ANDREA RUNNELS
Buckle your seat belts and put your listening ears on! Runnels’ Secrets Revealed! I am about to unveil my secret tricks to make ANYTHING in Social Studies more engaging. These tips will help you step up your Teacher Hustle game and hoodwink your students with very minimal effort. That’s always fun! It even works with 5th graders. Like daily.
Secret #1: Color Con
Occasionally print stuff for Interactive Notebooks on bright colored paper. Recently we were talking about the economics of Reconstruction. Sounds riveting, right? Well, when I copied their notes on fluorescent green paper it was! Green reminds me of money. Economics involves money! So easy way to remember that. Copy them 2 to a page if you don’t want to use up all your paper!
Secret #2: Fancy “Fontwork”
Even a test is more exciting if you use a fun font. Just look at the evidence. There is no excuse for anyone to not have cute fonts! There are tons of free ones on Teachers Pay Teachers. You don’t have to pay for some of the best ones (HELLO FONTS, KG FONTS) unless you need a commercial license. You can use them in the classroom for free! I use fun fonts for EVERYTHING at school. Even a spreadsheet (which I loathe) can become somewhat magical with a little whimsy in the print.
Secret #3: Clip Art Crash Course
Clip Art makes everything better. TRUST ME. I promise you can transform the most dull assignment ever by using a cutesy font and slapping some clip art there! If you use some sparkle, like Glitter Meets Glue Designs‘ products, bonus points! I bet if you are a Teacherpreneur, you probably have a hoard like I do. Get your money’s worth! I slap it on everything!
Secret #4: The Name Game
I saved the best for last. It’s all about semantics. Grab some caffeine and pony up. Throw in some enthusiasm with these hacks and your kids won’t know what hit them.
I found this pre-Instagram days, horrible quality picture of Fort Sumter I took and used it as a hook along with a song. Hook, line, and sinker honey. That’s because I called it a “History Mystery!!” You could call anything a mystery in SS and it suddenly sounds more intriguing. Another word that you could throw in the title of an activity is investigation. Ooohhhh, ahhhh we are going to be investigating. Not, “We are going to be learning about yada, yada, yada.” Please don’t.
More of the Name Game? Let me let you in on a secret about my Picture Dictionaries? They are STUDY GUIDES. Who wants to fill that out? Nobody! But a Picture Dictionary is a different story! Check out my post about how I used these in Interactive Notebooks here.
Another example of the use of semantics as a trick would be “learning stations.” Hopefully, you are doing “centers” or some kind of hands-on activities in Social Studies. If not, please refer to this History Hater Post. It’s pretty much a Teaching Social Studies 101. “Centers” sounds so Kindergarten and 1990s sounding. I teach 5th people. I call them “learning stations,” which makes it sound like something new and different.
Which one of these tips do you think you could use to pull a fast one over on your students? Or would you like to share one of your sneaky teacher secrets? Do you need more help with your hustle? I have started compiling my best tips into a series of ebooks called The Art of the Teacher Hustle: Setting Up S.S. for Success. Check out the first in the series by clicking on the picture!
