5 Easy Ways to FLIRT With the Text

There are five methods you use to FLIRT with the text. Flirting with the text is the beginning stage when you start to read a book. FLIRT helps you understand the reading and what you want to know. The five stages of FLIRT are find the form, look at the text features, identify connections, reveal the purpose, and transfer to organizer. If you noticed FLIRT stands for the beginning letter in each of the stages.


The fist stage is Find the Form. What does it mean when it says find the form? Finding the form of the text is when you try and determine the genre of the text. You go through the text and look at the title, headings, and anything else that stands out in bold print. This will help you figure out what kind of reading that you will be doing and what kind of p[ace you need to read at.

The second stage is Look at the Text Features. At this step you look at how the text is structured. You look if it is has paragraphs or if it has one paragraph. You also look for bolded words or different headings to see what the text is like. In this step all you are doing is skimming the text for the different text features. Most of the time you are looking for bolded words for this part of the section.

The third stage is Identify Connections. In this stage you are looking at the headings and bolded words and making connections on them. You are using your past knowledge or experiences and connecting them with the words in the text. You can look at the pictures and other things in the text and connect to them. Usually the pictures in a text are easier to connect to because you can visualize them easier by seeing everything.

The fourth stage is Reveal the Purpose. In this stage you are determining what the author wants you to know. The author always will show you in the reading what he wants you to know and what the purpose of the text. There is always a purpose to the reading and the author puts clues in the reading to show you that. He/she puts questions at the end of the reading sometimes to hint you the purpose.

The final step is to Transfer to Organizer. In this stage you determine what the author's purpose is, and then that will tell you what type of organizer you need to use. There are all kinds of different organizers that you can use. some of them are compare contrast, description, etc. the organizers will show you what you are going to be looking for in the text. All of these will help you better understand the passage and get you set up with the reading.

This was a guest blog by colleget student, Alex Leland. I would love to hear your secrets for preparing your mind to read. Share your thoughts below or join the conversation on facebook.com/myreadingsecrets If you liked this post, sign up for my newsletter for more tips to become a better student.

3 Reasons a Radical Routine is Essential for Scheduling Your School Work

If you’re constantly stressed over getting all of your school work done on time, a radical routine is a great thing for yourself to create.


By having a structured plan you eliminate procrastination and give your mind time to rest and relax avoiding stress. Having a structured plan is very important when it comes to your success in college.

By having a routine and a structured time do complete the work in every class nothing will ever get left out. Being reminded of your work becomes second nature and really helps take the stress off. A big problem for students is procrastination. Having a radical routine is a great way to avoid this problem. I find that I do my best work when I take my time and do not rush through assignments. Always allowing yourself plenty of time to do so is a great thing that a radical routine does for you. All your work is done good and correctly, on time every day of every week.

Rest and relaxation is also very important in the everyday life of a college student. With this schedule you allow yourself plenty of time to do other activities that don’t involve school work to make sure you are relaxed and well rested. All of these reduce the stress that you have and no stress equals better success in a college environment.

This was a guest blog by colleget student, Eric Sowers. I would love to hear your secrets for creating a radical routine. Share your thoughts below or join the conversation on facebook.com/myreadingsecrets If you liked this post, sign up for my newsletter for more tips to become a better student.

3 Quick Guidelines to Review with Note Cards

If you hate to study, try note cards for a quick and easy tool.

1.) Narrow your focus by breaking down what you read so you can get a better understanding of what you just read.

2.) They are easy to practice from and in many ways. You can make flashcards because note cards are two sided. You can take them anywhere and "Practice on the go". You also can make a group game so you don't have to study alone.

3.) They help you memorize what you read. So you're not lost or confused. They can also help you increase your memory. That way you will know the main points.

This was a guest blog by colleget student, Sarah Fields. I would love to hear your secrets for creating note cards. Share your thoughts below or join the conversation on facebook.com/myreadingsecrets If you liked this post, sign up for my newsletter for more tips to become a better student.

3 Secrets to Speed Up Your Studying

We’ve all been taught that reducing, reusing, and recycling can help us in the long run. We never thought that those same techniques can be used throughout college. By applying reduce, reuse, and the recycle techniques, you will be able to study in a fast and more efficient way.

1. When you reduce, you are condensing the information that you were given. Searching for key points and repeated ideas is an important step in this process. It is important to know the passage’s main ideas, so you can know exactly what it is, you need to take and learn from it. Looking at the passage’s text features can also be of help. Graphs, charts, pictures, and examples throughout the text can show you what is important and show you what you need to know. It will help you focus on the key point so your mind won’t get scattered and can remain organized. Condensing the amount of information that is given can make it easier to understand, and more importantly to remember.

2. When you reuse, you look for anything on the pages of the text that can help you get an understanding of what the key points are. Once again, looking at the pages text features can tell you exactly what you need to know or what to pay attention to while reading. Looking at the titles, headings, and subheadings can help you have an understanding of what it is that you are reading and what you are looking for. Reading the introductory paragraphs, the chapters questions, captions, and conclusion can keep your mind aware of the main idea of why you are reading. Looking at the features can help limit your reading, while you still have the best understanding of what you are reading. This technique will be proven to be more efficient in the long run.

3. When you recycle, you have a clear understanding of the information you need and don’t need, so you can toss out the useless information. Once you have all the information that you were given it is time to link that new knowledge to your already existing knowledge, or your prior knowledge. It is important for you to link these two so you can have a relative understanding of the information you’ve obtained. Once you have a relative understanding of the subject, the information becomes easier to access when it comes to using it. You will have a better understanding of what you have read, and it will not only make it easier for the upcoming test but also the chapters to follow.

The 3R’s aren’t just to help us protect our planet; it is also to help us with studying. These techniques can come in handy no matter what you are studying. The next time you find it challenging to study, give the 3R’s a try. See exactly how useful those tools can be.

This was a guest blog by colleget student, Sabrina Butts. I would love to hear your secrets for speeding up your study time. Share your thoughts below or join the conversation on facebook.com/myreadingsecrets If you liked this post, sign up for my newsletter for more tips to become a better student.

Music Can Inspire Interest

Many educators use an alligator to understand the abstract symbol used in math to represent "greater or less than". However, the more sensory pathways you can engage, the easier the brain has to create a new neuro-pathway.

In this tutorial, Kristin Daddario, a first grade teacher at Lincoln Edison Charter School, uses the visual pathway (video and pictures) and auditory pathway(music) to reinforce the concept. Check out the video

The next time you have a boring, abstract concept, use music to inspire interest.

3 Tips for Locating On-line Information

It's 6:08 am Sunday morning and I silently let my yellow lab, Maggie, outside to do her morning business. Before I know it, she is barking wildly and running across the lawn after a black animal. I am not concerned because our one neighbor has two black labs and our other neighbor has a black cat...so this morning run is a common event. I don't want Maggie to wake up my kids so I open the door to quietly bring Maggie back into the house when my sleepy eyes focus on the black SKUNK that is slowly turning around to spray Maggie right in the face.

"MAGGIE get over here right now!" I scream, but she reacted too late. Maggie runs to me sneezing and stinking of major skunk oil! My mind starts asking tons of questions, "Now what am I going to do? I have never had a dog that was sprayed by a skunk before. Should I use tomato juice? Do I need to take Maggie to the vet?"

I decided to do AN INTERNET SEARCH before I drove all the way to the grocery store to buy tomato juice. If you ever smelled skunk, then you know time is a factor for this search. I needed to find the right answers to my questions as fast as I could.

1. Use quotes - I needed to know the best shampoo solution to remove skunk smell so I used quotes to keep the search result focused on certain words in a certain order. I typed in, "how to remove skunk smell from dog" and received 7,000 results but without quotes the search received 64,000 results.

2. Cross check at least 3 sources - I then scanned my results to see if there were any results that had the same answer. Several listed hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dish soap. I clicked on the top result to see if the source was credible. Did they have experience removing skunk smell? My first result: 10 tips to remove skunk smell I clicked quickly to a similar result: Get Rid of Things My final result was a youtube video from a dog trainer.
All three results suggested hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dish soap.

3. Use the word "and" or the "+" sign - Now I needed more information about how to get the skunk smell out of my house since I let Maggie into the house to do the Internet search. I kept the quotes around, "how to remove skunk smell from dog" and then used a "+" to link the word "house". This controlled my search results to include information for both my dog and my house.

The Internet can be wonderful if you know how to control your search results. Don't spend all day searching the Internet with nothing to show for your hard work. When you're proactive, you find the answers you need quickly and with little effort.

I would love to hear your secrets for locating on-line information. Share your thoughts below or join the conversation on facebook.com/myreadingsecrets If you liked this post, sign up for my newsletter for more tips to become a better student.

PS - The solution worked. Maggie and my house no longer smell like a skunk. Thank you to all those wonderful people who shared their knowledge through the world wide web!

5 Easy Ways to Convert Your Videos for the Classroom

This is a guest blog from Kristin Daddario, a 1st grade teacher at Lincoln Edison Charter School in York. We would love to hear about your newest technology discoveries and how you apply them to your classroom.

As a teacher, I am always looking for fun and engaging ways to introduce new topics and get my students excited about what we are learning. Have you ever found a really cool video at home that would be perfect for your new unit, and couldn’t wait to show your class? You get to your classroom and just as you go to play it, the site is blocked!! UGH!!! Although I continue to “bug” the tech team to unblock my favorite sites, I have found an easy and temporary fix to this problem!!! Mediaconverter.org is a great way to show all your exciting videos, and it is super easy!! Just follow these 5 easy steps, and you will be on your way!!!

1. Go to the video(s) you would like to convert- I prefer YouTube videos, but they can come from any site!
2. Once there, right click and copy the URL - if you want better quality in your video add (&fmt=18) to the end of your URL
3. Go to www.mediaconverter.org
4. Once there, click on “Enter a Link”, where you will right click and paste your URL you copied. Click “OK” and this will bring you back to the original screen, where you started. Here you may enter more links by repeating the above steps, or click on “Go to the next step”.
5. Once you click on “Go to the next step”, you will choose your output file as “avi” and then click “OK”. This will bring you to a summary page, where you will click start to begin converting your videos. Once finished, you will get a notification that the conversion is done, where you can click download, next to your video! (If you are converting more than 1 video, it is better to download 1 video at a time)Happy Converting!

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3 Tips to Improving UR Netiquette

Technology is wonderful. We have instant access to news, videos, and music. I love Christmas shopping with a click of a button. But with all this access comes a lot of responsibility. This blog is a call to action to educators to step up and teach students how to be kind, gentle, and supportive while online. The following video will help activate your schema.

1. Teach students what it means to become digital citizens. A quick youtube search of "digital citizen" will produce over 2,800 videos you can use to begin a discussion. Post the videos on your moodle and put links in parent newsletters to help the conversation continue at home.
2. Establish norms for online responses to blogs, reviews, and other social communities like facebook and twitter. The digital fingerprint students leave could cost them friends and even jobs.
3. Infuse the revolutions that have taken place through social media in your history class. Make sure to include cyberbullying into your school wide acceptance plan. Increase awareness about online societies that support anorexia, suicide, and child abuse during health class.

Let's take back control and teach students positive netiquette. If we won't do it, someone else will. We can't afford to ignore this any more. What are your thoughts on our professional responsibility of creating digital citizens? Join the discussion on facebook.com/myreadingsecrets.