Setting goals across all subject areas is an important practice that helps students at every grade level excel academically and nurtures essential life skills. Incorporating mindfulness into this process strengthens student focus and resilience, writes Kathleen Palmieri.
I Will Screw This Up / Real Self Care
by Dina Strasser · Published 02/08/2025 · Last modified 02/09/2025
When teacher Jay Wamsted tweeted about why and how teachers should leave school on time and not work at home or on weekends, he lit up social media as teachers took sides for and against his proposition. In Dina Strasser’s interview, Wamsted explains and expands on his thinking.
Students will rise to the level of high expectations, but they may need support and scaffolding to achieve the goal. Teaching coach Barbara Blackburn explains the essentials of effective scaffolding, its critical relationship to rigor, and how both can be achieved in your classroom.
Effectively managing resilience has never been more important for educators. In the first of her five-part series, teacher educator Julie Schmidt Hasson shares what she has learned about the need to manage our educator batteries and sets the stage for a battery management plan.
Articles / History and Social Studies
by Susan Curtis · Published 01/25/2025 · Last modified 02/15/2025
African Americans faced severe repression when Carter G. Woodson established Negro History Week in 1926. In this updated MiddleWeb resource, we share links that trace the impact of African Americans in politics, arts and sciences, and report on the call to teach Black history throughout the school year.
Recently when Michelle Russell noticed that winter had drained the joy from her math classroom, she set out to reignite the glow. Checking with other teachers in person and online, she found tools that work. Trashetball, row games, and buzzer competitions top her new list.
When Stephanie Farley asked fellow teachers how they felt about the presents they receive from students each year, she found that “while they roundly appreciate all of them, it’s clear they cherish the heartfelt notes, the student art, and the homemade or hand-crafted gifts.”
Authentic STEM projects integrate technology seamlessly, so that it plays a genuine role in helping students research, solve and communicate the results of their challenge. STEM expert Anne Jolly suggests ways to include artificial intelligence tools in the learning process.
It’s not enough to take the phones away, writes educator Tom Rademacher. Schools need to make sure there are energizing, collaborative, challenging things to do. “We need to change what it feels like to be in school and make it easy – or easier – for students to not-phone.”
Supporting learners through effective vocabulary instruction is critical to their success. Curtis Chandler offers a “crash course” – a compendium of key principles, strategies, and research-backed methods to help students build key vocabulary skills, whatever your subject area.
