Stones of Erasmus — Just plain good writing, teaching, thinking, doing, making, being, dreaming, seeing, feeling, building, creating, reading
12.3.24
Energize Students with Quick Activity: Critical Thinking & Movement for Engagement
10.3.24
Language Meets Art: Exploring 'Amor' and 'Caritas' in Augustus-Saint-Gaudens’ Work at The Met 🌟🖼️
Explore the captivating intersection of language and art in Augustus Saint-Gaudens' masterpiece, Amor and Caritas, at The Met. A linguistic and artistic journey awaits, unveiling the roots of love and charity in this gilt bronze treasure. Perfect for educators and art enthusiasts.
2.10.23
Day 16 of 180: Acknowledging I'm #TeacherTired While Asking Students to Go Deeper in Their Writing
29.8.23
Prudence, Wisdom, and Self-Care: The Uncommon Story of Zeus and Metis
We've all heard of Zeus, the King of the Gods, known for his godly escapades and tumultuous love affairs. However, little is spotlighted about Metis, Zeus’s first wife and the Greek personification of prudence. Often sidelined by mainstream mythological tales, the story of Zeus and Metis carries essential lessons on prudence, wisdom, and self-care—virtues that have seemingly fallen by the wayside in today's fast-paced world.
The Misunderstanding of Prudence
Unfortunately, prudence often suffers from a negative connotation, easily confused with being a prude or overly cautious. Yet, the virtue signifies the art of making thoughtful and balanced decisions that bring the least harm and greatest good. A case in point is Prudential, one of America’s leading insurance companies, built on the very tenets of safeguarding and caution.
The Transformative Tale of Zeus and Metis
In Greek mythology, Metis embodies the virtue of prudence. Pursued by Zeus, she transforms into various animals to escape his advances—a common trope in Greek mythology. Zeus, afraid that Metis would bear a child more powerful than him, swallows her whole. While this may seem like the end for Metis, she continues to live within Zeus, imparting wisdom and prudential advice.
Wisdom Versus Prudence
The child born from this unique union is Athena, the goddess of wisdom. However, it's suggested that Athena lacks the maternal warmth that defined Metis. Herein lies the nuanced difference between wisdom and prudence: wisdom often focuses on knowledge and rational decisions, while prudence adds an emotional layer, emphasizing care for oneself and others.
The Self-Care Connection
The Living Legacy of Metis
While Metis might have met an unfortunate end, her essence lived on, both in Zeus’s wisdom and Athena’s intellect. This eternal legacy serves as a lesson that prudence, wisdom, and self-care are deeply intertwined virtues, worth much more than their misunderstood reputations.
Through the tale of Zeus and Metis, we find a treasure trove of life lessons waiting to be applied in our own lives. Far from being forgotten, their story teaches us that prudence is not a constraint.
Find Mythology Content and More! On the Stones of Erasmus Store |
5.4.23
Creation Myths of Ancient India: World Mythology Series for the Middle and High School Humanities Classroom
From the soaring Himalayas to the tropical coastline, the Indian subcontinent's diverse geography has shaped India's rich and complex history. |
Ancient India boasts a host of creation myth traditions. |
cycles of creation and destruction. The creation of the universe is said to begin when the Buddha Amitabha creates a pure land, a perfect world where beings can attain enlightenment.
- Provide Context: Before diving into the creation myths, provide students with some background on ancient India, its religions, and its culture. This will help students understand the significance of these myths and appreciate their cultural and historical context.
- Engage in Close Reading: Read the creation myths with your students and encourage them to analyze the language, themes, and symbols used in the text. This can be a great way to build critical thinking and analysis skills.
- Compare and Contrast: Compare and contrast the creation myths from ancient India with creation myths from other cultures. This can help students see the similarities and differences between different worldviews and gain a broader perspective on human history and culture.
- Explore Art and Literature: Creation myths from ancient India have inspired a wealth of art and literature. Encourage students to explore visual art, literature, and music that are inspired by these myths. This can be a great way to connect with the myths on a deeper level and explore their cultural significance.
I sell a ton of Humanities-based educational digital downloads on my TpT store and on Made by Teachers. Check 'em out! |
30.6.22
Clip Art: Cosmic School Teacher
16.12.21
Stones of Erasmus Teacher's Planner: Teach the Mythology of the Titan Gods and Goddesses with Middle and High School Students (Or, How to Make Mythology Relevant for Adolescent English Language Arts Students)
In this post, I briefly outline why it is both a challenge and a reward to teach mythology as a unit in a middle and high school classroom!
Last year my students sat at desks with plexiglass screens, but we were still able to engage in meaningful conversations (including the meaning of myth). #thumbsup |
Mythology is a powerful topic to introduce to adolescent learners in a Language Arts or Humanities classroom. But, there's a catch. You don't want to present mythology as "kids' stuff" — and you definitely want to have a conversation about how students were first introduced to mythology — via Disney's Hercules or from a children's book, or a trip to the library, or not at all! The aura of myth is everywhere. And myths originate from all the world's societies — from the moment the first human could speak, myths have been told.
State and reiterate to students that mythology is a wide-reaching topic, and in every culture and civilization, there is a mythology — the stuff of narrative that sticks, that is universal, and tells a human story. Greek mythology is a standard go-to when teaching myth. It's standard fodder in schools today — especially because of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and Edith Hamilton's Mythology. But don't just stick with the Greeks — provide a variety of mythic stories and see how they are parallel, and share common patterns.
Finding Patterns in Myth and Identifying Tropes
Believe it or not — characters like Spider-man, from Marvel comics and movies — are just modern-day iterations of myth. What god would Spider-man be? Anansi? Arachne? Perhaps! |
In a middle or high school setting, it's important to contextualize myth and to make it relevant for today's learners. How do you do that successfully? The best way to do it is to show how patterns in myth crop up in our everyday world. Perhaps your students are not worried about finding a nymph on the sidewalk, or striding a bull that turns into a God — but, mythology is all around us. I love to use the website TV Tropes — it organizes common tropes found in literature, movies, television, and video games to show how popular allusions form and where they can be found! One good place to start is to show students how the Marvel Cinematic Universe is just another version of mythology, re-packaged for the new media set.
The difficulty with teaching myth to students is just simply the gulf of content that is out there. It can be overwhelming. But less is more. The goal of teaching mythology is to have students make connections. Also, older students can learn about the discrepancies found in myths, and chart out and graph those inconsistencies — such as why the stories from ancient sources change, are adapted, and evolve over time. There is no universal text when it comes to these stories — and prepare to leverage this reality to your advantage. Create group work that has students investigate the differences and similarities found in myth. And make sure to record and document what you find.
Teach a Three-Day Lesson on the Titan Gods and Goddesses
Where to start on a myth unit for middle and high school students? You can start with a lesson on creation myths, but don't forget the Titans. The Titans are the "old gods," and their stories are filled with violence, wonder, intrigue, rebellion, and the rise of the new gods, the Olympians. Learn with your students as you traverse stories that include a father castrated by his son; a wise, compassionate one who attempts to save humankind, and how a jar (or, is it a box?) unleashes mayhem onto the world!
Use a three-day lesson plan digital download from Stones of Erasmus. Adolescents will love the messiness and insanity of the old gods, the Titans. |
Engage Secondary English Language Arts students with the story of the Titans, the second-generation gods, and goddesses of Greek Mythology. Learn each Titan's backstory, where they came from, and their relationship to the Giants, and the Olympians. There is a clash of the Titans, that's for sure. Hesiod called it the Titanomachy. Use this fully packed three-day lesson plan, designed especially for students aged 13-17 years old.
- This resource is optimized for distance learning. The product includes a durable Google Apps link. Access and modify this resource for student use on Google Classroom and other classroom management sites.
Use this Digital Download for a Three-day English Language Arts Lesson
Using my tested-in-the-classroom resources, your kids will want to discuss good and bad parenting skills, cursed families, sins of the fathers, the role of women in myth, power, and the clash of the Titans! So I have loaded this resource with TEN reading cards and a set of THIRTY questions that will get your students talking, writing, and wondering!
Common Core Standards: This resource aligns well with the reading literature standard: "Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden’s “Musée des Beaux-Arts” and Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus)."
This Resource Includes the Following Features:
- 1 Teacher's Three-day Lesson Calendar
- With a teacher-tested-stamp of approval, follow my suggestions on how to teach the origin story of the Titans with high school students. Start with background knowledge, places, and geography, engage students in group reading with custom-made reading cards, and quiz your class with trivia-style questions. Cap the lesson off with a creative writing activity.
- 10 Art + Literature Reading Cards
- Included in this resource are ten reading cards that cover the lives, misdeeds, and fates of all the Titans and Titanesses:
- Kronos (Saturn), Rhea, Crius, Coeus (Koios), Ocean (Oceanus), Tethys, Hyperion, Leto, Mnemosyne, Themis, Hecate, Phoebe, Iapetus, Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, the Giants, the Curedes, and the Dactyls!
- Included in this resource are ten reading cards that cover the lives, misdeeds, and fates of all the Titans and Titanesses:
- 1 Key Characters and Places Worksheet
- Orient your learners by identifying the key characters and the geographical location of the story.
- A Bank of 30 Trivia-style Questions about the Titans
- After your students engage in the reading cards, test their knowledge with a custom-made question set.
- 10 Frayer Model Vocabulary Cards (with student sample)
- Frayer models are a way to get kids to think about vocabulary visually in a four-section square —- A square for meaning, one for examples, another for non-examples, and a sketch. It is amazing to see the work they produce. A great way to decorate your classroom to showcase your kids' vocabulary-in-text understanding. The cards contain terms, Greek and Latin roots, and challenging words (as well as contextual entries fit to the story).
- Half-Sheet 3-2-1 Exit Ticket
- Exit tickets are a way to get data about your students' understanding of the lesson right before the class is finished. Collect these exit tickets and quickly see what ideas your students took away from reading and discussing the myth.
- 1 Essay Writing Activity (with two visual starters and prompts)
- Cap off this three-day lesson with a creative essay prompt to get students to make text-to-world connections.
- 1 Further Reading List
- Don't disregard this further reading list if you think it is merely a bibliography. Share the list with your students or have them do projects based on the research that is available. Assign different sources to students and organize presentations where learning can go deeper into the stories of the Titans.
- Answer Keys for all student-facing documents
- Teachers always ask for answer keys for my products so I made sure I gave you plenty of guidance on what to expect from students in their written and oral responses.
- Bonus: 3-Box Notetaking Template — Embed accountability into the lesson by having students annotate the text cards with notes, questions, and a summary of what they've read and comprehended.
I created this resource with secondary students in mind. It is designed for an English Language Arts Mythology unit —
- For any myth-related unit!
- On the Clash of the Titans!
- Use this resource as a stand-alone lesson or, pair it with a larger unit on Myth, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, The Theogony of Hesiod, Robert Graves's Greek Myths, or Edith Hamilton's Mythology, or Parallel Myths by J.F. Bierlein.
For resources similar to this one see my:
- Pairs perfectly with a stand-alone lesson on Kronos and Rhea, and Prometheus and Pandora! (They're basically the sequel stories to this myth)
- Greek Cautionary Tales, Apollo and Daphne, and Orpheus and Eurydice
- and my popular Plato's Cave lesson!
You can purchase this three-day lesson on Teachers Pay Teachers, Amazon Ignite, Made By Teachers, and The Wheel Education!
10.7.21
Teacher's Summer Diary #2398: On the Tedium of Making Educational Digital Content (And Why a Walk, a Stretch, and a Sip of Water is Essential)
In this post, I talk about making educational resources for the middle and high school classroom and why distraction is my friendly passenger (although they don't always feel so friendly).
As per my last email (don't you hate it when you receive a message that begins that way) — or, shall I say, post — I've learned some new tips. First — there is beauty in
A message spray-painted on a side of a train car. |
small details. But my iPhone finds it challenging to capture the subtle beauty, so you'll have to contend with the bigger picture.I read a quote today that I like — about achievement — "Before the gates of excellence, the high gods have placed sweat.”
I'm attempting to complete a monumental task this week, and I feel overwhelmed. I want to expand the teaching resources I created under my @stonesoferasmus brand — I have to go and proofread my inventory of 137 digital downloads I've created. I like the “making part” of the process — using design skills and creating incredible resources that middle and high school students can use. It's just very time-consuming. So to inspire me, I take long walks — hence the photos you see — and eat healthy — and stretch. Also — I got a bigger monitor for my computer. OMG. Having a large screen to work on makes a huge difference when creating digital stuff. OMG.
My goal is to have 200 products reviewed and created by the end of Summer. And on top of that, I'm taking a class on Special Education and Differentiation at Hunter College. The course is good — it solidifies some things I already knew about teaching and has already given me good ideas to move forward. Next year I'm teaching a section of Eighth Grade English, a World Religions class, a New York City history class — paired with Tenth and Eleventh graders in a combined section. Whew. I better get to planning. But. Oh. I see a bird in a tree. Ohh. Let me check this out. *Loses thirty minutes*. By the way, @kfs0520, is the last picture in this post an excellent example of Nantucket Red? Inquiring minds want to know.
3.5.21
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! (And How to Download a FREEBIE from TpT)
Hi, Friends, and Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
Share the Love
I know. I wrote that subject line with a lot of pride! But it's true. You guys buy stuff from my store because you must really love what I do with educational downloads. And that's the beauty of TpT. There are thousands of sellers on this site, and a part of you chose me. AWWWWWWW.
FREEBIE Creation Myth Individual Lesson Plan
Access this Freebie on TpT |
Get this freebie from my store -- it is now the featured free content I am showcasing. So download. And drop a like if you thought it was awesome. I created a lesson plan to teach Greek Creation myths. I hope you like it!
100+ Products and Counting
I recently topped over a hundred digital downloads on the Stones of Erasmus store. I am uber-proud and uber-excited to get more stuff rolled out soon. Currently, I am exhausting my creative output on Mythology.
Teaching Resources Based on Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
I am also making products related to Ibram Kendi's amazing book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You — a Young Adult non-fiction remix with author Jason Reynolds. So check that out, too!
A toolbox for Teachers to Use with Stamped |
Love, Peace, and Harmony —
Greig from Stones of Erasmus
stonesoferasmus.com
9.4.21
On Positivity and How I Am Dealing With Teaching and Promoting Anti-Hate (#stopasianhate #stopblackhate #love)
"Girrrrrrllllllll!" is my general mood as of late. |
.... she came to me after class and was like, “Thank you for always being positive.” And I was like, “Well. I can embrace my sadness. But it's important not get distracted by the negative.” Like. I mean — I'm not oblivious to the Rainbow of emotions. But I like to infuse joy, especially with adolescents. It is the way I connect, and it's the glue to keep a classroom together. That and reading, writing, and arithmetic.
My two English colleagues and besties. |
It’s been a stressful year — Covid-19. A disrupted school year. And a tragic time. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Say their names. And Asian Hate 😡.
One of my kids said this week, “I don't like coming to school. I like school. It's just getting there. Should I bring mace?” I told him — “Your feelings are valid.” And we talked about strategies to signal for help if a hater ever comes at you. Pretend to talk on the phone. Don't travel alone or on a lonely street.
All this hate takes its toll. It's toxic.
What are you doing to help folks feel safe? What should we be doing? Am I right to spread positivity? Even when I'm sad or broken, or I feel like I can't find the energy to teach or do whatever. I got this.
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#covidstories #highschoolenglishteacher#stopasianhateのヴィジュアルを掲出しています #stopasianhate活動#stopviolence #stopblackhate #stopasianhatenyc 😥😔💔😞😩 #positivevibes #love #stopasianhate❤️😔 #stopasianhate能看到 ✊🏽✊🏼✊🏾✊ #stoppeopleofcolorhate❤️#stopasianhate❌#stopasianhatecanada #motivation via stonesoferasmus.com
6.3.21
Another Day of Concurrent Teaching: Covid-19 Pandemic Teacher Journal #2
Mr. Roselli wears a "get lit" tee.
I teach teenagers concurrently in person and kids learning remotely. To build community, my co-teacher @amiraesposito5585 and I call the in-person kids Roomies and the distance learning kids, Zoomies.
American teens aren’t reading less — they’re just reading fewer classics. They’re reading on their phones, on the Internet — listening to stories via audiobooks and podcasts. Literacy is changing, and I’m excited about it.
The tee-shirt reads, “Get lit.” Get it? I struggle with authenticity. How real is too real? Where do I go to find folks who look 👀 like me, act like me, think 🤔 like me? Literature. In my classroom. Young people. People who think differently. Radical openness. It’s something I teach. But it’s also the ultimate pleasure. Literature — it’s the best tea. And whether it’s Satan being emo in Paradise Lost or Rashad in American Boys (@jasonreynolds83) reflecting on his blackness in America or Felix in Felix Ever After (@kacen.callender) navigating high school as a trans boy in New York — characters in literature come alive for me.
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#readingtime #bookphotography#instagood #love #motivation#bookish #education #instabook#booklover #booklove #bookstagram#photography #book #read#booksbooksbooks #art #bookworm#bookstagrammer #bibliophile#bookshelf #inspiration #reader#teacher #teachersofinstagram#booknerd #bookaholic #learning#readersofinstagram#booksofinstagram #bookaddict via stonesoferasmus.com Image Credit: @kfs0520 @stonesoferasmus
Students' Chalkboard Art: I am teaching Paradise Lost |