Too many take-home tasks focus on repetition instead of reasoning – quantity instead of quality. Curtis Chandler imagines homework as food for the brain. When it’s rich in quality and purpose, it nourishes understanding. When it’s routine busywork, it’s educational junk food.
Planning the pacing of a lesson and adjusting the timing along the way creates the most meaningful academic experiences for students. Middle school teacher Laurie Hornik shares six techniques she uses to help assure her lessons have well-timed beginnings, middles, and ends.
You’re a Teacher Now: What’s Next? is an easy read that shares a wide range of proven practices for new teachers (and veterans) in an organized and honest way. A “definite recommendation,” says teaching professor Michelle Schwartze, who also likes the free online reproducibles.
Welcome to Teaching! does not just tell you how to teach. It shows you with lively illustrations and QR codes showcasing strategies in real classrooms and solutions to pitfalls often seen in classrooms of new teachers, writes PD leader Alison Prochaska. A “must-read” resource.
With summer here and most schools done for the year, MiddleWeb has pulled together a diverse set of deep-dive PD articles you might have missed. They’re insightful, informative and actionable!
Building small but mighty habits that we commit to without having to overthink what we’re doing is a far more effective and lasting approach to not just getting each day done and dusted, but to also retaining feelings of accomplishment and productivity, writes Miriam Plotinsky.
Teaching guru Barbara R. Blackburn returns to her roots in the classroom to give new teachers a list of quick tips – 26, one for each letter of the alphabet – all ideas that will help newbies launch and navigate their journeys. Included: her list of links to essential resource websites.
Who will be coming in your door this fall? Upper elementary? Slightly older kids who sometimes feel childish and at other times want to be treated as adults? Here are MiddleWeb’s back-to-school strategies from educators that can help make all of your new students feel welcome!
For well over a decade MiddleWeb has shared helpful ideas for new middle grades and MS teachers. In this post we’ve selected recent articles along with several classics and book reviews that might be MOST useful before and during your first months in the classroom.
In Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Carol Ann Tomlinson and Marcia Imbeau offer new teachers and classroom veterans the rationale for designing instruction to meet diverse student needs – and the means to manage it in the real world, says Cathy Gassenheimer.
