Because growth mindset is a critical element of success in school, I strongly believe that it should be taught to students. This is the lesson I prepared for my students. If you have time, at the end of this lesson you can ask your students to prepare a leaflet or a video for younger students to teach them growth mindset. For more information on growth mindset, you can vist my Pinterest board. https://tr.pinterest.com/shine58/growth-mindset/

This 22-page interactive pack includes information, different activities, links to several websites about bullying and cyber-bullying, and ways to cope with them. At the end of the pack there is a project that you can do as whole school / grade level or as a class. The activities are differentiated and suitable for all types of learners from grades 3-6

This is a great reflection activity for the students preparing for exams. I have designed it for my students who are taking the IGCSE English exam but it can easily be adapted to any other exam such as SAT, IELTS, TOEFL your students are preparing for. It gives the students an opportunity to revise the key concepts they have learned throughout the year and to consider the rules, study tips, do’s and don’ts of the exam while they are working in groups to prepare a learning guide for the students who are going to take this exam prep course and the exam next year. My students told me that it helped them a lot to internalize all the rules and the expectations of the exam and get a good grade. This activity also helps to polish up students’ critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, multimedia and oral presentation skills. Since the students have been asked to prepare a digital learning guide, they are required to use tech tools effectively and creatively. The pack includes three rubrics for multimedia presentation, oral presentation and group work; self and peer evaluation forms; a list on different presentation tools with links; tips and links on public speaking, oral presentations, and group presentations. The most exciting part of this project for the students was the presentation as I took them to the classes of the students who are going to take this course and exam next year to present. If you have time and if you can arrange that, please do so as it becomes a real life experience and makes the project much more meaningful for the students. If not, you can publish the presentations on your class blog, the school website or share it in Google docs. Apart from the time allotted for the presentation, the students spent 8 (40-minute) lessons to finalize the project: • 2 lessons for brainstorming and outlining. • 3 lessons for preparing the guide • 2 lessons for bringing the pieces together and finalizing the presentation • 1 lesson on rehearsing for the presentation

This 21st century research guide contains information on the Super3 and Big6 research skills, links to safe search sites and to videos on plagiarism, copyright, paraphrasing, citation for beginners, , Web 2.0 tools to conduct research effectively, graphic organizers, rubrics, checklists and a song on Super3. There is 1 ppt for Super3 and another one on the Big 6. Once your students master Super3 research skills, they can move on to the Big6 research process. You can use this guide to teach your students age-appropriate research skills. You can also post this guide on your school website or classroom blog.

Digital literacy is more than knowing about how and when to use the tools. It is the ability to process information by locating, understanding, analyzing, evaluating, creating, and sharing it using digital technology. In the past, we used to do it with printed materials, but now technology provides access to a much wider range of learning resources available at all times and allows us to communicate information in a variety of media beyond word and text; so, looking up information in the library in traditional ways is obviously not enough. To be literate today requires navigating a connected world offering students endless information with which they can interact in many different ways. Our students are familiar with technology but they use it for social purposes. They know how to copy and paste but they don’t know how to process information with the help of technology. They should master the critical skills to conduct research effectively and come up with creative projects instead of copy-pasted ones. For more information, you can read this post http://aysinalp.edublogs.org/2015/08/05/how-to-integrate-the-new-literacies-into-our-curriculum-part-3-information-literacy/ on my blog. This 21st century research guide contains information on research skills, links to web research guides, alternative search engines other than Google, Web 2.0 tools to conduct research and to present effectively, information on evaluating the quality of content and websites, academic integrity guidelines with emphasis on plagiarism, copyright, summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting, and citing appropriately, tips on preparing and giving effective presentations. You can use this guide to teach your students A-Z 21st century research skills. You can also post this guide on your school website or classroom blog.

I guarantee you that your students will love doing these activities during the first week of the school year and you will become the most popular teacher at the school. All you have to do is to design a Welcome Back to School cover page for the first activity with two cartoons. The questions on page 1 and 2 are about the cartoons that you are going to choose, so please read them before you choose the cartoons. If you follow this link http://tinyurl.com/z3vk5rb or this one http://tinyurl.com/hagfo3u, you will find several cartoons to choose from. This fun activity will also help your students to understand media messages, learn how to analyze cartoons, and to think critically. Both activities require students to reflect on the meaning of education and learning and how they learn best. The journal entry they are going to write, the cartoon and the video they are going to make will not only enhance their creative skills but will give you lots hints about their expectations from you as their teacher. Have a great school year!

This is a great reflection activity for the students preparing for exams. I have designed it for my students who are taking the IGCSE English exam but it can easily be adapted to any other exam such as SAT, IELTS, TOEFL your students are preparing for. It gives the students an opportunity to revise the key concepts they have learned throughout the year and to consider the rules, study tips, do’s and dont’s of the exam while they are working in groups to prepare a learning guide for the students who are going to take this exam prep course and the exam next year. My students told me that it helped them a lot to internalize all the rules and the expectations of the exam and get a good grade. This activity also helps to polish up students’ critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, multimedia and oral presentation skills. Since the students have been asked to prepare a digital learning guide, they are required to use tech tools effectively and creatively. The pack includes three rubrics for multimedia presentation, oral presentation, group work; self and peer evaluation forms; a list of different presentation tools with links; tips and links for public speaking, oral presentations, and group presentations. The most exciting part of this project for the students was the presentation as I took them to the classes of the students who are going to take this course and exam next year to present. If you have time and if you can arrange that, please do so as it becomes a real life experience and makes the project much more meaningful for the students. If not, you can publish the presentations on your class blog, the school website or share it in Google docs. Apart from the time allotted for the presentation, the students spent 8 (40-minute) lessons to finalize the project: • 2 lessons for brainstorming and outlining. • 3 lessons for preparing the guide • 2 lessons for bringing the pieces together and finalizing the presentation • 1 lesson on rehearsing for the presentation

This 10-page interactive end-of-the-year reflection activity gives the students an opportunity to revise the key concepts they have learned throughout the year. Students are asked to think critically and creatively while they are preparing a learning and survival guide for the students who are going to be in the same grade the following year. In order to add more fun to the activity, they are asked to complete tasks that will help the students next year understand what to expect of that grade level both academically and socially. The activities include making a visual collage of the year and a mind map of the important concepts they have learned, writing a poem/rap and a letter, designing a list of top tips or golden rules for their grade level, creating a comic strip, a cartoon or a short graphic novel showing the key points they have learnt this year, finding a title for their guide and assess their work. The links provided are differentiated for students at different levels. The pack also includes a rubric for the letter and a self-assessment rubric. I didn’t grade this activity as it was the end of the year. I gave oral and written feedback to my students, instead. I asked them to grade themselves after they completed the self-assessment rubric.

The amount of information available on the Internet is astonishing, and it keeps growing. Therefore, students should learn this critical skill to determine whether the information they have found is relevant and reliable. In this unit based on evaluating websites students: * Read a text on website evaluation * Do a vocabulary activity on prefixes and suffixes * Answer the questions about the text * Visit a website and do the activities there to learn more about website evaluation * Choose a website among the ones given in the list and evaluate it by answering the questions in a graphic organizer * Prepare a 5–8 - minute oral presentation on it by using the information in the organizer and following the oral presentation guidelines * Evaluate their own oral presentation and their peers' by filling in the self and peer assessment forms * Prepare a leaflet on website evaluation for younger students. The lesson also includes two rubrics - one for the oral presentation and the other for the leaflet. This unit can be used with English Language Learners as well.

I guarantee you that your students will love doing these activities during the first week of the school year and you will become the most popular teacher at the school. All you have to do is to design a Welcome Back to School cover page for the first activity with two cartoons. The questions on page 1 and 2 are about the cartoons that you are going to choose, so please read them before you choose the cartoons. If you follow this link http://tinyurl.com/z3vk5rb or this one http://tinyurl.com/hagfo3u, you will find several cartoons to choose from. This fun activity will also help your students to understand media messages, learn how to analyze cartoons, and to think critically. Both activities require students to reflect on the meaning of education and learning and how they learn best. The journal entry they are going to write, the cartoon and the video they are going to make will not only enhance their creative skills but will give you lots hints about their expectations from you as their teacher. Have a great school year!

There are two resources in this pack for the first week/s of school suitable for both virtual and face-to-face learning. I posted the Power Point versions here, and you can find the links for Google Slides versions in the Teacher’s Guide. Both activities will allow you to get to know your students better and build positive relationships with them. Since each student is going to complete them individually, they are naturally differentiated. Enjoy:)

There are two resources in this pack for the first week/s of school suitable for both virtual and face-to-face learning. I posted the Power Point versions here, and you can find the links for Google Slides versions in the Teacher’s Guide. Both activities will allow you to get to know your students better and build positive relationships with them. Since each student is going to complete them individually, they are naturally differentiated. Enjoy:)

You can find 15 great resources for the Back to School week here. Links have been added in the worksheet for you to see where these great ideas are taken from. Check my Pinterest board for more ideas: https://tr.pinterest.com/shine58/back-to-school/