There are sooooo many websites out there that teachers should know about, but there is one in particular that I just can't get enough of right now. Let's talk about Teachers' Discovery. No, they aren't paying me to say this, but yes I will gladly accept money if they decide to do so. The Teacher's Discovery has amazing resources that I've actually tried in my own classroom. For example I love their literary tic-tac-toe cards as well as their info-text tic-tac-toe cards. I use the literary TTTCards when my students do literary circles. You can find that assignment below. I use the info-text TTTCards throughout the year during our non-fiction Tuesday activities. What's so great about both sets is that each set easily allows for teachers to differentiate. What the students don't notice or know, is that every card within the set has a certain color: light green cards are for students who are "developing;" orange cards are for students who are "meeting;'" and blue cards are for students who are "exceeding." Not only does this allow for differentiation, but each card also allows for student choice. The students enjoy the assignments, especially because they decide which ones they want to do. You can easily use these cards for independent reading or with a whole-group novel. They are awesome!

Another great resource from Teacher's Discovery is that they offer weekly current events with great questions FOR FREE. All you have to do is sign up here. Each week they will send you a hot-topic, current event. The current event also comes with "questions using close reading and critical thinking." You can have your students independently answer the questions and then work in small groups to go over their answers and discuss where they agree and/or disagree. Speaking of writing, they also offer writing prompts books. I use these writing prompts with my students every Thursday; it is their writing warm-up. My favorite part about these writing prompts is that they ask students to change their mode of writing depending on the prompt. On the left corner, they have what mode students should use: narrative, explanatory, or argument. They also ask the students to use new vocabulary words within their writing and provide a list of those vocab. words that relate to the topic. I made my own writing warm-up sheet to accompany their prompts (see below), and it works really well for my students. The students enjoy writing on the topics because they are normally controversial and engaging. We usually share our responses from the writing prompt, and the discussions are interesting and most often cause a civil debate in class. This is when we practice using accountable talk if we agree and/or disagree with our peers. The students don't realize it, but they are practicing writing and speaking and listening skills. Two birds, one stone!

Sometimes, I feel like my email is inundated with useless websites all promising to make teaching easier, but Teacher's Discovery really does. They have everything from literature to social emotional learning. Go check them out!

Keep on stressin' on,