Involving parents and families in a partnership with schools has a positive impact on students. What can principals do to ensure the partnership is sustained, vibrant and diverse? Ron Williamson and Barbara Blackburn suggest strategies to build connections.
Paid ads and social media give lots of exposure to Presidential candidates. They also get free visibility from magazines, though they don’t always like what they see. Frank Baker offers a magazine-cover activity to help students build media literacy skills.
History in Fiction / Working Draft
by Kevin Hodgson · Published 04/04/2016 · Last modified 12/01/2019
Kevin Hodgson’s 6th graders learn about church bombings as he reads from The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963. The students also explore primary sources and write about children in the Civil Rights movement to begin to understand bravery in the face of racism.
Education leaders Ruth Ash and Pat Hodge examine how middle level principals, working with teachers and students, are creating high performing learning cultures using five key leadership practices. It’s not magic, they say, but method, logic, perseverance, and heart.
Susan Brooks-Young offers a gateway to designing a Hybrid Mobile Technology Program in any unique school district setting. Her brief book features an abundance of resources, guidelines, and questions, says Joshua Zagorski, a K-12 STEM supervisor and instructional technologist.
Raising the level of rigor in your classroom does not have to be difficult or require a separate lesson, says author and learning consultant Barbara Blackburn. She lays out three engaging teaching strategies that can push students to higher levels of thinking.
Marie C. White and Maria K. DiBenedetto offer a toolbox of strategies that teachers can use to help students become positive, self-regulated learners and practice self-efficacy. Linda Biondi found their description of a self-regulated teacher revelatory.
Literacy expert Regie Routman takes teachers for a ride and demonstrates how to avoid roadblocks that make writing less than doable, effective and gratifying. The destination? Classrooms where students routinely write to think, problem solve, create and explore.
Help middle graders take the next step in environmental studies & awareness. Using USDA resource materials, students can join the effort to uncover and eradicate the invasive Asian Longhorned Beetle which threatens 70% of the tree canopy in the United States.
Future of History / US Constitution
by Lauren S. Brown · Published 12/15/2015 · Last modified 12/03/2019
What works to help 7th graders understand the US Constitution? Former HS teacher Lauren S. Brown got a crash course in teaching the document as she returned to full-time teaching this fall. Slowing the pace, using the primary source, and blending in current events all helped.
