Lisa Eickholdt and Patty Vitale-Reilly’s favorite student collaboration is the Writing Club – an opportunity for kids to write in authentic, engaging, and creative ways. They prepare a foundation for this work with read-alouds, feedback structures, partnering activities, and more.
Unexpected events in classrooms steal precious teaching time and lead to frustrated students and teachers. Expected routines provide comfort and familiarity so students can focus on the challenges of learning new things. Teacher Kelly Owens shares her routine-building strategies.
In this unprecedented school year, as teachers and school leaders set goals and decide what to keep and what to change, Lynne Dorfman and Aileen Hower argue that “it is social-emotional learning – not academics – that should be the focus for the first month of school.”
Here are MiddleWeb’s 12 most popular articles about asking quality questions in class, scaffolding student discussions, and gathering formative feedback from kids through dialogue. Learn from Jackie Walsh, Valentina Gonzalez, Barbara Blackburn, Curtis Chandler and more!
Math teacher Michelle Russell is busy implementing her summer plans for the first days of school, matching activities to 5 goals she wants to accomplish – build community, puts kids at ease, introduce procedures, do a little math, and have fun. Discover what’s worked so far!
Whether you’re a recent teacher ed graduate, newly emergency certified, or an experienced teacher who’s suddenly learned you’ll be teaching STEM this year, you’re in good hands with veteran STEM teacher and curriculum designer Anne Jolly. Here are her five “do this first” tips.
In The Gift of Story John Schu shows how to use the roles of story as clarifier, healer, inspiration, compassion, and connector to bring reading alive. Literacy leader Sarah Valter loves how ‘Mr. Schu’ emphasizes the many ways stories can weave us all closer together.
Rather than label just some kids talented, we need a new approach that serves all children, writes performance coach Lee Hancock. Among his strategies: embracing failure as progress, spending time in deep practice, and fostering in kids a love for their own special interests.
Whether it’s our students or our colleagues, the mentor relationship is a win-win for mentor and mentee. As mentors, we can realize a unique personal fulfillment and grow as a listener, a coach, a friend, a leader. And one day, our mentees may decide to “pay it forward.”
Want a fun way to turn student talk into deeper learning? Teacher Kelly Owens serves up tips and resources for Café Conversations, showing how students’ need to talk can become on-task, productive, and reflective when they encounter this welcoming cross-curricular strategy.
