In a few weeks, new middle schoolers will encounter challenges unlike any they’ve seen before: a half-dozen teachers making daily assignments, new afterschool choices, more homework. How’s a kid to keep track of it all? Always-organized Frank Buck suggests consolidation.
While the leaders of Algonquin Middle School do not claim to be “on the cutting edge of utilizing data in every aspect of our school’s program,” AMS teachers and staff are making headway with seven action steps that are benefiting students, says principal Rob Messia.
NBCT and new principal Rita Platt shares the five beliefs that make up her teaching philosophy and serve as the framework of her new book Working Hard, Working Happy. Learn what she “knows to be true about teaching and learning” and why you might want a credo of your own.
Students can follow the trek of early humans toward global expansion through inquiry-based lessons and use resources to hypothesize responses to organizing questions. Ancient History teacher Joanne Bell says the book’s connections approach “is a phenomenal find for me.”
Teaching and instructional coaching weren’t all the prep DeAnna Miller needed when she signed on as a new middle school assistant principal last fall. A year later she looks back at the challenges she faced and the solutions she discovered as she preps for another year.
Beyond sharing titles, librarians Christina Dorr and Liz Deskins discuss justifications for circulating LGBTQAI+ literature to children and teens and share a brief history and approaches to “dealing with objections.” Sarah Cooper found ideas for her own classroom library.
Beyond the Textbook / Future of History
by Lauren S. Brown · Published 06/25/2019 · Last modified 12/02/2019
History is not just the causes of the Civil War, reasons for industrial growth, or dates associated with “big events” and major characters. Lauren Brown works to help her middle schoolers understand it’s about ordinary, often archetypal lives of human beings much like us.
Thanks to Literacy and Learning Centers for the Big Kids, secondary teachers across the content areas won’t need to tweak elementary guides and hope things work with older kids. Instructional coach Janice Rustico finds the start-to-finish help just what her teachers need.
In a new edition of Teaching What Really Happened, Loewen moves beyond textbook distortions of historical facts and calls for teaching unvarnished history to educate “critical citizens.” History educator Michael DiClemente highlights insights all K-12 teachers can use.
Discover the potential of writing workshop to welcome students into engaging and productive writing practice in Shubitz and Dorfman’s Welcome to Writing Workshop. You’ll find all your questions about writing workshop answered, promises teacher educator Linda Biondi.
