From Silvestris Educational Publications, The Three-Category Weighted Gradebook with AssignMinder is a simple Excel workbook with a beautiful interface. Use it instead of your bulky pencil-and-paper gradebook and calculator to keep track of all your assignments and automatically calculate your grades using a three-category weighted method. Both tools are designed to accommodate any number of students and assignments and can be put on any device that opens Excel files. They are packaged in a file so small that you can keep it on your smartphone or email it, yet you have the full power and resources of Excel at your fingertips. The intuitive and attractive layout will put even those with little or no knowledge of spreadsheets at ease. Just type in the same information that you used to write in your old paper gradebook. The Three-Category Weighted Gradebook will do all the calculations for you. And The AssignMinder keeps track of the details of all your assignments. Both are fully customizable to the limit of your knowledge of Excel. Works anywhere you have Excel or a compatible program, while making your life a little prettier and easier! The PDF Readme file contains full directions for use.

A Listing of Sixty Common Words Used by Mr. William Shakespeare with Their Modern American English Equivalent Meanings and a Comprehensive Collection of Related Practice Exercises and Quizzes from Silvestris Educational Publications. This 25 page unit presents a perfect starter set of Shakespearean vocabulary words, most of which you will encounter in any play you choose to read with your students. The package contains: lists with and without equivalent meanings; practice word search puzzles by word and by meaning, with solutions, in groups of 20 words; quizzes, with answer keys, in 20 word groupings. Use as classwork, homework, extra credit, as a reference, etc. A perfect introduction to Shakespearean vocabulary, especially for students new to Shakespeare. This unit is part of the larger “Introducing Mr. William Shakespeare” package.

A four-part project from Silvestris Educational Publications that puts your students on the island with the lost boys. Before long, they will be arguing over what they need to do in order to survive, and why Jack should be in charge of building the huts instead of Ralph. By the end of the project they will be quite the little experts in reading characters’ personalities. This small-group project for your class is an activity that will provide hours of interesting discussion, writing, and debate.It will challenge your students to go beneath the plot. An excellent activity for teaching direct and indirect characterization, making inferences, drawing conclusions, and much more.

little whispers™ is a new concept from Silvestris Educational Publications—5” x 7” mini “desktop posters” that you print yourself. They can be framed, attached to a backing, used as bookmarks, or slipped under binder covers. Some teachers have creatively used them as covers for small books. Since you print them yourself, you can make as many copies as you need, on whatever type of stock your printer can handle. They look particularly attractive when printed on card stock and framed. All little whispers™ desktop posters are themed in concept, content, and design. They are meant for us teachers rather than our students. They convey messages that are both primary and elementary to all good teaching. Thus, they are set in a font that recalls the simple printing seen on any elementary chalk or whiteboard. The posters in the “hopes and dreams” series have no capital letters or end punctuation, to remind us that so much has happened before this moment in our students’ lives, and so much more is yet to come. They speak of those things that are important to us as teachers, yet tend to be the very things we forget in the daily “business” of the classroom. We all know the importance of hope, understanding, praise, encouragement, and dreams. But it is often difficult to go about the daily business of the classroom while keeping these concepts in the forefront of our thinking. That tiny gap is where little whispers™ mini posters enter the picture. They are designed to remind us of the most important things in our teaching—the things that can’t be tested or quantified, but which pervade every aspect of every interaction between us and our students. These are not things that we put in our plan books. Yet, does any one of us have the right to plan even one lesson if we lose sight of them? little whispers™ mini posters are designed to give us gentle, quiet reminders throughout the day. They will amplify our own voices in calling us back to our origins as teachers. Print them out and place them: • in frames on your desk • between pages of your books • in the closet where you keep your coat • under transparent binder covers • in your plan book and roll book • next to your computer monitor • in your file drawers • anywhere you can see them as you go through your day

little whispers™ is a new concept from Silvestris Educational Publications—5” x 7” mini “desktop posters” that you print yourself. They can be framed, attached to a backing, used as bookmarks, or slipped under binder covers. Some teachers have creatively used them as covers for small books. Since you print them yourself, you can make as many copies as you need, on whatever type of stock your printer can handle. They look particularly attractive when printed on card stock and framed. All little whispers™ desktop posters are themed in concept, content, and design. They are meant for us teachers rather than our students. They convey messages that are both primary and elementary to all good teaching. Thus, they are set in a font that recalls the simple printing seen on any elementary chalk or whiteboard. They contain statements designed to remind us that a teacher’s perspective is a crucial element of his or her effectiveness. They speak of those things that are important to our perspective as teachers, yet tend to be the very things we forget in the daily “business” of the classroom. We all know the importance of keeping a healthy and balanced perspective in all that we do in the classroom. But it is often difficult to keep this in the forefront of our thinking as we go about our daily business. That tiny gap is where little whispers™ mini posters enter the picture. They are designed to remind us of the most important things in our teaching—the things that can’t be tested or quantified, but which pervade every aspect of every interaction between us and our students. These are not things that we put in our plan books. Yet, does any one of us have the right to plan even one lesson if we lose sight of them? little whispers™ mini posters are designed to give us gentle, quiet reminders throughout the day. They will amplify our own voices in calling us back to our origins as teachers. Print them out and place them: • in frames on your desk • between pages of your books • in the closet where you keep your coat • under transparent binder covers • in your plan book and roll book • next to your computer monitor • in your file drawers • anywhere you can see them as you go through your day

From Silvestris Educational Publications, a complete project and reflective paper assignment to complement your reading of Animal Farm. Students get to create their own government! They have all the power, and they love it, but they soon realize just how difficult it is to create any government, particularly one under which they would actually wish to live. Give them something to think about, argue about, and enjoy!

A perfect introduction to the study of Shakespeare. this 23 page packet from Silvestris Educational Publications provides you with all the materials necessary to introduce Shakespeare to students who have had little or no previous contact with him. This is a complete unit (part of the larger “Introducing Mr. William Shakespeare” package) that contains: 4+ pages on Shakespeare’s life, world, works, and theater suitable as a handout or for use by you as the basis of a lecture; a set of research questions (with an answer key) keyed to the background sheets; reinforcement puzzles; a quiz with answer key, and a handout on how to read Shakespeare. A complete and suitable introduction to any first play.

Have you ever wished for the perfect research and essay assignment for your students? This package from Silvestris Educational Publications has it all. A fun unit of research and writing that students love to do. They investigate Shakespeare’s life and world: food, clothing, money, occupations, pastimes, marriage, family life, education, conversation…you name it. And then they become young William Shakespeare for a day and write about it. This unit is limited only by your creativity and theirs. Let them run with it and watch the Elizabethan era come alive in your classroom. You’ll hear thee, marry and prithee misused more than you could imagine, and you-- and your students-- will love every minute of it. And if that’s not enough, this package is contained in its entirety in the larger "Introducing Mr. William Shakespeare’’, also available from Silvestris Educational Publications.

Bring some psychology into your literature class. These two projects allow you and your students to delve beneath the plot of Lord of the Flies and closely examine the personalities and behavior of Ralph, Piggy, and Jack. Id, Ego, Superego, Integrated Components of the Personality-- it’s all here. A unique, different, and interesting set of activities to interest and engage your students and challenge them to look at the characters in a way they’ve never done before. Includes helpful hints and background material for the teacher, too.

A complete teaching unit for the play “Fences.” Contains more than 40 pages of reading questions, discussion topics, quizzes, essays, research activities, etc., plus a list of additional resources. Covers the entire play. Enough material for weeks of work.

This 34 page package from Silvestris Educational Publications contains projects and activities that will carry you through every class period for the duration of your reading of Lord of the Flies. Insightful, challenging, thoughtful and substantial, this full package goes far beyond quizzes, chapter reading checks, and recall questions. These materials invite you and your students to see this book as you never have before. Psychology, personality theory, group dynamics, sociology, ethics, and more-- it’s all here, and is presented in a way that will engage and entertain your students. They’ll groan when they have to stop because the bell rings. NOTE: This package contains the “Group Project” and “Two Projects” items offered for sale separately, as well as other activities not offered for sale on their own.

A complete unit for introducing William Shakespeare to your students, provided by Silvestris Educational Publications. This 73 page package will provide you with dozens of resources designed especially for teaching Shakespeare to students who have had little or no previous exposure to him. Contains background on the Elizabethan era, Shakespeare, his work, his world and theater; a complete vocabulary unit; research and essay assignments; classwork, homework, and reinforcement activities; quizzes; answer keys; helpful hints, advice, suggestions, and more. The Table of Contents is fully detailed and hyperlinked to all the package parts. All elements are keyed to one another. The essay assignment and supporting materials alone are worth the price of the entire package. It’s something students love to do and will remember for years. Contains illustrations, a map of Elizabethan theaters, portraits of Shakespeare and an invaluable bonus sheet of Shakespeare resources on the internet.