Education Short List

Halloween is just around the corner; and this is a fun time for teachers to bring in creative lessons, plus some arts and crafts. But what about older students? Or for children who don’t celebrate Halloween? Do they just get left out? Unfortunately that answer is usually yes. I actually had a girl whose family did not want her celebrating or participating in holiday activities. I always felt so bad for her, missing out.

Here, I have found several sites with lessons that incorporate the general fun feeling of Halloween, ones that create learning lessons for older students, others are focused on the seasons, another brings a thought provoking lesson into the history of Halloween, one tells us about what our Halloween costumes really say, and a few surprises. This list of lessons and sites should give teachers the chance to incorporate something different without excluding any of their students.

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http://www.edhelper.com/halloween.htm

http://www.edhelper.com/pumpkins.htm

http://www.edhelper.com/DailyThemes_November_1_2.html

http://www.edhelper.com/Autumn.htm

http://www.tolerance.org/activity/what-do-halloween-costumes-say

http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Halloween/

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/teaching-topics/teaching-topics-halloween/

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/the-horror-the-horror/

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2002/10/31/frighteningly-fabulous-festivals/

This morning as I listened to NPR, I heard about new letters of Lord Byron’s that are being sold for auction. The broadcast focused on the letters and the sale, and pending purchase, of the letters. But for me, I thought, “Wow, what a great learning opportunity.” For high school, or any poetry teaching instructors, that they could integrate this story and then begin a lesson on this missing letters.

I hope that you find it as captivating as I did.

The Poet himself

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114215445

Lord Byron Story, as told on NPR’s Morning Edition
http://Lord Byron, Morning Edition, NPR