I Will Screw This Up / Real Self Care
by Dina Strasser · Published 02/08/2025 · Last modified 02/09/2025
When teacher Jay Wamsted tweeted about why and how teachers should leave school on time and not work at home or on weekends, he lit up social media as teachers took sides for and against his proposition. In Dina Strasser’s interview, Wamsted explains and expands on his thinking.
Instead of focusing only on teachers who need to improve, the authors of Invest in Your Best recommend that school leaders recognize the achievements of the school’s best teachers and tap into their expertise. A perspective-shifting read, says department chair Stephanie Choate.
When you operate within your zone of tolerance, you are better able to manage the complex interplay of student needs, teaching demands, and life beyond the classroom. By staying in and expanding your zone, you can grow stronger and keep making an impact, writes Julie Hasson.
Students will rise to the level of high expectations, but they may need support and scaffolding to achieve the goal. Teaching coach Barbara Blackburn explains the essentials of effective scaffolding, its critical relationship to rigor, and how both can be achieved in your classroom.
Effectively managing resilience has never been more important for educators. In the first of her five-part series, teacher educator Julie Schmidt Hasson shares what she has learned about the need to manage our educator batteries and sets the stage for a battery management plan.
Articles / History and Social Studies
by Susan Curtis · Published 01/25/2025 · Last modified 02/15/2025
African Americans faced severe repression when Carter G. Woodson established Negro History Week in 1926. In this updated MiddleWeb resource, we share links that trace the impact of African Americans in politics, arts and sciences, and report on the call to teach Black history throughout the school year.
In “Sentence Strategies for Multilingual Learners” Panero and Yip offer a robust toolkit that empowers educators with effective strategies to support MLs as they navigate the intricacies of language and literacy acquisition through content, says ML educator Melinda Stewart.
Recently when Michelle Russell noticed that winter had drained the joy from her math classroom, she set out to reignite the glow. Checking with other teachers in person and online, she found tools that work. Trashetball, row games, and buzzer competitions top her new list.
If you know your ‘why’ as a teacher, you can parlay that knowledge into a set of directions that motivate your daily work. Kelly Owens shares how career vision boards can play a significant role in that process. Included: Ideas to help students create their own vision boards.
Elisa Waingort-Jiménez strongly recommends The Collaborative Math Classroom with its many tools as a must-read for all teachers, coaches, interventionists and others interested in creating and supporting spaces for authentic math learning experiences for all ages and grade levels.
