December 27, 2019

Language Arts Success: The BEST of 2019

December 27, 2019/ Kim Shurley

As the calendar year comes to a close, a teacher’s journey is still moving at full speed. (It’s true!) We are not quite to the half-way mark of our year, and we still have much to do! As 2019 comes to a close and before you begin the second semester, I would encourage you to take a moment, stop, and reflect. It is good for the mind and soul to take note of one’s progress. What successes are you seeing in the classroom? Are you on the track you had planned? Do you need to make adjustments? To help you do so, we've assembled

December 13, 2019

Teaching Word Choice: Skills for day-to-day life

December 13, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

As teachers, the concept of “word choice” is common language in classrooms around the United States. Careful word choice is the key to effective writing and speaking. Selecting appropriate and precise words helps to increase the impact you have on your audience. Ideally, this is what teachers try to convey to their students at each grade level, but a child’s learning continues

December 09, 2019

Holiday Activity Time: My 12 Days of Christmas

December 09, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Coloring sheets, word puzzles, tinsel, glitter, and glue are just some of the items you’ll find scattered around many classrooms during the holidays. There are so many wonderful craft ideas and activities people have used to make the season a memorable one at school. Here’s a fun way to keep your students engaged in writing during the weeks before holiday break.

Ask students to use their creativity to

December 03, 2019

Extend the Lesson: The Gift of Kindness

December 03, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Kindness is defined as the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. Some of the words associated with kindness are affection, gentleness, warmth, concern, and care. The act of being kind often requires courage and strength, but a simple act of kindness can have huge effects individually and globally.

Think back to a time when someone was kind to you or when you were kind to someone else. Do you remember the feeling you felt when that person held the door open for you? Did you happen to see the other person smile or light-up when you acted with kindness?

Take a look at how kindness affects a human being:

November 13, 2019

Writing Extension: Creating a Thanksgiving Thank You

November 13, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Are you looking for an idea to motivate your students to grow an “attitude of gratitude” during this season of Thanksgiving? Why not assist them in creating their own personalized letter of thanksgiving written to someone special in their lives? Not only will you create a Thanksgiving to remember, but you will ensure that your students know about the lost art of letter writing. That’s a win-win! Here’s the plan:

October 02, 2019

Grammar Extension: The Empowering Acrostic Poem

October 02, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

The ideal scenario for the first couple months of a new school year would be a classroom running smoothly. You want to be comfortable with your daily schedule and know that you can meet the needs of all of your diverse students.

Realistically, some of you may already feel like the expectations and duties increase even more as the fall progresses. Before you become consumed with the busyness of the new school year, always remember this: “YOU are a TEACHER!” You are the one that works to mold the future. You make an incredible impression and impact in the lives of all the students who enter your classroom.

This year is a brand new one, and if you’re ready to level-up your teaching, you should consider this question: “What kind of teacher do you want to be this year?”

September 05, 2019

Step by Step: The Value of Following Directions

September 05, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

For my birthday, I received a beautiful interior sliding barn door as a gift. I envisioned that this hefty, rustic door was going to be a unique addition that would bring more style to my home. With a few extra hands, how hard could this DIY project be if we just followed the instructions? Right?

Well, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be!

Have you ever experienced a situation when you didn’t need to read the directions for a simple recipe or to assemble a new toy? I’d venture to say that sometimes that works out, but not every time. Even when you’ve read the instructions, they sometimes aren’t clear enough to get the final product you’d hoped for. If that’s the case, you may end up with holes in your wall and a barn door that is now taking up space leaning against the wall. (Ugh!) When it comes to reading the directions every time, I’m just as guilty as the next person—I don’t always do it.

In the classroom, many students bypass the instructions and head straight to number one on the assignment. Shurley English students are not immune to this; it happens all the time. As a teacher, it’s frustrating and heartbreaking to see the defeat in a child’s eyes when they realize they haven’t followed the directions and must start the assignment over.

August 29, 2019

Writing Toolbox: Composing Better Sentences

August 29, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

Whether you teach language arts in the school classroom or your home classroom, you have to teach your kids how to write, right? To be clear, I don’t mean the mechanical parts of writing: holding the pencil correctly, positioning the notebook paper properly, and so on. I mean the actual generation of topics that kids know about and want to write about. I mean the composition of clear, concise sentences that convey what the writer is thinking. It would be nice if kids were natural writers and could pluck ideas (and the words needed to express those ideas) out of their brains at the first sign of a prompt, but most of the time, this is not the case.

What kid writers need is good modeling.

August 15, 2019

Shurley English 101: Teaching with Confidence

August 15, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

So, you have purchased your Shurley curriculum, you open the book or access your digital teacher’s manual…and then it hits you! “What’s all this? How am I going to cover all of it? Can I even do it?” If you have had these or similar feelings, don’t panic. It’s going to be all right.

My post today is about confidence. Yes! You can teach with confidence, especially if you are just embarking upon your first journey with Shurley English. I realize that the sheer volume of information about English that we teach might be enough to send you to the edge. But, pull back. Breathe. Help is on the way.

August 01, 2019

The goal of Shurley English

August 01, 2019/ Contributing Blogger

It’s that time of year again, and most teachers are trying their best to enjoy their final days of summer break. It’s hard to believe that some schools have already started professional development opportunities for their staff members. Before you know it, your own classroom will be filled with a new group of young learners.

Some teachers are looking forward to teaching a new curriculum this year. Even though that can be exciting and motivating, it can also cause feelings of nervousness. Some teachers have a curriculum in place with nothing new to add. For these teachers, feelings of confidence about the content are more likely to occur. Either way, it’s helpful to be reminded of curriculum goals and to be re-motivated to teach certain subjects.

If Shurley English training is not on your professional development schedule this year, I’m here to remind you of your goal when you teach the curriculum…