Teaching and learning in grades 4-8
Educators considering entering administration and those already there will find Kara Knight’s The Confident School Leader a useful guide to key elements of leadership. Reviewer Beth Hassinger found Knight’s discussion of social and emotional aspects particularly helpful.
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.”
Effective class management begins with dynamic planning and engagement, writes instructional specialist Miriam Plotinsky. Teachers who focus not just on delivering information but responding to student feedback in the moment can avoid “helicopter teacher” syndrome. Here’s how.
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.
Christina Nosek, a teacher and literacy staff developer, engages readers with a collection of important concepts with answered questions on the foundation of the reading classroom. Literacy coach Pam Hamilton says the easy read is great for a summer professional reading stack.
Questioning for Formative Feedback by Jackie Acree Walsh is full of insightful, thought provoking, and practical ways to infuse a classroom with formative questioning, encourage dialogue, and lead to deeper learning for students. A great professional learning adventure!
Tan Huynh’s message to co-teaching language specialists who struggle to be recognized as equal partners: “Power is not only given but reinforced one interaction at a time. The chains that limit marginalized students are the same chains that hold down marginalized faculty members.”
Be ready to share nonfiction graphic novels with your students this fall. ELA teacher Kasey Short outlines reasons such novels expand kids’ knowledge and appreciation of reading. She also provides questions to ask as kids approach the novels and includes suggested titles.
Sarah Cooper has discovered four education-related civics podcasts with particularly helpful dialogue and reporting. Use them to broaden your understanding of democracy and other urgent issues or to share with students. They are already sparking ideas for her fall classes.
As described by Kathy Perret and Kenny McKee in Compassionate Coaching, understanding compassionate coaching causes us to reflect on our practice and deliver planned actions to shift everyone’s performance to benefit students. Consultant Helene Alalouf finds lots to implement.