For well over a decade MiddleWeb has shared helpful ideas for new middle grades and MS teachers. In this post we’ve selected recent articles along with several classics and book reviews that might be MOST useful before and during your first months in the classroom.
Taking time to reflect on current practices and explore fresh ideas can be invigorating for educators and provide students with new opportunities. Teacher leader Kasey Short shares ways we can plan for informal professional learning this summer and during the school year.
If we can teach kids to think about their futures with more specificity and positivity, then we can have a significant impact on not only their self-image but their well-being – critical work in our anxiety-ridden, social media-saturated times, writes teacher leader Stephanie Farley.
In Humans Who Teach, Shamari Reid tells many stories to lift the veil on the weights of expectation placed on teachers, by themselves and society. Reid centers “love in our work as humans who teach,” offering ways to jump-start ourselves if action seems difficult, says Sarah Cooper.
As the school year ends, it’s easy for students to lose their momentum. One way to help ease students into summer mode, but still sneak in some math review, is to find engaging activities. Kathleen Palmieri shares favorites from Jo Boaler that can also be saved for fall warm-ups.
A Year for the Books is, in equal parts, about love of reading and how to organize a student-centered classroom environment for elementary and middle school students. ELA teacher Laurie Miller Hornik especially likes “Turning Beliefs about Teaching and Learning Into Actions.”
Facing current education’s false head/heart dichotomy and with the concept of what it means to be a teacher – so stressed in recent years – now stretched to the breaking point, veteran educator Dina Strasser is searching for truths toward which she can strive.
In MATH-ish, youcubed.org co-founder Jo Boaler brings together real-world math, neuroscience, equity awareness, and classroom experiences to forge a powerful multi-faceted tool to encourage students’ collaboration and engagement, says math teacher and NBCT Kathleen Palmieri.
It pays to be strategic when managing time, writes teacher Kelly Owens. Without compromising good practice, educators can learn to ditch time drainers and invest those precious minutes in time savers. Reduce, reuse and recycle to work more efficiently and effectively.
Coaching in Gifted Education by Emily Mofield and Vicki Phelps is a rich resource for educators looking for ways to meet the needs of exceptional learners. The authors are the partners GT coaches need to be the partners that classroom teachers need, writes NBCT Kim Rensch.
