Celebrating Student Work with an Authentic Audience Last month my students finally finished their book reviews. It was our first full writing unit of the year, and at times it was difficult for them. It was a very different type of writing than anything they’d done before. When their confidence or interest flagged however, I […]
Instructional Strategies
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, From the Front Lines, High School, Instructional Strategies, Opinion
No One Wants to be ‘Managed’
Years ago I stopped presenting, coaching and even talking about ‘classroom management’. Who wants to be managed? To be ‘handled’? As an adult, I want to be led. Students want to learn and they want (yearn for) boundaries; AND they want to be led. Creating and adhering to a list of concrete rules and automatic […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Literacy
Controversy: Addressing Challenging Topics in Your High School English Class
On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager, was killed in the streets of Ferguson, MO. On August 11, just two days later, school was scheduled to begin. As I watched the story unfold over the weekend, I was met with an anger and frustration I had not experienced since Trayvon Martin was […]
Posted inElementary School, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Mathematics
Dear Elementary Math Teacher: I Need You to Know…..
Dear Elementary Math Teacher, Teaching math can be a rewarding experience because elementary teachers mold students’attitudes towards math that will last well beyond the elementary school years. Trust me when I say, I know sometimes it can be difficult to teach math to students who do not have the number sense or the prerequisite skills […]
Posted inESOL, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies
The Four Benefits of Bilingual Education
Language is a subject matter of much controversy in our country. Are you “American” if you speak another language? Well, many of our students come from homes where the parents do not speak English, so regardless of whether or not you think all Americans should speak English, the fact remains that we are a country […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Mathematics
Integers: Adding and Subtracting the Easy Way
Teaching integers can be very frustrating to students. Early in my teaching career I found that many of my students found adding and subtracting integers to be very difficult. I tried teaching the rules and learned that everyone (including me) was frustrated. I began to realize that one problem was that for most children, negative […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Elementary School, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Mathematics
5 Do's and Don'ts for Teaching Elementary Mathematics
Have you ever heard math content specialists say that elementary teachers have poor math content knowledge, but they have great instructional strategies? While this may be seen as harsh but for the most part it is true. Through not fault of their own colleges did not prepare elementary teachers to specialize in mathematics. When a […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher, Common Core, From the Front Lines, Instructional Strategies, Literacy, Middle School
Maybe It's The Time Of Year: Taking Another Look At Confrontation In The Classroom
It was just a lesson on folktales, really. We’ve been reading a variety of stories from around the world in my 8th grade English classroom – sometimes with partners or small groups, but yesterday I asked my students to tackle reading “Davy Crockett” alone. Their essential question was familiar at this point: “What do folktales […]