Global Teacher Connect

Last week, I wrote a post for GTC (found HERE) about the differences I had been experiencing in the school supplies I have in my classroom.  Today I am going to tell you about the difference my son has had when it comes to dealing with supplies.

My son is 8 and he attends a Moroccan school where he learns in French and Arabic, while I teach at an American school where my children learn in English.  There are many differences between the schools.  I recently wrote a guest blog post for KidsWorldCitizen highlighting some of these differences and how my children reacted to those differences when we moved here.

Here is what his school supplies look like:

1.) First and foremost in his book bag is the “trouse”, or pencil case that he must bring back and forth to school each and every day (actually twice a day because they come home for lunch).  Inside the pencil case, he has 2 blue pens, a green pen and a red pen, as well as one pencil, a pencil sharpener, and eraser, colored pencils and a ruler.  The pencil is only used in his English class, the majority of his work is written in pen.  The ruler is used not to measure, but to draw a straight line when connecting two sides of a matching activity.

2.) He has multiple notebooks – small soft covered notebooks that are each covered with a different colored plastic color.  Each color has a different purpose.  The paper inside looks (to me) like graph paper, it has boxes instead of lines.

3.)  He has is text books.  We had to purchase all of his text books and workbooks, and they had to be covered in plastic as well.  These books will be his at the end of the year, although I’m not sure what we’ll do with them.

4.) A personal size chalkboard and chalk – they use this regularly for whole group activities.

What school supplies do you use in your classroom?

Have you all seen this quote?  It’s floating around pinterest, and it’s so very true.  As teachers we know this to be true, so often teachers achieve through their hard work, their effort, and their determination - feats that seem impossible. 

This is true of teachers everywhere around the world.  There are many teachers that I am personally grateful for at the end of this school year – including the ones who have brought my personal children from speaking no French or Arabic to speaking and reading in both, in just a year’s time.  I am also grateful to all of the teachers that I have been able to collaborate with this year via blogs, facebook, pinetrest, twitter and other social media outlets.  You have all given me so many amazing ideas and perspectives to change and impact the way that I teach.

In recognition of all of these amazing teachers, I wanted to do something to say thank you for Teacher Appreciation Week.  So, I asked the Global Teacher Authors if they would be willing to contribute to a Global Gift Giveaway.  Ten of our amazing authors have agreed, and so today I get to announce that every day from May 1st – May 11th, you will be able to come back here to Global Teacher Connect and get a FREE teacher resources, that you will be able to download directly from Google Docs.  It’s our small way of saying Thank You!  to all the teachers around the globe who are making miracles happen for their students.

Be sure to come back tomorrow to grab your first freebie – but for now, tell us about a teacher you are grateful for this year. 

One of the benefits of living in a country that is not my home country is the ability to teach my children about other countries and other cultures.  I try to carry this over into the classroom by using my country books.  (You can grab all of the country books I have created for FREE in the exclusive page offered in my Raki’s Rad Resources Newsletter.)  In each country book, students list basic facts about the country they are learning about.  I make each book exclusive to the country they are learning about – in order to keep their interest and give them clues to the answers they are looking for. 

As an added step, I am starting to make glogs that my students can use to help them find the answers.  Here is the glog I created for my Morocco book.  I am now working on one for my Egypt book.

If you would like to grab a “generic” country book – you can click on the picture and grab one FREE from Google Docs.  If you would like the more specific books – sign up for my Raki’s Rad Resources Newsletter and you can grab plenty more from the Exclusive Freebie Page – and I’m developing more all the time, as I have plans to do one country book a month with my students next year!

Who’s writing this blog? Lots of people – each from a different place and with a different story.

Who’s reading this blog? Lots of people from all around the world.

So, each week, there will be a Getting to Know You question posted so that we can all come together as a Global Community and get to know each other better.

Do you have a question about us you would like answered? Feel free to email you question to us at heidiraki @ gmail . com.

Common Core, AERO, Quality Core Curriculum, there are so many sets of standards out there, which do you use?

It’s that time of the school year where we all start looking toward the future, to next school year and getting ready for a Fresh Start.  This weekend, I am starting a Fresh Start of my own.  Raki’s Rad Resources is moving over to a new logo and a new blog – www.rakisradresources.com .  In order to celebrate my fresh start, I’d like to set you up with a Fresh Start Package.  I’m going to be giving away these four Fresh Start Packages, each valued at over $35 worth of Quality Teaching Resources, at the new blog, and there’s a Fresh Start Freebie for all!  One way to enter is by following Global Teacher Connect, so you may have an entry already set up for you!  Stop by and sign up!