First Freebie!!!

Everyone loves a freebie! I will have a drawing for my "Tree-Trimming: Synonyms and Antonyms Game" on Sunday. All you need to do is leave me a comment about how you would use this in your classroom. Make sure to follow me so you can receive updates - you want to know if you won! Yep, it's that easy.

I look forward to hearing from you! Martha

Ancient Egypt

My 5th graders are deep in our study of Ancient Egypt. We are loving it! We began learning what Egypt was like when Joseph became 2nd in command to Pharaoh, what he would have to get used to, and what his family would have had to learn about when they moved there because of the famine. We learned that life was quite different for them! We're now transitioning to the life of Moses, how he was called by Jehovah to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt, and the plagues that God sent to teach, convince, and punish. It's been quite interesting to learn about Egypt's religion, and how God sent the plagues to show that He is more powerful than any of Egypt's gods! Since God is unchangeable, he is still that powerful in our lives today! I decided to try having my students create their own lapbooks for our unit. I've heard lots of great things about these and have seen lots of great pictures of what they look like. We are still assembling as we learn, but I wanted to share a few pictures of the process so far.

I'll have more pics later!

Time of a Sale!

It's that time of year! Sale shopping! Why not take advantage of the seasonal sales on my Teachers Pay Teachers site? Shop my store on Cyber Monday and receive a 15% discount on anything there. I'm updating and adding more items today, so make sure to check to see what I'm selling.

It's that time of year again! Everyone's looking for a great sale. Just through tomorrow, all products in my Teachers Pay Teachers store is on sale. View my store at www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/martha-hach Like my products, follow my store to receive notice when I post more classroom items.

Newest Creation

One of my newest teaching creation is my Character Questioning Tags. I'm uber excited to use these with my students! I'm hoping to use these with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." We're already focusing on character analysis, and these questions will make them go back to the text to support their ideas.

My "Character Questioning Tags" are available in my store. www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Martha-Hach Happy teaching! Martha

I love my job!

Can I just say that I love my job? I haven't been able to say that for the past few years, but I have fallen in love with the small, rural, private school that God led me to this year! Yes, I'm still busy with preparing for another "first" (first year at a new school with new curriculum). If you're a teacher, you know what that means - starting from scratch, again. But, I'm happy. I have the freedom to teach, to create lesson plans that engage my students and teach them to think for themselves, and the freedom to talk with them about what really matters in life: their relationship with God. Right now, I'm having a blast teaching reading. We're reading C.S. Lewis's "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." Most of my students have already seen the movie, and some have read the book. I thought about not reading it, but then realized that my students haven't discussed the book - discussed the characters and their motives, discussed the differences and connections between the external and internal conflicts, and, most importantly, haven't discussed the obvious symbolism that Lewis intended the reader to pick up on - the Gospel! So, we're traveling through Narnia with Peter, Susan, and Lucy, searching for their lost brother, Edmund, and hoping with them that Aslan can save Edmund and set Narnia back to its original state. My kids can't wait for reading! Another "job" that I love is my "curriculum designer" job. I have an online teacher's store (www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Martha-Hach). I've thoroughly enjoyed creating my own units and posters and games and... (the list could go on). Most of these things I use in my classroom, many on a daily basis. My unit plans for "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" will be posted on their soon. God's used this store as a blessing to my husband and I. Making me think more about a Curriculum and Development degree, but with Common Core and all that goes with it right now, I'm not sure (that's for another "soap box" post). I plan on updating about what I'm doing in my class often. Hope my love for teaching helps you love what you're doing. Life's too short to do something that we don't feel passionate about.

It's Now or Never!

Yep, it's now or never! I figured this is the year to start a teaching blog. My thoughts and ideas about teaching have changed so many times over the past 12 years, and I'm sure that they will change many more times in my career. This year will mark another "first" for me - teaching in a Christian school. After teaching for 9 years in public school and 3 years in a public charter school, I felt the need to make a drastic change. The constant stress of student testing and student performance plus the increased teacher demands and problems with student behavior has so many of us teachers pulling our hair out and trying to discover new ways to fix a problem that I'm not sure if the public sector is going to find a solution to. Our society is changing at a rapid rate, and the answer doesn't lie in the public schools. They are trying their best to find an answer, but, at best, they are just applying a band-aid to an infection that reaches straight to the heart of man - the need of the Gospel of Jesus to change hearts. Only with this internal change will someone's external change. I think that's one of the most frustrating issues that I've had to deal with so far in my career. I can't get to the heart of the matter. So, now you know where my thoughts are. My intent for blogging is to share with you my teaching passions - classroom creativity, fun and successful lessons, pictures of my classroom, and anything else that I decide to post. There might be a soap box rant every once in a while, but I'll try to keep those to a minimum. Anyway, thanks for listening, and I hope my teaching passion can be an inspiration to you to keep your focus on what matters!