Hi friends,
How are you today? Today’s post is for the Christian teacher or homeschooling parent. Well, not entirely. Anyone can learn something from today’s Education Blog by DUO Inspirations. Organization is important for everyone. I hear all the time, “I would like to be more organized.” Maybe, I hear it all the time, because I say it all the time. LOL! However, I know that I am not the only person who says it. Many people struggle with organizational skills in one or more facet of their lives. Probably the most basic concept of organization is that everything has a place. If there isn’t a place for something, we need to prepare a place for it. Even Jesus, “prepares a place” in John 14:2. We are called to do the same. While learning, being organized often means things like having folders, planners, pencil holders, cubbies, backpacks, notebooks, and binders in which to hold things. Keeping those things filled with proper things in the correct order and in the right place is being organized. Other ways of being organized in education are to have charts, tables, diagrams, and infographics to keep information organized. Having labels for things is another way to stay organized. In our every day life, we may have labels for food in pantries, tools in toolboxes, and crafts in craft supply bins. We see labels in many places, even on the computer. The internet tabs we open have labels. The documents we open have labels. In education, one way to have labels and to stay organized is to label the sections of our notebook or having binder covers. That leads me to my next point. DUO Inspirations is happy to create binder covers for you. Here is the first set. Each image in the set is like the one below, except instead of “binder covers” are the words for the subjects. 
Included subjects are reading, writing, language arts, math, science, social studies, Bible study, music, art, study skills, foreign language, notes & ideas, research, and portfolio.
Good organization skills are important. It makes work more time effective. Organization also cuts down on frustrations, chaos, lost items, and other self-made obstacles. Being more organized often leads to being more successful. Sounds good to me! What about you? Now, it is your turn. Are you organized? Do you use binder covers already? What subjects do you teach? What labels would you like for your binder? What is your favorite color? I am open to chatting about creating personalized and custom binder covers for you and to add to my product list. So, please feel free to contact me. I look forward to reading your comments and messages. Also, if you purchase this year and enjoy the product, please keep DUO Inspirations in mind for next year. I am so glad you are here. I appreciate your kindness and support. If you are finding value in the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations, please share it with your friends, family, and coworkers. Also, if you haven't already done so, please consider signing up below to receive the Education Blog and other education content in your inbox. Thank you.
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Hi friends,
How are you? I hope you are well. You may know that I used to teach kindergarten. So, it is no surprise that I have quite a few activities in mind to use for the younger students. Today, I want to show you what I call the “Counting Petals Poster”. I usually introduced the “Counting Petals Poster” in early spring with the plants unit. Petals are something that most students can kind of draw by the time early spring comes. By then, we have already worked on numbers and counting to ten, at least a little. The good thing about the “Counting Petals Poster” idea is that you can tailor it to the needs and skills of your students. However, don’t underestimate what they can do. It might not always come out neat and tidy, but students can often do more than we think they can. Let me show you what I mean. Here is an example of my finished “Counting Petals Poster”. 
This one is done digitally, however, when I was teaching kindergarten, often I would do it by hand just to show that they can do it too. You can do this activity in a variety of ways. I tried in different ways, depending on my students. You can ask the students to create a poster of their own making and design as long as the number of petals are drawn and labeled for numbers one to ten. (For struggling students, you may want to do it for numbers one to five or even one to three.) I tried this once. Some came out pretty nice and others came out all squished together and not necessarily in the correct order. The activity can also be done with handing students a plain piece of paper with just the grid on it. Or, a plain piece of paper with the grid and circles for the flower centers on it. Sometimes something as simple as adding the circles for the flower centers is all it takes to give the students a greater understanding and sense of accomplishment. Then, you don’t have to explain which squares have the numbers and which squares have the flowers with the petals. If you want, you can let students do this individually, as a small group activity, or as a class. You will probably want to introduce it, discuss it, and even walk through parts of it before you give it out as an activity for independent work. Another thought is to do the “Counting Petals Poster” activity partially as a group. Maybe draw the petals as a group one step at a time and then have students go back and count the petals and write the numbers. Or, it can be done the other way around. Write the numbers as a group and then have the students go back and draw the flowers with the petals to match. I like to have the students do the activity in pencil first. Then, I can check it, let the students know if there is anything that needs correcting, and when it is ready, have them go over it in color. The numbers can be traced in marker, the flowers can be colored with crayons or colored pencil, and then students can color around the outside of the grid to make a border of his or her own color or design. Or, students can cut out around the edge of the grid and glue it to a piece of colored construction paper. These make great art and academic pieces to hang on the wall or the bulletin board. They can also be put in a portfolio, because this activity highlights many different skills. At times, after we did the activity once as a class, I would put it in one of the centers as an activity. In that way, students can do it over and over again as they choose. They can learn ways to improve the involved skills. There was even a time when I had the students not just put the number but also write the labels, such as “one petal” or “two petals” and so on. It depends on the skill of the students. I am sure that you have many of your own ideas about how to include the “Counting Petals Poster” activity into your lessons. I look forward to reading your ideas, so other educators and I can learn from you. How would you introduce the “Counting Petals Poster” activity to your class? Now, it is your turn. I am so glad you are here. I can’t wait to read your comments. Also, it is possible that you will be seeing this poster as a bigger package product, so stay tuned. Speaking of products, if you haven’t checked out my educational resources, please do so. (I will let you in on a “secret”. Currently, most of my products are supplemental curriculum materials. However, I am working towards creating curriculum materials for entire skills sets, subjects, or units.) And, if you don’t see anything that fits your needs, please feel free to contact me and request something. I am happy to make things easier for you, if possible. Also, if you haven’t done so already, please consider signing up to receive the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations and other education content by email. Thank you for your kindness and support. If you find value in the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations, please share it with friends, family, and coworkers. Thank you. 
Hi friends,
How are you? After a bout of cold, gray, blustery snow, and rain in the weather, we considered getting out for a nice meal. We thought about getting a bite to eat and having a car picnic. This got me to thinking, about a great idea for today’s writing prompt. There are many kinds of meals. A quick sandwich at home alone can be a meal. A buffet style banquet can be a meal. Meals come in all sizes, smells, and shapes. Meals can be ritzy restaurants with black ties and evening gowns or picnics in jeans and a t-shirt on a beach. Meals can be created out of all kinds of foods and ingredients. With some meals the best parts are the aromas and smells that mingle in the atmosphere around you as the meal is cooking. If you are anywhere in the area, you can get a delightful whiff of the meal to come. It sets the stage for an enjoyably delicious meal. So, with this in mind, your assignment is to write a description of your ideal meal. Where is it? Is anyone with you? Who? What is the setting? What is the meal? What are your surroundings? How does it feel? What is the occasion? How does it smell? What do you hear? Are you talking with someone? What are you saying? What are you thinking? Paint a picture so detailed that anyone who reads your description can just feel, taste, smell, hear, and experience everything that you do as if he or she was there with you. I can’t wait to read or hear about your descriptions. Maybe you should just tell me about them at first. If you send them to me, I might gain fifty pounds. Ugh. And, I don’t want that. Maybe I can read the descriptions of one or two people. (If you would like me to read yours, contact me. I will see if I have time and can afford to gain a pound or two. LOL.) Thank you for being here. I appreciate your kindness and support. If you are finding value in the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations, please share it with your friends, family, and coworkers. Did you know that DUO Inspirations has more to offer in the way of education? Please, check it out both here and on Pinterest. If you haven’t done so already, please consider signing up to receive the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations and other content in your inbox. DUO Inspirations is committed to helping others teach and learn. 
Hi friends,
How are you? Today, I am going to post about a new subject… art. I enjoy being artistic and creative. Lately, I have been sketching or creating things digitally quite a bit. As a matter of fact, I have created a new product, the “Art Ovals Packet”. It wasn’t long ago that I took a portrait drawing course and I was drawing ovals quite frequently to practice drawing faces. That is what gave me the idea for this product. I knew there must be a way to do the practice without always drawing the ovals. Then, I got to thinking about other uses for ovals in both art and education. These ideas were some of the ideas behind the “Art Ovals Packet” by DUO Inspirations. As a teacher, homeschooling parent, or artist, I bet you can come up with uses for ovals as well. Some of the ideas I came up with for using the ovals are: Easter eggs... You or a student can draw and color different Easter egg designs. Students can color the eggs. Then, students can compare and contrast each of the eggs he or she drew or tell you which is his or her favorite and why. 
1-to-1 Correspondence (such as counting petals)… You or a student can write numbers in the ovals and then students can draw and color items in each oval to correspond with the number. 
Faces… You or students can use the ovals to draw various faces or to draw the same face over and over again for muscle memory. At the end, the faces can be evaluated for which is the favorite.
These are just a few snippets of the samples I did for the “Art Ovals Packet” by DUO Inspirations. (I sketched samples to complete each page of ovals.) The ideas listed here are only a few of what I included in the packet note. I included twenty activity ideas in the “Art Ovals Packet”. So, what is included in the “Art Ovals Packet” by DUO Inspirations? *A product note to educators, parents, and artists for possible uses for the ovals *One page of four blank large ovals *One page of nine blank medium ovals *One page of twenty blank small ovals *One sample page of the four large ovals with sketched Easter eggs *One sample page of the nine medium ovals with sketched flowers showing number of petals matching the noted number to show 1-to-1 correspondences *One sample page of the twenty small ovals with sketched faces If you are interested in purchasing the “Art Ovals Packet”, please click the link below. 
Now, it is your turn.
Thank you for being here. I appreciate your support and kindness. I would really like to read your ideas for oval uses. I know as an educator, a life-long learner, and a creative person, I am always looking for new ideas. I can imagine that others would like to read your ideas as well. Please, feel free to comment here or contact me about this or any education topic, idea, suggestion, and request. I am happy to hear from you. If you find value in the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations, please share it with your friends, family, and coworkers. Some of them will appreciate it if you do. And, if you haven't already done so, please consider signing up below to receive the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations and other education content in your inbox. Thank you. 
Hi friends,
How are you? Today, I would like to talk about two important words in motivating students to learn. Do you know what those words could be? Do you use these words in your own learning? Do you use these words in your teaching? The two words help pique interest and gets the imagination flowing. These two words help drive curiosity and thought. They aren’t difficult words, but they are catalysts into some pretty powerful learning. Have you guessed the words yet? These two words are… v v v v v v v I wonder… Yes, the two words of “I wonder” can do a world of good for helping a person to learn. They can go a long way in teaching a person to learn more things and to become life-long learners. These can drive people to want to learn. They inspire people to think, research, try, experiment, and to do various things. Here are some great ways to use the words, “I wonder”: *I wonder what would happen if… *I wonder how much _____ it would take to ________. *I wonder why that happened. *I wonder why the author wrote it like that. *I wonder what would happen if I changed this one thing. *I wonder what would happen if I did _____ to that. *I wonder who was the first to _______. *I wonder what they had to do back in the day instead of _______. *I wonder who invented the ________. *I wonder how high I can stack these blocks. *I wonder how many card tents I can set up to create a domino effect before one of them falls. *I wonder how many verbs I can name. *I wonder how many words I can make out of the letters in the word transportation. *I wonder what type of soil makes plants grow better. *I wonder if I could make a ________. *I wonder if I could be a _________. *I wonder how I would feel if __________. *I wonder if __________ or _____________makes a better insulator. Do you wonder? If so, what do you wonder? Are there any wonder examples that you could add to the list that would make great teaching tools? Do you teach others to wonder? (I can’t wait to read your answers to some of these questions. I wonder what they will be. LOL.) The ability and trait of wondering are fabulous assets to learning. “I wonder” are powerful words that can motivate people to learn and encourage them to try new things. I hope as a learner you will try them and I hope as a teacher (and role model) you will show others how to use these two words. They will greatly benefit both learning and success. Now, it is your turn. Do you wonder? What do you wonder? Do you teach others to wonder? Do you agree with the importance of wondering? What are "I wonder" statements would be great examples of teaching tools? Please, let me know in the comments or feel free to contact me. I can't wait to read your answers. I wonder how many of you find value in the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations. I wonder how many of you will share the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations, so others can find value in it as well. LOL! I hope it is you! And, I really appreciate you being here and all of your support. Also, if you haven't already, you may want to consider signing up below to get the Education Blog by DUO Inspirations and other education content sent straight to your inbox. |
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