Kasey Short recommends offering middle schoolers YA novels with multiple narrators as a way to enrich opportunities for content instruction and SEL. They’re also really engaging and fun for kids to read. Included: sample questions and activities and lots of suggested titles.
Gholdy Muhammad’s Unearthing Joy offers ways to elevate meaning, reflection and joy so readers can offer cultural and historically responsive teaching most effectively. Sarah Cooper calls it “one of the most beautiful, inspiring, actionable books about pedagogy I’ve ever read.”
Lauren Buell’s 8th grade ELA team works with students on a comprehensive unit that helps all participants develop speaking, listening, writing, reading and life skills as they prepare end-of-year TED-style talks. She shares the unit’s impact once students enter high school.
Andi McNair’s Genius Hour (2nd Ed) guides educators across grade levels and content areas in developing student Passion Projects start to finish. Reviewer Stephanie Choate gives high marks to the book’s 6-point strategy: passion, plan, pitch, project, product, and presentation.
Making her first forays into using AI in lesson planning, NBCT Kathleen Palmieri is amazed at ChatGPT’s grade level suggestions based on lesson plan objectives. Follow along as she shows how the chatbot developed math and social studies material attuned to her fifth graders.
The Heart-Centered Teacher lives up to its promise of renewal, writes educator Sarah Cooper. Routman’s newest book “strives to be a mosaic of sorts: a combination of sometimes searing, sometimes poignant personal stories with on-the-ground insights from decades of experience.”
Once teachers see, value, and capitalize on a learner’s unique talents and strengths, it changes the student and it changes us, writes Regie Routman. “Possibilities override limitations. Pride of accomplishment replaces failure. Effort leads to excellence. Joy is present, the best gift of all.”
In Project-Based Learning for Gifted Students Todd Stanley breaks down what PBL is and how to effectively implement it in almost any academic setting. It’s an ideal resource for those new to PBL or interested in reviewing its key aspects, says teacher Erin Corrigan-Smith.
How is teaching like marketing? In student-centered classrooms, relatable lessons motivate students because they connect and have emotional appeal, writes teacher and former marketer Kelly Owens. In turn, engagement leads to purposeful work, supporting more on-task behaviors.
Debbie Silver and Jack Berckemeyer have updated Deliberate Optimism to help educators resolve unsustainable stress levels by adapting their immediately implementable ideas for making each school day better. Written with humor and practicality, says teacher leader Sarah Cooper.
