When I was student teaching (which feels like a lifetime ago) one of the many ideas that I fell in love with was an ABC accordion book made from index cards.

One of the biggest reasons I love this project is because of its potential to be used for so many different things.  If I can take something and use it in more than one content area, I'm a fan.

One of my English classes is working on their first accordion book this week.  They are creating an autobiography.  I supplied them with 27  index cards for the project.  One for the title card and then one for each letter of the alphabet.

I think pictures will make more sense than if I try to describe it.  I apologize for the poor quality of photos.  I took them very quickly with my phone.

This is the example I put together to show my students.

 Several of my letters.  You place the index cards right up against each other and place a piece of tape on the back.  I tried to show this in the picture below.  After you have taped all the cards together, you fold them accordion style so that the title page is on top.  When you let go the rest of the cards "fall" down creating a neat effect.  Students love it!
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This can be used for so many different things.  Have students create an accordion book about a war or a specific era in history.

It could be about a type of animal for Science.

Vocabulary words in math.

A biography about someone they've studied.

The possibilities are endless.

If you would like to purchase the handout I created for students that goes along with this project go on over to my TPT store and check it out.

The poster in the top right corner with the pink edges is our genre poster.  Each color circle represents a different genre.  For example, dark blue is realistic fiction and yellow is historical fiction.  If you look closely you can see corresponding circles on the spine of the books. This makes it easy for students to not only find their favorite genres, but it also helps them step out of their comfort zone if they are looking to try a new genre. As students finish book they pick up a link in those corresponding colors to fill out.  The links are simply strips of construction paper.  I cut them so that they are 8.5" long.  Students pick up a strip of paper corresponding to the genre of the book they just finished and write their name and the name of the book on the strip.  They then file the strip in a drawer for me. After several strips have been completed, I create a chain to hang from the ceiling.  The idea is that by the end of the year my ceiling will be covered by a visual representation that my students read.  You can also clearly see 7th grade's favorite genre.  Right now it appears to be Science Fiction.

Occasionally I can be very stubborn.  There are a few things in life I refuse to do just to go against the grain.  Reading and watching anything Harry Potter related was one of those things until this school year.

I never really had a reason to not read the books or watch the movies.  I simply didn't want to.  This year I have G in my class. G is a big HP fan and immediately started trying to convince me that I needed to read the books.  I figured since I was challenging my students to step out of their comfort zone when it comes to genres, I probably should too.

I gave in and checked out the first book.  I read it.  I liked it.  I liked it a lot.

I've since read the second one and am planning to read number three soon.  When I received an email from scholastic saying J.K.Rowling was doing a webcast for students my interest was peeked.

It turns out it is this Thursday during my Pre AP English class, which G happens to be in.  Perfect.  I got in touch with our technology person and it looks like we should be able to do this.

The party planning began.  Any excuse for fun snacks.  I went to Pinterest of course and found several cute ideas.

I will be serving these Nimbus 2000s



Along with Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans (thanks to my brother).






We will also have the much needed wands.





Cauldron cakes & petit fours are a must simply because they are so yummy.  I'll post a picture of these soon.



To drink we will be having a special potion that changes colors when poured.  The color will determine your house since the Sorting Hat only works in Hogwarts.


My kids and I are super pumped about this.  I love a good party.

Well.  I have three days of this school year under my belt.  They've been chaotic, but good days.  I think I've got a great group of students again this year.  I'm really excited about getting to share my love of books with them this year.

I procrastinated a bit and didn't get my room finished until Saturday night.  I made sure to take pictures so that I could share with you.

You are hit with owls before you ever walk in the door.

Back on my Currently in July post I mentioned that I was working on a little project that my sweet husband designed.  Several of you were very curious as to what great idea my husband had given me.

Last month I finally jumped on the bandwagon and read The Book Whisper.  Needless to say, I fell in love with it and plan to implement Donalyn's strategies in my 7th grade ELA classroom this year.

Earlier this week I sat down and created my own version of what I'm calling the Genre Tracker.  It's a two page graphic organizer that allows students to keep up with how many books they've read from each of the required genres.  I plan to have them glue it into their reading notebooks so that they can add to it throughout the school year.



I have placed my Genre Tracker in my TPT store for free.  Because the idea is not original to me, I do not feel like I can ask anyone to pay me for.  It's there to download if you don't want to have to recreate one.

One of the things I picked up from my AP training last week is first paragraphs.  I love the idea.  It's one of those things that is so simple it has you asking yourself why you didn't think of the idea. There are several things you can do with first paragraphs.

The general idea is that you choose a novel and read the first paragraph to your students without them knowing what the book is.  For example:

You ever see ink mixed up with blood?  That's what's getting set down on this paper.  It's my blood, too.  No one else's.  Came spouting out of my ear when Mingo pretty near sliced it off with his fish knife.  I didn't cry then, and I didn't cry when I stitched it up myself tonight with the gut from the wildcat Mingo done shot.  He'll probably try to cut my other ear off when he finds out I took that cat's gut. But he won't have a chance.  I'll be gone.  I decided tonight.  I'm leaving.


Wow!  Don't you want to read that book now?  That's the the first purpose of doing first paragraphs with your students.  They are a hook.  Our presenter said she loves to watch which student will be the first to sneak the book off her bookshelf after doing this.  She has students fighting over who will read the book first.  I LOVE that!!  I plan to type these up in a powerpoint presentation so that students can follow along.

These can also be used to teach students how to annotate.  Have them write down their thoughts and questions about the paragraph.  Discuss them.  Ask students what they think happened or will happen.  She encourages her students to have conversations with the characters.  For example, a student might write as part of their annotations, "Are you and Mingo friends or enemies?"
Of course you could give students a copy as well for them to write on and highlight.

I can see these being used for mini grammar lessons as well.  Circle all the adjectives.  Underline the verbs.  That sort of thing.

After you are finished discussing or doing whatever you choose to do with the first paragraph you then reveal the book to the students.


I love it!  I'll admit I'm guilty of judging books by their cover.  I would never pick this up to read on my own, but having read the first paragraph makes me want to read it.

A few years ago some of my good friends at proteacher inspired me to create a website for my students and their parents. I spent hours that summer scouring the Internet, choosing the right site, and creating my web page. My students loved it!  It was a dream come true.  Unfortunately like most things the enthusiasm died down 2nd semester and by the end of the year we were no longer using the site.

Then I was switched from history to math - man I switch a lot!  I never changed my website.  Let's just say that particular group of students did not create a desire in my to go above and beyond the call of duty.  This past year when I wanted to get up and running again it had for some reason become a blocked site at school.  That is when I chose to use Edmodo.

I became pumped about Edmodo.  It was going to be the perfect alternative.  Turns out, it wasn't.  My students LOVED it, but there were just things about it that drove me crazy.  They viewed it more as getting to use facebook at school than as an educational tool.  I just never got passed that with them.  We had stopped using it by Christmas break.

Our technology person as since unblocked my original website and I'm spending yet another summer working on it getting it ready for my students.  And I can't wait!!  I'm already writing wonderful blog post in my head for them to respond to.  I really believe it is going to be a great tool for teaching ELA.  Determined to not let the fizzle die, I'm trying to come up with things to add as the year goes on so that there is constantly something new and exciting for students to explore.

Though it is still very much so a work in progress, I wanted to share the site with you.  If you don't have a class webpage and are looking for something easy to use, I strongly suggest weebly.  It has been extremely simple for me to create and for my students to navigate.

If you have a moment, check out www.weaversclass.weebly.com and let me know what you think.  If you have a class web page already, I love to peruse your site as well.  Let's share our ideas.  After all, isn't that what we teachers do best?

Quick.  Last adult novel you read?  I don't know about you, but I have a hard time answering that question at this moment.  I have been reading young adult novels just as fast as I can.

I thought I'd share my latest read as I absolutely loved it!!!


It is about a 8th grade boy who struggles to understand his world.  He learns that his little brother, whom he normally sees as a pest, has leukemia.  He has to deal with that along with trying to understand the ways in which his parents are dealing with that news.  Not to mention those girls at school that he just doesn't understand.

This is one of those books that made me laugh and cry.  There were points in the book where the tears were just flowing.  A few pages later I'd be laughing out loud. 

I plan to read this book with my students next year.  I cannot wait.  I dare say it is my favorite young adult novel so far!  Jordan Sonnenblick grabbed me from the very beginning and held my attention completely until the very end.  It's a quick and easy read.  It took me just a couple of hours.  

If you are looking for something to read this summer, please add this to your list.  You won't regret it.  Be sure to come back and let me know what you thought.

It's official.  I made the switch today.  I will no longer be teaching math after this year.  Part of me is very excited.  Math has always been my least favorite subject though I have enjoyed teaching it more than I ever thought I would.

I'm switching to literacy.  Literacy scores are low at my school so this job comes with that pressure.  I know that it is a big job, but this is what my emphasis is on.  It is what I went to school to teach.  I'm pretty pumped about it

We are getting ready to switch over to common core.  I was able to get some resources today at an inservice that made me feel much better about the whole situation. 

I've been looking for some good literacy blogs for middle school tonight.  I haven't had much luck yet, but I know they are out there.

Do you know any good ones?  Maybe you are the author of one?

I found this idea on pinterest. Whipped up my own poster tonight. Hoping the kids go for it. I think I will let my artistic students make the next poster when this one is all full.

I'm still here. Life has been crazy busy. I can't seem to put together a post about what has been going on in my classroom.

In uploading some new things to my TPT store, I realized that I never blogged about an activity that I did in math at the beginning of the year. I must say that I really enjoyed this assignment. I came up with the idea while doing a top ten list on my personal blog.

Students write a short essay about themselves using numbers. I put in requirements such as having three numbers that were not whole numbers. They had to include a number greater than one hundred and a number less than one.

It really required them to be creative. I wrote an example about myself to give them. It is things like converting your height to centimeters instead of feet or inches. It gets them a larger number and gives them practice converting.

All numbers must be written as words which can be challenging for some of them.

I loved reading about my students and getting to know them. It was also an easy way to incorporate literacy into my math class.

This assignment is now for sale in my TPT store. Enjoy!

Have you seen one of those bulletin boards with a map of the United States that says "Reading Will Take You Places"? Maybe you have even had one in your room. I have one in my room for the first time this year.

Our school is all about encouraging literacy. At first thought I would just put the bulletin board up in my room and be done with it. The idea grew from there. Students tend to be motivated by competition. I decided to declare war on the 8th grade.

We are having a competition to see which grade can read a book from all fifty states first. It is going really well. Our students are constantly coming to me and letting me know where their book took place.

It's great!

The middle school where I work is a struggling to raise literacy scores. All teachers are being told to bring literacy into the classroom, regardless of what they teach.

As a math teacher, I'm encouraged to bring literacy into my lessons, but my focus is still on math. We don't want our math scores to drop. However, as a science teacher, I'm looking for every way possible to bring literacy into the classroom. I want to teach science through literacy.

One of the things I'm looking forward to as a reader is that my science classes will spend 20 minutes every Friday reading their AR books. I will of course be modeling this and reading with them. I love to read so I'm excited about this.

I created a whiteboard to hang in my room that will display what I'm currently reading as well as what I just finished reading and what I plan to read next. My hope is to get my students interested in reading and encourage them to pick up a book.




I bought the whiteboard at Wal-Mart. It is 14 X 14. My name is done scrapboook letters. They are made of felt and have an adhesive backing. However, I couldn't get the adhesive to stick to the white board so I ended up hot gluing them on. The black letters are also scrapbook letters. I bought them at Wal-Mart. They are more of a foam material. I didn't have any problem with them sticking to the whiteboard.

I have a little nook with a window in my classroom. I plan to create a little reading area there with a fun rug, chairs, and poms hanging from the ceiling. My reading board will go there. I also plan to create a place for students to write suggestions/summaries of books they believe I should read.