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The Ultimate Gift Guide for English Teachers and Book Lovers
In a world where the love for books is timeless, as educators, we know the magic of a well-told tale. We ignite knowledge and passion for literature in our students. We spend hours immersed in stories, guiding young minds and sharing the joy of reading. Have you thought of gifting a little magic to yourself or other book lovers? Imagine unwrapping a gift that honors your love for books — and the immense joy that would be! In this blog post, I have curated a list of delightful gifts for book enthusiasts, including a FREE DOWNLOAD Gift Guide for you to skim through as well.
The Ultimate Gift Guide for English Teachers and Book Lovers
In a world where the love for books is timeless, as educators, we know the magic of a well-told tale. We ignite knowledge and passion for literature in our students. We spend hours immersed in stories, guiding our students and sharing the joy of reading, and I bet there’s a little part of you that has thought of gifting a little magic to yourself. Or maybe you want to treat another teacher friend or book lovers for the holidays, a birthday, or other celebration.
Here I have the ULTIMATE GUIDE built just for you!In this blog post, I have curated a list of delightful gifts for book enthusiasts, including the FREE DOWNLOAD Gift Guide for you to skim through as well. Join us as we explore accessories, literary apparel, bookish coffee, and more. Let's embark on this adventure to find the perfect gift for every book lover who believes in the magic of a good book!
Spruce Up the Book Nook
There's something truly enchanting about bringing the world of books into your physical space. Bookish decor not only transforms your surroundings but also serves as a constant reminder of your love for literature. Whether you're a teacher looking to adorn your classroom with a touch of literary charm or a bookworm eager to create a cozy reading nook at home, these bookish decor ideas will help you infuse your space with a little sparkle and a little magic.
Books on the Regular: Subscription Gifts
There's a certain magic in the surprise of receiving a new book, especially when it's thoughtfully curated to match your reading preferences. Book subscription services offer a delightful way to explore new authors, genres, and literary worlds. As a teacher who adores books, or someone looking to gift a fellow book lover, these services can provide a continuous source of literary joy. Let's dive into the world of book subscription services and discover how they can add excitement to your reading journey.
WEAR YOUR TEACHER-BOOK LOVE ON YOUR SLEEVE
For teachers and book enthusiasts who wear their love for stories like a badge of honor, literary-inspired apparel is the perfect way to make a stylish statement. Imagine wrapping yourself in the words of your favorite novel or proudly displaying iconic book covers on your clothing. In this section, we explore the joy of adorning yourself with literary charm. From cozy t-shirts featuring beloved quotes to scarves adorned with the essence of classic tales, we've curated a list of literary-inspired apparel that seamlessly combines the worlds of fashion and literature. Embrace your inner bookworm with these stylish pieces that not only express your passion for reading but also turn every outfit into a narrative waiting to be explored. Explore the links provided to find the perfect literary pieces that will let you wear your favorite stories with pride.
THERE’S EVEN MORE!
Now you’re warmed up and dreaming of all the bookish gift possibilities there really are, so it’s about time you downloaded my FREE GIFT GUIDE! Walk through it page by page and be inspired for your next amazing gift.
A Valentine's Day Activity for Middle and High School: Boost Classroom Community with Warm Fuzzies
Fighting the Winter Blues
The winter months can be a bit of a drag for classroom teachers, and morale can really start to drop this time of year (for teachers and students). This is the perfect time of year to amp up your SEL practices and foster those student-teacher and staff relationships. Who doesn’t love a little fun in the midst of winter gloom? Building community in our classrooms is so important when we think about student buy-in, but that community also extends to the faculty and staff of the school as a whole. If you’ve been looking for an idea to brighten up your classroom and build a positive school culture, these SEL Warm Fuzzies have just what you need!
Step One: Get Your Materials Ready
This activity is SO simple and requires very little to set up, and you can easily adapt the set up to meet your needs. That being said, the first thing you need is a bag for each participant. Brown paper bags work great, but if you have something similar go ahead and use those! Students will be able to decorate their bags and add a personal touch.
Once you have the bags, decide on a place for these to “live”. A bulletin board works great! You’ll staple the bags there for all to see and leave them up as long as you like.
The next step is to ready your Warm Fuzzy slips. We have some templates ready to go! Just click here and print!
Step Two: Prep Your Participants
Give students time to decorate their bags. We all know that some of our students will write their names on the bags and be done, but some may want to spend some time making their bags unique. You can set some time aside for this, let them decorate once they finish ongoing assignments, or let them take the bags home to decorate!
Next, give students the Warm Fuzzy slips, and let them begin to write their notes. Encourage students to write several notes to different classmates, and remind students that the purpose of this activity is to build community and spread some joy around. You could require each student to write a minimum amount of notes, or you could have students write a note for each of their classmates. This depends on you and the amount of time you want to spend on this activity.
It might be helpful to have some sentence starters for kids who feel stuck on what to write. And remember, the more specific the message the more meaningful the impact! Tell students to think about what stands out to them about their classmates. Maybe it’s the thoughtful discussion points someone always has, or it could be the kind gesture of always having a pencil for someone to borrow. The possibilities are endless!
Step Three: Spread the Warm Fuzzies Around!
Now it’s time to deliver the notes! You can do this all at once or over time. Either way, at the end of the process each student should walk away with an assortment of notes making them feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
A Bonus IDEA
This activity is so versatile and is something you can do multiple times throughout the year (just be sure to keep the bags 😉). You could also do this with your teacher team, your department, or your whole faculty! Hearing from our peers about the positive things they see in us is always uplifting, and don’t forget to make yourself a bag even if doing this with your students! You’d be surprised at how much those sweet words can make a difference.
If you’re looking for something to help with teacher morale, whether at the team, department, or even whole school level, this is a great activity for faculty and staff. Community is so important for our classrooms, but it’s also beneficial to build community with other teachers and staff.
IS SEL AN IMPORTANT FOCUS IN YOUR DEPARTMENT?
Then your next step it to check out my Essential Question Adventure Packs. Each pack is designed to support any classroom text that fits under the umbrella of each question — and it’s supported through an SEL focus. Here’s a peek at one of the latest packs: Why do relationships matter?
LOOKING FOR MORE LIKE THIS? HERE’S WHERE TO GO NEXT!
Add some new resources to your toolbox
Valentine's Day Activities for High School ELA
Valentine’s Day is the perfect way for ELA teachers at the high school level to have a little bit of fun and give students the chance to be creative. English classes almost always have a series of novels and characters at the ready, so why not ask students to write some haiku love poems between characters? Here’s the activity, how it started, and how to do it yourself.
February is a busy month in the ELA classroom. In February, that first unit of the second semester is finally cooking, we’ve gotten back in the swing of things after the winter break, and we’re steadily headed toward testing season and Spring Break. I used to think holiday-related lessons were a waste of time, a detractor from the business we were accomplishing, but when I started embracing things like Valentine's Day, I found that everyone was happier and enjoying themselves a little bit more.
Here’s what happened:
Every high school I've ever taught in has some kind of student council spirit week going on, candy grams, book displays in the library, etc. The rest of the school was "in the spirit" but when kids came to my room, it was business as usual.
But then we were interrupted by students delivering lollipops.
And choir kids came to serenade someone.
Kids were buzzing on sugar and little love secrets (or, more often, heartaches).
So things were NOT business as usual. Ever.
Finally, I decided to stop trying to fight it and embrace the little holiday things during the year and blend them into instruction. They became part of my backward design planning process. And what did I come up with for Valentine's day? Simple.
INTRODUCING: CHARACTER LOVE POEMS
"Celebrating" Valentine's Day gave me a creative push -- what could I do that would blend with my current unit (The Great Gatsby), be fun, still maintain some rigor, and go along with the theme?
So I put together a quick lesson on haiku. 5-7-5, baby. I grabbed some clipart hearts and printed them on different color card stock. And then came the creative writing/complex character challenge: write five haikus as if one character was writing to another. What would they say? What tone would be used? What kind of "love" do they share?
All of a sudden, I kept seeing more opportunities to take what we were already doing, flip them into something “themed” for the holiday, and shake things up in a very good way — not a distracted or oversimplified way as I had originally thought.
Once students wrote their character haikus, I had them take part in a Haiku Death Match (basically just competing with their poems with a March-Madness style bracket moving winners to new rounds). Not only did we have tons of fun, but students were practicing speaking and listening skills, they were approaching characterization with a new perspective, and we had a powerful teachable moment about tone.
Are you ready to embrace it?
If you’re someone who likes to stay in her English-teacher lane and rarely ventures out into the holiday activity arena, I totally get it. But if you’re there and looking for a way to try to branch out, this might be the perfect way to try embracing the craziness of a seemingly disruptive holiday and make the most of the sugar-rush and constant interruptions.
Tell me in the comments: where do you stand: team join-in-on-the-fun or team business-as-usual?
Some creative thinking and the power of 5-7-5 made this beautiful lesson!
Rhetorical Analysis: A "Hands-On" Approach
Keeping rhetorical analysis fun isn’t easy, but here’s a simple idea that requires no extra work on your end. Handprint or five-finger analysis is a memorable and creative way to analyze an argument and you can easily customize this organizer to fit any season or text you are studying.
Is it a pre-requisite that all English teachers tell bad pun jokes? I mean, I just couldn’t help myself when I was giving this article a title. Let’s get right to it.
Rhetorical analysis. Whether you’re introducing at the younger grades or a seasoned pro at AP Language and Composition, we all get to a point in the year when RA feels like a bit of a chore. There are only so many Disney lessons we can do before we need to really get down to the hard stuff, so what's a great way to shake things up without sacrificing rigor? Bust out the art supplies.
This is not the first time I’ve taken an analytical practice and attempted to make it more tactile (here’s where we made sensory bottles to imitate tone in poetry and Gatsby), and that’s because I’ve learned my lesson: IT WORKS. Moving an analytical, thinking task to a tactile experience is exactly what helps kids continue to push their skills and avoid burnout and boredom.
THE HANDPRINT ANALYSIS / FIVE FINGER ANALYSIS
Here’s what you’re going to need:
An argument to analyze
A previously taught & practiced acronym used for analysis (I like SPACE CAT)
A hand
A blank 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper
Coloring supplies (optional)
That’s it! I promised this would be low-maintenance.
And it works pretty much how it looks:
Assign an article, speech, commercial, or other arguments
Have students trace their hand on the blank page
Assign a letter of your acronym to each finger. If you’re using SOAPSTONE, you might need to use two hands or put some of the letters on the outside of the hand. I like to use the SPACE portion of SPACE CAT to practice the rhetorical situation. If you wanted to have students continue the analysis, they could add the “CAT” portion to the inside of the hand or the margins around the hand if you’d like.
Ask students to take appropriate notes in each of the fingers.
Teach your lesson as usual with sharing, discussing, etc.
Finish off the hand-outline with a seasonal turkey (if it’s that time of year) or simply have students color the hand into some other kind of animal or object that they desire.
Display proudly.
These kinds of activities are gold for you as the teacher. You are doing and practicing NOTHING NEW, but by changing the organization and appearance of the lesson, you will breathe new energy into your week and your students will keep giving you great work.
THANKSGIVING / FALL ARTICLES & READINGS
As I’m sharing this in mid-November, I’ll share some articles and pieces that work really well at this time of year. This activity is a wonderful pre-Thanksgiving break assignment and I’ve had a lot of success with the following readings:
“Offensive Play” by Malcolm Gladwell (Thanksgiving and football are a classic combination, but after reading this article, your students will have a whole lot more to say at the dinner table about dog fighting)
The President's Thanksgiving Day Address to the Nation from Lyndon B. Johnson (1963) A Thanksgiving message delivered only days after President John F. Kennedy was killed.
Why I’m Not Celebrating Thanksgiving This Year (VOGUE) A thoughtful piece from an indigenous woman’s perspective: what are we actually thankful for?
The Dark Side of Black Friday Stuff your belly and head to Best Buy to get in line…
However you use this activity and at any time of the year, I hope this brings a little life to your classroom without a lot of planning or prep on your end. If you try this activity, please tag me on Instagram @muandinkteaching to let me see how it went for you and your students!
And if you’re new here or new to teaching rhetoric and the rhetorical situation, I’ve got you covered. I’d love to send you a full lesson plan on how I introduce rhetoric using “Be our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast! This lesson has been downloaded by over 2,000 teachers! Good luck with your teaching rhetoric journey — its a worthy endeavor and I applaud you for your efforts!
LET’S GO SHOPPING
Six Ways to Create Warmth in your December Classroom (and still take care of business!)
There’s a lot more to teaching in the month of December than just cute holiday sentiments. This time of year is challenging for so many reasons; from the looming horror of final exams to the downright awful cold weather (remember, Chicago girl here!), December is a teaching challenge of focus, measuring learning from the entire semester, and finding ways to authentically remember the heart of the season in our classrooms.
This month, I've taken on the challenge to be part of the 12 Days of December Blog Hop and Giveaway! I teamed up with some incredible secondary teachers to write about "comfort and joy" during the holiday season in our classrooms.
When I think of “comfort and joy” in my classroom around December, what I look forward to most is getting my YouTube fireplace crackling on the screen at the front of my room!
This one comes with Christmas music:
And this one just crackles:
But as we all know, there’s a lot more to teaching in the month of December than just cute holiday sentiments. This time of year is challenging for so many reasons; from the looming horror of final exams to the downright awful cold weather (remember, Chicago girl here!), December is a teaching challenge of focus, measuring learning from the entire semester, and finding ways to authentically remember the heart of the season in our classrooms.
Here are SIX ways I tackle the challenges of this tricky teaching month (and keep things warm and cozy, too!):
1: Plan a White Elephant Holiday Party!
If you’re like me, you’ve been saying “no” to class parties all semester. This is the one time of year that I give in! We usually have an awkward calendar day right at the end of the semester, and so I seize this opportunity to let the kids have a party. And not just a sit around, eat, and stare at each other party...a White Elephant Party! By having a specific kind of gift exchange, it keeps the class moderately sane (students have to pay attention in order to play the game!) and keeps any socially awkward classes from getting too...socially awkward!
2: Fun, but meaningful, end of semester review for finals
You’ve covered so much material since August, and finals are right around the corner. As much as we’d like to just wrap things up and be done, students are going to be anxious about their final grades and getting prepared for their exams. In the English classroom, there are TONS of fun, warm, and joyful ways to do this! Consider:
Create Character Stockings: In this easy “craftivity”, students choose a character of significance from the semester and design a stocking that fully represents him or her. The stocking should include both textual evidence and symbolic imagery that encapsulates that character’s most important contributions to the work of literature. Have students give brief “presentations” of the stocking before you hang them up by the fireplace in your classroom. This will serve as both a review of important character moments and a speaking and listening grade before the end of the term!
Try a new techy review game that you haven’t had time to play this semester. Platforms like Kahoot!, Quizziz, and Quizlet Live are easy to use and energy boosters during the winter blues.
3: Thematic, argumentative writing
Some of you might not have finals until after winter break. This means that you have to fill all of December with meaningful, rigorous work to keep your kiddos from going bananas. Why not try out this mini-unit in argumentative writing? Pose the question: do the holidays make people more generous or greedy? Then, using the lesson plan, send students off to search through ten different articles and videos looking for evidence to support each side of the argument. After a few days of reading and notetaking, challenge the students to write an essay taking a side embedding and using the evidence they’ve found from the provided nonfiction resources. This could easily take you anywhere from two to six class periods and is sure to keep them both academically focused but also enjoying some humor and seasonally related discussions.
4: A Decor Update
This is a great time of year to warm up your room with a few simple decor ideas. Have you seen some of these before?
I LOVE these Winter Literary Device Posters from Ashley Bible of B’s Book Love. I have her nature-themed ones and love those too! These are the perfect wintery touch for any ELA teacher’s classroom.
Turn your classroom library full of books into a tree!
Make a classroom fireplace! Check out this tutorial from Little Running Teacher in the Philippines. It brightens and warms her classroom right up!
5: Service Learning Project and/or Field Trip
If you have some time to spare and need to fill it with something meaningful, this is a great time of year to start a service learning project or take a service learning field trip! I have a great way to get started on a project with Be the Change! Thinking about a field trip instead? How about taking your crew to Feed My Starving Children? This organization is perfectly set up for school trips, they spend time educating students about what they’re doing and why, and they make the volunteering time a blast!
6: Random Acts of Kindness Challenge
To really get into the spirit of joy and giving, why not challenge your students to complete this Random Acts of Kindness Challenge? Have students work together as a class and use a class hashtag to share photos on Twitter or Instagram completing each challenge. Take all of those pictures and throw them into an Animoto video to show at your White Elephant party! This free download is editable and ready for you completely customize for your own students and school.
Don't forget to check out all of the other amazing secondary bloggers sharing their ideas for creating comfort and joy in your classroom all winter long and be SURE that you enter our amazing giveaway! We are raffling off gift cards on December 1st, 4th, 8th, and 12th, so be sure to enter early and often to get your shot at some seriously crazy prizes!
