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 Lang Arts Warm Ups
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Tried and True Teaching Tools to Assist Your Instructional Efforts

Welcome to Daily Teaching Tools

about me
Greetings to you, my fellow teacher.

My name is Chad Manis, a language arts and journalism teacher with 33 years of classroom experience.

Let me begin by saying thank you.

Thank you for becoming a teacher, and thank you for taking the time to go online in search of resources that you can use in your classroom. That tells me that you are a dedicated teacher.

That also tells me that you care about your kids and that you are devoted to helping them prepare for their and our tomorrows.

Not everyone can be a teacher. It takes a special sort of person with a lot of patience, resilience, adaptability, fortitude, backbone, and an endless ability to multitask.

But, you ARE that kind of person.

I don't have to tell you that the challenges are enormous. If you're like the majority of us these days, you're probably feeling more than a little overwhelmed.

I know that feeling all too well.

Teachers are being asked to do more and more, with less and less.

Too often, the focus seems to be on preparing students for standardized testing, posting online grades and lesson plans, and displaying the "required" items on bulletin boards.

Shouldn't we be focusing on the kids?

It's really no wonder that we feel overwhelmed.

Mission Statement

The entire purpose for Daily Teaching Tools is to provide you with free resources, materials, and strategies to enhance your effectiveness with kids.



Many of the tools that you will find here are mine, but just as many I "stole" from the resourceful teachers I've had the pleasure of working with throughout the years.

Please feel free to steal, uh, I mean, borrow them from me too.

What you WON'T find here is exactly the sort of stuff that I don't like when I visit websites that focus on teachers and teaching resources.

That sort of stuff includes long lists of unexplored websites that were copied and pasted, recommendations for products or services that the authors never tried themselves, stuffy academic language, and above all else, insincerity.

You won't find any of that here.

Rationale

These economic times have been difficult for all of us. In my case, I was forced into early retirement at the age of 59 because of our district's budgetary constraints.

After all, since I was on the top rung of the salary schedule, the money they were spending on me, could be used to hire two new beginning teachers!

More bang for their buck--at my expense, and I think, at the expense of the kids.

I have nothing against beginning teachers whatsoever. After all, I was one myself, once upon a time. But, I also know that experience leads to better teaching and that kids benefit from that.

Which brings me to why I'm doing this--as corny as it might sound, I love teaching. In fact, I am actively pursuing ways to get back into teaching, a task, once again, made more challenging by the state of our economy.

In the meantime, while I'm waiting for an opportunity, why not do something that reconnects me with something I love?

In Return

I DO know that you are a teacher, but I have NO idea whether you have any experience developing websites.

I've been working on Daily Teaching Tools for 14 months now, every day of every week, 7 to 9 hours a day--sometimes more.

Am I complaining? Of course not.

This is my way of continuing to make a meaningful impact in the world of education. And, I am passionate about it.

All I ask in return is that you support my efforts by sharing an idea with your fellow teachers on the Teachers' Ideas page and/or adding a comment to one of my blog entries at The Teacher Beacon.

Take a few seconds to click on my Facebook Like button, or take a minute or two to add a brief comment about one of the Daily Teaching Tools pages that you may have found useful.

Or, how about grabbing a T-shirt or coffee cup at The TeacherMarket?

If you really want to go all out, purchase one of my software products!

Conclusion

This is only the second time in the last 14 months that I've updated this homepage. Daily Teaching Tools has grown so much that I figured it was well past time to do so.

If you have suggestions, questions, or comments related to anything regarding this site, I'd love to hear from you. Please contact me and let me know what's on your mind.

In the meantime, I will continue adding teaching tools and plan to do so throughout the coming year and beyond. If you bookmark this site and visit regularly, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and rewarded.

The quickest and easiest way to see what's new or what's been updated is to go to the Page Updates page, which appears near the top of the navigation bar at the left. Brief announcements pertaining to Daily Teaching Tools are also displayed there.

Let me close for now with this thought.

We didn't choose the wrong profession. America just chose the wrong heroes.

Review www.dailyteachingtools.com on alexa.com




Teaching Blog: Veteran Writes Observations, Opinions, and Invites Commentary
Topics featured in this teaching blog include, but are not limited to, budget problems, teachers' and students' issues, the achievement gap, managing misbehavior...

The TeacherMarket: Products Designed Just for Teachers BY a Teacher
The TeacherMarket is an online store specializing in tee shirts, professional publications, mousepads, tote bags, and more. Products are continually being added.

Page Updates
The Daily Teaching Tools Page Updates Service keeps you up-to-date with all additions and changes to the DailyTeachingTools.com website. You may subscribe here.

Daily Teaching Tools Site Search
Search the Daily Teaching Tools website by keyword or phrase. Results displayed will be pertinent to this site, and will contain alternative results at the top and bottom of the page.

Education Link Exchange: Sites that Connect to Daily Teaching Tools
The following websites have agreed to an education link exchange with Daily Teaching Tools: sites featuring resources, free materials, worksheets...

About Me: The Author of Middle School Language Arts Software
Although About Me is mainly about me, it is also about my significant other, a host of avatars, and a serious love of teaching, programming and photography . . .

Contact Chad Manis
Contact Chad Manis with this simple comment form located on DailyTeachingTools.com.

First Year Teachers: Great Tips for Enhancing Effectiveness
Ideas for first year teachers: Establishing connections with kids, showcasing relevance, managing the classroom, using classroom routines, communicating with parents, and . . .

First Day of School: Absolute Musts for Getting Off to a Great Start
Ideas for a great first day of school: Use the Wow! Factor, create immediate opportunity for success, establish the tone, provide motivation, describe expectations, and . . .

A Comprehensive Classroom Management Strategy that Really Works with Kids
Classroom Management: Establishing classroom routines, providing warm up activities, structuring instructional time, the "Going to the Movies" approach, setting expectations, and . . .

Effective Classroom Management: Organizing to Enhance Discipline and Order
Organizing for effective classroom management: Use these reliable strategies to greatly improve discipline and order. A place for everything and

Establish Effective Classroom Routines to Guarantee a Successful School Year
Classroom routines: controlling traffic, preparing students for instruction, obtaining materials, managing the pencil sharpener, maximizing instructional time, more...

CHAMPs Classroom Management: Designing and Implementing the System
CHAMPs Classroom Management: How to develop strategies for multiple instructional approaches, tips on how to implement strategies, examples of CHAMPs strategies, and ...

Classroom Behavior Management: A Comprehensive Set of Strategies
Try out these classroom behavior management strategies on those little knuckleheads. Progressive discipline, using student planners, creating behavior contracts, more.

Motivating Students: This Set of Strategies Really Works with Kids
A comprehensive strategy for motivating students: Enhance classroom participation, teamwork, individual effort, and more. Free downloads are available.

Using Teaching Strategies to Increase Participation, Interest, and Motivation
Teaching Strategies: Step by step examples for planning, implementing, and evaluating inductive and deductive activities that really work with kids...

Teaching Methods: Deliver Meaningful Content with the Deductive Approach
Teaching methods: the deductive approach is a great way to deliver concepts quickly and efficiently. Start with the objective and use students' responses to structure the lesson.

Teaching Methods: How to Effectively Use Inductive Teaching Activities with Kids
These inductive teaching methods are guaranteed to increase student motivation and participation. Kids learn content while sharpening processing skills...

Teaching Methods: An Awesome Inductive Teaching Approach for All Subject Areas
Of all the inductive teaching methods, this one, is clearly my favorite. Students learn content while establishing their confidence as learners. This REALLY works . . .

Cooperative Learning: Classroom Activities for Collaboration
Cooperative Learning: Free online instrument for assessing preferred learning style, 8 classroom activities designed for student collaboration...

Cooperative Learning: Great Grouping Strategies for Your Classroom
Cooperative Learning: Assessing preferred learning styles, 7 random grouping strategies that really work, free download of supporting documents...

Cooperative Learning: Assigning Individual Tasks to Group Members
Cooperative Learning: Preparing for group work; How to assign individual tasks to group members, facilitator, recorder, summarizer, more; free PDFs download...

Writing Prompts: Over 200 for Practice Essays, Journal Entries, and More
Persuasive and expository essay writing prompts, reader response questions and statements, and journal writing prompts for every day of the school year . . .

Essay Writing Prompts For Persuasive and Expository Compositions
Essay Writing Prompts: over two and a half school years' worth of prompts for persuasive and expository compositions. Use them for practice or for the...

180 Journal Writing Prompts: Enough for Every Day of the School Year
Journal Writing Prompts: These high-interest prompts will encourage kids to describe, explain, persuade, and narrate every day of the school year.

Reader Response Questions and Prompts for Fiction and Nonfiction
Reader Response Questions: These prompts give students focus and purpose as they respond in writing to fiction and nonfiction they have read . . .

Free Teaching Software for Language Arts Middle School Kids
Teaching software: Talking avatars teach 30 language arts mini-lessons via digital projector or smart board while YOU relax, 20 writing tutorials, 60 multimedia warm ups . .

Language Arts: Great Free Teaching Software for Middle School
Talking avatars teach 30 language arts mini-lessons via digital projector or smart board while YOU relax. Author's purpose, how to summarize, main idea . . .

Middle School English: A Dynamic Collection of Multimedia Warm Ups
Free download of middle school English warm up activities for display via digital projector, smart board, or the classroom TV. 5 activities for each of 12 categor . . .

Free Writing Software: Great for Journalism and Language Arts
This free writing software is designed for individual workstations. 20 step by step tutorials are available for producing articles, reviews, essays . . .

Online Teacher Resources: Free Websites Offer Great Classroom Tools
These free online teacher resources offer a wide variety of useful tools: activities, incentives, reference resources, downloadables, lesson plans, and more . . .

Teaching with Technology: Using the Internet, Classroom Computers, Elmo . . .
Wow them by teaching with technology! Useful tips on using digital projectors, classroom computers, the internet, Elmo, and SMART Board. Free downloads.

Classroom Libraries: Acquiring Books, Establishing Procedures, More
Classroom Libraries: Everything from acquiring and organizing books to establishing procedures. Free downloads of several pertinent documents.

25 Language Arts Graphic Organizers for You and Your Kids
Language arts graphic organizers: story maps, double entry diary, concept wheel, 5 paragraph essay planner, think-pair-share chart, Venn diagrams for 2 or 3 topics, . . .

Free Graphic Organizers for Teaching Literature and Reading
These free graphic organizers include character webs, cognitive bookmarks, story maps, reading analysis, instructional webs, customizable organizers . . .

Free Graphic Organizers for Studying and Analyzing
These free graphic organizers include note taking charts, vocabulary webs, author study maps, think pair share charts, timelines, customizable organizers . . .

Free Graphic Organizers for Teaching Writing
These free graphic organizers include webs for preparing to write, flow charts for sequencing, persuasive and expository essay maps, customizable organizers . . .

Efficient Learning: These Academic Tips Help Kids to Learn How to be Students
These academic tips for efficient learning include good listening in class, how to take notes, using acronyms to remember information, and much more...

Author Study: A Free, Complete Package for Motivating Kids to Learn and Grow
This author study includes everything--rationale, expectations, samples of artifacts, and detailed rubrics. Students learn and grow as they study authorship.

Homework Tips that Really Work for Teachers, Parents, and Students
These homework tips from a professor of psychology at Duke University should be a benefit to all. Free downloadable PDF package of 11 documents.

10 Free Reading Tests for Students in Grades 5 Through 9
These free reading tests feature high-interest and/or informative passages followed by 5 or 6 multiple choice questions. Students finish in about 15 minutes allowing time for immediate feedback.

How to Teach Spelling: Guidelines, Techniques, and Free Download
How to teach spelling: Four guidelines and five techniques for helping kids become better spellers. Free downloadable set of PDF documents/graphic organizers.

Tips for Test Taking: Strategies for Teachers and Activities for Students
These tips for test taking include time management, the QAR strategy, underlining for comprehension, multiple-choice tactics: free downloadable PDF package.

Reading List: Over 150 Carefully Selected High Interest Books
This reading list features selective Newbery and Caldecott Medal winning books and top graphic novels. Plus, the "Goldilocks Test," free downloadable resources, more...

Certificate of Achievement: 50 Awards Recognizing Student Excellence
Certificate of achievement times 50: Celebrate excellence in core academic classes as well as electives--clipart and gradient styles. Free download.

Best Website Design Awards for Classroom Sites and Teacher Resources
These best website design awards are a great way to receive recognition for a job well done. The teacher resources awards would be a win-win situation for all of us...

Teacher Bulletin Board Ideas: Creating Compelling Utilitarian Displays
These teacher bulletin board ideas are appropriate for any subject area. Let your boards, walls, and whiteboards enhance your classroom management. Free downloadables.

Teacher Time Savers: A Collection of 13 E-Books for Educators
Two of these teacher time savers are completely free of charge. Additional titles include Essay Writing Kit, Just Multiply It!, End-of-the-Year Language Unit...

Ideas for Teachers: Please Help Us with Your Experiences and Expertise
What ideas for teachers could you share with us? A strategy or procedure, perhaps? Something that you have found to be effective with kids?


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