Rotation stations can help differentiate instruction as teachers prepare middle graders for an upcoming unit or topic or support re-teaching and enrichment after completing a unit of study. Dr. Laura Robb details one teacher’s strategies in an ELA classroom with 28 students.
You need your break! Don’t fill your summer ruminating endlessly about lessons and classes to come. Instead try the “habit stacking” strategy and prepare for the next school year without getting mired in the weeds. Teacher and coach Miriam Plotinsky shares nine possibilities.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding remains a riveting, relevant book for middle school because of its themes of survival, power, and leadership. Laurie Hornik’s PBL unit also teaches students to appreciate and practice multiple perspectives and be open to changing their minds.
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 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.
A Year for the Books is, in equal parts, about love of reading and how to organize a student-centered classroom environment for elementary and middle school students. ELA teacher Laurie Miller Hornik especially likes “Turning Beliefs about Teaching and Learning Into Actions.”
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.
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.
