Mona Iehl traces her teaching growth from guiding math students through memorizing procedures to thinking deeply through productive struggle at each stage of problem solving. Over time she developed the Word Problem Workshop model she uses in her classroom and explains here.
Deciding when – and how much – to help our students can be difficult, writes new-teacher educator Curtis Chandler. It requires both a self-assessment of our own preconceptions and the ability to strike a delicate balance between high expectations and full support for all.
How might lessons connect local history and historical fiction? Katie Durkin and her 7th grade team are partnering with the Wilton CT historical society to engage students in a project that raises awareness about how fiction writers use history to tell authentic stories.
Whether you’re a principal facilitating a change initiative or a teacher leader facilitating a content-level team, it’s essential to set clear parameters with adult learners upfront so that neither goals, nor trust, nor people’s hard work is compromised. Elisa MacDonald shows how.
We cannot continue to subject students to practices that are clearly not working. In Collective Leader Efficacy, former principal Peter M. DeWitt shows how to move forward in a team effort, empowering educators to center on students, writes district HR leader Brian Taylor.
We’ve accomplished so much this year and we still have another big stretch to conquer, write teachers Maggie and Piers Blyth. We’ve reached the peak – we’re ready for the downhill race. It’s important to chart our path and stay alert for the obstacles and opportunities ahead.
Is bullying in schools a social pandemic we need to take more seriously? Middle grades teacher Laleh Ghotbi makes a compelling case that educators and parents can do more to protect students being harmed by religious, cultural, racial and gender prejudice and animosity.
Intentionally introducing humor, curiosity, enthusiasm, and optimism into each class is a low-tech, high-impact method to build resilience and attention. Stephanie Farley shares ways she’s engaged middle schoolers with elements like (live!) rolling mice and kid-made symbols.
Fisher and Frey’s “Leader Credibility” provides a roadmap to strengthening leadership skills. It outlines traits of those who engage, inspire and transform and offers guidance on the essentials of trust, competence, dynamism, forward thinking and more, says Cathy Gassenheimer.
Like much of the current K-12 universe, Sarah Cooper is both excited and concerned about the impact of ChatGPT’s disruptive technology. Recently she checked in with her 8th graders for insights into how they might use it and how they think AI may impact their lives in the future.
