Educators tend to fill every moment with our voices, writes teaching coach Patty McGee. Yet the most powerful learning can happen when we are silent, making room for student-to-student communication, customized feedback, and a trusted space for students to reveal what they know.
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.
As new teachers and other educators in schools with many struggling readers search for equitable instructional approaches that will accelerate (not remediate) student learning, metacognition and reciprocal teaching strategies can help, write Sonya Murray and Gwendolyn Turner.
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.
When teachers create a welcoming, safe, inclusive learning environment with their students, the chances increase that students will have a sense of belonging and “calm increase,” freeing them to learn. NBCT Elizabeth Stein shares ways to use restorative practices and UDL.
Grammatical concepts don’t just exist in textbooks and on worksheets. They are part of life beyond the classroom. Sean Ruday shows how – by taking an inquiry-based approach to grammar instruction – we can help our students prioritize their authentic experiences with language.
Education professor and researcher Julie Hasson has spent years interviewing people about their memorable teachers. Read what three former middle school students told her about the teachers whose actions and interactions in the classroom made a lasting impact on their lives.
Whether school leaders network using traditional methods like books and conferences or virtual solutions using social media tools and platforms, it’s vital to be a learner and to model learning in your organization. Ron Williamson and Barb Blackburn explore the PLN option.
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.
