Positive phone calls and texts to students’ families are powerful, writes principal and NBCT Rita Platt. Parents and caregivers enjoy hearing good things and will be more responsive when you get in touch with less happy news. Rita includes several starter scripts and scheduling ideas.
Media Literacy is a new elective course at Jeremy Hyler’s middle school this year, and he’s excited to be teaching it. “Could there be a more urgent time?” Hyler shares some of his 7th grade course design, includes his key resources, and reports on the first five weeks.
With the topsy-turvy world of the Covid pandemic crowding all of us this fall, we have to be mindful of how teachers new to the classroom are experiencing their unique first year. Assistant Principal DeAnna Miller shares some ways she is working to provide extra support.
It's Not Easy Being Tween / Pandemic Teaching
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 09/30/2020 · Last modified 10/01/2020
Millions of teachers are facing multiple professional and health challenges. Cheryl Mizerny reflects on the existential threat of Covid-19, the pedagogic and personal demands of sustaining hybrid classrooms, and how administrators, parents, and society can reduce the stress.
Class Apps / Teaching during Pandemic
by Curtis Chandler · Published 09/29/2020 · Last modified 01/31/2024
With the stressors of COVID-19 teaching likely to be around for some time to come, educator Curtis Chandler suggests ways he and others can use research-based strategies to reduce teaching stress, hold pandemic angst at bay and bolster our capacity to serve kids well.
How can we stretch younger students’ excitement for inquiry into the middle school years? After tutoring a 9-year old this summer, MS teacher Mary Beth Nicklaus hopes the power of pursuing their simple questions will energize the quiet kids among her 6th graders this fall.
In a school year when frustration, fatigue and uncertainty make teaching and learning an unprecedented challenge, principal Rita Platt is leading her staff to focus on two top priorities: (1) limit instruction to essential standards, and (2) build personal connections with EVERY student.
Whether your ELA, social studies or media literacy students are tracking advertising on Madison Avenue or Capitol Hill, expert Frank W. Baker has the tools and ideas you need to blend this high engagement topic into standards-based lessons on analyzing informational text.
Leading online STEM lessons the same way you lead an onsite STEM project presents some real-world teaching problems. Science teacher and STEM curriculum author Anne Jolly looks at the challenges and suggests strategies and resources to keep kids learning in uncommon times.
Future of History / Social Emotional Learning
by Lauren S. Brown · Published 08/30/2020 · Last modified 09/11/2020
As Lauren Brown heads back to school for a year like no other, she considers how to combine academics and SEL support across the content areas. Along with activities for the first days of virtual or physical class, she offers three guidelines to engage kids all year.
