When bickering and bullying began to weaken her classroom culture, 6th grade teacher Mackenzie Grate tried a simple but powerful strategy involving pink and green sticky notes, 30 brown paper bags, and some brutal honesty. The results were impressive.
Reading Intervention Teachers / Working Draft
by Kevin Hodgson · Published 09/24/2014 · Last modified 11/13/2019
ELA teacher Kevin Hodgson finds himself teamed in a PLC with reading interventionists and quickly sees how vastly different their work with students is from his own. He’s developing a new respect for these specialists’ knowledge and unique challenges.
In “Engaging Minds in Science and Math Classrooms,” Eric Brunsell & Michelle A. Fleming explain in just 55 pages the why & how of joyful learning that supports today’s ed initiatives. Excellent resource for new and veteran STEM teachers, says math teacher/coach Lynne Menechella.
Book Reviews / Common Core State Standards
by MiddleWeb · Published 09/16/2014 · Last modified 11/16/2019
Common Core Literacy for ELA, History/Social Studies and the Humanities deserves a place on the bookshelf of all educators in the Humanities, says reviewer and rookie SS teacher Michael DiClemente. The book offers detailed strategies and timely tech advice.
The Common Core experience may leave a sour taste on some educators’ palates, middle school ELA teacher Amber Chandler concedes. But she and her colleagues are coping with new challenges and limited resources by making their own brand of CCSS lemonade.
Technology allows us to record and reflect on the writing process in ways that pencil and paper could not, says digital writing expert Troy Hicks. The MS teacher turned college prof demonstrates with a video demo’ing how we might teach sentence combining.
Future of History / History Resources
by Jody & Shara · Published 09/03/2014 · Last modified 11/12/2019
Pressed for time at the end of the year but determined to engage her history students in the post-Civil War era, Jody Passanisi turned to a pre-made lesson from SHEG. Before long her students were debating the impact of Reconstruction on American history.
Book Reviews / Common Core State Standards
by MiddleWeb · Published 09/03/2014 · Last modified 11/18/2019
“Common Core in the Content Areas” not only makes a convincing case that content-area teachers can be “literacy teachers” when it serves their purposes, says reviewer Sarah Goodis-Orenstein, it also provides “a bunch of teaching and planning tools” and collaborative learning tasks.
S.T.E.M. or STEM? STEM or STEAM? STEM for a selected few or STEM for all? What about STEM’s specific technology needs? MiddleWeb’s STEM by Design blogger Anne Jolly shares five hot STEM issues facing educators as schools across the USA begin a new year.
What do your students need to succeed in close reading? Literacy consultant Nancy Boyles outlines 10 steps in this article, drawn from her recent Corwin book “Closer Reading.” She also includes five questions to consider before students get started.
