Momma with a Teaching Mission

Perhaps you've clicked this link and have been following along with me for a while. And you're thinking, wait, Melanie doesn't homeschool. SHE DOES NOW :)

Well, in all actuality my second oldest has been homeschooled for the last 3 years. Although it's really been self-schooled, as she has taken on the learning. I just have managed her schedule and have been blessed to be apart of a wonderful homeschool community with other moms that have taken her in to help teach her different subjects.

But come August, I will be taking my 12 years of classroom experience and staying home to homeschool 3 of my children that are still in the home. And I am so very excited! So here are a list of 10 things that have been essential in our planning, and in my daughter's success in her homeschool journey the past few years. This post contains affiliate links that I earn a small commission off when you click the links from my website.

The first item on my must-have school supply list is a planner! This allows every homeschooling mom the ability to track her children's progress within their lessons for future evaluations that are often a must-do in homeschooling. What I like best about this planner is that it can be used for multiple children!

Another item (or multiple) that I would recommend is books to help YOU as the homeschool parent. How are you going to homeschool? Are you going to look into an online learning community? Research co-op's in your area? Look to join a classical conversations group? Take more of a Charlotte Mason approach? Unschooling? There are so many options. After I taught for 8 years in the public school systems, in both MD and FL, I transitioned to teaching at a classical christian school. I absolutely agree with and love Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education. So you will need some good resource books. These are so great books if you are interest in Classical Christian Education. The Case for Classical Christian Education by Doug Wilson is a great starting place. Classical Me Classical Thee by Rebekah Merkle is a great book to read for teenagers that explains the purpose of classical education to homeschooled students. I love Charlotte Mason's writings and agree with her philosophy of education, so I thought it imperative to include it in my book list here. A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason, Mason argues that education should be as enriching as a well-balanced meal, providing intellectual and moral nourishment to all. Home Education by Charlotte Mason is filled with wisdom and grace from Charlotte Mason's teachings.

Yoto is the audio player that grows with your child, from toddler tunes to tween audiobooks. My daughter has had a Yoto for two years and has enjoyed many classics like C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and A Series of Unfortunate Events. There is a wide range of cards to choose from, as well as blank ones that you can make your own audio books!

My children love Thames and Kosmos STEM items! This microscope is a great tool to add to your science kits! Thames and Kosmos is known for creating games and toys that are engaging and educational. My kids spent hours the other day putting together a Mega Cyborg Hand, and they learned so much! Thames & Kosmos has many toys for children of all ages.

As far as curriculum goes, depending on your students' age and academic level, I have a few favorites. Ambleside online has a phenomenal website chock full of resources, booklists, schedules for those that adore Charlotte Mason's principles as such as I do. Here are few of the things we are going to try this year:

This year for my 6th grader, we will be trying Life of Fred Pre-Algebra 0, as it came as a recommendation from the math teacher at the classical christian school my daughter attended, and I worked at last year. So from what I've read, I am excited to try this curriculum.

This is Volume 4 of Story of the World. My sixth grader in her history class the past 3 years has read the first 3 volumes, so I thought we could read this as one of our history books this year.

Last year, my sixth grade started with IEW, and I also started with it as a teacher (teaching 4th grade). It is a heavy writing curriculum with a big learning curve (for both teacher and student), but now that I've taught it and my child has gone through a year with it, I think it will be good to continue with this year. Their writing curriculum is history or bible based, so you can choose different time periods over the course of their middle school years.

For Literature, we plan on reading some classics throughout the year. Some of the books on our list are The Age of Fable by Thomas Bulfinch, Animal Farm by George Orwell, and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. These are books that she will read, or listen to, and then narrate. She has been completing written narrations for the past few years, so this will not be a new practice to her. A narration can be orally or in writing, or it can be a picture drawing for younger learners. The purpose of narrating is for the child to attend to the text and then communicate back all that they remember, including as many details as they can.

Students need spaces to work. For my sixth grader, notebooks will be essential. I also find letting them choose their own notebook engages them to want to work in it. Notebooks will be used for math problem solving, as well as writing, and narration!

I absolutely love gardening, watching things grow! My children also love growing things from seeds! Having a little greenhouse, like the one posted, is great for your children to watch plants sprout and grow!

Amazon Kindle Kids is a device my daughter uses to read her beloved books! Amazon Kids+ is a subscription designed for kids aged 3-12, providing unlimited access to thousands of age-appropriate books, including classic chapter books and graphic novel favorites. Included content is curated by age range, so it safely evolves with a child's interests and maturity. After 6 months, your subscription will automatically renew every month starting at just $5.99/month plus applicable tax. You may cancel at any time by visiting the Amazon Parent Dashboard or contacting Customer Service. Another benefit to this device is that it includes a 2 year warranty and if it breaks you can return it and they're replace it for free!

Well that's a wrap! Please follow along for this fun journey of homeschooling for my family and I!

Momma with a Teaching Mission

It has been a while since I've written, but I wanted to share with you the amazing experience I was able to make for my students, with the help of my students' parents and colleagues.

We have been reading Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times. My third graders starting reading Volume 1 last year and got about half way through it. We started learning about Ancient Greece at the beginning of the year and have been taking our time learning everything we can!

I work in a Classical Christian school, so much of what we are learning is shown through narrations. Sometimes these are verbal narrations, picture narrations, or written narrations. I encourage you if you don't know about narrating, it is a wonderful practice to use the gift children have been given, mimicking and retelling. You can read more about Know and Tell: The Art of Narration.

We started our week learning about specific games the ancient greeks would participate in. I created this Ancient Olympics pamphlet (as I'm having them make their own pamphlets in the coming week) as an informational text for them to read as their morning work.

Also in Literature, from the beginning of the year, we have been reading Greek Myths. There are many great books out there, but my class has really liked D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths. At the end of every day, we end the day reading one of the short tales, and then the students will narrate with a partner. I will then choose 1 student to narrate for everyone, we close our day with any additions or corrections to the original narration. As our trimester ends next week, I will have the students decide on one of the Greek gods to illustrate in a pamphlet.

But back to the Greek Day last week. For the past few weeks I have had the students familiarizing themselves with the Greek alphabet. We learned a song to help us remember the Greek Alphabet. My students sing it now during transitions, when we are walking to garden class, or in the morning as we get ready.

The day before Greek Day, I broke up my students into teams for the Olympics. Each team had a greek letter name, such as Alpha, Omega, Lambda, Sigma, Kappa, and Delta. They made team flags on a piece of chart paper.

Greek Day we started our day with created the head ware. I had pre-cut green construction paper leaves, as well as the green strips taped together. The students were identified by their Olympic team by the different color ribbons that I had hot-glued on their green strips. The students then glued the leaves to their head ware and then we taped it when they were complete and they put them on their heads!

Afterward, it was time to get our chitons on! Our chitons were simple, king size large pillowcases. I had some wonderful ladies at our school that volunteer their time weekly cut out holes for the heads, and then just slice the arm holes down the sides. We also jazzed it up by some gold rope tied around their waist. Make sure you order enough! Each child needed about 32 inches to leave a little extra room after the rope was tied around their waist for a bit of it to hang down. We didn't have enough, so I had to have a co-worker run to Hobby Lobby to pick up some more, and it wasn't exactly the same color, and the kids noticed!

We then headed outside for the Olympic Games. The students carried their team flags, and then we played the National Anthem and some Olympic Music I found on YouTube. We hung their flags on the fence and their teams were announced.

The Gymnastics (GE) teacher and I had events planned, so she had the field all ready for us when we arrived. The students were divided into teams of 4, so the first thing they had to do was decide who in their group was going to participate in one of the four individual events (discus, javelin, ring toss, and long jump). The other events, many foot races, everyone that wanted to could participate in. We had the one lap foot race, the 3 lap foot race, the 5 lap foot race, and then some relay races with batons.

For the individual events, we started with discus. Students stood behind a line (a jumprope) and threw the hula hoop as far as they could. Each student then went and stood where their hoop landed. The student with the farthest throw got the most points for their team. Everyone scored at least 1 point. Because there were six teams, first place scored 6 points, second place 5 points, third place 4 points, and so on. Then we had all students participate in the 1 lap foot race. We had the boys race first, and then the girls. Students got drinks in between and were encouraged to cheer on their teammates.

The next individual event was the long jump. It was more like a running long jump. We had a jump rope as the marker line where to jump from. Students could run up to that line and attempt to get as far as they could. We then had all students participate in the 3 lap race, boys first and then girls.

We updated the students with their teams scores.

The next individual event was the 'javelin' throw, in which we borrowed some pool noodles from parents. The students ran up to the line (another jump rope) and threw the javelin as far as they could. Next up was the 5 lap event. Many students were already exhausted from running the 1 lap and 3 lap race. I gave them the option of sitting it out, but I also told them those that participated, no matter where they finished would earn points for their team.

The last individual event was the ring toss. The students competed to see who could score the most points. We then went into the relay race. In the weeks leading up to our Greek Day, I asked parents to send in paper towel rolls. I once again had some great volunteers hot glue the different color ribbons to the paper towel rolls. We used these as batons for the relay races.

After this, we headed in for restroom breaks and then out to our wonderful Greek feast.

We had so many parent volunteers help to serve food and brought food in. Some of the food items we had were Greek Salad, olives, various cheeses, grapes, grape juice, roasted lamb, hummus, dried dates and apricots, tzatziki sauce. We even had desserts with baklava, honey cheesecake, and sesame bars.

We then headed to music to learn a new song. It was the Greek Gods song to the tune of I've been working on the railroad. My kids have been singing it every day since learning it!

It was then craft time! We used the toilet paper rolls to make olympian torches! For this, we used tea lights, orange, yellow, and red tissue paper, tacky glue and cupcake liners. First I put some tacky glue on a paper plate. I gave each student a toilet paper roll and a gold colored cupcake liner. They glued that cupcake liner to the end of the toilet paper roll. I had prepared the tissue paper by cutting them into 4 x 4 inch squares (approximately). We then glued four yellow pieces of tissue paper to the battery powered tea light, and then four orange pieces of tissue paper on top of that, and then finally 4 pieces of red tissue paper. The tea light can then be placed in the cupcake holder, taken in and out so that you are able to turn the light on and off.

We then headed out to the garden to perform our Greek myths readers theater. Students had been given the scripts earlier in the week. The kindergarten class came to watch, and my students loved performing!

I created these scripts based off of the Greek myths. This set include five different readers theater scripts. Included in this set are:

* Apollo's Tree-- Daphne and Apollo (7 reading parts over 3 pages)

*Chariot of the Sun God--Phaeton and Helios (7 reading parts over 5 pages)

*The Golden Touch--Midas and Bacchus (5 reading parts over 3 pages)

*The Face in the Pool--Echo and Narcissus (5 reading parts over 3 pages)

*The Weaving Contest-- Arachne and Miverva (6 reading parts over 2 pages)

You can purchase these Greek Myths Readers Theater in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop.

We then continued on in the Greek fun in having an arm wrestling competition. Students loved this! We had a boy and a girl winner! They earned points for their team!

We finished the day by getting our medals, they are able to be colored, and students took their chitons and went home! What a wonderful day it was celebrating Ancient Greece!

I also created a free reading comprehension passages on the Olympic Games.

*This post contains affiliate links to Amazon that I make a very small commission off of when you click through my site*

Momma with a Teaching Mission

After being a public school teacher in both Maryland and Florida for the past 8 years, and feeling like I was no longer making a difference in teaching, I resigned my position at the end of the 20-21 school year. I know I am not the only one in public education who has exited the field. I've witnessed an outcry across social media from many public school educators who had come to the end of their rope and were not able to be a part of a sinking ship a moment longer.

If I am being honest, I would have quit in the middle of the '19-'20 school year. It was that bad. In a classroom of 18 students, I had one student on grade level. There were multiple students with behavior issues. I had one child that cried and moaned, laid on the floor, and did absolutely no work daily. I was no longer teaching. I was managing a classroom full of behaviors, however barely any instruction was taking place. I came home nearly every night crying, searching for other lines of work. You see, I couldn't just quit though. My family and I had moved to Florida in the summer of 2019, so my husband could go to Bible College. The state of Maryland pays significantly more to teachers than the state of Florida. I had taken a considerable pay cut to come in teach in Florida, and we no long had my husband's salary, so we went from a middle class family, to poverty level. I prayed, and I asked God to provide an opportunity, a way out. I prayed daily for my situation, for this school in which I was working, for my students. I prayed and I cried. I was feeling so hopeless, and just completely ready to leave education. And then, some call it a pandemic, but I call it my relief, happened. We went online after spring break on March 13th and never returned face to face. This was an answered prayer for me. I was actually able to teach via Google Meet and through different online platforms. I no longer had the behavior issues that I had within the four walls of my classroom. Don't get me wrong though, learning through Google Classroom and Google Meet is no way to teach students. That is absolutely what is not best for students learning in the public education classroom who are significantly below grade level with no parental support.

When the '19-'20 school year ended, I applied and got a temporary position teaching virtually. I was considered on loan from my school to the virtual school for as long as my school didn't need me. Those 10 weeks, once again, were wonderful. I was able to teach from home, made great connections with second graders from different parts of the county, I loved it. Then on a Tuesday I got a call that I would have to return to in person on that Friday. I had one day to set up my classroom across the campus, get familiar with a new grade level (that I had never taught), and then had students on that following Monday. Whew, what a whirlwind. Looking back, I know the Lord used me in those students lives. Luckily, most of the students knew me, since the previous year I was a 3rd grade teacher. Now we were all in 4th grade together. I started with 11 students at the end of October, by January I was up to 14, and then by March I was at 19. It was pure survival. I had new kids returning at least once a week. The office stopped telling me I was getting a new student. I remember one day as the students entered the classroom, one of them said, "Mrs. Ebersole, we got 2 new students today." The students knew before the teacher. I was so incredibly overwhelmed.

But in May of 2021, I was made aware of an opportunity at a new Classical Christian School that had just opened in 2021. I applied, went for an interview and tour of the school, and fell in love. I knew very little about the Classical model of education, but I was eager to do whatever it took to teach at this school, as well as get my younger two children there. I was hired to teach a combo 3rd/4th class, and it has been nothing short of exactly what I needed to ignite my love for teaching that I had thought I lost. From reading great books, to narration, to the beautiful live oak in our garden with our nature studies, to actually getting to teach children, the past 6 months have been incredible. I do have to add that I have taken even more of a pay cut from teaching in public school, however the Lord provides, and the reduction in stress and the lighter workload is so very worth it!

If you have been following me through the years, thank you. I apologize for the inconsistency in my posts. I hope to write more about the lessons I am teaching in Classical Christian Education, and how wonderful it is for students! So please continue to follow!

I also create resources on TpT, I have resources that span from K-5, as I have taught various grades over the years. I would appreciate any support! You can find my store here - Momma with a Teaching Mission

Momma with a Teaching Mission

There aren't many words to describe the year that was 2020. As educators, we learned and grew so much! If you didn't know about Google Classroom, Nearpod, Bitmojis, Screencastomatic or Zoom (just to name a few) before March of 2020, you definitely climbed that learning curve! I have been so proud of my fellow teachers in all that they have learned, never skipping a beat. When the rest of the world was shut down, here we were learning how to teach and do what was best in our circumstances for our students. Wow.

So where do we go from there? Many schools are returning back in person, I have been back in person since October 2020, with all my students being in person. I know many teachers who are continuing to expand their bag of tricks with teaching both in person students, as well as online learners (at the same time). Some fellow educators are teaching a hybrid A-B schedule, and some of my friends are also still teaching from home with their students being all online.

So now that I am back in person, have I mentally blocked everything I experienced and learned in the past year? Well some things LOL, but definitely not those great teaching practices that have helped me to enhance engagement and my teaching within the classroom. Here are some things I found really have been lifesavers while returning back to in person learning after COVID.

First and foremost, Google Classroom. Posting assignments within Google classroom has been a sanity saver, especially for students who are absent or missing work. I also love being able to post links to websites or articles that students can access without having to print everything. I have my Google Classroom set up by days of the week, then after the week is over I will create a new topic (that week's date, for example 'Week of March 1st') and then I will move assignments from the M, Tu, W, Th, Fr topics down to that 'Week of' topic. Google Classroom is super user friendly, and absolutely my top pick for what I've continued to use within my classroom, even with all my students face to face.

My Bitmoji classrooms are another favorite, and not just a favorite of mine, but also my students. I love how you can use the Bitmoji classrooms for a variety of uses. What we used to do around the room SCOOT, with task cards posted, and a recording sheet, students can now do a SCOOT within the Bitmoji classroom. I also have independent reading and reflecting centers, for students to listen to a book being read, and then respond to it--- this is a crowd favorite among my students. I've created new Bitmoji classrooms each month, and they enjoy listening to the books and different themes featured each month. Another use for the Bitmoji classrooms is if you have a class website within Google Sites. Kids enjoy and take pride in their class website.

I have to say I was not on the Nearpod bandwagon when I first learned about it a few years ago. Probably because I thought I didn't have the time to learn this new stuff!! I learned about Nearpod the beginning of last school year, before COVID hit and I'm so glad I did. Not only does Nearpod have a library of already created lessons, but you are also able to create lessons within Nearpod, this is so cool!! My kids love to compete, so they love the time to climb lessons, and beg me to make more every time we play!

What have you found that are your favorite tools that you are using, or plan to use when you return back to in person teaching?! I'd love to hear about it!

Getting ready to start a unit on fractions?! Hands-on and providing opportunities for young learners to make meaning of their learning is my top priority. Whether you are teaching second grade, or fifth grade, or any in between, I know you can use these ideas for your students. Here are my favorites tools and go-to manipulative with teaching fractions to my elementary students. This blog post contains affiliate links and when you click on the products and choose to purchase them, I will make a small commission.

Fraction Action is wonderful in increasing student's vocabulary on fractions! Vocabulary is essential in helping students grasp the concepts. Lots of different examples to show students fractions in various ways.

Fraction Fun is a great book that makes the concept of fractions easy for students to understand. This book dives into numerators and denominators and the beginnings of comparing fractions!

Full House is a fun, whimsical way of reinforcing the concept of fractions! I would suggest this book more for primary though as concepts are basic.

The Lion's Share was one of the first books I purchased for my teacher read aloud library, so this one holds a special place in my heart! This is a great story that visually helps students to see the value of different fractions.

Fractions in Disguise is another book I purchased years ago, as an elementary ed teacher I wanted as many books as I could get to build my teacher library. This book introduces simplified and reduced fractions with equal parts, so I would suggest this for grades 4-6.

Sir Cumference and the Fraction Faire is another book I enjoy reading to my students. This teaches the basics of fractions to elementary students. I enjoy all the Sir Cumference math tales!

This is another line of math texts I love! Pigs in the Pantry: Fun with Math and Cooking makes the connection between qualities and cooking in recipes. This would not be the text I would base my fraction teaching from, but more of a fun book to add into the instructional unit!

Fraction tower cubes are a great hands-on way for students to compare the fractional units, as well as explore with equivalent fractions. This would be great for homeschooling families, or as an exploration center within a classroom.

Magnetic fraction circles is another great hands-on tool to help students visualize and see the fractional sizes. These are durable and great for teacher and student use alike.

Pattern blocks are a great way for students to create alternative models of a fraction. If the yellow hexagon is their whole, how could they recreate that hexagon shape by using alternative shapes? What fraction of the whole would one of those shapes be?

Plastic fraction tiles is another great hands-on manipulative that allows children to line up the fractions to visually see how many eighths fit into a whole, or how many sixths fit into a half.

Hopefully you've found some new tools or texts that you will be able in teaching your students about fractions! Let me know if you have any favorites I've forgotten!