Welcome to MiddleWeb's Middle School Resources!

SPECIAL RESOURCES FOR NEW TEACHERS
Check out our ever-expanding page of resources that can help new teachers through the first weeks and months of classroom and curriculum management.

THE MIDDLEWEB RESOURCES BLOG!
Our blog highlights new middle grades resources every week. Our short descriptions are sorted by category for easy searching or browsing. And you can subscribe via RSS and keep track of new entries on your iGoogle page or other aggregator. Check it out!

NEW TEACHERS: THE WONG WAY
While not everyone agrees with Harry Wong's approach to the first years of teaching, his book The First Days of School has sold over 3.3 million copies, serving as an anchor in many a first-year teacher's storm. Harry and Rosemary Wong also write a monthly column at the TeachersNet Gazette website titled "Effective Teaching," where many of their ideas for the novice educator can be found. The Gazette's June 2009 issue includes an annotated index of columns since 2000. The very first column from June '00 suggests that a First Day of School script can help establish the structure for a successful year. See all our new-teacher resource links.

THE TROUBLE WITH RUBRICS
Rubrics have become pervasive classroom assessment tools in the past decade. But is the routine use of these minimum-performance descriptors really good educational practice? Are we, in the words of one critic, "rubricizing the creativity and initiative right out of our kids"? Two articles in the Spring 2009 issue of Educational Horizons consider this question. In the first, researchers Valerie Chapman and Duane Inman say that while rubrics CAN be written in ways that encourage creativity and initiative, they seldom are.

EIGHT ALL-TIME MIDDLEWEB FAVORITES
As we completed our first decade of publishing the MiddleWeb e-resources newsletter, we decided to look back through our archives and locate some of your all-time favorites among the thousands of resources we've shared.

BLOOM'S DIGITAL TAXONOMY
New Zealand teacher Andrew Churches made a name for himself in edu-digital circles with this very useful article published in Technology & Learning magazine. It ties the revised Bloom's Taxonomy (updated in 2001) to problem-, project- and web-based learning. It's a must read for any teacher, principal (or IT leader) who is serious about shaping instruction around the needs and interests of the Digital Generation.

THE BEST MIDDLE GRADES RESOURCES ON THE WEB! Do not miss our Of Particular Interest page and archives. You'll find hundreds of key Web resources.

HOT LINK OF THE WEEK: Magnetism - Use these Surfing the Net with Kids links to have some summer science fun. Visit all our Hot Links

NSDC SUMMER LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
The summer conference of the National Staff Development Council continues to emphasize teacher leadership for school improvement. This year's meeting, to be held in Boston July 19-22, will be designed for teacher leaders "and the administrators who support them." Target audiences include school-based staff developers, instructional specialists, math and literacy coaches, school improvement facilitators, grade-level and department chairs, mentors and team leaders.