Quality Questioning Can Help Us Transform Our Classrooms provides a detailed guide for fashioning quality questions and asking them in ways to encourage student learning. Instructional Partner Debby Smith says new and veteran teachers will want to keep it at hand.
Reading Nancie Atwell and Anne Atwell Merkel’s The Reading Zone, 2nd edition, is like getting a letter from a good friend and mentor, says ELA teacher Amy Matthes. Find reading workshop case studies to help readers become passionate, skilled, and habitual.
Jenny Grant Rankin’s First Aid for Teacher Burnout: How You Can Find Peace and Success is the perfect salve for the tired teacher’s soul. This short book is packed full of great ideas to relieve, rejuvenate, and energize, says teacher-librarian Rita Platt.
Close Reading the Media / Infographics
by Frank Baker · Published 05/30/2017 · Last modified 11/21/2019
Increasingly information is being conveyed in visual terms, and the flashy graphics can both clarify and mislead. Media literacy expert Frank Baker has teaching ideas to help students think more deeply about the infographics and visual data flooding our brains.
Future of History / Teaching with Movies
by Sarah Cooper · Published 05/29/2017 · Last modified 11/27/2019
Showing short video clips to her history students is easy for Sarah Cooper to justify, but with full-length movies she is more cautious about the time investment. Here she shares three films that make the cut: Iron Jawed Angels, Glory, and All the President’s Men.
What will you say you did this summer? You have enough time to make a major advancement in some area of your life, writes organizational expert Frank Buck, but you need to plan now. Whether it’s daring adventure or professional growth, here’s how to motivate yourself.
Differentiation / Meaningful Math
by Michelle Russell · Published 05/21/2017 · Last modified 11/25/2019
Talk of differentiated instruction in large, diverse classrooms makes many secondary teachers feel defensive. Math educator Michelle Russell is no exception, but because “I know it’s important” she’s set out to find strategies that will better serve all her learners.
Authentic Discovery / The Flexible Classroom
by Amber Chandler · Published 05/21/2017 · Last modified 11/24/2019
How much pre-teaching and context-building should teachers do when they teach novels from other cultural eras? How much is too much in a discovery-based classroom? Amber Chandler’s students helped her find the right balance as they experienced The Outsiders.
You may not be able to stem the tide of Shiny New Things coming your way, but using Woodson and Frakes’ book you will be able to show which reforms are making a difference in the lives of your students and which are just passing fads, writes teacher Alex Valencic.
Brain Friendly Strategies / end-of-year learning / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 05/16/2017 · Last modified 11/27/2019
Spring is in the air and kids’ attention is fluttering around and beyond the room. Elizabeth Stein shares a bit of timely brain science and offers strategies to help co-teachers bring their students’ attention back to class as the end of school approaches.
