Most students at Laurie Lichtenstein’s middle school were F2F all year, but masked and isolated in small classroom pods as teachers moved about. It was hard, but as time passed teachers found ways to reduce isolation, build community, and let kids have lots of time to play.
Multilingualism / The Unstoppable ML Teacher
by Tan Huynh · Published 07/26/2021 · Last modified 07/25/2021
Drawing on a conversation with Dr. Brandon Beck, language specialist and co-teacher Tan Huynh highlights the roles monolingual educators have in advocating for multilingualism, fostering being multiliterate, and celebrating multiculturalism to support language learners.
Many students don’t consider the source of media they consume on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or elsewhere. Often they don’t consider the ramifications of spreading fake news or conspiracy theories. Frank Baker shares ways educators can make media literacy a classroom priority.
Idaho teacher educator Curtis Chandler sees several pandemic positives: Improved teacher attitudes towards digital tools; educators who are more skillful using and troubleshooting tech; and a significant shift toward teaching methods that better engage and involve students.
From a drawing to a book, Maria Walther and Karen Biggs-Tucker trace a 5th grader’s growing creativity, curiosity and individuality. Discover their innovative ways to streamline literacy instruction while offering students opportunities to follow individualized learning paths.
In her book Stephanie Affinito brings together the importance of reflection and the need to examine our classroom practices. She provides a framework for celebrating our reading and writing lives and offers ways we can help our students develop these habits for themselves.
As educators reflect on the past year, NBCT Elizabeth Stein shares insights from co-teachers in her coaching circle who are grateful for the support they received from one another. She encourages all of us to rest, relax, and find ways to carry forward our own silver linings.
New YA books by Amanda Gorman, Lois Lowry and Margarita Engle are all written in verse, says Katie Caprino, yet each tells a story in a different way. One is a poem to America. Another is memoir. And the third is historical fiction, set in 1990s Cuba, with a singing dog.
Jackie Acree Walsh’s Empowering Students as Questioners provides teachers with the skills, strategies and structures to help each learner reach their potential by transforming their understanding of questioning, writes 5th grade teacher Kathleen Palmieri.
In this pandemic year Katie Durkin adopted 3 new practices she’ll be carrying forward: going paperless; slowing down the curriculum to provide more feedback to students; and using the Flipped Classroom model.
