STEM By Design / STEM Summer Activities
by Anne Jolly · Published 06/01/2014 · Last modified 12/10/2019
How to STEM the summer learning slide? MiddleWeb’s Anne Jolly offers a great collection of ideas and resources that can help parents and educators keep kids tuned into math, science and engineering topics until the school doors open again this fall.
Future of History / History & Current Events
by Sarah Cooper · Published 05/20/2014 · Last modified 04/17/2024
Middle level students want to know how their studies relate to their lives, writes teacher-author Sarah Cooper. “The history we teach reaches them best when it involves novelty, humor, meaning, a sense of self, and a connection to the real world.”
Book Reviews / Personal Learning Networks
by MiddleWeb · Published 05/16/2014 · Last modified 05/19/2014
Organized and user friendly, Professional Learning in the Digital Age by Kristen Swanson provides educator cases, face-to-face protocols, research snippets and to-do lists to help teachers move through the process of developing their PLN, says reviewer Nicole Miller.
The topic of dictionaries came up in assorted conversations in the past few weeks, reminding Kevin Hodgson both of the power of those esteemed books of words as symbols of thought and scholarship, and the ways in which technology is completely altering the ease and means of how we find information when we need it.
Educators can create classrooms where students control their own learning and still meet the demands of a Common Core curriculum, says middle grades teacher Pernille Ripp, author of “Passionate Learners: Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students.”
STEM By Design / STEM Communications
by Anne Jolly · Published 05/04/2014 · Last modified 12/05/2019
For STEM programs to realize their ambitions, kids need to communicate with the world about their projects. Science educator Anne Jolly says social media tools can help STEM students collaborate, tap expertise, and build key communications skills.
Too much close reading is boring, say Mike Fisher & Danielle Hardt, as students comb through fiction, constantly analyzing lots of text. Ask them to read and write digital microstories. They’ll build evaluation & synthesis skills and have some fun.
Donalyn Miller’s Reading in the Wild is a great workshop-focused resource for any ELA teacher who wants to cultivate lifelong reading habits and is “looking for a viable alternative to traditional instruction,” says teacher-reviewer Tyler McBride.
Numerous historical adaptions have been nominated for Academy Awards in recent years. Media literacy expert Frank W. Baker offers ideas and resources to help students examine their historical accuracy and address a middle-level Common Core standard.
Embracing Technology / Kids on the Cusp
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 02/19/2014 · Last modified 02/20/2014
“It’s hard to come to terms with the digital dinosaur in myself,” writes 5th grade teacher Mary Tarashuk, who’s been asked to help create online courses. “Technology benchmarks are a bit vague for this novice traveler on the Information Superhighway.”
