Whether summer means it’s time to relax, bolster your professional know-how, improve your bank balance, or reconsider your profession, we have suggestions from your educator colleagues and other sources that can help. Plan now!
Whether your school year ends in May or you teach into the hot days of June, student engagement begins to fade. How do we liven things up? For math class, NBCT Kathie Palmieri recommends a pair of hands-on geometry activities that sparked curiosity and excitement as summer beckons.
With finals fast approaching, Stephanie Farley created a summative assessment experience to encourage every student to demonstrate their mastery of the learning targets as well as be acknowledged and appreciated for their contributions. The exam period “dinner party” was a hit.
Is reading a treat or a chore? The answer depends on the reader’s experience. In preparation for summer reading opportunities, literacy interventionist Kelly Owens suggests some favorite strategies teachers and parents can sneak in to give under-motivated readers a reboot.
In Unjournaling by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Thurston, students will find the book’s 250 prompts interesting and challenging, and teachers will appreciate the flexibility and variety this second edition brings to class. Everyone will have fun too, promises Anne Anderson.
Extended teacher absences are more frequent than ever. Recently teacher Megan Kelly had to be away. Here she shares how she tweaks class organization and systems to make sure her middle schoolers thrive in her absence and her substitutes succeed in their important role.
Math teacher Michelle Russell remembers her own anxiety each year when the time came to teach statistics to middle schoolers. She shares two fun activities she’s discovered that address 6th and 8th grade standards: cup stacking and the candy grab! Student handouts included.
Teacher and coach Mona Iehl loves ending the school year with a choice-driven math fact fluency challenge. Students solidify their fluency before the next grade while also engaging in a fun initiative. Discover her simple 4-step process and check out the resources she shares.
Last Weeks of School / New Teacher Tips
by Curtis Chandler · Published 04/12/2023 · Last modified 05/01/2024
To avoid having movies and parties consume valuable learning time during the last weeks of school, teacher educator Curtis Chandler suggests ways to celebrate and solidify knowledge gained during the year. Tips for new teachers and veterans, including a list from ChatGPT-4.
What would it be like to spend time together with colleagues on a regular basis to learn and improve our teaching skills? To investigate that question, Anne Jolly embarked on a year-long, onsite action research project to design and test a middle school teacher collaboration process.
