A week of sitting in a teaching seminar has left Sarah Cooper inspired but also thoughtful about how students experience daily classroom life. “I felt new empathy for having to follow teachers’ instructions all day long.” Read her 10 takeaways.
Homework can be one of the most renewing and exciting aspects of teaching middle school, says teaching expert Rick Wormeli, but we have to be smart about its structure, assignment, and assessment. Included: Ideas to make homework more engaging.
Advertising: it’s everywhere. As media literacy educators work to engage students in conversations about commercial marketing, we have to consider the close reading of print and video ads. Frank Baker provides starting points and resources for teachers.
Embracing Technology / Kids on the Cusp
by Mary Tarashuk · Published 07/16/2014 · Last modified 11/16/2019
This summer middle grades teacher Mary Tarashuk is diving into the deep end of the technology pool, accepting a challenging online leadership role. Yet she’s determined to protect the beach time she needs for family and reflection on the school year ahead.
The new book Motivation to Learn doesn’t just talk about the theories behind motivating learners. Using a fresh metaphor (river rafting), it gives new & veteran teachers “concrete strategies for creating a classroom culture that maximizes student engagement,” says reviewer Tasha Kirby.
In this helpful how-to article Judith Wencel, founder of SUCCESS in the Middle, distills 20 years of experience effectively recruiting and preparing community tutors and mentors – dispelling the myth that “nobody will volunteer in middle schools.”
Standards-driven reading lessons often force students to “take” rather than “make” meaning from complex texts, says educator Dorothy Barnhouse. To deepen understanding, she recommends letting students first “notice” and think about the textual layers.
David Thornburg’s From the Campfire to the Holodeck is not just about blending technology into lessons; it’s about good teaching in learning environments designed for the 21st century, says reviewer Sarah Cooper. Is there a holodeck in your school’s future?
We want our students to read, comprehend, and analyze text. During the past school year, history educators Aaron Block and Jody Passanisi tried annotation as a learning strategy. Here they recount how it went in the two diverse schools where they teach.
Reading iRules through an education lens, our teacher/reviewer noticed that while parents are pushing technology away and trying to figure out how to limit its role in their children’s lives, teachers are doing almost the opposite. How can they close that gap and work together?
