by: Jackie Bledsoe The start to homeschooling can be a daunting task for first timers. Especially for those coming from a traditional school environment. For traditional school families there are some preparation tasks, but not a whole lot. Tasks such as purchasing basic school supplies, attending orientations, showing up for meet-the-teacher night, and making sure their […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines, Instruction & Curriculum, Middle School, Opinion, Parents
Pay It Backwards: Reach Out to Your Former Teachers
Growing up, I remember learning about Benjamin Franklin explaining life’s assurances: “…in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” He was explaining to a French pen pal that the American experiment was as raw as it was unpredictable. The Constitution and our fledgling country were trees in the desert, […]
Posted inCommon Core, Featured, From the Front Lines, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Social Studies
Informational Text for Social Studies or English: “The Perils of Indifference” by Elie Wiesel
By my calculations, at the mid-point of the school year, many World History classes are studying World War II. Should these classes want to increase their use of an informational text in English or Social Studies curriculum, I suggest Elie Wiesel’s noteworthy speech The Perils of Indifference. Wiesel delivered this speech to Congress on April 12, […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Guided Reading–Pick Any (Fiction) Book
Guided reading is a teaching strategy that has gained attention and popularity over the past ten years for good reason. This method of teaching reading (to elementary students) groups them according to their instructional text reading level. It incorporates skills, comprehension strategies, writing, and text decoding. There are many companies with canned programs and resources […]
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines, How to Fix Education, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Uncategorized
The Emperor’s New Clothes: There’s No Magic Answer in Reading
Let us face it- in education many of us are waiting for some fairy reading tales to come true. For instance, we may be hoping to meet Prince Charming and live in his magnificent castle. However, nobody wants to walk down the street without clothes, even in our nightmares. I contend that most commercial reading […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Mathematics, Parents
A Parent’s Guide to the Kindergarten Math Common Core
You may have already heard about Common Core. In fact, your student may already be involved with the Common Core Standards. So, as a kindergarten parent, what do you need to know? What will your student be taught? And, what can you do to prepare your student prior to kindergarten? Just to clarify, the Common […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
12th-Grade Inquiry Papers on the Topic of Heroes and Monsters
The association of midterm exams with freezing is both literal (I teach in the Northeast) and figurative (many students “freeze up” during an exam), so at the end of this semester, I took one of the writing standards from the Common Core State Standards hoping at the very least to stop the “freeze” in the […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Opinion
Here We Go Again–Another Year of State Testing
High stakes testing is a common discussion within education today. There are teachers who are willing to risk their educational careers to step up and voice their opinions about all of the testing being given in our schools today. I have always believed you have to advocate for your children. I do that constantly. If […]