While coping strategies can help those facing burnout, teaching careers are more sustainable when educators also slash workload and stress-inducers. Jenny Grant Rankin looks at the burnout pandemic and urges teachers to reduce grading and focus on planning quality lessons.
Katie Caprino offers three ideas for using Zillah Bethell’s YA novel The Shark Caller to engage your middle grades ELA students in social emotional learning. Caprino’s activities build on how the young characters interact as they face the impact of deaths in their families.
Articles / Civics and Current Events / Media Literacy
by MiddleWeb · Published 09/25/2022 · Last modified 07/31/2023
As disinformation proliferates, schools need a better solution than perfunctory media literacy education, say these digital citizenship advocates. When students achieve full “media fluency,” they will not only understand disinformation exists but have the tools to outflank it, write McCusker, Irvan and Driscoll.
In The Power of Teaching Vulnerably David Rockower explains how personal, relational, and dialogic vulnerability can help educators build healthy classroom dialogue. Amy Estersohn would have liked more guidance for teachers facing job loss if they discuss sensitive topics.
With the goal of having new middle school students feel seen as individuals while also feeling like a part of something bigger, Megan Kelly offers activities her sixth graders enjoy while getting to know one another. The games can be expanded or contracted to fit your time.
Education leaders feeling stressed and wondering how to address this autumn’s many challenges can find the help they need in the new edition of Carl Glickman and Rebecca West Burns’ Leadership for Learning. Consultant Cathy Gassenheimer found it full of actionable ideas.
Stephanie Filio’s Responding to Student Trauma: A Toolkit for Schools in Times of Crisis provides a well-developed framework for school personnel to handle four sources of trauma. AP Virginia Hornberger notes it is a good starting point to develop a crisis plan of action.
Language specialist Tan Huynh offers a framework called the 3 C’s of Equity – Community, Curriculum and Culture – to guide schools on the journey to provide an equitable learning experience for their multilingual learners. To start, avoid deficit-based models that segregate.
Whether you are a classroom veteran or a new teacher in your first room, Katie Durkin urges you to think about how you can repurpose, redesign, and rejuvenate your learning space so you feel fresh and ready to tackle the many opportunities for growth this coming school year.
Mental health counselor Emily Kircher-Morris provides parents of twice-exceptional children with keys to help their neurodivergent gifted kids develop lifelong skills with a focus on affirmation and self-acceptance. Amy Estersohn finds the book clear and easy to browse.
