Peeps at an attraction in your state, Patriot Peeps, Peeps using a famous invention, Peeps demonstrating a character trait, etc.

Have a great time and happy spring!

Thanks for reading,

Monica Sherwin

Ormond Beach

Please check it out, post a comment and pass it along to others!  The QR code featured in the blog article is live and you can do a “test run” of the new and exciting Studies Weekly features that are being developed especially for you!

Kim Mogilevsky

Boynton Beach, FL

Step 1: Login with your username and password.

Explore your homepage!  This is the place where you can view your subscription online.  Use your projector and smart boards to show the student publications “live” or download it as a pdf.  If you click on “Students” you can add/delete/make changes to your student roster as needed!

Step 2: Check out the “buttons” across the top!

Take the time to explore your Reading Button!  This is the place where you can view all of your publications online.  Click on a particular publication and then select an article to read with your students.  eStudiesWeekly has even added an audio component that reads the story to the class highlighting each word as it’s read!

Step 3: Student tests can be assigned and given online – in your  classroom or in the computer lab.

The tests are automatically graded and questions are randomized to ensure optimal testing results! (Teachers can even control when tests are given and how many times a particular student can re-take a test.)

Using eStudiesWeekly’s online resources will help increase your teaching time and decrease the amount of paperwork.  Let your partnership with eStudiesWeekly work for you!  After all, that’s what “families” do – they help each other!

Kim Mogilevsky

Boynton Beach, Florida

Shirley Chisholm, the late American Congresswoman, once said, “While some people are napping or rapping, others are mapping.” Ms. Chisholm was certainly a mapper. She was the first African-American woman elected to Congress and the first major-party black woman to run for president. She planned a destiny for herself and made it happen. She wasn’t content to let others tell her what she could or couldn’t do. She believed in herself and achieved amazing goals. Sometimes “human geography” is like that, to the great benefit of us all.

The next time you’re doing any geography or biography activity (Florida Studies Weekly Grade 4, Week 27 is just the right type of thing!), do a little extension: have students map where they’ll be in one year, 5 years, 10 or 20.  Post the timelines around the room. After our recent Career Day, I had my students do it.

It’s funny to find out what students think they’ll really be doing.  A talented boy in my class told me that in 10 years he’d either be a pro soccer player or would be putting sunglasses in cases. What? He’s not that good a soccer player, so…? He explained that his mom boxes hundreds of sunglasses from home (the only job she could get), and that he might end up helping. Really? He is capable of so much more.  Serious mapping-assistance needed there. So, how do we make our students believe in themselves or gain the tools to plan and carry out a worthwhile destiny?

This is what I think: we should make our students stretch – mentally, intellectually, and emotionally. Put them in unusual situations, have them try new things: recycled art, origami, cooking okay, cookies, living history, Design Thinking, mirror writing, Sudoku – ANYthing out of their ordinary comfort zone. Have cooperative groups choose their roles, and then reverse them! Have you ever heard that great teachers make students aware of inconvenient facts? We need to do this to help children try routes they never thought they could travel. Indeed, this is one of our (millions of) responsibilities.

Often we’ll never hear what becomes of a student, but at least we’ll know we broadened horizons and didn’t squelch someone’s dreams. Let’s encourage “human geography” and encourage kids to map out a decent, if not phenomenal, future. And on that rare occasion when a kid comes back to visit after graduating or landing a job and tells you, “Thanks for believing in me and helping me see what I could do with my life,” you’ll know it was worth the effort. Keep mapping!

Thanks for reading,

Monica Sherwin,

Ormond Beach