Wrong Side of the Tracks
Award winning teacher Nancy Flanagan reflects on how difficult it is to predict student potential and shares a story about some Title I kids who flew above the tracks.
Author: MiddleWeb
Stormy Weather Ahead
When 4th grade teacher Becky Bair & two teammates asked teachers to shuffle assignments on behalf of vulnerable students, stormy weather ensued.
How to Build Happy Middle School Brains
Judy Willis, a neurologist & middle grades teacher, says we can help adolescents build happy, learning brains through interactive, interdependent group work.
Climate Shift
In a new series, 4th grade teacher Becky Bair tells what happened when she & 2 teammates pressed for a school “climate shift” on behalf of their most vulnerable students.
A Love Letter to Reading
Reviewer Ellen Berg finds 2009’s The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller to be a refreshing glint of sunshine in the gathering CCSS storm – with ways teachers can support students’ journeys to love affairs with books.
Where the Next Hour Takes Us
The Internet is omnipresent, says Bill Ivey, and we have to help students use technology productively, recognizing both benefits and risks.
Unorthodox View of Research
Though Christopher Lehman offers strategies to make the research process interesting to gr 4-8 students in Energize Research Reading and Writing: Fresh Strategies to Spark Interest, Develop Independence, and Meet Key Common Core Standards, his approach may prove too difficult, says reviewer Brooke Schultz.
Those Beautiful Howler Monkeys
Cindi Rigsbee & Laurie Wasserman each reviewed Heather Wolpert-Gawron’s ‘Tween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers, a middle school teaching guide. The two teachers drew the same conclusion: funny & full of great ideas.
Wounded by School: Broken, then Healing
Reviewer Lorie Shiveley agrees with many of Kristen Olson’s concerns about wounded students in Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture, but Shiveley says teachers get too much of the blame.
Teaching with Graphic Novels
6th grade teacher Kevin Hodgson says The Graphic Novels Classroom by Maureen Bakis is not just about reading engagement but opening doors to student expression.
