Kids on the Cusp / New Teacher Advice
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 06/19/2017 · Last modified 11/11/2019
Trying to “fit it all in” can lead to frustration and lost opportunities for new educators. As 4th grade teacher Mary Tarashuk looks back to her own first year, she recalls her preoccupation with the ticking clock and how she learned to take time for what matters.
Future of History / Teaching with Movies
by Sarah Cooper · Published 05/29/2017 · Last modified 11/27/2019
Showing short video clips to her history students is easy for Sarah Cooper to justify, but with full-length movies she is more cautious about the time investment. Here she shares three films that make the cut: Iron Jawed Angels, Glory, and All the President’s Men.
Differentiation / Meaningful Math
by Michelle Russell · Published 05/21/2017 · Last modified 11/25/2019
Talk of differentiated instruction in large, diverse classrooms makes many secondary teachers feel defensive. Math educator Michelle Russell is no exception, but because “I know it’s important” she’s set out to find strategies that will better serve all her learners.
Kevin Hodgson invites Troy Hicks and Kristen Hawley Turner to share their thinking about the need to teach argument in the context of students’ authentic digital lives, using the structure of a traditional argument approach with such texts as videos and social media.
Difficult Topics / Kids on the Cusp
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 05/09/2017 · Last modified 11/17/2019
As teens respond en masse to the Netflix series Thirteen Reasons Why, the story of a girl who chooses suicide, Mary Tarashuk considers how difficult topics can be part of learning for her 4th graders and how their read-alouds and personal writing can build empathy.
end-of-year learning / It's Not Easy Being Tween / Spring Learning
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 05/07/2017 · Last modified 05/02/2024
As summer approaches, finding a balance between post-testing fluff and demanding, multi-week projects can be a challenge. Middle school teacher Cheryl Mizerny shares a bevy of her own classroom-tested activities that are brief, enjoyable and likely to spur learning.
Malke Rosenfeld’s Math on the Move is about changing student mindsets about mathematics through whole body movement. Linda Biondi finds it packed with K-8 classroom tested activities, coaching tips, video clips and more to have students “dancing in the aisles”!
Current Events / Future of History
by Sarah Cooper · Published 04/17/2017 · Last modified 10/13/2024
Bit by bit, during each Friday’s 43-minute current events session, Sarah Cooper’s eighth graders come closer to a democratic classroom culture that students really own – through their ideas, through their questions, through their wondering how the world works.
Standardized Test Preparation / Working Draft
by Kevin Hodgson · Published 04/16/2017 · Last modified 11/18/2019
Without turning his classroom into “test prep central,” teacher Kevin Hodgson is working to anticipate what his state’s evolving standardized tests will contain and how best to help his sixth graders prepare themselves with plenty of reading and writing strategies.
It's Not Easy Being Tween / Poetry
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 04/09/2017 · Last modified 03/30/2024
Over the years Cheryl Mizerny has crafted poetry experiences that her students really enjoy. Her reading and writing ideas enable kids to understand poems without dreading the annual “poetry unit” she herself disliked as a tween. She shares 10 of her favorites.
