Grading student writing in the traditional manner takes too much time and yields too little learning. Literacy consultant Sarah Tantillo offers three better ways to give students effective feedback – with all the tips and how-to teachers need to make the switch. Act now. Save your weekends.
Museum educator Christa Flores shares a summer STEM partnership that introduced middle schoolers to programmable microprocessors that can perform a variety of lab-oriented tasks. Flores, a former MS teacher, says it’s time to include computer skills in science classrooms.
Create Compose Connect / ELA Digital Tools
by Jeremy Hyler · Published 09/12/2018 · Last modified 11/17/2019
Pairing English Language Arts classrooms with appropriate technology can be “down right difficult,” says author and middle grades ELA teacher Jeremy Hyler. He recommends experimenting with no more than two digital tools at a time and shares a pair of his own favorites.
Communications / Two Teachers in the Room
by Elizabeth Stein · Published 09/05/2018 · Last modified 11/21/2019
Elizabeth Stein launches into the new school year with strategies to help co-teachers evaluate their current relationships and begin strengthening the one-on-one communication that is essential to provide learning opportunities for everyone in the classroom.
You’ve heard of innovation, and you’ve heard of mindset, but what is an Innovator’s Mindset? School leader George Couros offers his manifesto on how we can change education, not with step-by-step instructions but by growing a teaching culture of “relentless restlessness.”
The power of Genius Hour comes from sparking wonder, encouraging deep learning, and facilitating sharing so students can make public their new knowledge, creation, or innovation, locally and world wide. GH champions Denise Krebs and Gallit Zvi describe good ways to share.
What STEM lessons will you try with students this year? There’s no one, die-cut STEM curriculum that every classroom should be using, says Anne Jolly. But as teachers search for, adapt, or design projects, it helps to consider what an “ideal” STEM lesson might look like.
Every summer educators ask these questions: (1) How can we lessen summer learning loss? and (2) How can we help build students’ SEL skills? Sarah Tantillo and Meredith Murray share the story of a Summer Bridge program and some useful resources to address both questions.
Writing interesting nonfiction is a valuable student skill. So why is most of it so boring? A focus on content and conventions isn’t sufficient, says teacher Angie Miller. See her strategies to help kids read like writers and engage audiences with writing that fascinates.
When it comes to vocabulary instruction, teachers have many, many questions, for example: “How can I fit vocabulary in? How should I pick the words? What should my quizzes look like?” Literacy consultant Sarah Tantillo provides answers to these questions and more.
