Teaching Tip: How Do You Make Graphing Fun For Kids?

We posed this question to our staff members. The continuous answer we received was to make an activity that relates to their everyday world. It seems like whenever we ask teachers how to make things fun for students, we always receive that answer.

A great example of making graphing fun and relevant is an activity we call "Now That's Using Your Head!" In this activity students compare the size of their head to how high or far they can jump. It is also great because it has a kinesthetic element; students love to move around.

Another fun graphing activity is our Jelly Bean Sorting activity. Students get a handful of jelly beans and they report back on the different colors they were given using a simple bar graph.

You can find all of these lessons ready to print on our General Science page.

You will also find over 30 graphing practice activities on our graphing worksheets page.

Don't forget to check out our complete step-by-step graphing curriculum available in our ultimate graphing series.

Inspirationals...

A Student's Prayer for her Teacher

Dear Lord, bless these teachers mightily as they seek to teach, enrich and guide
Your precious children.
Grant them abundant resources to do their job, intelligence, wisdom, sensitivity, kindness, and the material things that make it possible
to turn some of these tender green plants into the strong, stable trees that will lead our nation, to transform some of these buds into brilliant flowers
that will bring light, color and happiness to all who encounter them,
and to give every one of them the tools to be creative, and productive and to develop their own kind of success in the world.
Lord, wrap Your loving arms around these teachers who give so much of themselves to grow our youth into creative, responsible adults.
We pray that You will immerse them in your boundless, transcendent love.
We pray that You will strengthen and soothe them when they have given so much of themselves that they need Your extra attention, Your extra care.
We love, respect and admire these teachers, Lord and we pray that you will watch over them always-- these special people who hold our children
and our future in their hands.
Amen.

Personal Prayer...

Lord, help me to be more productive - both personally and professionally. Give me the discipline to break through procrastination and be motivated to move forward. Give me the discernment to ensure my priorities are aligned with your priorities for me. I want to bear “much fruit.” Help me be fruitful in my relationships, finances, health and work! Amen.

Valerie Burton

WHAT TEACHERS MAKE....
The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life.

One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."

To stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?"

Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want to know what I make? (She paused for a second, then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor.
I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents
can't make them sit for 5 without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental.

"You want to know what I make?" (She paused again and looked at each
and every person at the table.)

''I make kids wonder.
I make them question.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.
I teach them to write and then I make them write.
Keyboarding isn't everything.
I make them read, read, read.
I make them show all their work in math.
They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator.
I make my students from other countries learn everything they need
to know English while preserving their unique cultural identity.
I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.
I make my students stand, placing their hand over their heart to say the
Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, One Nation Under God, because we
live in the United States of America.
Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given,
work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life."

(Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.)

"Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant...
You want to know what I make?

I MAKE A DIFFERENCE. What do you make Mr. CEO?"

His jaw dropped, he went silent.

A Teachers’ Prayer

I want to teach my students how--
To live this life on earth,
To face its struggles and its strife
And to improve their worth.

Not just the lesson in a book,
Or how the rivers flow,
But to choose the proper path,
Wherever they may go.

To understand eternal truth,
And know right from wrong,
And gather all the beauty of
A flower and a song,

For if I help the world to grow
In wisdom and grace,
Then I feel that I have won
And I have filled my place.

And so I ask your guidance, God
That I may do my part,
For character and confidence
And happiness of heart.

Tribute to a Teacher

He was a teacher - this was the first and most vivid impression he gave. He was one whose personality did not contract into his profession, but on the contrary his calling, for it was more than an occupational pursuit, broadened and streamed into his entire being.

He was a teacher, and therefore he was a poetic sensitivity to growth, to enlargement. Only a poet hears the grass grow, witness the flowers in their actual blossoming, beholds the ripening in process in field and meadow. And only a teacher actually sees the seedling of the youthful mind reaching out for the light, germinating and sprouting under the touch of an inspired gardener.

He was a teacher and therefore a creative artist working in the most precious and intricate of all media - the human complex of mind and heart and conscience. To mold and to evoke, to guide and to ignit and yet not to trespass upon the inner integrity and individuality of the child - this was the incredibly difficult and significant task upon which he was set.

He was a teacherm and therefore one who is forever bent on the greatest adveture of all, the exploration of another's mind, the delving into another spirit to mine, uncover and bring forth into into the light the possibilities that lie hidden in the deeps. No diver descended into the sea in search of treasure, no explorer journeyed to unknown continents with greater anticipation and higher excitement.

He was a teacher, and therefore he loved his fellowman. Neither his skill nor his intelligence were substituted for the love which led him to devote himself to the instruction of his neighbor and his neighbor's child.

He was a teacher and therefore one who revered the word, honored ideas, exalted thought and fostered the great dream. He was a teacher and knew with conviction that the hope of men lies not in their machines or in their power or in their uncultivated ego but in the refinement, mutuality and sensitivity which the thinker, poet, saint and dreamer awaken in them. He sought to redeem men, not by enlarging their mastery over the outer world but by cultivating their inner universe.

Rabbi Morris Adler

Education is...

the formation of habits of judgment and the development of character, the elevation of standards, the facilitation of understanding, the development of taste and discrimination, the stimulation of curiosity and wondering, the fostering of style and a sense of beauty, the growth of a thrist for new ideas and vision of the yet unknown.

Israel S.

Choose

I choose to invest in myself so that i can increase my values to others.

I chose to learn and grow as a professional.

I choose to read professionally.

I choose to go to conference.

I choose to avoid thoughts of people who limit me.

I choose to work cooperatively with colleagues, family, team.

I choose to stop blaming my circumstances and the responsibility to create my circumstances.

I choose to stop surviving and existing and will start taking small risk to create incremental growth.

I choose to identify what i want to do with my life and i will do it. I will own it.

I choose to choose!

Reflections...

I have come to a freightening conclusion.

I am the decisive element in the classroom.

It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

As a TEACHER i possess tremendous power,

to make a child's life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.

I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.

In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated,

and a child humanized or dehumanized.

- H. Ginott

God Created Teachers

On the 6th day, God created men and women.

On the 7th day, he rested, not so much to recuperate, but rather to prepare himself for the work he was going to do on the next day. For it was on that day-the 8th day-that God created the FIRST TEACHER.

This TEACHER, though taken from among men and women, had several significant modifications. In general, God made the TEACHER more durable than other men and women.

The TEACHER was made to arise at a very early hour and to go to bed no earlier than 11:30 p.m.-with no rest in between. The TEACHER had to be able to withstand being locked up in an airtight classroom for six hours with thirty-five "monsters" on a rainy Monday. And the TEACHER had to be fit to correct 103 term papers over Easter vacation.

Yes, God made the TEACHER tough...but gentle too. The TEACHER was equipped with soft hands to wipe away the tears of the neglected and lonely student...of those of the sixteen year old girl who was not asked to the prom.

And into the TEACHER God poured a generous amount of patience. Patience when a student asks to repeat the directions the TEACHER has just repeated for someone else. Patience when the kids forget their lunch money for the fourth day in a row. Patience when one-third of the class fails the test. Patience when the text books haven't arrived yet, and the semester starts tomorrow.

And God gave the TEACHER a heart slightly bigger than the average human heart. For the TEACHER'S heart had to be big enough to love the kid who screams, "I hate this class-it's boring!" and to love the kid who runs out of the classroom at the end of the period without so much as a "good-bye," let alone a "thank you."

And lastly, God gave the TEACHER an abundant supply of HOPE. For God knew that the TEACHER would always be hoping. Hoping that the kids would someday learn how to spell...
hoping not to have lunchroom duty...
hoping that Friday would come...
hoping for a free day....
hoping for deliverance.

When God finished creating the TEACHER, he stepped back and admired the work of his hands. And God saw that the TEACHER was good. Very Good!
And God smiled, for when he looked at the TEACHER, he saw into the future that his son will dwell among the humans and he would be called TEACHER.

Author Unknown

Perspectives...

100 Great Report Card Comments For Students

Are you using the same comments on your report card, and starting to feel like it is mundane work? Here are some great report card comments that you might consider using. When writing comments on a report card, the most important thing to remember is to be honest about a student's progress.

96. _____ takes pride in his work.

97. _____ needs to concentrate better.

98. _____ cares about the other students in her class.

99. _____ does not work well without direct supervision

100. _____ is often tired during school hours

Keep in mind that you should elaborate on the things that you comment on. Parents/guardians appreciate tips on how they can help their child improve, if they failing at something. It also makes sense to tell the parents/guardians what you are trying in class to correct a situation, so they can do the same at home.

An excellent observer sees an object, creates a succinct representation of the object, and then naturally interrogates what they see.

Harry Weekes

14 Learner Centered Psychological Principles

The learning of complex subject matter is most effective when it is an intentional process of constructing meaning from information and experience.
The successful learner, over time and with support and instructional guidance, can create meaningful, coherent representations of knowledge.
The successful learner can link new information with existing knowledge in meaningful ways.
The successful learner can create and use a repertoire of thinking and reasoning strategies to achieve complex learning goals.
Higher order strategies for selecting and monitoring mental operations facilitate creative and critical thinking.
Learning is influenced by environmental factors, including culture, technology and instructional practices.
What and how much is learned is influenced by the learner’s motivation. Motivation to learn, in turn, is influenced by the individual’s emotional states, beliefs, interests and goals and habits of thinking.
The learner’s creativity, higher order thinking and natural curiosity all contribute to motivation to learn. Intrinsic motivation is stimulated by tasks of optimal novelty and difficulty, relevant to personal interests, and providing for personal choice and control.
Acquisition of complex knowledge and skills requires extended learner effort and guided practice. Without learners’ motivation to learn, the willingness to exert this effort is unlikely without coercion.
As individuals develop, there are different opportunities and constraints for learning. Learning is most effective when differential development within and across physical, intellectual, emotional and social domains is taken into account.
Learning is influenced by social interactions, interpersonal relations and communication with others.
Learners have different strategies, approaches and capabilities for learning that are a function of prior experience and heredity.
Learning is most effective when differences in learners’ linguistic, cultural and social backgrounds are taken into account.
Setting appropriately high and challenging standards and assessing the learner as well as learning progress—including diagnostic, process and outcome assessment—are integral parts of the learning process.

Art of Classroom Questioning

by Nilda R. Sunga

What is a question?

1. A question is meant to elicit a response, either verbally or nonverbally.

2. A question is a specialized sentence which begins with the interrogative operator and ends with a question mark.

3. A question implicitly states a directive: while a directive implicitly states a question. the 2 elicit responses, but they are never interchangeable.

4. A statement, normally, can become a question if the speaker reads it with appropriate voice inflection. When in written form, however, a question mark is used.

5. A question can be defined based on how it is structured / formed. It may come in the form of a yes/no question, or-question, wh-question, or tag question.

Purposes of Questions

1. Questions initiate learning by:

a. arousing learner interest, and

b. making the learner focus on a given topic or issue.

2. Questions guide learning by;

a. making the learner preview / comprehend a text using a graphic organizer,

b. making the learner focus on significant parts of a given text prior to actual reading and

c. redirecting student thinking

3. Questions are used to assess learning.

Low-Level Questions

Low level questions as those questions which require / enable the learner to:

1. retrieve / recall facts, events, happenings explicitly stated in the text;

2. repeat a definition/s which are found in the text;

3. exercise his memory;

4. give limited and specific answers and

5. give a single correct answer.

High-Level Questions

1. It make the learner do more than mere recall of information.

2. It require the learner to translate and to interpret information

3. It call upon the learner to apply information through his understanding of basic concepts

4. It require the learner to analyze information.

5. It ask the learner to synthesize information.

6. It ask the learner to make judgments or valuing.

Sequences of Questions

1. Extending - a string of questions of the same type and on the sme topic.

Ex. Which Filipino writer in English do you like best?, What about you ___?, Let's go back to ___ asnwer. Why did you say you like Rosca the best?

2. Extending and lifting - initial questions request examples and instances of the same type; followed by a leap to a different type of question.

Ex. You said you like Rosaca? Why is that so?, Why do you like her stories?

3. Funneling - begins with an open question and proceeds to narrow down to single deductions and recall or to reasons and problem solving.

Ex. Yesterday, we said that there are 4 types of conditional and these are types 1, 2, 3, and 4. Let's go back to type 1 conditional. What characterizes type 1 conditional class?, Let me write this sample sentence on the board ___., Lets look at the sentence once again and divide it into 2 parts., Where can we divide the sentence?, Would you like to come to the board and show to the class how it's done?, That's very good, ___! Now which of the 2 parts sets the condition?, Okay. What about the second part, ___?, Very good, ___. Is this thing likely to happen, class? Yes, ___?, Okay. What then characterizes typoe 1 conditional?

4. Sowing and reaping - problems posed, open questions asked, followed by more specific questions and restatement of initial problem.

Ex. What do you think will happen to this?, Why do you say that?, Do you agree with him?

5. Step-by-step up - a sequence of questionsd moving systematically from recall to problem solving, evaluation or open-ended questions.

Ex. If you were Maria or Tony, would you not habe been afraid to fall in love with the wrong race either?, What did we say was the reason for Chino to kill Tony?, Was it right for Chino to have done that?, Do you agree with her class?, Let's go back to the title of the play. Could you give me the exact title of the play?, Is the title appropriate for the events in the play?

6. Step-by-step down - begins with evaluation quesitons and moves systematically through problem solving toward direct recall.

Ex. What is the manana habit?, Do most Filipino have this habit? Do you believe in it?, Why? Why not

7. Nose dive - begins with evaluation and problem solving and then moves straight to simple recall

Ex. As a member of ther baranggay how can you make your community clean?, What do you mean by this? Can you explain further?, That's good, ___. What then is being good citizen as described by the author?

Questioning Techniques

Teachers may 4 questioning techniques effectively in teaching:

1. Redirection is a questioning technique which increases student participation and prevents teacher domination.

2. Prompting uses hints and clues to assist a student to come up with a response successfully.

3. Probing is a questioning technique which deals with insufficient answers. It promotes reflectivew thought and critical thinking.

There are at least 7 probing techniques and these are:

a. Probing for clarification

b. Probing for support

c. Probing for consensus

d. Probing for accuracy

e. Probing for relevance

f. Probing for examples

g. Probing for complexity

4. Wait time is the amount of time teachers wait adter asking a question or more. It is the time teachers spend in waiting for students to respond.

Effective Questioning and the Problem on How to Develop Concepts

1. Students need assistance in the development of concepts.

2. The concept developement teaching model can be used to help learner develop concepts on their own.

3. Effective questioning is the key to concept development because it is meant to develop critical thinking skills.

Effective Questioning and Text Organization

1. Top-level structure analysis can be done on an expository writing material and on a narrative text.

2. Top-level structure analysis shows how superordinate or major ideas relate to subordinate or minor ideas.

3. Top-level structure analysis of a text selection can facilitate the reader's understanding of a given material as well as his/her retention of information.

4. Top-level structure analysis enables the teacher to formulate effective questions because the elements that make up an expository material or a short story serve as guideposts for the teacher to base the questions on.

5. The results of the top-level structure analysis enable the reader to give better responses since s/he is guided along the way by the text patterns found in an expository material and the elements in a short story.

6. Top-level structure analysis can develop critical thinking skills in the reader since most of the questions used in the analysis of a given text are high-level questions.

Handling Student Responses

Possible ways of handling wrong and "I-don't-know" answers:

1. Acknowledge the wrong answer but refocus the student's attention on the question.

2. Contextualize the problem and make the leaner identify himself with it.

3. Decompose the question from high-level to simple, factual questions.

4. Offer lead questions as deemed necessary.

Inspiring Quotes

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."
Benjamin Franklin

"There is no education like adversity."
Benjamin Disraeli

To me, education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul."
Muriel Spark

"A teacher should have maximal authority, and minimal power. "
Thomas Szaz

The true aim of every one who aspires to be a teacher should be, not to impart his own opinions, but to kindle minds."
Plutarch

"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe."
H.G. Wells

"Bitter are the roots of study, but how sweet their fruit."
Cato

"I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well."
Alexander the Great

"Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime."
Chinese Proverb

"Great teachers empathize with kids, respect them, and believe that each one has something special that can be built upon."
Ann Lieberman

"The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher."
Elbert Hubbard

"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery."
Mark Van Doren

"There is no education like adversity."
Benjamin Disraeli

"A man should never be ashamed to own he has been wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday."
Alexander Pope

"Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers."
Tennyson

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."
William Arthur Ward

"Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task."
Haim G. Ginott

"To think is to differ."
Clarence Darrow

There is more to life than increasing its speed.
Mohandes Gandhi

"Education should turn out the pupil with something he knows well and something he can do well."
Alfred North Whitehead

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Albert Einstein

Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.”
— Joshua J. Marine

“Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.”
— Arthur Koestler

“Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.”
— George E. Woodberry

“A good education is like a savings account; the more you put into it, the richer you are.”
— Anonymous

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
— Plato

“I am not a teacher, but an awakener.”
— Robert Frost

Education is the mother of leadership.”
— Wendell L. Willkie

“Once children learn how to learn, nothing is going to narrow their mind. The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another.”
— Marva Collins

“Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.”
— Josef Albers

“Most of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us. Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives.”
— Rooney, Andy

“Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.”
— Ginott, Haim G.

“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”
— Cynthia Ozick

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
— Proverb

Teach a child how to think, not what to think.”
— Sidney Sugarman

“When you teach your son, you teach your son´s son.”
— The Talmud

“It´s easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.”
— Tom Brokaw

“The job of an educator is to teach students to see the vitality in themselves.”
— Joseph Campbell

“Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre.”
— Gail Godwin

“If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others.”
— Tryon Edwards

“In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day´s work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.”
— Jacques Barzun

“A good teacher is a master of simplification and an enemy of simplism.”
— Louis A. Berman

“We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.”
— Ben Sweetland

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We shouldn´t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.”
— B. F. Skinner

“Teaching is the highest form of understanding.”
— Aristotle

“It isn't the load that weighs us down - it's the way we carry it.”
— Anonymous

“Education is the transmission of civilization.”
— Will Durant

“The work can wait while you show the child the rainbow, but the rainbow won't wait while you do the work.”
— Patricia Clafford

“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”
— Cynthia Ozick

“I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.”
— Edith Ann

“If you would thoroughly know anything, teach it to others.”
— Tryon Edwards

“Education is the best provision for old age.”
— Aristotle

“A good teacher is like a candle: it consumes itself to light the way for others.”
— Anonymous

In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.”
— Jacques Barzun

“I touch the future. I teach”
— Christa McAuliffe

“To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching.”
— Henri Frederic Amiel

“Nine-tenths of education is encouragement.”
— Anatole France

“We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.”
— Ben Sweetland

“A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom in the pupils.”
— Ever Garrison

“Teachers are those who use themselves as bridges, over which they invite their students to cross; then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.”
— Nikos Kazantzakis

“I am a teacher. A teacher is someone who leads. There is no magic here. I do not walk on water, I do not part the sea. I just love children.”
— Marva Collins

“A teacher's constant task is to take a roomful of live wires and see to it that they're grounded.”
— E.C. McKenzie

“Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”
— Malcolm Stevenson Forbes

“The best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer everybody else up.”
— Mark Twain

“What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.”
— Karl Menninger

“A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.”
— Patricia Nea

“Education is the transmission of civilization.”
— Will Durant

“Nine-tenths of education is encouragement.”
— Anatole France

“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”
— Mark van Doren

“What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.”
— Soren Kierkegaard

“I touch the future. I teach.”
— Christa McAuliffe

“Wit is educated insolence.”
— Aristotle

“A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others.”
— Unknown

“A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom in the pupils.”
— Ever Garrison

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
— Derek Bok

“Education is the best provision for old age.”
— Aristotle

“Be quick to praise, slower to criticize.”
— Mark Twain

“Teach the children so that it will not be necessary to teach the adults.”
— Abraham Lincoln

“By viewing the old we learn the new.”
— Chinese Proverb

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”
— Henry Ford

“A teacher should have maximal authority, and minimal power.”
— Thomas Szaz

“Teachers teach because they care. Teaching young people is what they do best. It requires long hours, patience, and care.”
— Horace Mann

“To know how to suggest is the art of teaching.”
— Henri Frederic Amiel

“You don't have to be a ”person of influence” to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they've taught me.”
— Scott Adams

“We think too much about effective methods of teaching and not enough about effective methods of learning.”
— John Carolus S.J.

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
— William Arthur Ward

“A good teacher must be able to put himself in the place of those who find learning hard.”
— Eliphas Levi

46 WAYS TO SAY "VERY GOOD"

Be proud of the way you worked today!

Congratulations!

Exactly right

Fantastic!

Good for you

Good going!

Good job!

Good thinking!

Good work

Great!

I like that!