Some students may not have school work high on their priority list after two years of watching their normal adolescent world fall apart. Right now they may be focused on surviving, writes school psychologist Katelyn Oellerich. “We need to be focused on helping them do that.”
To help kids capture the benefits of summer reading, ELA educator Kasey Short shares what you can do before summer break begins: communicate with families, motivate readers, provide book choices, increase access to books, and link students to public library summer programs.
Belle O’Neill devoted three decades to classroom teaching before becoming a speaker and teacher educator. Her six principles of teacher professionalism are written with pre-service and novice teachers in mind and “may be used to build your reputation throughout your career.”
Culturally Responsive Teaching / The Unstoppable ML Teacher
by Tan Huynh · Published 04/17/2022 · Last modified 04/21/2022
Culturally Responsive Teaching is not a fad. It’s not one more thing we have to do for multilinguals, writes Tan Huynh. It’s a way of designing instruction for ML/EL/ESL learners that’s grounded in the assets of students, their families, and their communities.
Close Reading the Media / Teaching the Holocaust
by Frank Baker · Published 04/13/2022 · Last modified 01/25/2023
What we do as educators to help our students better understand the reality of the Holocaust is crucial in a time of lies, half-truths and misinformation, writes media literacy expert Frank Baker. “It is my hope that the ideas, suggestions and resources offered here will be helpful.”
The end of every school year is always frantic. Especially this year, plan year-end celebrations that reflect your school’s values and recognize everything the staff has done to assure a successful school year, recommend Ronald Williamson and Barbara R. Blackburn.
When teaching ELLs using a culturally responsive-sustaining pedagogy, write Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull-Sypnieski, centering student voice is critical to creating the conditions for student success. The teacher asks for, listens to, and acts on student ideas and feedback.
In Teaching Twice-Exceptional Learners in Today’s Classroom Emily Kircher-Morris clears up misconceptions about twice-exceptional students and shares many easily accessed tools for teaching 2E students in general and with specific exceptionalities, writes Sarah E. Pennington.
Class Apps / Formative Assessment
by Curtis Chandler · Published 04/04/2022 · Last modified 04/16/2024
One of the few silver linings to teaching in the pandemic has been a boost in teachers’ familiarity with and use of some pretty incredible tools, each designed to make it simple to gather evidence of learning with ease and efficiency. Curtis Chandler shares six favorites.
Culturally responsive and sustaining teaching needs to underlie and guide all our classroom practices, write Ferlazzo and Sypnieski. When we validate the cultural learning tools that diverse learners bring, we can leverage them to produce positive outcomes for all students.
