As a student with a math learning disability, there are a lot of difficulties I experience in the classroom that get in the way of my learning, including “memory, language, attention, temporal-sequential ordering, higher order cognition, and spatial ordering” (WGBH Educational Foundation, 2002). Many times, as I sit in the classroom, I feel like I […]
Instructional Strategies
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
How To Do A Focused Writing Bootcamp
Using the term “boot camp” to describe a teaching experience suggests something perhaps not so pleasant—what’s the classroom equivalent of crawling through mud under barbed wire? But teaching a focused bootcamp can be a lot of fun, and it’s actually a nice break from the norm. Students gain a great deal by an intense focus […]
Posted inClassroom Management
Time to End Students’ Need for Instant Gratification
When you were in your educational psychology class a few years back, you probably learned about instant gratification. This behavior, at heart, is when we pursue what we want, when we want it. Often, that means now. The primal need couldn’t be more evident in our school children – and it’s up to us educators to redirect it. […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Pokemon Go Learn
I have always let my kids do things and play games that I wouldn’t generally suggest for other children-but it’s with a guided purpose. In fact I encourage my children to get into those games and discover what happens when you push conventions, rules, and the boundaries of those virtual worlds. So when my daughters […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Why and How to Start an Interactive Notebook in Math
Last year, I began an interactive notebook in my math class after a lot of thought about the process. I had already begun the school year and didn’t want to change up how I did things but wound up deciding midway through the year to begin interactive notebooks. In the end, the decision to start the […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Why I Like to Start the Year with a Poetry Unit
Figuring out how to begin the school year can be intimidating. You’ll be setting the tone for the rest of the year, and you will never quite get the same amount of energy or hard work from your students as you do while the year is still fresh. (Ever notice that every single kid does […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
A Veteran Teacher’s Regrets: Student Choice
In my classroom, I integrated student choice whenever I could. We did reading workshop every Friday, when students read an independent reading book of their choice. Whenever we did a personal essay or literary analysis paper, I let students choose their own topics and ideas. I started doing I-Search papers, where students chose their own […]
Posted inFeatured
Letting Students Have a Say In What They Learn
We started our school year this week, and I have a small class of very eager kids. They love to learn, want to participate in everything and have some great ideas of their own. As I stood in class moving from one activity to another, I was preparing to ask my students what THEY hoped […]