In a school year when frustration, fatigue and uncertainty make teaching and learning an unprecedented challenge, principal Rita Platt is leading her staff to focus on two top priorities: (1) limit instruction to essential standards, and (2) build personal connections with EVERY student.
Whether your ELA, social studies or media literacy students are tracking advertising on Madison Avenue or Capitol Hill, expert Frank W. Baker has the tools and ideas you need to blend this high engagement topic into standards-based lessons on analyzing informational text.
At the beginning of a new school year, establishing a strong class culture is a top priority, whether we are face-to-face or virtual. We can’t assume this culture exists, even if students have been classmates before. Lynne Dorfman shares some community building ideas.
Worry, anger and fear are not worthy expenditures of a teacher’s precious energy, writes Dina Strasser, as she prepares for a pandemic fall in a new school. “I am inviting us to look upon our exhaustion as a gift. It will teach us what is necessary and what is not.”
Michelle Russell has found the first 10 days of teaching her hybrid classes even more exhausting than her first year in the classroom. But she’s learning fast how to help her math students adjust to a new reality – and to find the time and support she needs to prosper.
Judy Willis MD and her daughter, both teachers, offer a well-researched book – supported by their experience as educators and neuroscience experts – that’s filled with strategies to help students make learning leaps. For Laura Von Staden, “This is 200+ pages of pure gold.”
Articles / Social Studies / Speech & Debate
by MiddleWeb · Published 08/25/2020 · Last modified 10/13/2024
Is it possible to get middle school students to talk respectfully to one another, especially if they don’t agree? Award-winning middle grades history teacher Jennifer Ingold considered this a challenge and set out to integrate debate into her Enduring Issues units. Here’s how!
Practical, touching and funny, David Sherrin’s Authentic Assessment in Social Studies: A Guide to Keeping It Real offers a multitude of innovative approaches while reminding us that student potential lies at the heart of everything we teachers do, writes Sarah Cooper.
Simulations involve tactile or kinesthetic participation and offer a way for students to be actively engaged in lessons and experience another dimension of learning. Barbara Blackburn and two colleagues share online and in-class SS, ELA, and STEM ideas.
Book Reviews / Student Driven Learning
by MiddleWeb · Published 07/16/2020 · Last modified 04/20/2022
Two-for-One Teaching is an excellent resource for educators who want to help connect what matters most to kids with what matters most to schools. The authors’ flexible strategies will help students learn and grow, writes 21st century curriculum coordinator Alex Valencic.
