According to Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs, “curriculum making is choice making” and a person who designs curriculum well not only has a variety of styles, but responds well to the environment, stays up-to-date on research, and makes choices based on good information (Laureate Education, 2010.). As the field of education changes so frequently with regards […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inElementary School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Guided Reading: Different Kids, Different Text
Today we have a plethora of resources available to use in our classrooms. This allows students to get a meaningful text at their level. Matching text to students allows them to read more independently, practice note-taking skills and learn about classroom standards or content in a meaningful way. Each student in our classroom comes to us […]
Posted inCommon Core, Educational Apps, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Technology
BrainPOP: A Te(a)cher's Best Friend
Think you’ll have 5 or 10 minutes left in class? Need an engaging way to start a lesson while you take attendance, grade a few papers, or call a parent? Looking for something simple to drive home the core idea of a lesson? Want to find a place to have formal assessment with students at […]
Posted inGoing Paperless, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Series, Technology
Adventures in Going Paperless: Step One, Taking the Leap
urnA few years ago, my best teacher friend and I decided the entire population of the world could be dived into two kinds of people: spreadsheet people and stack people. Spreadsheet people sort and file. They label and color-code. Their organizational world is akin to the beloved spreadsheet after which they are named and on […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Literacy
Leveled Reading For Young Readers
One of the most frustrating situations I have as an early childhood educator is the misconception of “leveled” readers. Time and time again parents will tell me they’ve checked out these readers from the library or purchased readers that are “leveled” for their child, only to become frustrated when their child has difficulty reading the […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Opinion
Things Teachers Are Saying Wrong, and How to Correct Them
The insistence on vocabulary in education is a time-tested tradition of teachers. However, as curriculum changes and adapts, so does our subject-specific student vocabulary. That said, why hasn’t teacher vocabulary altered and upgraded throughout the years? Let’s look at a few things teachers say, what we should begin saying instead, and why… 1 – Start saying […]
Posted inHigh School, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Social Studies
Presenting Missing Histories
How do educators balance teaching in an area of expertise while knowing that what they know might not be enough? Media scrutiny and traditional practice of being the “sage on stage” for determining necessary content coverage for standardized tests thwarts the better practice of modeling inquiry and discovery. Teachers worried about the uniformity of content focus more […]
Posted inElementary School, Instruction & Curriculum, Science
Jumping into the Deep End: Creating Excitement in Learning
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][bctt tweet=”When did we get so busy teaching we forgot children learn? I don’t think teachers have forgotten this, but there seems to be a demand from above that is pushing this […]