(For new teachers and anyone else who is interested.)

You may see one of these old books in a pile of educational discards somewhere. They are often thrown out now because they were produced to be used when an overhead projector and whiteboard were about as close to high tech as some classrooms could manage. Sometimes they are stacked behind stages in dusty unofficial archives and storage areas in older schools. These books don’t have educational standards listed. They have no references to the Common Core. They harken back to a time when teachers prepared their own lessons based on their interpretation of standards and their personal sense of students’ academic needs.

Eduhonesty: THESE TRANSPARENCIES CAN BE GREAT! I always put a piece of white paper beneath them to use with my document camera. I supposed you could photograph them and insert them into documents to project onto your SMART or Promethean board. They make great visuals for opening and closing activities. Many directly tie into common lessons about topics such as metaphors and similes. You get a vivid picture to use as a launchpad for descriptive paragraphs.

Old transparencies are some of the best discards you will run across. Kids are attracted to compelling visuals and a great deal of thought once went into the images selected for these books. Transparency books may work well for both history/social studies and English/language arts. If you see one of these books in the freebie pile, do yourself a favor. Grab it and start leafing through the pages with your next few months’ lessons in mind.