Getting in touch with emotions, especially as a middle schooler, has become a critical component to classroom success. It’s also an essential life skill. Award-winning social studies teacher Jennifer Ingold shares some ways she helps students raise their emotional awareness.
If you’re looking for a way to engage your students in deep mathematical thinking as soon as they walk into class, give math warm-ups a try. Middle grades teacher Mona Iehl lays out the elements of eye-catching warm-ups and how to make them work for your kids.
Throughout the gradual release of responsibility we want students to be in control of their learning. Each phase is a partnership, with teacher as facilitator and student as agent. Cummins and Webb show how this works to produce an instructional journey with maximum benefit.
Brain and learning expert Marilee Sprenger highlights the 25 most high-frequency words for learners in the English language to focus upon. “I call these words ‘essential’ because knowing and using them can boost academic success and lifelong learning.” Are they on your vocab list?
In classes like social studies and science, students are expected to do complex nonfiction reading. How can we ensure they’ll process and retain the content for future use? History/ELA teacher Megan Kelly shares fun activities to help kids think more deeply about information text.
Michelle Russell’s math students were eager to learn as this school year began but found the mechanics of solving equations more challenging than Michelle’s pre-Covid classes. After research and talk with colleagues, she’s trying several strategies to give kids the grounding they need.
We may believe our students who are struggling – whether they have special needs, are English learners or are otherwise challenged – simply cannot learn at high levels. By exploring the meaning of educational “rigor,” Barbara Blackburn and Bradley Witzel show how they can.
Curtis Chandler looks into implicit bias, the unconscious stereotypes that drive each of us, including educators, to behave and make decisions in certain ways. He shares a Teacher Tracker Tool that can help uncover patterns and make sure we treat all students fairly.
Dina Strasser’s mute button moment hooks us into a reflection on student interruptions and their cultural roots. Consider this: How do we balance middle level kids’ natural tendency to run over each other verbally with their eager desire to engage in what we’re teaching?
Does email steal your time? Your problem isn’t so much about having too many. It’s that they’re in the wrong places. Use these tips from educator and digital organization expert Frank Buck to unmask your email time bandits and make your inbox tidy and surprisingly sparse.
