1. Start Your Week

Quote of the Week

"Failing to plan is a plan to fail."
~ Effie Jones ~

Jokes You Can Tell in Class

The salesman was demonstrating unbreakable combs in the department store. He was impressing the people who stopped by to look by putting the comb through all sorts of torture and stress.

Finally to impress even the skeptics in the crowd, he bent the comb completely in half, and it snapped with a loud crack. Without missing a beat, he bravely held up both halves of the 'unbreakable' comb for everyone to see and said,

"And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what an unbreakable comb looks like on the inside..."

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2. Printable Activity of the Week

Handwriting Worksheet Maker
This printable is a sample of our handwriting worksheet maker. Just input the words of your choice and our software does the rest. The puzzle is automatically created for you. You can choose from Dotted, Cursive, and Guided fonts. You can also choose the size of the font. This example took 2 minutes to prepare.

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5. Weekly Teacher Resources

Teaching Theme of the Week - Handwriting
View Handwriting Teaching Theme | All Themes

Lesson Plans of the Week - Handwriting
Over twenty lessons are featured in all.
View Handwriting Lesson Plans | All Lesson Plans

Worksheets of the Week - Handwriting
View Handwriting Worksheets | All Worksheets

Subject Matter Site of the Week - Teaching Handwriting
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Our Latest Teaching Idea that Worked!
"The Ultimate Seating Chart!"
By: Gary Nelson, Science Teacher

As a rule of thumb, I always seat students in alphabetic order at the beginning of the year. This usually insures that there is a good mix of students. Friends who would distract each other during lessons are not placed near each other.

My advanced class has been asking all year if they could sit next to their friends. I never give in, but this year I came up with a plan. I agreed to allow students to sit in any seat they wanted as long as they agreed that we would compare the academic achievement of all students before and after the seating change. If their was a measurable improvement, we would continue with this new seating Arrangement. Students also agreed that if there was a measurable decline in performance, the seating Arrangement would be changed to a system that should statistically improve grades by separating talkers.

We did change the seats to allow students to sit where they wanted and there was a moderate decline in academic performance. In fact, we made this into a lab activity. I then asked students to discuss and decide on a plan of corrective action.

Over the course of 2 class periods, we came up with a great system. We created a scale to rate students based on distractibility with a 4 equal to the most distractible students and a 1 equal to the least distractible student. Students graded themselves and their individual classmates. We then averaged these numbers. We mathematically placed students in seating Arrangements so that high numbers were surrounded by low numbers. I'm happy to report the grades are back up and my students pondered themselves objectively for the first time in many of their lives. They really enjoyed this.

Share Your Teaching Ideas | Teaching Ideas Archive

This Week in History
1772 - John Clais patents 1st scale.
1808 - 1st practical typewriter finished by Italian Pellegrini Turri.
1852 - 1st edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus published.
1900 - USA annexes Hawaii.

Cool Teacher Tool of the Week - Glossary of Teaching Terms
We have compiled a list of over 300 terms that are commonly used in the teaching profession.
View Glossary of Teaching Terms | All Teacher Tools

Teacher Downloads of the Week -

PC Download: Abilities Builder Math Facts - "Learn whole number math facts: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The program prints worksheets that reinforce the on-screen activities. Multimedia program uses the Microsoft Agent Peedy the parrot character. Abilities Builder Math Facts is suitable for all grade and ability levels. Especially effective for the learning disabled and remediation."
View | All PC Downloads

Mac Download: BumperCar - "BumperCar is a Mac OS X Web browser for kids. It offers unparalleled content control and customization features, making it the most powerful Web browser for concerned educators and parents on the Macintosh. BumperCar earned a prestigious Best of Show Award at MacWorld San Francisco 2004."
View | All Mac Downloads

Tutorial of the Week:
What is Writing Style And How Do You Develop It?
We all have a natural style. Style is simply the way in which you put words together when you are writing. It is a reflection of your speaking and thinking habits.
View Complete Tutorial | View All Tutorials

7. On-line Teacher Poll of the Week

Do you think that today's society places less value on handwriting skills?

-Yes
-No

Take This Teacher Poll | Teacher Poll Archive

The outcome of last week's poll:

The majority of responses indicate that teachers are the tidiest during the Fall season.
Last Week's Detailed Results