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 […]
organization
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Principals' Corner
Differentiation Isn't Dead
Differentiation is the one word in education that make the most subdued educators scream out in pain. Principals use it in evaluations like it’s going out of style, and content specialists talk about it like it’s the best thing since sliced bread. Meanwhile, educators maintain intense fear when the word “differentiation” is uttered in conversation because […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies, Principals' Corner
Differentiation Isn’t Dead
Differentiation is the one word in education that make the most subdued educators scream out in pain. Principals use it in evaluations like it’s going out of style, and content specialists talk about it like it’s the best thing since sliced bread. Meanwhile, educators maintain intense fear when the word “differentiation” is uttered in conversation because […]
Posted inCommon Core, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Middle School
Are You Using Interactive Student Notebooks? You Should Be!
Teaching full-time English and AVID found me drowning in papers – you know the feeling? A weekly stack of hundreds of papers to check off or grade left me frustrated, tired and unhappy most weekends. In an attempt to cut down on the overwhelming, mind-numbing amount of papers submitted to me by my middle school […]
Posted inEducational Apps, Elementary School, Featured, From the Front Lines, Kindergarten, Opinion
Summer Planning and Pinterest
Pinterest. Love, love, love this site! And who doesn’t? Especially those of us who began teaching with toilet paper rolls and baby food jars or those teachers who need to supplement their current curriculum without spending a fortune doing so. But just like with any great resource, being able to benefit from using it is […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, From the Front Lines, Opinion
Setting Up a Cooperative Learning Classroom
At recess yesterday I began sketching my classroom layout for next year. Crazy, I know. I am the teacher who likes to do trial runs on pretty much everything. Owning my own school gives me the ability to do that. I use the beginning of each quarter to lay out goals and expectations for my […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Providing An Anchor In Learning
I have a reference wall in my classroom. It includes phonics rules, checklists, our word wall and one of my newest loves, anchor charts. I introduce my anchor charts during my carpet time for several days, then when I feel like my class is comfortable with whatever concept is being taught, I hang it on […]
Posted inInstructional Strategies, Middle School, Special Education
7 Strategies for Helping Students with Organizational Problems
You’re teaching a lesson on math, and you see Johnny shuffling through his enormous trapper keeper still. Not only can’t he find his pencil, but he left his notes in his locker. At the end of class, he shoves all his papers into the trapper keeper, not bothering to look where he shoves them, nearly […]