Category Archives: Common Core

national standards in English Language Arts

Book Review: Soul’s Child

May 17, 2013 by tchistorygal

Soul’s Child, the 2012 award-winning spell binder by Dianne Gray, unearthed and explored a love/hate relationship between co-dependent father and daughter after the accident in which Aurora Jones’ mother and younger sister died, and left Aurora in a coma for three weeks. The accident also gave Aurora an insatiable and uncontrollable urge to draw unnaturally realistic scenes she had never experienced. Although she hid her drawings, her father, originally Mervin Oswald Jones, discovered their secret meanings, and began to […]

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Categories: Books, Common Core, Education, Fiction • Tags: Amazon, Dianne Gray, Marsha Lee, Souls Child

Founded in 1851, about the same time Tulare County was established.

WordPress Photo Challenge: Pattern

May 14, 2013 by tchistorygal

As Sarah Rosso says, “Patterns are everywhere. Patterns are sometimes intentional and sometimes accidental. They can be decorative or merely a result of repetition, and often patterns can be in the eye of the beholder to discover them.” I love lines and shadows, bricks and glass. Patterns can be numbers. like how many petals on a flower, or leaves on a stem, or points on a leaf. My friend Jean and I just got back from San Francisco. This beautiful church, […]

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Categories: architecture, art, California, Challenges, Common Core, Education, San Francisco, WP Weekly Photo Challenge • Tags: Marsha Lee, San Francisco Marriott Marquis, St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Yerba Buena Gardens

Joy Soares dressed in 1940s style including a black line drawn up her leg. Styling, Joy!

National History Day – California – Tulare County a Huge Success

March 14, 2013 by tchistorygal

This was my first year in the past twelve years NOT to coordinate Tulare County’s History Day event. The job now falls on my dear friend, Joy Soares, who took my place as the History Consultant at the County Office. She has enough energy and ideas for three people, and indeed more than three people kept very busy bringing this exciting day to fruition. My job in all of this was to represent two volunteer organizations, San Joaquin Valley Council […]

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Categories: Common Core, Education, Events, history-social science, Quilting, SJVCSS, TCHS • Tags: Japanese Internment, Joy Soares, NHD-CA, San Joaquin Valley Council for the Social Studies, SJVCSS, TCHS, Tulare County Historical Society, Tulare County History Day, valleysocialstudies

Book Review: The Eleventh Question by Dianne Gray

February 8, 2013 by tchistorygal

In her riveting book, The Eleventh Question Dianne Gray takes a visionary slant to take care of an invasive social problem that has received much publicity in the last 10 years. The problem of bullying is one of the chief causes of teen suicide as well as incidents of school violence that shock entire communities to their core. Wikipedia tells casual researchers like me that “Bullying consists of three basic types of abuse – emotional, verbal, and physical. …Social aggression or indirect […]

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Categories: Books, Common Core, Education, Experience, history-social science • Tags: bullying, Common Core Standards for English Language Arts, cyber bullying, Dianne Gray, foster care, Marsha Lee, spirituality, The Eleventh Hour

This was the most time- intensive part. this was my fourth attempt.

Using the Creative Cloud by Adobe

January 29, 2013 by tchistorygal

As many of you know, the job of designing a brochure somehow dropped on my unartistic shoulders. I created something using the Creative Cloud for our Board Meeting on Saturday, and received immediate feedback about what to change. This was my first time ever to use Adobe Illustrator, and it represented about 8 or more hours of intensive effort. I just LOOKS so easy a first grader could do it! I would not call Illustrator an intuitive, user-friendly program. Today […]

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Categories: art, Blogging, California, CCSS, Common Core, communication, Education, Experience, history-social science, Photography • Tags: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop CS5, California Council for the Social Studies, designing a brochure, Marsha Lee

Book Review: The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony

January 16, 2013 by tchistorygal

This book, The Elephant Whisperer, kept me on the edge of my seat the entire two days it took me to finish it. Considering that I was reading it on my cell phone the whole time because my Kindle needs to be emptied before I can load any more books, it’s amazing that I even stuck it out. Out of forty-two chapters, there wasn’t a single dud. I read it because I was intrigued when someone wrote that when […]

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Categories: animals, art, Books, Common Core, Education, Featured Blog, people, Photography, science • Tags: Amy Share and Connect, book review, Common Core, conservation, Elephant Whisperer, featured blog, Greece, hiking, Italy, Lawrence Anthony, Marsha Lee, non-fiction, South Africa, Travel

Miles Dean, age 57 riding across America

Book Review: A Black Cowboy’s Ride Across America

December 23, 2012 by tchistorygal

It’s not every day that a good book about both geography and history comes along, but Lisa Winkler’s non-fiction epic, A Black Cowboy’s Ride Across America, guides the reader from New Jersey to California. Each chapter portrays the real-life adventure of an African-American teacher, Miles Dean, who rides horseback across the United States beginning September 22, 2007. The mini-biography of Dean spans not only the country, but the centuries of African-American history in various places along the way. There is not […]

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Categories: animals, Books, Common Core, Experience, history-social science, Travel • Tags: A Black Cowboy's Ride Across America, book review, geography, history, Lisa Winkler, Marsha Lee, Travel, United States

Book Review: Entertaining an Elephant

December 7, 2012 by tchistorygal

Thank you and congratulations to Larry Otter, the 30th “LIKE” on my new Facebook page, GOLD STAR! Thanks to the many others that also pressed “LIKE” Many of you are teachers, and many more of you have children, grandchildren, or at some point in time are expecting to have them. A few months ago I went to a Common Core Conference, at which Dr. Bill McBride presented strategies to help teachers implement Common Core Standards. His presentation style was just as […]

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Categories: Blogging, Books, Common Core, Education, Featured Blog, Fiction, Writing • Tags: book review, Common Core Standards for Language Arts, Education, Entertaining an Elephant, featured blog, instructional strategies, Marsha Ingrao, Sierra Foothill Garden, William McBride

Book Review: The Everything Theory

December 4, 2012 by tchistorygal

Dianne Gray became my blogger friend four months and three weeks ago now, and we have rallied blogger chit-chat back and forth between our blogs. As I read her blog the other day, I learned about her book, The Everything Theory, Browsing the comments on the post, I decided that I definitely wanted to buy the book. So I headed over to Amazon, made a few clicks, and started reading, and finally put it down because I had to sleep […]

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Categories: academic vocabulary, Blogging, Books, Common Core, Education, Featured Blog, history-social science, science, Writing • Tags: book review, Common Core Standards, Daine Gray, fiction, history-social science, Marsha Ingrao, science, teaching

taken from an excellent review of the book - http://salmanlatif.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/the-picture-of-dorian-gray/

Reviewing Books – The Picture of Dorian Gray

November 3, 2012 by tchistorygal

Thanks to ShareChair I ordered several classic books along with their audio books for free from Amazon. You really do need to check out her blog. It’s all technology, and incredibly organized, every article practical or thought-provoking. Back to books, I just finished my third book from this classic find, and I thought that the least I could do would be to offer a review, something new and fresh. My review for David Copperfield evolved naturally, and I didn’t search […]

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Categories: Common Core, Education, history-social science • Tags: Common Core Standards, David Copperfield, Dorian, Goodreads, Google, Oscar Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray, psychology, Wikipedia

Teachers Pay Teachers

October 20, 2012 by tchistorygal

Want To Make A Million Dollars? One of the services I do for SJVCSS is Chair the Curriculum Committee. During the last adoption for History-Social Science I was fortunate to be selected to serve as a Reviewer. Although I was unable to perform that role, I was involved at the county level after the adoptions were available to districts. With the coming of the Common Core Standards individual teachers are beginning to search for materials on their own. One of the most logical places […]

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Categories: Resources, Common Core, Organizations, SJVCSS, CCSS, Education, history-social science • Tags: teacher, Common Core Standards, Education, K through 12, California, history standards, curricula, teachers pay teachers, professional organizations, credibility, Martin Savidge, CNN, Educators

The Hilarity of Real Spam

October 17, 2012 by tchistorygal

Both Sex Gratis and Tattoo Age need to work a little on their persuasive writing skills. as well as their language usage. Maybe that is why the Common Core standards are pushing teachers to teach persuasive/argument writing grades K-12. These folks are so pathetic they are fodder for the funnies. “I think this is a powerfull site with much interesting blogposts about this stuff. And i just wanna say thnx for this. I’ll subscribe to your website to see if […]

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Categories: Blogging, Common Core, Education, Experience, spam, Writing • Tags: blogging, Common Core Standards, Facebook, rules of grammar, spam, writing

Widow of the South and the Common Core

October 6, 2012 by tchistorygal

Attention English teachers!!! Revel in teaching literature for informational text and argument writing assignments using the genre of historical fiction. History teachers – join forces and use the same literature as background materials to introduce topics. Widow of the South addresses California history-social studies standards in 8th grade about the Civil War. It also addresses several Common Core standards noted in the body of the text. It has many primary source documents, like diary entries, woven into the text. […]

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Categories: Books, Common Core, Education, Experience, history-social science • Tags: American Civil War, Carnton, Common Core Standard, Common Core State Standards Initiative, Education, English Language Arts, Franklin, Robert Hicks

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David Copperfield and the Common Core

September 30, 2012 by tchistorygal

A new blogging friend, Sharechair, blogged about a great Amazon offer of free audible books. I rushed to Amazon and downloaded about ten of them. The first one I listened to was David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, narrated by Simon Vance. Vance transports you to 1850s England in a time before cell phones, cars, planes, or any kind of easy communication that we have today. The wonderful fiction becomes a window to the world in that time period through the characters. […]

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Categories: Common Core, Education • Tags: Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Dicken, England, Language arts, Primary source, social studies

Technology and the Common Core Assessments

September 15, 2012 by tchistorygal

Because California is such a big state, the county offices of education (COEs) play a huge part in getting information and training out to districts from the California Department of Education (CDE.) For the past 15 years I worked at a county office of education. Since public education is governed by the state legislature, legislators, and the State Board of Education (SBE, a board appointed by the governor) dictate policies that affect what teachers do in the classroom. Much of […]

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Categories: Assessment, California, Common Core, Education, Experience, history-social science • Tags: Common Core, rubrics, technology in the classroom, technology requirements

Common Core FAQs Relative to History-Social Studies

September 8, 2012 by tchistorygal

Today our San Joaquin Valley Council for the Social Studies had their big planning meeting. One thing that came out of that was the need for a one page FAQ sheet for the Common Core Standards for Social Studies teachers in particular – to quell their fears of the unknown. This is all I got done this afternoon. See what you think of it, and tell me what else you thing should be on it.KNOWN ASSESSMENT FAQs • Common Core […]

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Categories: Assessment, CCSS, Common Core, Education, history-social science, SJVCSS • Tags: California, California Council, Common Core, Education, National Council for the Social Studies, Primary source, San Joaquin Valley Council for the Social Studies, Seattle, Social science, social studies

Authentic Assessments for History-Social Science

July 14, 2012 by tchistorygal

Introduction Multiple-choice, true false, short answer, matching, and other types of standardized tests target only factual knowledge at a recall level, and often do more to measure how well students take a test than what they actually know. Common Core standards and Smarter Balanced Assessments indicate that education is trying to move away from total dependence on that one type of assessment. Since the traditional summative tests don’t always measure what is important to measure, in some schools students won’t have […]

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Categories: Assessment, Common Core, Education, history-social science • Tags: Common Core Standards, Education, Mock Trial, Problem-based learning, Project-based learning

Fires of Jubilee

July 13, 2012 by tchistorygal

I’m reading this book in preparation for a book chat on September 17 for a completely different book,“Why Won’t You Just Tell Us the Answer?” by Bruce Lesh. I don’t think any author has inspired me to order books more than Bruce Lesh, and I’m really glad I ordered this one. My husband thought I paid too much because it cost me $4.00, and the book only cost $7.95 new. (Of course that was in 1990). Lesh’s lesson captured my […]

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Categories: Common Core, Education, history-social science • Tags: American Civil War, Nat Turner, Stephen B. Oates, Virginia

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Marsha Lee

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Category Archives: Common Core

Book Review: Soul’s Child

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WordPress Photo Challenge: Pattern

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Book Review: Entertaining an Elephant

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The Hilarity of Real Spam

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