Sarah Cooper’s Creating Citizens is brimming with insight on how to connect current events to history, writes social studies teacher Joanne Bell. Cooper offers fresh ideas, higher order skills, and excellent implementation tips, all applicable to any period of history.
With its introduction to engineering design, thoroughly developed projects, teacher’s guide and more, Hands-On Engineering will likely prove a favorite with middle grades teachers. Gail Morris plans to make it a go-to resource as she integrates more STEM into her business and career classes.
Teaching with Mathematical Argument can help support students as they reason through math problems, shifting the focus from “the answer” to the processes that lead to clearer understanding. Cynthia McBride likes the inclusion of assessment and parent communication advice.
The First-Year Teacher’s Survival Guide offers abundant ideas to help navigate the ever changing world of the classroom. Reviewer Linda Biondi notes it is designed to help ease the pressures and demands of day-to-day teaching for new and veteran teachers alike.
Despite the success of last spring’s well informed debates in her 8th grade U.S. History classes, Sarah Cooper is taking an indefinite break from the no-holds-barred, winner-takes-all style of discussion in favor of more collaborative, consensus building strategies.
In Super Spellers, Mark Weakland offers a “transformative path” to move away from memorizing 20 words weekly toward a developmental approach that provides students with strategies to become more proficient spellers, readers and writers, says Kathleen Palmieri.
Reclaiming the Principalship develops six innovative ideas – including unifying the school community and professional networking – that a school leader can use and reflect upon throughout their career. Assistant principal Laura Colbert highly recommends the book.
Versatile Apps / Wide Open Learning
by Megan Kelly · Published 08/05/2018 · Last modified 12/04/2019
Including a few new tools for students in your first few weeks of school will pay dividends throughout the year. In her new MiddleWeb blog “Wide Open Learning” Megan Kelly describes two apps your kids can integrate into projects across subjects in the months ahead.
Reading, Writing, Rigor by Nancy Boyles offers practical tools to increase student learning in reading and writing. Boyles packs 199 pages with information, including numerous resources, strategies, and techniques to support teachers, writes consultant Anne Anderson.
When teachers think of learning centers, we often identify them with K-3 classrooms. Katherine McKnight shows how the model can be expanded and adapted for middle schoolers, incorporating the essentials of collaborative learning, content knowledge acquisition, and more.
