Just how do you build a STEM lesson around a real-world challenge? While there’s no single answer to that question, STEM expert Anne Jolly shares a STEM lesson she and a math colleague designed around a local environmental challenge. Helpful tips and resources included!
From the classroom to the whole school, Dr. Myles Cooley’s revised Practical Guide for Mental Health and Learning Disorders will help new and veteran educators understand specific student challenges and support kids affected by them, writes educator Elizabeth OBrien.
Literacy Strong All Year Long: Powerful Lessons for Grades 3-5 is crammed with so many literacy ideas and resources that you will want to try each one, writes teacher educator Linda Biondi. She predicts that it will be a “go to” book for the rest of your teaching life.
ELA and Equity / I Will Screw This Up
by Dina Strasser · Published 08/21/2019 · Last modified 01/22/2025
Meaning well and teaching well are not the same – a painful truth that ELA teacher Dina Strasser’s exponential learning about race has helped her realize. She uses the story of her unit based on Gary Paulsen’s “Nightjohn” to underscore the difference between intent and impact.
Future of History / Word Choice
by Lauren S. Brown · Published 08/14/2019 · Last modified 06/24/2020
American Indian or Native American? Latina or Latino or Latinx? African American or Black? History teacher Lauren Brown shares activities and resources she uses to help students understand the background and history of such naming choices and why it’s important to teach.
Clustering / The Unstoppable ML Teacher
by Tan Huynh · Published 08/04/2019 · Last modified 12/02/2019
Instead of peppering English learners around a large network of schools, districts can benefit those students and their EL support teachers by strategically clustering them, writes Tan Huynh. Included: Ideas to help achieve buy-in from content teachers.
Jennifer Serravallo’s new book on reading conferences is a must-have if you’re ready to up your teaching game during independent reading time, writes Rita Platt. Her organized approach and bonus online resources provide everything teachers need to have quality conferences.
When middle schools see afterschool programs as partners, they help keep kids safe, inspire them to learn, and give parents peace of mind, says Jodi Grant, CEO of Afterschool Alliance. The value added to students’ academic and social-emotional growth may surprise you!
With the start of a new school year approaching, how can we make sure our middle school students are getting the support they need for an academically and personally successful school year? School leader Rhonda Neal Waltman offers three effective strategies.
While the leaders of Algonquin Middle School do not claim to be “on the cutting edge of utilizing data in every aspect of our school’s program,” AMS teachers and staff are making headway with seven action steps that are benefiting students, says principal Rob Messia.
