Rather than label just some kids talented, we need a new approach that serves all children, writes performance coach Lee Hancock. Among his strategies: embracing failure as progress, spending time in deep practice, and fostering in kids a love for their own special interests.
Whether it’s our students or our colleagues, the mentor relationship is a win-win for mentor and mentee. As mentors, we can realize a unique personal fulfillment and grow as a listener, a coach, a friend, a leader. And one day, our mentees may decide to “pay it forward.”
Effective class management begins with dynamic planning and engagement, writes instructional specialist Miriam Plotinsky. Teachers who focus not just on delivering information but responding to student feedback in the moment can avoid “helicopter teacher” syndrome. Here’s how.
Want a fun way to turn student talk into deeper learning? Teacher Kelly Owens serves up tips and resources for Café Conversations, showing how students’ need to talk can become on-task, productive, and reflective when they encounter this welcoming cross-curricular strategy.
Christina Nosek, a teacher and literacy staff developer, engages readers with a collection of important concepts with answered questions on the foundation of the reading classroom. Literacy coach Pam Hamilton says the easy read is great for a summer professional reading stack.
Be ready to share nonfiction graphic novels with your students this fall. ELA teacher Kasey Short outlines reasons such novels expand kids’ knowledge and appreciation of reading. She also provides questions to ask as kids approach the novels and includes suggested titles.
Community-centered instructional coaching reflects the idea that we all deserve to feel competent, confident, and fulfilled in our daily work, writes Pam Koutrakos. Ongoing, job-embedded professional learning that capitalizes on the spirit of community yields more buy-in.
By putting strong relationships at the fore, you can cultivate an environment in which each of your students can grow. Through her many years in the classroom Stephanie Farley has hit upon keys to encourage kids to thrive. At the center – kindness and getting to know each one.
Discover how mentor texts and text sets become multitaskers, providing vision, purpose, and the confidence students need to take learning risks. ELA consultant Anne Anderson highly recommends Pamela Koutrakos’ Mentor Texts That Multitask as a tool for literacy integration.
Teacher-author Jacob Chastain has found a process and procedure that’s essential in his workshop approach to teaching literacy. He helps middle schoolers develop the habits of “reading like a reader” and “reading like a writer” – shifting into either mode with powerful results.
