Whether your classes dive into poetry in April or throughout the year, teacher Megan Kelly has lots of activities to enrich your students’ experience. Her latest unit has kids collaborating on visual analysis, horoscope haiku, matching teachers to their poems, and more.
In Between the Commas 6th grade teacher Jeny Randall is delighted to have found a new mentor in writing instruction who emphasizes a sentence construction framework. She looks forward to growing even more as a writing teacher thanks to Martin Brandt’s “irreverent wisdom.”
Teacher Social Media has had a powerful positive effect on Brent Gilson’s professional growth. That’s the plus, he says, but there are also the minuses, including too-safe and comfortable conversations, edu-celebrity, and frequent failure to give credit where it is due.
The magic of Les Misérables has Anne Jolly revisiting her ideas about whether STEAM deserves a spot next to STEM on the list of science acronyms. The musical’s set engineering left her amazed. See her latest reflection on what’s essential for the marriage of Arts and STEM.
Genius Hour is a popular strategy for deepening student learning by promoting passion, creativity and engagement. Paying attention to the do’s and don’ts of effective implementation can help you make it a regular part your instruction, writes author Barbara Blackburn.
Helping the many kids who seem to struggle with attention is what Teach for Attention! is about. Formatted into 7 power-packed chapters, the book offers methods, tools, and strategies to help all students become engaged learners who like school, writes principal Rita Platt.
Retention / The Unstoppable ML Teacher
by Valentina Gonzalez · Published 02/16/2020 · Last modified 02/29/2020
Talk of grade retention revs up each spring. But it’s seldom a good answer for English learners. EL expert Valentina Gonzalez shares research that debunks the idea that retention helps ELs and suggests ways to boost their academic progress all year long.
Future of History / Writing in Social Studies
by Sarah Cooper · Published 02/10/2020 · Last modified 03/23/2020
Writing a letter to a politician is about as “civic” an assignment as we can do within our classroom walls, and it feels so relevant in our polarized political climate. After 3 years of tweaking her project, teacher Sarah Cooper shares tips to boost the response rate.
Students need more writing support than we can possibly offer them, writes literacy consultant Lynne R. Dorfman. Peer conferences are a safe, supportive structure that will help writers grow in their problem-solving capacity while experiencing the joy of collaboration.
Today’s educators have a plethora of technology at their fingertips. A.J. Juliani’s Intentional Innovation can guide them to make intentional choices for their classrooms, writes consultant Anne Anderson. She suggests the book for a faculty book study.
