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.
Whether you’re a recent teacher ed graduate, newly emergency certified, or an experienced teacher who’s suddenly learned you’ll be teaching STEM this year, you’re in good hands with veteran STEM teacher and curriculum designer Anne Jolly. Here are her five “do this first” tips.
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.
What can you and your students accomplish the last few weeks of school? In this MiddleWeb resource educators share activities that align learning with fun, offer ideas for responding to stress, and suggest strategies to help sustain your classroom community.
Resources / Summer Reading & Learning
by Susan Curtis · Published 03/31/2024 · Last modified 05/07/2024
How can teachers help students enjoy reading and learning during summer following another challenging year? Visit MiddleWeb’s expanded resource for Summer 2023, where you’ll find teacher ideas and heaps of book and online suggestions.
Whether read individually or as a group study, Melissa Collins’ book will help educators understand the growth cycle of a teacher leader and to reflect on their own experiences. Collins includes teacher leader roles beyond the classroom, notes reviewer Stacy Haynes-Moore.
Women’s history is no longer in hiding, thanks to scholars who are documenting women’s impact on society. Middle grades teachers can help their students trace that history with these resources, just updated and expanded, for Women’s History Month and beyond.
In middle school some gifted students find themselves lost in an urban maze without sufficient navigational support. GT facilitator Sharon Ratliff shares some teaching techniques and conversational strategies that can help them stay on the road that leads to academic success.
Embracing failure is a mindset we can weave throughout the curriculum, teaching students that failing isn’t the end but a crucial step toward success. STEAM author-educator Kara Ball shares three activities to help students in persevering through and even celebrating failure.
To reduce confusion, math professor Dan Ilaria recommends: Stop saying “cancel” and use “name the operation.” Stop saying “plug in” and use “substitute.” Stop saying “reduce” and use “rewrite.” Stop saying “cross-multiply” and allow students to make sense of what they are solving.
