8th grader Lily Strickland offers teachers a student’s perspective on homework. She knows her teachers care about kids, but she’s not sure they always understand the impact that assigning homework has on busy adolescents. Her six tips draw on the ‘good policies’ of some of her teachers.
Are you looking for lesson plans and ideas to engage your students as they learn to be confident writers? Lisa Eickholdt and Patricia Vitale-Reilly offer a step-by-step plan to develop writing clubs with variations to keep community interest high all year, says Dawna Brandt.
There’s nothing wrong with “putting on a movie” after a tough week in class, writes Amber Chandler, but why not make the most of it? The former AMLE educator of the year shares her strategy (with lesson plans!) for using popular films to reach important SEL goals.
Pamela Koutrakos’ example-filled “Mentor Texts That Multitask” shows teachers how to design lessons that meet multiple instructional priorities. Sherry Liptak found it to be “a great fit for my professional bookshelf – though I think it will spend more time in my hands!”
Laura Robb has long championed the idea that reading and access to books are civil rights. In this story of turning around reluctant readers, the celebrated educator makes a powerful case that when kids have lots of book choices and lots of time to read in and out of school, they’ll become readers for life.
Learning to problem solve is no easy feat for the students or the teachers in math classrooms. 5th/6th grade teacher Mona Iehl shares ideas for incorporating practices in daily lessons that can help build a ‘safe and sure’ culture where reasoning and problem solving are the norm.
Stress, excessive workload, unrealistic mandates, and daily expectations can add up to burnout. Jenny Grant Rankin’s First Aid for Teacher Burnout combines strategies to alleviate stress, streamline grading, tame technology and practice self care. Essential reading!
To move beyond traditional classroom discussion focused on answering a few teacher questions, Dr. Barbara Blackburn advocates student-driven discourse that emphasizes “on-task” talk and academic vocabulary. The result: purposeful dialogue leading to deeper understanding.
The life skills students learn in our classes prepare them to thrive in the real world. Middle grades teacher Laleh Ghotbi shares some lessons from her effort to use weekly community-building circles in her classroom to help students learn to respect their differences and focus on common values.
Choice in reading is about student autonomy and motivation. It’s especially effective with kids who don’t like to read. Stephanie Farley’s well-honed system lets 8th graders read any text they choose AND meets standards – even though they never all read the same book.
