Announcements Kelly Bennett Announcements Kelly Bennett

Handwriting Contest for Students

Back in the day, it was more about how you wrote than what you wrote. There was something to that--still is if you ask the IRA!

Are you ready for a healthy, educational competition that rewards everyone, builds students' self-esteem, and generates positive public relations for your school?

Enter the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest—an annual event that Zaner-Bloser sponsors to promote legible handwriting. The contest is free to enter and open to all students in Grades 1–8.

Over $100,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded. Prize packages for students, teachers, and schools include an all-expenses-paid trip to IRA’s 57th Annual Convention in Chicago, Illinois, for the eight outstanding teachers of the Grand National Grade-Level Winners! Watch this video to learn more.

Give all your students the opportunity to win. Download contest entry forms today. The deadline to enter is January 23, 2012—National Handwriting Day.

Sincerely,

International Reading Association

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Notes Kelly Bennett Notes Kelly Bennett

Yanking Weeds

Every heard the saying, “Can’t see the garden for the weeds?” Revising a story is a lot like pulling weeds:

  • Not fun to think about
  • Easy to put off
  • Necessary
  • Not to be taken lightly—mustn’t yank carelessly or you could pull out something good.
  • Hard work—gotta dig down and get to the roots, or the problem will persist
  • And like pulling weeds, once you get started, ripping out all those unwanted/unnecessary weeds/words is satisfying—even fun, sort of... And, the end results make it all worthwhile!

The International Reading Association’s “Engage/Teacher to Teacher blog”  declared September 5-9th Revision Week. The postings are all there, ready and waiting for you to read and be inspired. Click back through postings from that week you'll find teaching tips from Newbery Honor winner Cynthia Lord, a podcast from Kate Messner (Real Revision), "5 Questions With” by Ruth Ayres and Stacey Shubitz (a.k.a. the Two Writing Teachers), among other revision-themed features.”

Now pull on those gardening gloves and let's get after it!

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