It is two days before the winter holiday break as I wind down with students and their LED light projects. I entered this study with no experience in circuit design or understanding of how lights operate, I given up the security of time tested lessons for STEAM (Science, Technology Engineering, Art, Math). There was no need for […]
Middle School
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Middle School
Teaching Strategy: Processing Assignments
One of the greatest resources I’ve ever used in the classroom is the Processing Assignment (or PA). Created by the Teachers’ Curriculum Institute (TCI), the PA is really whatever you or the students want it to be. Let’s examine more on the incredible teaching tool. What is a Processing Assignment (PA)? Simply put, it’s hitting the “pause […]
Posted inFeatured
8 Reasons Why Gum Still Has No Place in the Classroom
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! I like to debate the issues with my colleagues, and one debate I had with one of my best of friends was over his choice to allow his 8th-grade students to chew gum. I, on the other hand, am fervently opposed to […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, High School, Middle School, Opinion
Can Success Be Taught in Middle School?
By Guest Writer: Holly Winter When asking a class of middle school students to write about success, one girl wrote: “My mother was successful at smoking crack and my father was successful at getting himself murdered.” Her statements bring the ideas of success into focus. This student isn’t in jail, on drugs, and she doesn’t have a group […]
Posted inCommon Core, Elementary School, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Middle School, Social Studies
Teaching Strategy: Adding Primary Sources to Elementary Social Studies
I don’t care which television news channel you select – I hate them all. Why? There are a variety of reasons. For one, they are all emotion, little fact. They focus on sound bites instead of the whole speech. They care way too much about celebrity and not about the common person. Most of all, […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Instructional Strategies, Middle School, Social Studies, Technology, Uncategorized
21st Century Classroom Management is… Fun?
Recently a veteran colleague and a teacher in training posed questions concerning classroom management and power struggles with students. Years ago the approach to dealing with students who test the boundaries of rules was quick and strict reprimand. Students were graded on neatness, orderly and timely manners, for being quiet unless called upon. While there […]
Posted inConfessions of a Teacher, From the Front Lines, Instructional Strategies, Middle School, Special Education
The Working Hours of a Special Education Teacher
Special education teachers work hard. People see smaller class sizes and equate that with less work, but that’s a fallacy. I can tell you that in my small class, I’m planning three different lessons and within those three lessons, I’m modifying within levels. In my inclusion classes, I modify assignments, and teachers look at it […]
Posted inInstructional Strategies, Middle School, Uncategorized
Classroom Management in Middle School
Middle school students are both exciting and difficult to teach. They are exciting because they are moving toward adulthood and constantly changing. They are difficult because they are not fully mature and often lapse into behaviors of younger children. Finding classroom management techniques that work at this age takes some trial and error. Here are […]