Class Apps / Measuring Engagement
by Curtis Chandler · Published 05/11/2021 · Last modified 06/12/2024
Education stakeholders agree that student engagement is essential. The challenge arises when we’re asked to define and measure it. Curtis Chandler shares a number of free methods and tools educators can use to measure three types: behavioral, emotional, and cognitive.
Amid all the other challenges of pandemic education, principal Rita Platt has noticed an uptick in communication breakdowns between teachers and parents this year. Platt relates several stories that prompted her to share some parent/teacher do’s and don’ts with staff.
Cultural Literacy / Kids on the Cusp
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 05/09/2021 · Last modified 05/10/2021
Back in her beloved Room 4T after eight months of virtual teaching, Mary Tarashuk considers how The Jetsons cartoon show influenced her nine-year old self decades ago – and what she needs to teach her mostly white, suburban 4th graders about life in the real future.
After a year of teaching to blank Zoom squares, Lauren Brown reflects on pre-pandemic days and the rich, face-to-face experiences she always had with kids. Will her profound sense of loss change in May, with all her students back in physical class? Will school feel like spring? September?
Reflective and restorative practices are not new, writes middle school administrator Sara Johnson, but the pandemic has created an even greater need to view discipline as a tool to guide and support the social-emotional learning of tweens and teens. Here’s how Sara does it.
What if a STEM project became a product kids make for actual use? Anne Jolly shows how industry’s Product Design Process (PDP) expands upon the familiar engineering design popular in STEM classes, giving students new skills as they move from prototypes to the marketplace.
Alex Valencic began his career sending work home with his students without much thought. Over the years he came to question the need for homework at all – until parents rebelled. Then he invented the Homework Menu. And embraced the D.E.L.I.B.E.R.A.T.E ideas of Erik Youngman.
Teacher Gillian Mertens and her colleagues recommend educators do more than help students debunk social media misinformation they find. Instead, the goal is for students to recognize why the information was believed by so many people, thereby developing greater resistance for themselves.
Barbara R. Blackburn and Melissa Miles show how a re-interpretation of “rigor” can boost ELA and social studies engagement and learning in grades K-5. Teacher educator Linda Biondi notes the authors offer easily implemented solutions along with thought provoking questions.
“Let’s face it, adolescence isn’t plump full of safety and confidence. It’s a developmental stage in which students want and need to be connected and valued.” No wonder middle schoolers dread the “correction” approach to grammar. Jeff Anderson and Travis Leech have found a better way.
