Rigor is more than what you teach. It’s how you teach and how students show you they understand. After dispelling widely held myths about rigor in the classroom, author Barbara Blackburn describes a standards-friendly environment that supports rigorous learning and student success.
Close Reading the Media / Quick Media Lit Lessons
by Frank Baker · Published 05/01/2017 · Last modified 11/24/2019
Consultant Frank Baker often hears teachers and media specialists raise concerns about the time it takes to facilitate a visual or media literacy lesson. In this post he shares several ideas for 15-minute lesson segments using familiar magazines for kids and adults.
In science educator Anne Jolly’s mind, protests on behalf of science-based policy making are not about partisanship but about protecting jobs and the economy, our children’s health and prosperity, and ultimately our planet. That’s why she joined the March for Science.
If you are looking for ways to connect your classroom or school to parents in nonthreatening, collaborative, and productive ways, you’ll love Alisa Hindin and Mary Mueller’s book, Getting Parents on Board, says teacher/librarian Rita Platt.
Many students over-annotate text to the point where they are noticing everything but not determining what’s MOST important. Literacy expert Sarah Tantillo shares tested strategies to help students detect “the purpose of reading,” including her What’s Important Organizer.
Malke Rosenfeld’s Math on the Move is about changing student mindsets about mathematics through whole body movement. Linda Biondi finds it packed with K-8 classroom tested activities, coaching tips, video clips and more to have students “dancing in the aisles”!
Curious about the “Cart of good and evil” (Tip #153)? Retired principal Mary Thompson finds lots to like in Francy Fleck’s tips for succeeding in the challenging position of school leader. Quotations and research support the tips, and Thompson offers a rich sample.
Resilience is the ability to effectively handle pressure and to overcome failure. It’s a characteristic that many of our struggling students do not bring to the classroom, yet it is one that we can teach. Barbara Blackburn shares five strategies that can help.
It's Not Easy Being Tween / Poetry
by Cheryl Mizerny · Published 04/09/2017 · Last modified 03/30/2024
Over the years Cheryl Mizerny has crafted poetry experiences that her students really enjoy. Her reading and writing ideas enable kids to understand poems without dreading the annual “poetry unit” she herself disliked as a tween. She shares 10 of her favorites.
Jennie Magiera urges teachers to launch edventures, pursuing innovations that boost student engagement, build class culture, differentiate, promote digital citizenship and more. Laura Von Staden also likes Magiera’s plentiful ideas about professional learning.
