Currently Reading Hats off for the Fourth of July (Christian Mother Goose) By Harriet Ziefert see related

Fourth of July Printables

Independence Day is tomorrow! If you're teaching or hanging out at home with the kids, you'll want some quick printables. Here are my favorites from across the internet:

• a simple Independence Day wordsearch
• Enchanted Learning's activity book
• Coloring pages with the fife and drum guys or a flag and eagle print out with enough blank space to serve as a decorated page for a writing prompt.
• a variety of coloring pages
• graphics for decorations or craft projects
• This worksheet is labeled "vocabulary," but it's actually more of a history quiz. Use it to finish up your Independence Day studies.
• The Toymaker has Independence Day projects ranging from simple to complex. My favorite is the printable pinwheel.
• American flags with stands to assemble and put on your desks

Choosing Your Gradebook

Arkansas teachers are pretty much all out for summer now. They're waxing the floors at the schools, those summer workshops and classes are over, and you've maybe even had a bit of vacation.

Time to pick the gradebooks for the 2007/2008 school year.

If you chose a combination lesson plan and grade book, you won't have to think about gradebooks at all. If you like matching your lesson plan book to your gradebook, you've already got your decision made for both when you choose one.

But many of us need just a gradebook. Maybe you do your planning with webs or other graphic organizers, or online, or just use a syllabus, or have a shared team plan to follow. Maybe you care more about the structure of the gradebook and like to choose that first.

So here I have your guide to gradebooks. 

This is the same TCR combo book I showed you yesterday. You can see in the lower lefthand corner the gradebook section. It includes a list of names down the side, space for dates across the top, and grids in between into which you can write your letter or number grades. Usually there are extra columns on the right-hand side for recording absences, tardies, or calculations. Nearly all have 10 weeks on a 2-page spread.

All gradebooks share these characteristics-- except the Whaley books, which I'll discuss in a minute here.

Otherwise, you can lay out half a dozen gradebooks together -- and I have -- and you will find that they all look the same.

So how can you choose among them?

There are some differences.

The number of students varies. Carson-Dellosa's Rainbow Star gradebook has room for 38 students, while most have only 35 or 36.

The level of contrast varies. Janice Jones likes The teacher's friend record book for its high level of contrast in black and white. Mr. Bighorse finds the low-contrast all-green of the Ward record book easier on the eyes. Scholastic's Daily Record Keeper uses gray and white, with the addition of red lines dividing the squares by fives for additional distinctness. Your eyes are your guide as to which color combination is most comfortable for you for those long hours of grading.

Some have perforations. CTP's Denim Record Book has a perforated name list so you can tear it off rather than recopying the names, without losing any data on the other side.

Front and back matter vary. The teacher's friend record book, for example, includes a reference section with a percentage grading chart, proofreader's marks, punctuation rules, and a whole bunch of other stuff that it would be embarrassing to get wrong.

And, of course, the covers vary. You can usually match your plan book, or your classroom decor, if you want to.

If the traditional simple grid doesn't work for you, then you might want to consider the Whaley gradebooks. These record books have clear plastic covers, but that isn't the significant thing about them. The Whaley gradebooks are actually different on the inside.

These gradebooks have three lines for each student name, instead of the simple grid (they also make two- and one-line books, but the three -line is the most popular). This allows you to note the grade on one line and the cumulative total and letter grade beneath it. You can also put multiple scores for a single day, or code students in other ways that traditional gradebooks don't accomodate.

The other option is to keep and calculate your grades on the computer.   If your district requires it, you may have no choice regarding the program, and may in fact be doing the whole thing online. If you want to choose your own computer program, we would suggest TCR's Gradekeeper, the simplest we've found. Our teachers tell us that the fancier programs have features they don't need or use, which boost the price and the learning curve.

Many who keep grades online also use a paper gradebook. It adds a step to keep both, but many find that the portability of the paper gradebook makes it essential. Being able to note in a grade quickly, consult a student's record immediately, or take that stack of papers to mark along to a neighborhood sidewalk cafe is a must for lots of teachers. Then you can efficiently transfer the data to the database all at once.

I hope this has helped with that all-important decision.

Choosing Your Plan Book

It's that time of year again... time to choose your lesson plan book.

We should have a quiz here. You would put in your answers to searching questions about your favorite fruit, your early dating experiences, and your astrological sign, push a button, and up would pop the perfect plan book for you!

Not gonna happen.

But I can give you the details on some of the most popular ones, and some criteria for choosing, so you can think about it and make the best possible choice.

First choice... do you want a separate planbook, or do you want it combined with the record book?

If you like the combo, then you can choose from several different designs from Teacher Created Resources. All of them have the gradebook section in the front and the planbook in the back. There are still some choices, though: you can have the days of the week across the top and the periods of the day down the side or vice versa. You can have Susan Winget, sunflowers, school books, or apples. There are different combinations of front matter like conflict resolution forms, seating charts, and sub plan pages. There are different colors of print. The one pictured here is Susan Winget's design.

Second choice... if you like a separate planbook, do you want it 8.5x11" or oversized?

Carson Dellosa does a large book called The Complete Plan Book. The pages are 10x13" with the days of the week down the side. Each day has a box for the date and absences, a box for notes, and then a long lined section across two pages. The vertical lines are shadows, so you can ignore them if you want, but they are divided into 11 subjects. The right-hand page has tips and a "things to remember" box. The front matter includes monthly calendars, classroom management/modification record forms, and reproducible templates for class newsletters and parent notes.

Another oversize option is CTP's Lesson Plan Book. This one is slightly larger than Carson's offering and uses green print rather than blue. The days are down the side and there are no vertical divisions at all -- a help for those who like to write a lot or who have different schedules on different days. The front matter includes a U.S. map, definitions of current educational buzzwords, and a sub form. There are pockets on both the front and back covers for paper storage.

One more oversize example is TCR's "Anything is Possible" plan book. The cover is Mary Engelbreit's optimistic design, and inside is plain black on white grids. Days of the week are down the side, and the vertical divisions make 8 boxes across the two pages. There are notes and tips on the right hand side, and the front matter includes a KWL chart and other reproducibles, plus a seating chart.

Scholastic also does an oversize planner, and Teacher's Friend does one especially for preschool that has the daily grid on one page and a centers organization page facing it.

You'll have noticed by now that these books are much of a muchness. You basically get a collection of grids in covers. The front matter is handy, but you can find these things elsewhere, and in fact you probably do find them elsewhere. I've never met anyone whose preference in plan books was based on the seating chart. So the cover is the last big choice.

The Mary Engelbreit and Susan Winget covers are very popular, but some people like plain. 

Scholastic's Daily Planner is about as plain as they come. The cover is plain solid blue, each page spread is a 7 by 5 grid, and you'll find a  seating chart and a class list page at the front.

Not plain enough? The Ward plan books are downright homely. You get a vinyl cover that looks and feels like an avocado skin, a plain grid, and a seating chart at the back. This is the least expensive option we've found, at $4.15, and probably the best choice for those inclined to spill coffee on their desks.

Ward also does a planner especially for school counselors, which is a bit different on the inside. Its cover looks like a brown avocado skin.

Tune in next time for the next thrilling chapter -- gradebooks!

Teaching About Caves

Caves can bring science, geography, and history together in a fascinating study. They make great field trips, too, especially in the summer heat.

Here in Arkansas, we have plenty of stories about caves. Did Jesse James and his gang hide out in the local caves? Did early Spanish explorers bury their treasure in our caves? Probably not. It is likely, though, that some of our earliest inhabitants took advantage of these handy natural formations. Most of our caves maintain the average temperature -- a pleasant 65 degrees -- all year round, so they would be a great place to live.

They still are a great place to live if you are a bat or a cavefish.

They are certainly great places to visit. Whether you choose to visit the commercial show caves like War Eagle Caverns and let a guide help you admire the magnificent spectacle, or climb into smaller caves like the Devil's Ice Box at Devil's Den State Park, you can enjoy the experience and learn at the same time.

• Check out the Virtual Cave, the next best thing to visiting caves in person, and a great way to prepare for or follow up a spelunking field trip. Our local caves are solution caves, but the sections on other types of  caves are fascinating. When studying solution caves, remind students of this great truth: "If you 're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate." It will help them remember the terminology!
• Get comfortable with the chemistry of cave formation with a lesson on limestone from the National Groundwater Association.
• Visit the site of the National Speliological Association for basic information, including essential safety tips.
• Learn about Arkansas caves and  Missouri caves. Links to the websites of individual caves contain lots of information and photographs.
• Explore a nice collection of cave-related links from Gander Academy.
• A Teacher's Guide has lots of information and ideas.