Tween and YA books are more dynamic than ever and offer readers avenues for pleasure, reflection, adventure, and emotional engagement, writes Lynne Dorfman. Many choices are also “socially conscious” and deserve a prime spot in class libraries. She has gr4-8 ideas!
Helen Keller was real, despite what some TikTok’ers posted in 2021. Help history students uncover and affirm actual history using gaming techniques to spur engagement. Rochelle Melander shares how she has tweaked research to include questing with allies, power-ups and more.
Discover solutions to common class and school challenges in Education Write Now, Volume III, which brings together the expertise of ten writers. It’s a perfect book for right now as teachers deal with extra stress and search for quick and effective solutions, writes Linda Biondi.
Watching her teenager struggle through a day of virtual learning, teacher Dina Strasser is trying to not lose what we’ve learned about supporting kids and parents through the pandemic challenges, retaining the patience and concern so needed to buoy our school communities.
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.
In “Activate: Deeper Learning Through Movement, Talk, and Flexible Classrooms” Katherine Mills Hernandez shows how we can be strategic and novel in our use of movement to support student learning. Elisa Waingort says the book is an important contribution to teacher PD.
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.
When the goal of argumentation is to learn from each other, the task becomes less competitive and more enriching. SS/ELA teacher Megan Kelly uses games to help students build socratic skills as they consider perspectives, identify their audiences, and argue with insight.
In Active Literacy Across the Curriculum Heidi Hayes Jacobs focuses on the crucial function of literacy in all learning regardless of age or content area. 7th grade teacher Theresa Wood says Jacobs knows what works and shows how to move forward without losing what we value.
