Stephanie Farley is teaching expository writing to her class of gifted, neurodiverse students and needs to design a differentiated unit that addresses each of her students’ diverse strengths. Read about what she’s come up with – the Field Guide Project – and add suggestions!
Joyful Learning offers a student-centered vision to help teachers bring more meaning and fun into their practice. It offers a framework for considering key elements of teaching practice like relationships, curriculum, assessment, grading, assignments, writes Nicole Miller.
There’s something pleasingly counter-cultural about going analog with map construction, writes teacher Stephanie Farley. It helps students make connections they wouldn’t otherwise make, provides an entry point to deep conversations, and invites them to exercise their creativity.
When you need a bit of inspiration in your teaching life, Stephanie Farley encourages you to watch some or all of School of Rock. Perhaps, like her, you’ll find yourself wondering how you can create a project similar to “rock band” in your own classroom for a little while!
Recently Stephanie Farley was reminded that just because a classroom strategy or routine worked for a few weeks or months earlier in the year doesn’t mean it will continue to work through spring. She and several colleagues offer tips to switch it up for students and reengage.
When Stephanie Farley asked fellow teachers how they felt about the presents they receive from students each year, she found that “while they roundly appreciate all of them, it’s clear they cherish the heartfelt notes, the student art, and the homemade or hand-crafted gifts.”
Stephanie Farley has come to realize that she’s a hybrid kind of person – she enjoys the blurring of traditional lines between categories. Here she shares how she uses elements of fiction to help students conceptualize and improve their nonfiction writing. And vice versa.
As we get to know each student and welcome them into class, we may feel the excitement of the new commingled with the apprehension of the unknown. Educator Stephanie Farley reminds herself that kids want to learn, teachers know what to do, and 20 year-olds want to teach.
If we can teach kids to think about their futures with more specificity and positivity, then we can have a significant impact on not only their self-image but their well-being – critical work in our anxiety-ridden, social media-saturated times, writes teacher leader Stephanie Farley.
Stephanie Farley was a reluctant adventurer 30 years ago when she took a teaching job “until something better” came along. To her surprise, she discovered a career that has given her the gifts of meaning, mastery and connection – “a powerfully engaging, ever-evolving vocation.”
