Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Wicked Plants, Wicked Bugs, Earthworms, and Flowers

Not many teachers get to work for years and years with a team of other teachers who are really compatible with each other.  I was very fortunate to have that kind of team. Two of the three of us started our first year of teaching on the same day in the same school. The other teacher was more experienced.  We got to work together as a team for twenty years!  And we had such fun! Things were a lot different back then.  We had a lot of freedom with curriculum.  The three of us - teaching social studies, science, and English, did some interdisciplinary units that honestly were the highlights of my teaching career.   I always loved reading books but from my experiences with a great teaching team I learned to love teaching books.

When I had a chance to work with Amy Stewart - a real honest to goodness New York Times best-selling author - to create teaching resources for her books, it was a dream come true!  It was frosting on the cake that I loved the books and could barely make it through two pages without thinking of three ways to teach something related to what I'd just read.

I've happily spent the past five months writing free teaching resources for Amy Stewart's best-selling books. I hope you'll download them from her website and enjoy teaching with a fabulous book:

Wicked Plants





















Wicked Bugs

























The Earth Moved












and Flower Confidential.  

I just sent off the Flower Confidential resources to Amy this evening - so the cover is still under wraps.  


If you ever have wished for non-fiction reading that was accessible for secondary students, and short enough to be practical for classroom use, take a look at (and download) the free teaching resources at www.amystewart.com



          Jill


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5 comments:

  1. The ESL NexusNovember 4, 2015 at 9:37 PM

    Wicked Cool! :-) And the lesson plans are wicked impressive, too -- I looked at the ones for the plant book -- they make me want to go out and buy the book and then teach a science class. :-) Many congratulations!

    -- Susan
    The ESL Connection

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    Replies
    1. UtahRootsNovember 5, 2015 at 12:09 PM

      Thanks! I really enjoyed creating the resources and I'm hoping teachers will be able to use them.

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  2. Amy BrownNovember 5, 2015 at 4:33 AM

    Loved your comments about teaching "back in the old days." You are right on! Much of the fun in teaching is gone ... to the detriment of our students. I used to teach a biology 2 class to seniors in which the curriculum was mine to design. Best years I ever had teaching. Congrats on your collaboration with Amy Stewart.

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  3. UtahRootsNovember 5, 2015 at 12:10 PM

    I hope that pendulum swings back again soon! There's magic in letting a group of teachers design curriculum to match the students they are teaching!

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  4. UtahRootsNovember 5, 2015 at 12:30 PM

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