Classroom Routines / It's Not Easy Being Tween / New Teacher Advice
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 10/04/2015 · Last modified 12/10/2019
By staying true to your personality and developing routines that proactively eliminate your sources of stress, you and your students will have a happier, more productive year. Cheryl Mizerny shares some favorite procedures that work in her tween classroom.
Kevin Hodgson joins two middle level colleagues to share a cross-school collaboration supported by the National Writing Project that engaged teachers in investigating how to use writing strategies and inquiry learning with students in all content areas.
Educators who read policy pundit Rick Hess’s new book The Cage-Busting Teacher will find plenty to disagree with, says instructional specialist Curtis Chandler, but “they will also learn quite a bit about their potential and influence as an educator.”
Using Mindset, Rigor, and Grit as examples, veteran teacher Cheryl Mizerny weighs the potential value of trendy pedagogical ideas while pointing out how easily they can be misinterpreted or poorly implemented by educators, to the detriment of students.
Expeditionary Learning’s free open-source curriculum is framed by Topics, Targets, Texts & Tasks. Co-designer Cheryl Dobbertin shares insights gained during the crowd-sourced development phase, arguing that inquiry learning begins with compelling curriculum.
With the winter “read by the fire” season in full force, we offer a selection of 20 MiddleWeb posts that have garnered thousands of views apiece. They represent the wisdom & expertise of middle grades educators with a wide range of teaching experiences.
Principal Matt Renwick says our definition of data has to broaden substantially if we expect to paint a complete picture of student learning. Renwick describes how two middle grades teachers are using technology to help meet the qualitative assessment challenge.
Often what stands in the way of teacher change is a lack of awareness about what needs to improve. Sharing some aha moments, ‘Smarter Grading’ author Myron Dueck tells how he changed the way he tests and assesses students and manages project learning.
In his final article on smart homework, middle grades teaching expert Rick Wormeli suggests ways to assess take-home assignments and manage the steady flow of “product” that homework requirements generate. Bonus idea: Homework extension certificates.
“I’ve been accumulating guiding principles for creating highly motivating homework assignments for many years,” writes expert Rick Wormeli. “Here are a baker’s dozen. Choose the ones most appropriate for students’ learning goals and your curriculum.”
