Teaching and learning in grades 4-8
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When Sarah Cooper updated her civics lesson that asks students to write to their political representatives, she found that adding AI to the research process resulted in letters that were not just different but markedly better. Best of all, they were in her students’ own voices.
In The Writing Teacher’s Guide to Pedagogical Documentation Angela Stockman zeroes in on documenting the learning process, which consists of collecting multimodal, qualitative evidence while students work, to assess learning and adjust instruction, writes Andrew Krasnavage.
Consider adopting Collective Teacher Efficacy to meet the learning needs of all of your students. Laura Robb shows how teacher teams can collaborate to develop scaffolds and modifications that offer students the support and hope they need to achieve challenging learning goals.
When STEM learning blends innovation with empathy, critical thinking with collaboration, and technology with ethics, your students will gain critical skills that can prepare them to lead, adapt, and shape an AI-driven world that’s still unfolding, writes STEM expert Anne Jolly.
Conflict in schools isn’t abstract – it’s lived daily. Offering tools, examples, and mindset shifts, veteran school leader Jen Schwanke helps principals understand and manage conflict and lead beyond it with clarity, empathy, and a steady hand, writes principal Dennis Schug.
Helping middle school students learn how to slow down, notice, and wonder may be one of the most important things we do. Kendra Cameron-Jarvis shows how teachers can use live worldwide webcams to spark small observation routines that build both attention and global awareness.
As AI becomes omnipresent, it can be tricky to say exactly what “doing your own work” means or why you might prefer to do it yourself. Laurie Hornik shares the day she led her 7th graders in thinking about what they’d be willing to turn over to AI. Cue the robot basketball players.
Deeper Competency-Based Learning provides educational leaders, teachers and policy makers both the vision and the tools necessary to move from traditional grading and assessment toward a competency model that accurately reflects student mastery, writes coach Kathee Lamberies.
What if we approached math as an experimental subject and encouraged students to work together to solve problems using a “lab mindset”? Fifth grade teacher and NBCT Kathie Palmieri has been exploring science and math standards with the power of collaborative learning in mind.
It’s becoming increasingly critical for educators to understand both the benefits and the challenges of using artificial intelligence. Ron Williamson and Barbara Blackburn share 5 ways to make AI most helpful to school leaders, and 5 tasks to handle without much if any AI involvement.