Jeny Randall introduces her 6th graders to Shakespeare, first tossing quotes around a circle, then character mapping, and finally prepping and presenting scenes. Keying into themes of Identity and Origin, she rotates among 3 comedies’ mistaken identities. The kids love it!
Alison Dover and Fernando Rodrigues-Valls highlight the gaps in current education policy and practice that affect newcomer and plurilingual students and then offer ways to equitably meet those students’ needs. TESOL educator Kimberlee Elder is grateful for their book.
The more Kasey Short considers joy when planning lessons and responding to students, the more everyone enjoys time together and the more they learn. Her joyful tools include celebrating, sharing ‘fun’ texts, students choosing music, moving indoors and out, laughing, and more.
As she describes some ways she’s begun to work fun, ethical AI components into major assignments, Sarah Cooper wonders how the nature of learning and teaching will evolve in tandem with the evolution of Large Language Models. How do we best prepare our students for the future?
If schools are always being “held” accountable, asks leadership coach and veteran principal Matt Renwick, how will students ever learn to “be” accountable? When do they get to make important choices that affect others and themselves? Three shifts can change the paradigm.
Jennifer Bogard and Lisa Donovan share ways to humanize social studies and bolster student engagement with history by pairing Library of Congress primary sources and arts-integration strategies. Try their lesson plans for altered text, soundscapes, and sketching to observe.
As she works on a grant proposal to fund an update of her classroom furniture, Kathleen Palmieri shares what she’s learned from researching how students benefit from flexible learning environments, including boosts in creativity, engagement, collaboration, focus and achievement.
This January, don’t hastily jump on the bandwagon with the latest decorating fad. Design a place where students want to learn and grow. Your classroom environment may be one of the most powerful tools in your teaching toolbox, writes teacher and former marketer Kelly Owens.
In a time of unprecedented teacher criticism, burnout, and flight, National Board Certification offers an opportunity for teachers to feel empowered and inspired, writes NBCT Marilyn Pryle. Best of all, the challenging, self-directed process helps good teachers become even better.
In Shifting the Balance (3-5), Cunningham, Burkins and Yates address common misunderstandings that weaken reading instruction in the intermediate grades. Fifth grade teacher Kathie Palmieri found herself impressed by and deeply immersed in the recommended shifts.
