The best tool in your classroom is YOU, the teacher. You’re the listener, questioner, connector. With summer at hand, math teacher Mona Iehl shares ways to prep yourself for next year. Relax, yes. Then reflect on what you’ve learned and envision a few manageable new approaches.
What makes our lessons memorable? Looking into semantic, episodic, emotional, procedural and automatic memory, teaching consultant Marilee Sprenger shares ways to engage students’ long-term storage systems so that memories take hold. Start with visuals and play based learning!
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.
Curious about what students may have learned this year that traditional assessment may not uncover? Deep learning expert Dr. Karin Hess shares five activities and explains how two key elements of learning – metacognition and reflection – can team up to reveal hidden understanding.
Aileen Hower and Lynne Dorfman refresh our thinking about the advantages of facilitation over too much center-stage teaching. If we learn how to facilitate effectively and balance instructional methods, students will retain more and reteaching time will shrink significantly.
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.
Authentic Literacy Instruction cuts through the literacy fog and all the opposing claims about reading instruction to present practical, actionable techniques teachers can use with any curriculum in grades 6-12, says ELA/reading teacher Erin Corrigan-Smith.
Ramp up poetry positivity with the Peel the Fruit activity from Project Zero. Throughout the year NBCT Kathie Palmieri helps her fifth graders uncover layers of poetry understanding and then invites them to write their own. Their current favorite: the Intimate Object Poem.
Scholastic’s Dwaine Millard explores how community libraries can both offer all young people opportunities to improve their access to resources and technology and provide face-to-face settings where they can form positive social norms outside the boundaries of social media.
