Every year while I get ready on the first day of school I watch this amazing teacher on youtube. His name is Tyler Hester and has written some great things about teaching. I tend to speak fast and move quickly;  he reminds me to be patient and extremely clear. If you struggle with classroom management...this is the video for you.

California just adopted new History Standards for all Grade levels just this past June. They look ALOT different than the previous ones. Just take a look HERE. I made a reading Summary for the Rome Unit for 7th Grade based on the Standards they just published, please modify it to suit your classroom needs. 

When I was in BTSA we had to create an end of the year culminating project that demonstrated our growth as an educator over the year. I created a Mixbook (online scrapbook that you can print into a beautiful book). I used Mixbook for my wedding album years before and I was so impressed with the high quality as well as the inexpensive rates (around 23 dollars plus shipping) for a gorgeous book that I have been using the online service since.

Every year since, I have been creating a book to catalogue my work as well as my students hard work over the year. Its great because now I have tons of evidence of my work that I can share with administrators, colleagues, parents, friends, families...and great for interviews (I swear I landed a teaching job just based on these books)! 

How it works: take digital photos over the year of your classroom, field trips, planning, PD, you teaching, student work, and club activities (I did on my cell phone). At the end of the year upload all our photos to Mixbook.com and use some of their pre-made templates to just drop in the photos. It usually takes me about 3 hours to complete one, but you can save your work and come back to it later. It takes a few weeks to deliver (but there are expensive rush options too). I always wait for sales or discounts to come around (every couple of months) to get a good discount.