Introducing Teacher Talk's Featured Author for December...Socrates Lantern!

It's TEACHER TALK'S Featured Author

December 2017

Deann Marin

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Introducing Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

I taught SPED for many years and for most of that time I taught Emotionally Handicapped Middle Schoolers. My heart went out to them, mostly because of their tough and unfair homelives. Eventually, this took it's toll on me and burnout was inevitable. Since I have double certification, I can teach both SPED and Regular Ed. My dream job opened up when I was offered a 6th grade ELA/Social Studies position and got to co-teach with my best friend. Creating exciting lessons that would turn kids on to ancient history and make it come alive was my new challenge. I so loved seeing the excitement on their faces when they wrote and acted in plays, held debates, trials, and brought in mud bricks to school to make a class ziggurat. 

Now I'm retired and a full time teacherpreneur. I just had my new website built and am so excited to share my knowledge and products with everyone. I'll be starting an email series soon and would love to have you sign up. You'll receive entrance to my FREE resource gem library!

Socrates Lantern Specialties

My new site is for middle school children. My specialty is Ancient History and Language Arts. Another focus of mine is Character Building and Growth Mindset. I also have ESL/Spanish Resources.

Favorite Products

This product is 4 weeks of 5-10 minute warm-up exercises for the beginning of English that will help reinforce grammar, parts of speech, etc. There is a worksheet on nouns and verbs, 2 worksheets on Possessives, a writing prompt and grading rubric. It is used with 6th graders, but can be adapted for any grade level. You can also utilize this if you are teaching a foreign language. 

Best-Sellers

 My PBL History Bundle is one of my best seller sellers. This Project Based History Bundle is a set of hands on activities for your collaborative groups that is enticing, challenging and fun. When you see your kids being actively engaged and truly enjoying their learning experience, it will help you to once again discover a joy of learning with them.

So many kids love to role play, which they’ll do in these lessons. For your What is it Like to Be an Archaeologistsection, Students will break into groups of four and assume a specific role as they go on an imaginary archaeological expedition and find some broken up clay pots with strange markings. They’ll work as a team to assemble the fragments and draw conclusions about the symbols, and what these artifacts were used for.

My 6th graders had a ton of fun with this Sumerian Brick Building activity, called Become a Sumerian Brick Builder. After discussing the fact that the Sumerians were the first brick builders, which truly didn’t phase them, their assignment was to go home and build a brick out of mud just like these people of antiquity did. By bringing this lesson to life, they understood the difficulty in achieving this feat. They especially enjoyed bringing their bricks to school and building a class Ziggurat. Can you guess what their favorite part was? If you said, "knocking it down," you would have been correct.

Hammurabi’s Code of Law Debate goes hand in hand with what is happening in our world today. Controversy over certain laws, the second amendment, equal rights, health care, etc. Hammurabi’s laws are quite severe and kids have a great time debating whether or not they’re too harsh. This activity will help improve abstract thinking skills, public speaking, self image. They’ll also understand terms such as debate, argument, counter-claim, pro/con and so much more.

DON’T YOU JUST LOVE a mystery? My students did, they especially enjoyed being detectives and searching for clues surrounding Tutankhamen’s death in this project based lesson called, Was King Tut Murdered? A Web Quest, Trial & Persuasive Writing activity. This collaborative group project has them taking on different roles for the web quest and trial. Finally, they’ll be asked to write a persuasive essay.

The last activity is a Greek Theater Unit which includes a 17 slide Power Point Introduction to give your students useful background images and information to help understand vocabulary and concepts for completing the activity. In addition, the kiddos will learn why and how the first theater came about. Then they’ll work in collaborative groups to write and present plays in the style of the ancient Greeks. 

The Author's Favorite

One of my favorite products is my Year of Graphic Organizers! 
IF COMING UP WITH INTERESTING PRE-WRITING ACTIVITIES for your kiddos has been a chore, I’ve got you covered with “A Year of Graphic Organizers.” Imagine never having to take the time out of your busy schedule to create them again. They’re put together in a neat little package for you to pick and choose at your discretion.

No Language Arts program is complete without a SET OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS that can be implemented by both new and veteran teachers. You'll love them because they're engaging, creative and fun. There are many to choose from so your students won't get bored and you'll never have to use the same one twice, unless you want to. 

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I truly am thankful for all the wonderful people I've met whom I consider my friends.