Category: Articles

What If We Taught Less and Facilitated More?

Aileen Hower and Lynne Dorfman refresh our thinking about the advantages of facilitation over too much center-stage teaching. If we learn how to facilitate effectively and balance instructional methods, students will retain more and reteaching time will shrink significantly.

Rebrand Reading for Your Reluctant Readers

Is reading a treat or a chore? The answer depends on the reader’s experience. In preparation for summer reading opportunities, literacy interventionist Kelly Owens suggests some favorite strategies teachers and parents can sneak in to give under-motivated readers a reboot.

The Principal’s Role in Supporting New Tech

As society experiences increasing complexity, educators and education struggle to keep up. Principal Matt Renwick takes a look at AI/ChatGPT challenges and shares a process school leaders can use to support teachers’ use of new technology. Don’t miss the template he includes.

Help Your Students Avoid Collaboration’s Downside

While there are times when consensus makes sense, collaborative experiences are often most beneficial when they center on open-ended questions that invite students’ thinking. Teaching coach Gravity Goldberg shares ways to encourage exploration and creative expression in groups.

Math Facts Fluency Fun to Round Out the Year

Teacher and coach Mona Iehl loves ending the school year with a choice-driven math fact fluency challenge. Students solidify their fluency before the next grade while also engaging in a fun initiative. Discover her simple 4-step process and check out the resources she shares.

Teach Social & Emotional Skills through Poetry

When students learn to identify and name the ideas and emotions in poetry and share their own emotions through writing poems, they better understand their feelings and build empathy and understanding for others. Teacher leader Kasey Short shares methods and lots of poems.

What Kind of Feedback Best Motivates Students?

Teachers are feedback machines – “we do it all day long!” – writes classroom teacher and popular blogger Larry Ferlazzo. Here he focuses on ways to give feedback that’s particularly effective at enhancing students’ sense of competence and encouraging intrinsic motivation.

Kids Loved Our Tasty Middle School Elective

“And the winner is… Moose on the Loose!” Students cheered and lined up at the ice cream cart for a scoop – a product of collaboration, market research, and community partnerships. Middle school teacher leader Jeny Randall shares the story of a successful business elective.

Invite Your Students to Peel Some Poems

Ramp up poetry positivity with the Peel the Fruit activity from Project Zero. Throughout the year NBCT Kathie Palmieri helps her fifth graders uncover layers of poetry understanding and then invites them to write their own. Their current favorite: the Intimate Object Poem.

Why We Need to Teach Puberty Education in 4-6

Many problems that emerge in the ‘wonder years’ might be alleviated with a high quality puberty education program, writes health educator Wendy Sellers. “You will benefit from cultivating a more productive classroom climate and knowing you are meeting your students’ needs.”