Bring Halloween to Class for Fun and Learning
This fall with some tweaks and fresh online tools and resources, Halloween can be fun and packed with learning. Check out MiddleWeb’s updated resource collection for ideas across the content areas.
This fall with some tweaks and fresh online tools and resources, Halloween can be fun and packed with learning. Check out MiddleWeb’s updated resource collection for ideas across the content areas.
Delving into commonly held beliefs about learning math and discussing productive struggle and growth mindset are central to Lidia Gonzalez’s Bad at Math?, a thoughtful look into what can be done to make math accessible to all students, writes math teacher Kathleen Palmieri.
Free Reading Friday has transformed Laurie Miller Hornik’s 7th grade class into a reading community, without having to cut back on whole-class text studies. Students arrive on Fridays ready to talk and write about the free reading they’ve done outside of school during the week.
Ruth Miller finds Lessons That Last an indispensable guide to enriching teaching practice and fostering an impactful learning environment. The book’s lessons, drawn from interviews with former students, affirm the significance of teachers’ work and the lasting influence we have.
Michelle Russell knows the back-to-school rush. So this year she’s found first weeks activities that are low on preparation and high on introducing math, sharing fun, setting the tone for the year, and helping students feel comfortable. Best of all: she shares her favorite finds!
So much to do! As teachers in grades 4-6 enter their first classrooms, Kathleen Palmieri offers keys to getting started. She includes accessing mentors, keeping track of planning, Google tools, engaging students, finding sources for class libraries and décor, and self-care.
In Julie Hasson’s annual back to school dream, she’s trying to organize thousands of rubber ducks in a rushing river. Fortunately she has strategies for dealing with that sense of being overwhelmed. They begin with a well-sorted to-do list and a focus on realistic optimism.
You need your break! Don’t fill your summer ruminating endlessly about lessons and classes to come. Instead try the “habit stacking” strategy and prepare for the next school year without getting mired in the weeds. Teacher and coach Miriam Plotinsky shares nine possibilities.
If we can teach kids to think about their futures with more specificity and positivity, then we can have a significant impact on not only their self-image but their well-being – critical work in our anxiety-ridden, social media-saturated times, writes teacher leader Stephanie Farley.
A week into summer break, teacher Michelle Russell looks back at how she adjusted the last weeks of class to lower her stress and make sure she would face less stress in the fall. Included: imposing order on packing away supplies and making time to check in with kids.