The Creative Teacher: An Encyclopedia of Ideas to Energize Your Curriculum (McGraw-Hill Teacher Resources) [Paperback]

Steve Springer (Author), Brandy Alexander (Author), Kimberly Persiani (Author)

Book Description

Series: McGraw-Hill Teacher Resources | Publication Date: August 1, 2006

A comprehensive, practical resource packed with proven techniques and seasoned advice for time-strapped educators

For teachers of grades K-6

Facing ever-more-demanding state standards and less disciplined students, even the most experienced teacher carries a heavier burden today than ever before. The Creative Teacher offers inventive tools to enhance standards-based curricula and helpful strategies for creating new and engaging lesson plans. Fillled with fresh ideas for everything from bulletin boards to math activities, this one-stop resource will quickly become the most valuable volume in your library.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Give your lesson plans a jolt of creativity and get better results from your students.

To keep your students engaged in the classroom, you have to get them excited about learning. From the authors of The Organized Teacher, this indispensable volume offers hundreds of creative ideas to reenergize your lesson plans for any subject, across all grades--from waking up the tired book report to making math fun.

Just a few of the ideas inside The Creative Teacher:

• "I woke up five inches tall" and other quick-start creative-writing prompts
• Larger writing projects, such as classroom newspapers, minibooks, autobiographies, and storyboards
• Do-it-themselves student cutouts for 3-D geometry
• How-it-works science experiments with electricity, ice cream, volcanoes--even how to make flubber
• Enthusiasm-generating math tools--from clock and fraction templates to creating your own money
• Cultural, historic, and family-tree ideas for social studies reports . . . and more!

INCLUDES DOZENS OF REPRODUCIBLE PAGES YOU CAN USE NOW!

About the Author

Kimberly Persiani-Becker, Ed.D., is an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction at California State University. She lectures frequently at national teachers' conferences in the United States and Canada.

Steve Springer and Brandy Alexander are both mentors and master teachers with years of classroom experience in both private and public schools. They are the coauthors of The Organized Teacher.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071472800
• ISBN-13: 978-0071472807
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Exercise & Fitness > Alexander Technique

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource!, May 31, 2007

By 

C. Ruppert (Charleston, WV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Creative Teacher: An Encyclopedia of Ideas to Energize Your Curriculum (McGraw-Hill Teacher Resources) (Paperback)

I bought this book last year while working on a unit plan for my student teaching. I really needed some creative new ideas for teaching literature and I found some really awesome activities! Although this book is recommended for grades k-6, most of the activities are easily adaptable up to grade 8 or higher. I taught two of these lessons with eighth graders last year and they loved them! It is by far the best teacher resource book I own-- and I have many.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Useful Book!!, September 2, 2006

By 

Patti Miller "sweetmiracle" (Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Creative Teacher: An Encyclopedia of Ideas to Energize Your Curriculum (McGraw-Hill Teacher Resources) (Paperback)

I got this book out of the library, thinking that it would be yet another book of mostly useless forms, overdone tips and assorted badly-done artwork...but, happily, I was wrong!

There are nearly three hundred pages of open-ended worksheets, writing ideas, report guides and forms, science experiments, art projects, all with suggested grade levels and very nice drawings.

This book would be useful for many different people - from classroom teachers to homeschooling families to parents who want to help their kids write more creatively.

I can't wait until my copy arrives!

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book!, August 1, 2008

By 

Sandra Carter (Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Creative Teacher: An Encyclopedia of Ideas to Energize Your Curriculum (McGraw-Hill Teacher Resources) (Paperback)

This book for K-6 has a huge amount of graphics for everything from book reports, math, science, social studies and writing to great activities for all of these as well as great art projects. I am a writing teacher so I was particularly interested in the writing activities and graphics organizers. They are awesome! For example, there is one writing activity I found to be really interesting. It is an autobiography recipe. Students write about their personality in the form of a recipe. Very cute idea. I think the ideas can and will be exciting for my writing students. I also teach social studies. There are some great ideas for that subject as well. Everything in the book is great.