Downloading Teaching Materials is Tricky Business

I have officially spent money on .pdf teaching guides now and I have mixed feelings.  Teacher's Pet Publications has earned my respect.  I downloaded two of their literature plans and was really impressed.  Over a hundred pages of supplemental material is well worth $15-$30 (price appears to only depend on what format you choose).  Unfortunately...

Not all of my downloading experiences have been positive.  Perhaps TPP has spoiled me with the value and cost of their materials.  I also downloaded from Prestwick House, which on the surface appears to be a more established and reliable source... so it didn't bother me so much paying a whole 29.99 for just a pdf (which, for the same price at Teacher's Pet Publications, I could have gotten the pdf and a hard copy).  To my surprise, the pdf was less than 30 pages.

Why pay 30 bucks for a 30 page pdf file when you could get a 130 page pdf file for around half the price?  Good question.  Needless to say, I feel pretty ripped off by Prestwick House and I can't see myself buying anything from them again.  I know this blog doesn't get a lot of attention, but I hope that anyone who does read this will pass along this warning:

Prestwick House is a ripoff, and I would be leery of any other .pdf selling company that doesn't post page counts for their products.

Teacher's Pet Publications

My wife just introduced me to Teacher's Pet Publications.  This site is an awesome resource for anyone looking for a ton of language arts teaching materials for a decent price.  She is already using some of the materials, and I will likely download several of the pdf files soon (using Dracula for my English IV group this year!).

Online Calculators

These definitely aren't tools that I will likely use in the classroom, but they might be useful to anyone teaching math or science.

Check out web2.0calc by clicking here.
Check out eCalc by clicking here.

Writing Project

This is what my students are currently working on. It is a pretty easy concept, with creative writing, vocabulary usage, and sentence diagramming all wrapped up in a relatively easy to complete package.

Download this Writing Project here!

Edit: In hindsight, this was probably one of the worst projects I have ever assigned.  Not only were the directions difficult to follow, but they also included quite a few unnecessary requirements.  While I still liked the idea of the project, my execution was less than spectacular and my students' work reflected my own shortcomings.

Interactive Seminar PowerPoint

I created this PowerPoint in an attempt to contain an exceptionally loud group of students and it worked wonders. We passed a ball around the room, and students were only permitted to speak when they were holding the ball. This PowerPoint has the potential to turn any ordinary class discussion into a game-like activity, but for me the most important part was adding an immediate penalty for speaking out of turn. It forces the overpowering personalities to give the more passive students a chance to share their ideas.


The presentation doesn't look like much at first, but it is interactive. The teacher can click on different parts of the screen and show exactly how many points each student in the class has earned and/or lost.

Each time a student adds something relevant to the discussion, he gains points toward the participation grade. This is shown in the green columns. Each time a student contributes positively to the discussion, click the appropriate cell and record the increase in points.

On the other hand, the red columns are to be clicked when students break the rules. For each offense, students lose 10 points from the participation grade (and the point penalty lights up when you click on the correct cell). If the student is already down 30 points and still can't control himself, he gets a one way ticket to In School Suspension.

Download the Interactive Seminar PowerPoint!

Plot Diagram PowerPoint

This is a simple PowerPoint I created to introduce my students to the plot diagram. The presentation walks the students through the five parts of the diagram, explaining each one. The first slide has only the exposition, as shown below.
The second slide gives the definition for exposition.

Then, the third slide adds rising action to the diagram.

By the end of the show, each part of the diagram will have been located and defined.

Download the Plot Diagram PowerPoint!

Welcome!

Welcome to Teaching on the Front, a blog about an educator teaching on what I call the front line: in an alternative school. Many days, work feels like a war zone, hence the name of the blog. However, do not let the blog's title fool you; I love my job. My kids are the best, even if they are the kids that nobody else seems to want.

In this blog, I will discuss some strategies that I use in the classroom to maintain order (which can be relatively impossible at times). I will also be posting links to education resources and posting free downloads of my own.