It's Not Easy Being Tween / Multicultural Learning
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 11/20/2016 · Last modified 11/04/2024
Few things are more important to Cheryl Mizerny than creating a classroom environment that honors all of her multicultural students. She looks at beliefs, the visual environment, instructional materials, and teaching choices for ways to support everyone’s learning.
It's Not Easy Being Tween / Reading
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 09/26/2016 · Last modified 11/28/2019
Inspired by Donalyn Miller’s game-changing work The Book Whisperer, middle school teacher Cheryl Mizerny has transformed her traditional ELA classroom into a reading community where everyone learns to love books. See if some of her ideas might work for you.
It's Not Easy Being Tween / Plagiarism
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 08/28/2016 · Last modified 11/26/2019
For Cheryl Mizerny, detecting plagiarism and determining consequences require more energy than proactively planning assignments that don’t lend themselves to copying. She shares strategies to support learning while making plagiarism less attractive to students.
Back to School / It's Not Easy Being Tween / New Teacher Advice
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 08/14/2016 · Last modified 08/07/2024
First day routines evolve over the years, says veteran teacher Cheryl Mizerny, but she has found that addressing 7 questions most students bring to class will help them feel welcome and excited about learning. A student advisory panel supports her observations.
Articles / It's Not Easy Being Tween / Whole Novels / Whole Novels
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 06/12/2016 · Last modified 07/07/2024
Each school year Cheryl Mizerny’s 6th graders explore three whole novels as a class. In this post, she shares the 10 techniques she’s developed to maximize the experience, including “reading like writers” and applying fiction’s life lessons to their own world.
It's Not Easy Being Tween / Makerspace Learning
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 05/16/2016 · Last modified 12/02/2019
Cheryl Mizerny is excited about the maker movement and all that it implies for education, but she hopes educators will take school-based makerspaces in the direction of incorporating 21st century learning goals, avoiding rote projects, and promoting innovation.
Articles / It's Not Easy Being Tween / Whole Novels / Whole Novels
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 04/17/2016 · Last modified 07/07/2024
Whole-class novel study is one curricular tradition that’s taken a huge beating in the last several years, writes ELA teacher Cheryl Mizerny. But not in her classroom, where Cheryl works to balance indepth novel study with student book choice and read-alouds.
Excellent Teaching / It's Not Easy Being Tween
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 03/21/2016 · Last modified 12/01/2019
During March Madness we have to ask: what can teachers learn from great coaches? Cheryl Mizerny reflects on the words of basketball coaching legends and considers how their insights carry over into classrooms and the work teachers do with their own learners.
It's Not Easy Being Tween / Winter Doldrums
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 02/21/2016 · Last modified 01/21/2020
The winter doldrums that threaten many classrooms can be blown away with fresh teaching ideas, humor, movement and more. Middle level educator Cheryl Mizerny shares suggestions for enlivening the weeks that fill the calendar between the holidays and spring break.
It's Not Easy Being Tween / Social Skills
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 01/24/2016 · Last modified 11/26/2019
Cheryl Mizerny considers the “soft” skills of social interaction to be as essential to success as the ELA skills she teaches. To help fill students’ wide social skill gaps, she’s identified problem behaviors and resources she’ll use to build a mini-curriculum.
