Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Ideas? Where do they come from?


Where do you go to get ideas to help you class over the next few weeks? I know where I start. It has always been TpT and The Mailbox magazine I get every month. I also have bought the past yearbooks of the Mailbox just to get ideas. I have created a large number of projects. Plus I get items sent to me from various teachers around the state. Some are really good, some need to be reworked and some became just ideas for the future. I have even had students come up with ideas for next year’s classes.

I love TpT’s freebies, many of which have turned into some really good projects. I have taken ideas from my fellow history teacher and have one planned for right after the Thanksgiving holiday.  I have looked through books at our local Teacher’s Aid shop and I have turned several ideas I “stole” into really good projects.

I have written plays about the era that we are studying, created card games from ideas I have gotten from UNO, taken games from that period and created a simpler version to be able to teach it to my students. I have made my students watch videos then had them write a sequel (that takes place two years later).

Ideas come from everywhere. I love to hear stories, I take workshops, I interview teachers, all just to get ideas. I have posted many here but there are hundreds that will never see the light of day here on TpT. So many of them have been tried by my students and so have flopped, some have been very successful, but I have come up with a better and newer way to present the information.

Today we did a Barter and Trade in-class project which has always been very successful but I had to modify it from what I saw somewhere about the Egyptians. I changed it to fit the B&T of the early French here in Louisiana. It has worked really well but it took some time to convert it over to the 1700s. I have created Slave Cabin fold-ups, French Pop-up, and many more from seeing things in books.

You just can’t sit and hope things will come to you. You have to make them happen.

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