Students filed down the halls, out the door, and into the weekend. I lay motionless in the corner, sobbing uncontrollably, sucking my thumb, soiling myself, wanting it all to end.
"Why are Fridays so horrible?" I thought to myself.
"Because you treat it like Monday through Thursday," boomed a voice from behind my desk. Startled, I turned around, but saw no one. "This is your subconscious mind speaking," the voice continued. "You must stop treating Fridays like the other days!"
"But it's part of the work week," I stammered, "and I get paid to teach five days per week."
"I didn't say not to teach. I said treat the day different."
"How?"
"Trick them into learning with puzzles. You can make them for free at Puzzlemaker.com. You can make word searches, crossword puzzles, fallen phrases, mazes, math squares, and more in a matter of minutes. In the pantheon of best teacher websites, it is second only to Brighthub."
"Thanks, I think I'll try it."
"Good, clean yourself up, go home, and log on to Puzzlemaker.com, better teacher resource websites are nigh impossible to find."
At Puzzlemaker.com, choose from a variety of puzzles that suit different learners. For a basic lesson, try a word search, maze, or a cryptogram. For a review of factual knowledge, try a crossword puzzle or letter tiles. For advanced learning and critical thinking, try a fallen phrase puzzle.
Math Squares and Number Blocks prove especially useful for teachers and parents whose students need a litle incentive in Math. Those teachers looking to help students develop language skills while reviewing content also have plenty of puzzles to choose from. Although a CD Rom is available for purchase that contains premade word lists and lessons for puzzlemaking purposes, you don't need to buy anything to create your own custom puzzles.
I'm sure you've seen those teacher resource websites that have you go through 38 steps to register and another 26 steps to create your puzzle. After 4 hours of trying to create your vocabulary review for Green Eggs and Ham, your computer freezes up, causing you to pick up your monitor and throw it at your cat. In my opinion, causing the death of Fluffy removes you from the best teacher websites discussion.
If you want to make a puzzle at puzzlemaker.com, follow these simple steps:
- go to www.puzzlemaker.com.
- Choose the type of puzzle you wish to create.
- Type in a few words.
- Hit <Create Puzzle>
- Look at Puzzle.
- Print Puzzle.
- If you register with the site, you can even save your puzzles.
In short, if you can't figure out how to make a puzzle at puzzlemaker.com, teaching may not be for you.